Hello, Inverness

August 16 - train to Inverness

After breakfast, we packed up and headed back to the train station, bound for Inverness. The girls' shoes got soaked yesterday on our visit to Dunnottar Castle, so we stopped off at Poundland, where we found reasonably decent shoes for £10 (Zoe) and £12 (Avery). We also went to Flying Tiger in search of carabiners to attach their wet shoes to their backpacks. I didn't find carabiners, but this little heart lock did the trick:

On the train

Classic British tabloid reader on the train!

Unicorn statue at Falcon Square

Leonardo Hotel, Inverness

Early in the morning, I had looked into a dolphin cruise. I had the option of booking online, but because I wasn't sure about timing, I thought it would be better to just go there. So, once we got settled in at our hotel, we took the bus back downtown. There was no public transit available to the cruise centre, so we set off on foot. It was a somewhat strange walk, through an industrial area, but sure enough, we saw signs for the boat cruise, so we kept going.

After about half an hour of walking, we reached our destination, only to discover that the cruises were cancelled for the rest of the day because of high winds. In my ignorance about such things, I hadn't looked at the website again, so this was a total surprise. Oh well, I thought, we'll get an Uber back to downtown and find something else to do. I opened the Uber app and put in a request, only to be told that no drivers were available. Okay, I told the girls: we will walk for 10 minutes and then stop and try again for an Uber. 

On the way, we saw some gorse, as well as broom, plants I had read about many a time but never seen.

This is the bridge at the end of the harbour -- beyond this is open sea, with apparently high winds. The wind didn't seem that bad where we were, but we didn't doubt that those in the know knew what they were talking about.

This beauty is called Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii)

These rowhouses fascinated me. Smack-dab in the middle of an industrial area near the harbour, they appeared to be occupied. I couldn't decide if they looked up- or down-market, as they seemed to be a little worse for the wear, but also had a certain level of charm and class.

Reader, you may have guessed that we didn't end up getting an Uber and did end up walking all the way back to Falcon Square. The girls were great sports about this, even though it was a long walk and a little annoying. By this time, it was about 5:00, so we stopped at M & S Food Hall and picked up food for supper -- buns, cheese, and deli meat, along with some fruit and veg. We rode the bus back to our hotel and enjoyed a little picnic.

The evening ended with a swim in the hotel pool, and a good night's sleep for all.

Tomorrow: Loch Ness!