Thursday 16 September 2010

HOLIDAY: part 2

We failed to dock at Kirkwall, in Orkney, to my bitter disappoointment, and that of the friends we were meeting. So we battled on through a force 9 gale and very rough seas round the top of Scotland and down to Invergordon, in the Cromarty Firth. We stayed here overnight, which did at least give everyone a nice peaceful sleep!



Invergordon is not the most prepossessing town Scotland can offer! It is all to do with Oil. Oil tanks,Oil rigs, and all the engineering that goes with them.




So we got on a local bus and went to Inverness. It is rather a grey town, being mainly built of granite (I think) but it does its best to look cheerful with loads of flowers everywhere. The River Ness goes right through the middle.




And there are pleasant riverside buildings, with interesting skylines.




We found a nice warm shopping mall (the wind outside was still blowing a gale, and very cold as well)




And at one end of the mall was the original Victorian Market, which had been refurbished and had lots of little shops inside.

Having found our way back to the bus station, and had a bite to eat in the cafe there we got on the bus back to Invergordon. Incidentally, I can recommend the cafe in the Bus Station - I had the best sausage roll I have ever eaten there, and also bought a packet of very interesting crunchy biscuits.





Back in Invergordon, we had to walk along the very windswept pier to get to the Ship. We were very glad to be in the warm, and looking forward to dinner, and crusing on to Honfleur.

Little did we know........



.

6 comments:

CorvusCorax12 said...

looks like a lovely place to me

Diane said...

Oh my - you fill me with dread for your next post!!! xxxx

Hollace said...

Oh, Gilly, what a terrible disappointment for you and your friends. It was such a long-awaited visit! This post shows more of the feelings I would have expected than your last, stiff-upper-lip post. I would be ranting and raving!

On the positive side, I think Inverness is beautiful. I was there in 1971 as a 21 year old seeing Europe with girlfriends, and we had the Britrail Pass. I thought Edinburgh, Inverness, and Ft William were charming in different ways. I have beautiful slides of Inverness which I would like to digitize and get on my computer. Then I would write a book! But alas, I don't know how to convert them. And it is not top priority now.
I think Inverness seemed especially beautiful because it was so clean, fresh-washed, like the rain had gone leaving everything bright. The sun was shining and I loved the river in the town. We went to a concert in the park that night. It was called "The Kilt is our Delight". Never will forget it.

kenju said...

Looks lovely to me! That bridge photo reminds me of Zurich.

KathyA said...

Inverness is lovely! We'd love to visit it sometime. Perhaps a land tour? :)
I read this knowing that we leave a week from today on our cruise!!!

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

So sorry you ran into bad weather that spoiled some of your vacation. Inverness looks charming. I would love to visit Scotland.