Scotland is...

fantabulous, pure dead brilliant & sooo remote!!

in my entire life, i've been away on holiday to several cities but i still believe that the Scottish Highlands is still the best holiday venue and the next best place to live apart from the homeland.

maybe we retire in scotland??!! found one spot...see that house across the loch?

my 5 years in Glasgow was one of the best time of my life of which i spent most easter holidays up north at the highlands.

the places been (with friends during college days and also with the family) - from the West - Isle of Arran, Oban, attempted to Isle of Skye but stopped at Loch Carron, Inverness down to Fort William, crossing over Lochaber and Cairngorms to Aviemore, Dundee, Perth, St. Andrews and of course Edinburgh in the East.

we hope to go again next year for a longer period.

things which remind me of Scotland most are these ...

Irn Bru - made in Scotland from (steel)girders !!

walkers shortbreads

tartan

easter break - day 4

last day- time to go home... urgh!! what i hate about going on holidays/short breaks are - packing & leaving at the end of the break and the dirty laundry... will come to that later.

we started off from Fort William at 10am after breakfast and hubby 'cleaned' the van and 'washed' the windscreen.

Calluna bunk house

stopped at the town centre for just 1/2 hour to shop for some souveniers. i just bought myself some packets of shortbread and a rennie mackintosh design tray. then we took some photos at the carpark facing Loch Linnhe and the mountains. beautiful view...

we moved on towards Glasgow, via coastal road and it started to snow - the weather was almost perfect when we were at the highlands.

we drove towards Oban, crossed Connel Bridge, stopped at Falls of Lora.

next leg of the journey was toward Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. stopped at Inveruglas at the north shore of Loch Lomond.

we had picnic lunch by the shore of Loch Lomond, at the small village of Luss before proceeding to Glasgow.

sampai Glasgow, drove to Hillhead, where i lived during my working years in a one bedroom fully furnished self contained flat at 32, Athole Gardens. there were 9 one bedroom flats in one close, from basement to 2nd floor. mine was on the ground floor (see the window with the flower vase?), facing the small garden.

got some of these photos from the web, basically how the common area/staircase looked like in my close. i used to pay monthly rental of £200 but nowadays, the rental would be £500-£600 per month.

we didnt stop at city of Glasgow, just drove round George Square outside the Glasgow College of Building & Printing building (now the building belongs to Metropolitan College, after GCBP/Glasgow College of Teachnology was upgraded to Glasgow Caledonian University). nostalgic habis!!

we left Glasgow at 5.00pm, stopped at Gretna Services for dinner. tengok la muka2 yang dah penat....tapi masih boleh senyum

we arrived in Notts at 10.30pm...

easter break - day 3

stopped writing for a couple of days - we just got back from Poole in Dorset, down south last nite; on working trip. will put that on the blog later.

our 3rd day at the scottish highlands was spent at Glen Nevis, then up on Ben Nevis and drove up to Loch Ness, stopped at Fort Augustus and Invermoriston.

Glen Nevis is just few miles away from Fort William but the road was narrow and winding. at some point, traffic was held up due to this....

one can only find these highland cattles at the scottish highlands

we drove all the way to the end of the road, to the LOWER FALLS. the place was absolutely magic. we went for a walk and the kids loved it.

from Glen Nevis we moved on towards Aonach Mor for the highlight of the day/trip - took the cable car up to Ben Nevis.

the cable car station is at Nevis Range Ski Centre/Snow Goose Restaurant which is at 2150ft above sea level. ramai betul orang pergi ski-ing.

Ben Nevis (Gaelic: Beinn Nibheis) is the highest mountain in Great Britain. It is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of Scotland. The summit is at 1,344 metres (4,406 ft) above sea level.

we rented a sleigh for aisyah. she and Raudah and also Aliyah enjoyed the sleigh ride.

after almost 3 hours there, look at these faces...

from Ben Nevis, we drove to Spean Bridge and stopped at Commando Memorial

High above Spean Bridge and bearing the words “United we conquer” and “This country was their training ground” stands this seventeen foot high monument. Designed by Scott Sutherland and unveiled by the Queen Mother in 1952, the three bronze figures in battledress, woollen caps and climbing boots watch over the annual Armistice, when hundreds of veteran Commandos remember their colleagues who died in the Second World War. On a good day the North face of Ben Nevis and Aonach Mor, and the impressive Grey Corries, can be seen http://www.ukattraction.com/highlands/commando-memorial.htm

we then moved on to Fort Augustus, a small town at the south end of Loch Ness, famous for Nessie or Loch Ness Monster and Urquhart Castle, had chippies next to Caledonian Canal.

Caledonian Canal

Loch Ness is Scotland's largest Loch in terms of its volume, and it is more than 600ft (180m) deep for much of its 23 miles (37km) length.

we managed to get to Loch Ness before the sun went down and captured some nice photos of Urquhart Castle and some part of Loch Ness.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.

on our back to Fort William, we stopped at Invermoriston, just for me to snap these lovely photos of the Invermoriston bridge.