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Entranced by Inverness

Scotland Day 10 & 11

By Tineke Ziemer

December 23^rd, 2019

Our final destination in Scotland was the much-anticipated city of Inverness. I had been looking forward to this for months. We had to make the most of our time because we only had one evening and one morning there. As soon as we checked into our charming boutique hotel, Sherrylynn and I hit the streets for an absolutely magical evening exploring the sights. We were staying just across from St. Andrew's Cathedral, so it was naturally our first stop, but from there we walked along the river, across the beautiful footbridge, up Church Street and into town. Here are some of our sights along the way.

As night fell, it brought us with it. We fell more in love with this beautiful city through every stage of evening, but especially dusk as the lights illuminated the landscape.

As magical as it was, the spell was momentarily broken when some random guy unexpectedly belched so loudly that both Sherrylynn and I screamed. Of course, hysterical laughter followed and we were so overtired by this point of the trip that it was impossible to stop.

We hit the streets again as the morning light came out to play!

Some of the funny things we saw and the fun times we had.

We were reading the moving inscriptions on a war memorial when the strains of a marching band came floating over the river to meet our ears. We took off across the bridge just in time to see this parade going through town. Their goal was to raise awareness for mental illness and we joined in with the many other people being added to the ranks as they marched. It was the icing on the cake to experience this delightful surprise on the streets on Inverness that morning.

But it wasn't over yet. We had about half an hour left before we had to meet the rest of the crew and leave town. We decided to stop at the cathedral tea house because we had been looking for a place all morning, but none felt right. As we were waiting in line to place our order, we fell into conversation with a group of people doing street ministry in Inverness that weekend. They ended up coming around us, laying hands on us and praying and prophesying. It was an absolutely incredible experience and one that we knew was sent from God above to give us the energy we needed for the rest of the trip.

Our cups overflowed. Literally.

Onward

From Inverness, we stopped and explored the haunting battlefield of Culloden, where the Jacobites were brutally defeated by the English in 1746. No more Bonnie Prince Charlie.

My friends walking the paths at Culloden

Our travels that day also took us to Fort George, an operational military base, and to Glen Grant Distillery for a whiskey tour. I tried a drop but that's all I could handle.

Audrey taking in the textures of the underground tunnel at Fort George

Me, Ron & Sherrylynn checking out the canons at Fort George

We arrived full-circle back in Aberdeen just in time to eat dinner and pack our suitcases for our train trip to York the next morning, worn out to the bone, but excited for all of the beautiful things to come.