Has it been a week already? Post part1 (and holiday snaps part4?)

Wow, it's been incredibly busy since I returned so apologies for the delays in the last installment.
This post will be somewhat shorter (I'm sure you'll be relieved!) but hopefully there'll be a second post later to bring up the knitterly tone!

You see, the camera batteries have all decided to die so whilst it's easy for me to pull out the last of the holiday snaps for your delectation, transferring all the goodies I've bought and knitted will have to wait until they've had a recharge. Ah, the joys of technology!

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, safely installed in Aviemore (or Coylumbridge to be precise, about 2 miles down the road). We had a fab room at the Hilton, 2 queen size beds so we had the best nights sleep of the holiday together for once. Our next tour was one we'd done before but our driver had made a shortcut to allow for an extra trip on the Funicular railway in the afternoon. We decided not to go (and as hub was decidedly travelsick when we got off the coach, I think we made the right decision!).

So, we headedoff up towards Inverness and along the side of Loch Ness. It's one of the more famous sites due to the "tales" of Nessie and it is pretty but being at the end of an incredible journey, we couldn't help but feel that other areas had been far more dramatic.



We stopped at a hotel where we could get a picture of the shoreline then a quick photo stop to get this most famous of snaps- Urquhart Castle. It's an atmospheric place to walk around but the new owners have made it less attractive for coachloads with combined entry of the castle and visitor centre being £6.50 so we could only look from a distance. Still, we have been there before, so no skin off our nose!

Next, we headed to Fort Augustus at the head of the loch and another set of staircase locks for the Caledonian Canal which runs from Fort William to Inverness (so we'd travelled along it in theory if not in practice!).


It was a nice day and we had a little time to stroll around the shops, grab lunch (and find a ball of yarn too!)



I do think the view down the loch is nice though!

Anyway, we split off from the group about 3 ish to explore the town of Aviemore.
We definitely found more than we were expecting! Whilst I was availing myself of the local facilities, hubbie went exploring and discovered this...

There was a wee tunnel and pretty grotto area around the back of the shops that led to the other side of the railway and he just managed to snap this one before the steam train left! (I think it made his day!).

Not quite ubiquitous sweater shot by the tunne

This was from the other side of the tracks with the Cairngorms in the distance. If you click on the pic, you can hopefully see snow on the mountain tops!

We found a walk off the main roads to get back to the Hotel and found an iinteresting shop en route with loads of foodie treasures. Bizarrely, we didn't buy anything, having nowhere to store fresh produce but our mouths did water!

Friday was obviously most of the staff's night off as service was pretty apalling that evening. It took an hour to get through 2 courses and the meals took so long to come out that mine was lukewarm to say the least. Not the best end to a holiday but couldn't be helped, I guess.

So, another early up (6.30am), Breakfast for 7am and on the coach for 8am for the long journey home. It all went incredibly smoothly, we arrived back at Stretton around 4pm and didn't have to wait too long for the feeder coach which just happened to drive down our main road and (with a little pleading!) agreed to drop us a hell of a lot closer to home. We arrived home before 6pm, tired and extremely bag laden but with a whole heap of memories.

Ah well, next post all my goodies, watch this space!