Voyage of the Vikings Port 10

Saturday, August 8th Port# 9 Invergordon, Scotland Today is an early departure. We were up at 6:00am to get dressed, eat and go ashore for our first group tour. This is the one I arranged, so we needed to be sure that we could find our paying people and the guides. It turned out to be a wonderful day! It was cloudy with a few light showers, but for the most part, the weather was ok! We got a very early start because our bus of eight were prompt and we left just before 8:00am. Our driver/guide took us to the small Scottish Royal Burgh of Dornoch, where we had time to walk around the village and visit the ancient Cathedral. Because we were ahead of the other two small vans, Graham took us to another ancient site called Carn Liath, which was constructed in around 500AD and used to protect local villagers from attacks of the Vikings. We rejoined the rest at Dunrobin Castle, where was walked the gardens and then went to the Falconry display, which was terrific! Nigel, the tour owner, asked the Falconer to have the owl sit on my head! Good thing I had a cap on! The show was great and after, Nigel allowed me to ride in his van (with the other seniors) back up to the top of the hill, where I met Cindy and we toured the Castle together. We then met the others and boarded our van for our ride to The Falls of Shin, a place along a salmon stream owned by Mohammad Fayedd (spelling) of Princess Diana fame! There was a Harrods shop (of course) and a wonderful cafeteria where we had baked potatoes with interesting toppings. I had potato with egg salad, lettuce and tomato salad. It was really good. We sat with our group of eight and had a great lunch. Some then went to the stream to see the salmon, but another woman, Barbara and I stayed behind, no wanting to have to go down the steep hill and then have to climb up it again! My cough is better, but I'm still tired! Barbara is a nurse and we talked about my crud! She said that they had also had the crud just before sailing and the Doctor had told her to take the Z pack and then take the Prednisone, which I also had. I will start taking this tonight! We were back to the vans and off on a ride through the beautiful Scottish Highlands, passing wonderful flowered towns and vistas. We weaved our way back to Invergordon and stopped at the Dalmore Distillery. It was holiday time for the Distillery workers, but we were each given a "wee dram" of whisky and we were taught to take a snip and chew it to get the full flavor! It was really good! We then watched a video about the place and we were off again to the port. It was a great day and every one in our van had a great time!

Sunday, August 9th Port# 10, Edinburgh, Scotland Guess what! Another cloudy and rainy day. We took our time to get to the tender in Queensferry, then we caught the free shuttle into Edinburgh. The city is very crowded because of the famous Tatoo and Fringe Festivals. We walked a little then it began to rain so we jumped on the Hop on/Hop off bus to tour the city in dry-style. It was still very crowded around the city so our circular trip took a very long time. It was still raining so we decided to go back to the ship after late lunch at Burger King. We ate dinner with a very nice couple and then raced to see the Scottish Review, brought onboard for our enjoyment. They were very good. Immediately after, the evening entertainment was Katzenjammer This was two young men who played piano duets on one piano at the same time! They were wonderful and very humorous. I am very happy to be feeling better and able to enjoy the cruise again!