We hae a Heilan' fling

You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland before you...

If you ever make it to Scotland, you MUST see the Highlands. Tim and I aren't ones for organized tours, but this, by far, was the best thing we've done so far. A Scotsman, Tim--believe it or not--toured us about 350 miles up to Loch Ness, stopping along the way to view the mountains and other historical spots. He also gave a history of the country for most of the way that really helped put it all in perspective. What kind of history, you say? Well....

Let's start with the Jacobites (JACK-o-bites). The true revoluntionaries of Scotland. They were Highlanders (yes, there's a difference between Highlanders and Lowlanders--I'll explain more later). They were also pretty well wiped out by the English (Sassenachs). The primary Jacobite clans included the MacDonalds, Frasers and Camerons. My clan, the Gordons (I verified this here--what better place??) were not Jacobites, but were a very powerful clan nonetheless. The Gordons were so powerful, they had their own regiment in Her Majesty's Army.

>Anyway, enough about history...we finally met Hamish the Heilan' Coo. Jolly chap. Loves eating neeps, tatties, carrots and most especially strawberries. But not so much on the citrus. "It runs roit tru him."

Listening to Tim the Tour Man all day really gave us a flavor for the Scots language. He actually belted out a sentence or two in Scots. Even now, we have no idea what he said. He could very well have called us all crazy Sassenachs and we smell funny. But it sounded charming, so we all laughed.

The only town you would have heard of that we visited today was Loch Ness. We think we may have seen the monster (maybe a duck)--and we got a photo...


So, I'll wrap this up with a Scottish saying--Lang may yer lums reek. For you Trekkies out there, it translates into, "Live long and prosper."