The Scroop's European Holiday: Inverness-Glasgow

We set the alarm to get up early this morning because we want to get moving as soon as possible. We head downstairs and have brekky at the hotel restaurant, we then check out from our apartment and we are on the road around 8:30. Cheryl points us in the right direction and we follow Loch Ness to our first stop, Urquhart Castle. This is the first castle we have managed to see so far on our drive so we wander around the castle ruins for about an hour. The views from the castle overlooking Loch Ness are incredible. We continue on and the views on this road are amazing as we follow the edge of Loch Ness to Invermoriston. At this point we ask Cheryl to take us to Dornie where Eilean Donan Castle is. We get about 10 mile down the road and we realize this is about an hour’s journey. When you add getting out and looking around then the hour’s drive back there is no way we can get to Glasgow by 5pm to hand the car back. We umm and ahh and decide not to go. I'm guttered. This was one of the castles I really wanted to see and photograph but the fact is this drive is a lot longer and we are travelling a lot slower, due to the small winding roads, than I had anticipated. We turn off and take a road that leads us back to the road that followed Loch Ness. We reassess our drive and there is really only time to see one more castle, Kilchurn Castle. Kilchurn Castle is on the way to Glasgow but we do have to go backwards a bit, but I am determined to see this one. We look at the map and there are 2 ways to go, the A828 which will take us along the edge of a bunch of Lochs or the A82 which will take us through.....well, not much that I can see. Anyway, the A82 looks the quickest but the A828 looks the most specky. What do we do? We let Cheryl decide and she chose the A82. Bugger, I thought the other way would have been awesome but Cheryl obviously knows that's the long way. So we take Cheryl's advice and god damn did she come through with the goods. This was one of the best drives I have ever been on. The views were beyond anything that we had expected and we were blown away. Kris and I just kept saying "we gotta come back here again one day, this is incredible". Kris and I really didn't know that Scotland could have such amazing scenery. On our last holiday we took the bus from Thusis to Bellinzona and this was the best scenery I had ever seen. This drive from Fort William through the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area came pretty close. After that we take the road backwards to see Kilchurn Castle. Just before we get there is starts raining, just as we get there it starts raining harder. This is a castle ruin so there is no shelter and it's about a 500m walk to get there. I get out of the car, take my photos, which will be crap because it was raining, the fog was thick and I get back in the car and Kris says "you weren't meant to see these castles Paul". I said "I know" and we drive off. This whole road trip was to see historic castle ruins and I'd take all these amazing photos......didn't work out that way. Nevertheless, we saw some of the most amazing scenery we will ever see and I was pretty satisfied. We eventually make it to Glasgow and we hand the vehicle back to Thrifty and ask them to call us a cab so we can get to our hotel. We wait about 30 minutes, in the rain, and finally one rocks up. He gets us to our hotel and we check in and head straight out to have a look around. It's a fairly unimpressive looking joint and we see a pub that welcomes families. Great, we think, let's go back and shower get dressed and come to the pub. We rock up there about half an hour later and walk inside only to be told the kids are not allowed in after 7. So we are back to this archaic law are we. There is absolutely bugger all around but we manage to find one place and we decide to eat there. While we are there we get chatting to the staff and they told us that restaurants we not allowed to serve alcohol after 10pm!!! Scotland is a strange joint. We take the dodgy route back to the hotel, past the nightclubs and strip joints (or at least we think it was the dodgy route, could have been the better route, Glasgow looks pretty rough) and hit the sack. We will be up early again tomorrow because we are catching the early train back to London.