Highland deers

Deers were spotted along our road trip - check out these beautiful creatures!
There are lots of deers in Scotland. Some quirky info: apparently if you run one down, you can't pick it up (otherwise everyone would just run them down), only someone else can and then they can take it to a butcher and sell it!
Bring on the venison steak....just kidding!

Quick, let's check out the deers!

The hunt for the Loch Ness Monster!

I remember growing up hearing about all the 'sightings' of the Loch Ness monster so I was super excited when Ian said that we would be driving along this very famous Loch (or Lake for those who speak English...).  I had my monster hunting gear ready!
Our first stop was the Loch Ness Centre - I was expecting that it would be just another museum and you just walk around it looking at artefacts and photos but instead, it took you on an interactive journey - you are lead into a number of rooms with different presentations - pretty good!
So, what did I learn? The lake is a huge freshwater loch which spans over 37km. At its deepest, the Loch has a depth of about 200m.
But disappointingly, many of the 'sightings' reported were hoaxes but some of them were probably genuine although what they saw was probably optical trickery from shadows, birds or other marine life.  Oh well... maybe another day for the monster...

The Loch Ness

One of the suits that people used to explore the Loch

Inside the centre

Found the monster!!!!!

The Scottish Highlands - rugged and pristine

Here are some shots of the amazing scenery from the Scottish Highlands and Isle of Skye.
This is the furthest away from Sydney I have ever travelled. In fact, it is over 16,000 kms from home! The place was just amazing - the mountains were rugged and the water was so pristine (some of the cleanest and purest water in the world).
After so many weeks travelling, it was truly somewhere that I loved and felt so relaxed.

Lotsa sheep everywhere

Brooks along the way

Urquhart castle

Rolling mountain ranges

Snowcapped mountains

Goats crossing

On the road to Isle of Skye

Pristine Isle of Skye

That's me on a Highland Cow ("Heilan Coo" in Scottish)

This place is awesome!

Inverness - Bonfire & fireworks celebrating

How fortunate that we arrived into Inverness just in time for the Bonfire and Fireworks display - one of the biggest events on the Highlands calendar. It's a popular event for the many locals who were there. We wandered down to the park by the River Ness to watch the spectacle!

Afterwards we headed back to our hotel and had some dessert and drinks at the hotel bar - check out how cool this place was? I must say I was really surprised that Inverness would have some great accomodation! It's obviously a popular destination.

On the road to Inverness

We hired a car to start our driving trip around the Scottish Highlands. We started with our trip to Inverness which is the heart of the Highlands.
Our first stop was Pitlochry which was a very cute and popular pitstop - we had lunch there and did plenty of souvenir shopping. There were loads of Scottish Woollens stores - I picked up a nice pink cashmere scarf!

The scenery around this area and towards Inverness was beautiful - all the forests were a collection of autumn colours - yellow, green, reds, oranges,,,,

The Ubiquitous Chip

The title of this posting is the name of the cute restaurant we went to for dinner in Glasgow's West End.
The food was lovely!!! Some foodie shots for you all...

Scallops

Haddock fillets

The best of Glasgow

Kim and Ian took us around Glasgow to see all the historical sights and get a feel of the city.
It was a shame that the weather was not that great so the photos came out a bit drab - it doesn't really do it justice as the City is really pretty!
Ian, who is a Glasgow boy, shared so much information about all the places he showed us - so many facts that I hope I remember everything correctly!!! Feel free to correct me if anything is wrong!
So here goes...

George Square with the Council building in the background and statue of James Watt in foreground

Gallery of Modern Art

Provand's Lordship - Glasgow's oldest house build in the early 1400's - pretty old!

Glasgow Cathedral

Good friends & Glasgow!

Some of you may have raised an eyebrow or two when you saw that Glasgow had made the world adventure itinerary.... yes, it probably wouldn't have got a look in had it not been for our friends, Kim and Ian, who live there. Kim is another of my friends of high school (yes, there are many of them!) and she only recently moved there in August.
We spent a few wonderful days in Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands (see later posts) together - it was just nice to stay with friends for a change rather than in a hotel - somewhere like a home! They were the best hosts and really showed us the best of Scotland in the short few days we had.

So what was my very first thoughts of Glasgow - it was freakin' freezing!!!! Average temps were only about 5-7 degrees which is cold for someone who grew up in Sydney! Anyway, we made sure we rugged up for our adventures.
In Glasgow, one of the first things we tried was the local beer, Tennants beer at a local pub - quite a nice drop! Here's Kim and me enjoying one (well, actually I confess that my beer is actually Steve's as I was a little run down with a cold/cough so only tried a few sips but they were good!)

Who says high school French is useless?

Have any of you ever studied another language back in high school, practiced like crazy some so-called common phrases and wondered if you were ever going to use any of them? I studied French for a few years at school and some of the phrases that fall into that category include...

Ou est le stade? = Where is the stadium?
Ou est la bibliotheque? = Where is the library?
Ou est le plage? = Where is the beach?

But one Monday morning in Paris, I finally had the opportunity to use one of my well rehearsed French phrases!
We wandered around the local area near our hotel looking for somewhere we could buy some breakfast on the go. But just when we thought we would have to skip brekkie, we saw a man walking down the street with 2 baguettes under his arm - yes, how french! This was the moment I could actually use a phrase I learnt in Yr 7!!!

So, I approached him and asked "Excusez-moi, ou est la boulangerie?" = Excuse me, where is the bakery?
The man understood me and pointed to a side street where we found a lovely little bakery - yay! Breakfast found!
So, I look forward to the next time I can bring out of the other phrases.... my french teacher would be proud..

There's the boulangerie!

Yummy treats! (ok, so it was also a patisserie)

Sweet treats

Delicious filled baguettes

Got my brekkie!

Monet Exhibition - one of my favourite artists!

How lucky to be in Paris for one of the biggest and best Monet exhibitions ever held! It was at the beautiful Grand Palais. The reserved tickets had been booked out until December so there was no choice but to get there early and start queuing! Luckily we only had to wait about an hour - had we come about 15 minutes later, it would have been a 3 hour wait! The exhibition was very popular and was incredibly crowded - nevertheless, it was worth it. There were paintings borrowed from collections from galleries around the world, from London, Norway, Texas, New York and many more, even Melbourne! So, you can imagine what an opportunity it was to see all these pieces in one place. I was able to appreciate a lot of his work - not just the famous Waterlilies pieces. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed so I have nothing to share. It was just a beautiful exhibition....

waiting in line - still smiles!

loads of people waiting to get in