INTO THE GREEN

digging deeper

until you've dipped into the GREEN, i mean WAY DOWN into the GREEN, i mean SWIMMING IN THE SEA OF GREEN, i don't think you've really experienced SCOT-LAND.
it is, after all, a country all about LAND.
but, first the LOCHS...

heading south out of Inverness, we hugged the LOCHS (that's lake to the uninitiated and should rhyme with the composer Bach - a THICK ch at the end).

monsterless Loch Ness

no monsters in evidence but we did drop by the parking lot of the magnificent ruins of the URQUHART CASTLE. the structure dates from around 1230 AD and though it is built on a theoretically very defensible promontory, it was the site of many a siege and plunder.

sadly, everybody and their mother is desperate to visit castles so we stood on a wall, as it began to rain, and satisfied ourselves with a birds-eye-view. waiting in long lines is not a fun holiday sport.

Urquhart Castle ruins overlooking loch ness

the rest of the day was dreamy, slow miles spent weaving along the edge of the loch in intermittent rain. 

among roadside treasures, the stone bridge at Invermoriston was spectacular, just above the falls.

Telford bridge Invermoriston

eventually we reached the LOCKGATES in the Caledonian Canal and stood there in the rain watching sailboats and small yachts get threaded through, fascinated by the incredibly slow process, the letting in and letting out of water, opening the lockgate, closing the gate, rinse and repeat.

Caledonia Canal

lockgates opening in the Caledonian Canal

all over Scotland stand these dry stone walls or dry stone fences. dry because there is no mortar used to hold the thing together - it's sheer rock magnetism! i love the way they are topped with side-ways members. very appealing design.

toward the end of the day, after Fort William, heading east to look for lodging, we were met by a brooding sky. but we found a slice of heaven on Loch Leven, our gateway to Glen Coe. 

thistle on the shore of Loch Leven

ALPHABET SOUP

SIGNS AND SIGNALS

i love the way words and language give clues about a culture. or don't.
in Danmark, for instance, the word HYGGELIGT (pronounced, roughly, HUE-ga-lit) means "COSY" and when you want to tell someone you had a really great time last night you say:
"det var hyggeligt"
as in - it was COSY. and this says SO much about the Danes and about what they value.

we didn't really give Inverness a fair shake but we had a wonderful conversation with a guy at the information bureau who opened up to us about a lot of things OTHER than travel routes (though he was fabulous with maps too). 
i began with a disclaimer, excusing myself if anything i said was insulting, then let fly a bunch of questions beginning with: 


- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GAELIC AND CELTIC?


and he told us CELTIC is the CULTURE and GAELIC is the LANGUAGE and there is Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic (does everyone know this except me?). he also told us that England BANNED the language (and bagpipes and tartan) after defeating the Scots in 1745 and this made me incredibly sad, reminded me of wholesale oppression of Native Americans in the u.s.a.

the good news?
Gaelic is being taught in many Scottish schools again. also, Scotland will hold a REFERENDUM on INDEPENDENCE from England in 2014 and many Scots are very excited about this prospect.

easy to read Gaelic - fun to say OUTLOUD

this sign at McDonalds looks WAY BETTER in GAELIC - whatever it says

i love this version of YIELD though i was not always able to heed it

sometimes the signs are SO demure, they are almost nonexistent 

tow-truck doubles as an advertisement for the 12 step programs