This weekend, we took a 5 hour train ride north to the Highland city of Inverness, Scotland. We arrived on Saturday night, checked into our cozy bed & breakfast and headed into town to explore. The castle in Inverness is still a working city building so we couldn't go inside, but we had a great view of the city from its grounds atop a high hill in the center of town. We stopped into the Castle Tavern for a pint and some light dinner: haggis balls and smoked salmon bites.
We woke up bright and early the next morning, packed our backpacks and rented a pair of bikes in town. By 9:30 we were rolling south along the eastern side of the River Ness, looping around the local farms and highland fields. Even though the weather was predicted to be showery all weekend, we were so lucky to have gorgeous sun all day long! About 7 miles into the ride, we arrived at Loch Ness and stopped to enjoy the view from the locally famous restaurant, Dores Inn. With just a short break, we were back on the bikes for another 5 miles to the halfway point in the Loch... where we could see the ruins of Castle Urquhart from across the water. If you look closely at these photos, you might even spot the Loch Ness (Andee) monster! On our ride back to Inverness, we stopped again at the Dores Inn to refuel with haggis and tatties, and of course classic fish & chips. By the time we made it back to our room, we'd cycled 30 miles and had particularly sore bottoms! But it was an absolutely stunning trip and we would both love to visit again someday.