Exploring Inverness

 06-11-2022

We've agreed to sleep in as long as we like, so we don't reach out fo Marilyn and Connie until ten thirty!!Everyone is ready for breakfast and we don't have to go very far before we discover Wild Pancakes, the Organic Pancake Company.  It's a tiny little place and it's full;  but we don't have to wait very long for a table,  Everyone gets something different and they all look terrific!  I get chocolate and orange pancakes and a decaf latte.  There's also strawberries and chocolate, blueberry cheesecake (it's a crepe) and bacon pancakes!

It's not much bigger than this and the kitchen is about as big as one of their large tables!

Brass leaves embedded in the sidewalk!

Place your bets here!

Always wondered where they got their kilts!

Or here!

How cool is this??

After breakfast we decide to move the car from where it is, because it doesn't belong there.  Ginger uses Waze to find the Rose Street Parking Building and we find aa spot that doesn't have a post on the driver's side. Then we go to a sports store so Marilyn can find some football clothes for her grandson who has just discovered that he has some Scottish ancestry.

And now it's just free-range shopping, after a trip to the TI to see about a walking tour of the city.  There aren't any that appeal and Rick Steves' tour doesn't sound very interesting, either. When Marilyn and Connie have had enough they head back to the hotel and Ginger and I continue across a pedestrian bridge that crosses the River Ness, to "the islands" where one of the sales clerks haas said he saw some heather growing.  We walk quite a while but never see any heather, except for some plastic stuff in a shop!

The River Ness

Pedestrian brige

No explanation necessary

So civilized

Like our painted dolphins

So peaceful

There are modern buildings, too.  This one is a theatre.

Happy puppy with his stick.  His master was walking on the sidewalk and when the
dog found a convenient spot, he crossed through the fence to join him.

When we get home we text the girls and it turns out they didn't go home!  They went to the Hootenany down the street and had a blast!  It's a bar with live music and everyone raves about it!

We agree to meet for dinner at 6:00 and go across the street for the craft beer and pizza! It's all organic and they have their own farm and brewery just outside of town!  It's pretty crowded and you can't order unless you already have a table!  Luckily a gentleman tells me that his party is leaving in just a couple of minutes and we snag their spot!  I told him I felt like a vulture and he said that's just how you have to do it in Scotland!

The beer (Black Isle Scotch Ale) and the pizzas are all delicious.  We start with two pizzas and oder a third for the three of us! They are the Mushroom, Gourgette and Blue Cheese, an the Pork and Fennel Meatball (read those descriptions!) After dinner Marilyn and Connie go home and Ginger and I go to see if we can get into the Hootenany, even though Marilyn said it would be too crowded.

It wasn't!  At first Ginger leans against a pole and I sit in the only empty chair.  Some we move across the way to sit on the floor in front of the band (two guys and they're great!) .  A really nice guy from the table behind us brings us two chairs and we strike up a conversation.  And he asks me to dance!  It's so much fun! During the next couple of hours we watch people, mostly girls dance, and clap along to the music and each have a couple of shots of Highland Park 12. 

A girl from Croatia joins us and chats.  She even gets us to get up and dance with her and the others. At nine o'clock the bands change over and the new one is pretty good, too, once they're done with their sound check!

It's after ten when we decide it's time to go home.  We're meeting at nine in the morning to get on the road for Oban.  We're hoping to find breakfast, or an early lunch, along the way.

Home safe!