On the Road/Day One: Loch Ness

"Is there for honest poverty

that hings his head, an' a' that;

The coward slave we pass him by,

We dare be poor for a' that"

Awake at 9:00AM to Mel's smiling face. Quick pack up, breakfast of bacon roll and poached eggs on toast, check out, then cab it to the airport. At the airport we pick up our rental car from Hertz who, in appreciation of our custom, freeze $600.00 of our bank account for a deposit. Lovely. Now, not only are we leaving Edinburgh (our new favorite city), we're also broke and about to have to drive 160 miles on the wrong side of the road.

Not looking good so far.

The day quickly took a turn for the better when we discovered that our rental is a Ford Mondeo Titanium 5-door hatchback. A beautiful piece of art/machinery that I've been desperate to get my hands on for years! Black-metallic paint, automatic transmission, happy day! After queing to get out of the rental lot, we were on our way north. On the cab ride over, the driver gave us directions on how to reach the Firth of Forth bridge, gateway to the north. Somehow, not really surprisingly, we forgot the directions and promptly got lost. Normally, that would be no big deal, but today we're driving on the left side and worrying desperately about roundabouts! After a quick turn around in the Bank of Scotland we promptly motored (with ease) through two roundabouts, located our roadway and found ourselves crossing the Forth Bridge. As we make it onto the motorway, we're feeling good about left-side driving and to be fair, we effin' crushed those roundabouts. Driving is fun. Some credit goes to the steady presence of our Metallic-Black Ford Mondeo Titanium, most goes to Mel's calm navigation. Also, my peerless motoring skills...CRUSHED 'EM!

Stopped along the way in the Victorian resort town of Pitlochry. Took some pictures and had a light lunch. 17 Pounds for soup and sandwich! Daylight robbery! Now I understand why the Scots are reputed to be tight-fisted, the rental cars and road-side lunches will bleed you dry unless you're canny.

After about three hours of smooth sailing (expert driving, really) we reached Inverness. Melody assures me it was a beautiful city with the Loch sparkling behind it. I wouldn't know, my eyes were glued to the road, my hands; a death-grip on the wheel. It's the roundabouts, you see. Inverness is a small city packed full of roundabouts. Angry roundabouts, roundabouts that curse and honk at you. After at least 5 hours and 1000 roundabouts, we made it out of Inverness and back on the road to Loch Ness (Melody interjects: The poor dear, it wasn't nearly that long and there were only 5-6 roundabouts, but they were very crowded and angry). We then awaited the raising and lowering of a drawbridge and then drove a bit on a single lane stretch, which did not change our belief that the roads are very angry in Inverness. Luckily, the Loch came into view shortly outside of Inverness. It's unbelievably wide and dark, beautiful but foreboding. I can easily see how a monster could live in it. We accidentally stopped at a similarly named hotel on the way to Loch Ness Lodge Hotel (where we're booked). After a brief look around the very beautiful Loch Ness Lodge, we were informed by the staff that we were in the wrong place, our hovel was located down the road, and have a nice day. Politely shoved out the door, we were back on our way. In minutes, we found our proper hotel, an old country house (a lot of plaid!), and checked in. Turns out it's really a charming place, wood paneling and comfy leather sofas as well as small staircases leading off to different suites of rooms, a toasty fire in the well-stocked library and tartan everywhere from the floor coverings to the walls to the beds. We'll be perfectly snuggly here, with an idyllic village close by and just a two mile walk to Urquhart Castle.

Impressions from the Day: If race cars had to go through a succession of roundabouts followed by a harrowing road that hugs a mountain on one side with a sheer drop-off, the classification as "sport" would seem more appropriate. DJ's new love (next to Melody) is a Ford Mondeo, he seems to have forgotten his Wayfarer IPA (DJ interjects: I haven't.). There is so much to see in the Castle district between Aberdeen and Pitlochry that we did not get to see that we can't wait to come back and spend a week touring castles and whisky distilleries only. For now, the Loch holds quite enough allure, however, and exploring it tomorrow and Sunday will be wonderful, or maybe we'll just curl up next to the fire with a book.

More communications to follow...