before leaving inverness, though, we decided we HAD to explore. on our way to the tour the day before, we'd seen these odd red yarn flowers hung on the fence of the graveyard in the photo. the next day when we awoke this huge tombstone was covered completely in knitted red fabric. several other places in the cemetery, including 2 smaller grave markers and a locked gated tomb, had red yarn embellishments too.

we wandered over to a gaellic-era church we'd seen, which now happened to be an incredible used bookstore. there we found out that the yarn we'd seen had been part of "yarnbomb" - an outdoor artistic installation piece. there were other sites in the city that were part of this event, so we decided that this was a hunt worth taking.

for the rest of the morning, we wandered around inverness looking for the yarnbomb installations. we had a very small map to go by and found most of them, but luckily by the end of the day giant yarn arrows had appeared to direct us to any that we'd missed. i think the most impressive one was the cemetery, but there was also a place that had impossibly huge red crocheted spiderwebs in the trees. it was a really neat art exhibit to see, and very cool that it all was happening outdoors in the middle of the city.

inverness was such a neat place. during our wanderings, we discovered a nifty comic shop, several neat clothing stores, and had an absolutely wonderful veggie burger for lunch. brian discovered "irnbru" which i probably misspelled and, for mishas, is OF THE DEVIL. but he liked the drink so much - said it tasted like a cross between ramune and cream soda (ICK ICK ICK).

we also wandered up to the inverness castle - so "new" people said as it had "only just" been built in the 1800s. we couldn't go in to the castle, but it was neat to see. we also found a very neat street display set up that featured local owls and two HUGE eurasian eagle owls. i'm so happy we got to see them - that was definitely a treat.

all too soon it was time to board the train to edinburgh. we were happy to head off to a new adventure, but i think we were both sad to leave such a pretty place.

(PLEASE click on the photo - it will take you to a gallery that shows all of the different cool photos from the yarnbomb exhibits and the streets of inverness - way too many to blog!)

this is the view from our b&b in inverness. and here's where i'm throwing in a totally shameless plug for the place we stayed. the place was called the ardgary bed and breakfast and it was fabulous. it was small, of course, and very quant but the family that ran it took such good care of us. when we arrived, they ushered us in and insisted on feeding us before letting us out for our tour and gave us several other snacks and whatnot when we'd pop in later on. the next morning (when i snapped this gorgeous photo), they gave us a wonderful breakfast and, when it was time for us to go to the train, even gave us a lift to the station.

brian and i both really, really liked this little town. in scotland we visited both edinburgh and inverness and i think we're both convinced we need to return to inverness to explore further. we saw most of the town in a day, but the surrounding hillsides were just gorgeous and something we'd like to revisit. i think that inverness was one of brian's favorite parts, too - there was just something so nice about this place and we both found it really difficult to leave later that afternoon.

we quickly found out that the jacobite tour was definitely worth the money (and, honestly, it was not that expensive at all) – the final portion of our day would be a 3 hour cruise on the loch, into the calecedonian canal, and back to Inverness.

Our little ship was quite nice. We set our sites on seats on the top deck, and cuddled up for a chilly ride. As we watched castle urquhardt recede into the distance, it was easy to imagine how impressive it must have been so long ago. Seeing it from the hill was one thing, but I think from the water it was even more incredible. The weather was turning quite dark, and as the boat sliced through the dark waters the castle seemed to disappear away into the clouds.

Brian and I pressed together for warmth and I enjoyed watching the hill country pass by. After about an hour, though, I’m ashamed to admit that I was chilled to the bone. And sleepy! The water was so calm and the gentle sway of the boat lulled me to sleep. I was way too chicken to try to sleep on the top deck, so I crawled down to the bottom floor and found a nice bench to enjoy.

The ship was well-outfitted; there was a bar in the hull that sold everything from snacks and soda to nessie beer. On the lower deck, there were nicely padded benches and tables, comfy enough to enjoy the cruise from inside. There was also an underwater radar. I watched it for a while, hoping to see a giant blip slice across the screen, but sadly the trip did not reveal any sea monsters.

I curled up and dozed until we reached the loch for the calcedonian canal.

thoroughly “castled out” (which was a phrase we’d find ourselves repeating often for the rest of the trip…silly Americans!), we decided it was time to officially meet the loch. Brian wandered down first and sat perched on a stone. He has this thing about always trying to touch the water –earlier he’d met up with the thames in London, the water in bath, and the estuary in wales. It’s rubbed off on me, now, too – and I like to feel the world’s waters on my skin. Loch ness was cold, in that ancient “here there be dragons” sort of stygian frost way, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to encounter such a shiver. We decided that, so far, this was the coldest water we’d found on the trip and happily watched as ducks swam beyond our reach.

We scooped up a few rocks, asking first of course, and then moved along for our cruise.

standing upon the northern wall, enjoying the view of the loch and hills, bagpipe music drifted up to us. I couldn’t figure out exactly how that was possible, until I realized I was standing in the Scottish highlands listening to a LIVE PIPER. Now, of course, we’d see pipers later (apparently you can’t throw a stone in Edinburgh during tourist season without hitting one) but here, in the highlands where they originated, it was something that I never would have expected. But there he came, walking down the path to the castle. Turns out, there was a wedding and he was part of the tiny ceremony of just bride, groom, and piper. It was incredible to be standing on the wall, listening to the music as it came floating through the air.

and then, I smiled, because somehow it seemed like dad had something to do with this…