Loch Ness, Forts Augustus and William, Ben Nevis Day 7 #VisitScotland #goaheadtours #LochNess

We say goodbye to Inverness Center Wednesday morning March 25 and head west. Bags outside the door at 7:30, on the coach at 8:30 for our trip to Loch Ness and the Western Highlands.

We make lots of stops today on our journey to Fort William and the scenery is breathtaking.

We make a quick photo op stop at Urquhart Castle-Nessie's hotspot for watching for the famous creature. The castle has been repeatedly sacked and rebuilt over the years. The five story tower still remains and is very photogenic.

More Urquhart Castle images: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William/Loch-Ness/

Entering the town of Drumnadrochit we stop at the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition. Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Well, you'll be given some facts and fiction here at the visitor's center.

More Loch Ness images: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William/Loch-Ness

After our Nessie enlightenment we stop in Moriston to visit with some friendly Highland Cattle. It's like they know to pose for the tourists.

More Cattle pics: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William/Highlands

Back on the coach after our photos with the shaggy beasts, we head to Fort Augustus and the Caledonian Canal. The canal is a series of five locks that raise or lower boats 13M.

 More pics from around Fort Augustus: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William/Fort-Augustus

Our bus climbs into the Highlands and the Ben Nevis Range. We make a stop at the Commando Memorial that faces Ben Nevis-the tallest mountain in Scotland.

More images from Ben Nevis: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William/Ben-Nevis-Range

Before heading to our hotel, The Ballachulish Hotel in Fort William, we make at stop at the Spean Bridge. I met a great group of folks in town for some white water kayaking. They sure looked like they were having a great time of it.

We drive through Fort William-which boasts being the wettest city in the Britain and check into our hotel. The bridge to this side of the Loch is being used for the new Peugeot car commercial; we heard traffic was stopped for the filming. I sure glad we made it to the hotel before they stopped the bridge crossing. We were buzzed by a helicopter filming for over 20 minutes. Fun...

This isn't the last time we'll be encountering this film crew...

More Fort William pics: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William/Fort-William/

Our hotel,  The Ballachulish Hotel is quite comfortable and the dinner we were served was wonderful. I had the Brussels pate, the steamed haddock and a cheese board for dessert. I also sampled two new whiskys-Langavulin and Dalwhinnie-both were excellent.

We retired to the library for after dinner tea (very Downton Abbey!) and met some delightful people from Perth-Louise, Bill and their poodle Millie. The stories Bill could tell. I could have listened ALL night and into the wee hours of the morning but we had an early wake up call for our trip to Eilean  Donan Castle and the Isle of Skye.

More images: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015/Loch-Ness-Fort-William

Next up: Eilean Donan and the Isle of Skye

Edinburgh and the Castles of Scotland
Day 7 March 25 Loch Ness Museum, Urquhart Castle, Fort Augustus, Commando Memorial, Ben Nevis Range, Fort William
Go Ahead Tours
March 19-30, 2015
Copyright ©2015 Nancy Nutile-McMenemy
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Tour images: http://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Scotland-2015
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