The Highlands are fairly high

Well, i'm feeling a bit better. Had a horrible 36 hours or so where i pretty much wasn't eating, but i've gradually gotten over that part of the cold and now i'm just snuffling and sneezing which oddly enough feels like a blessed relief.

Unfortunately Skye was a bit of a dud. Most of that was because i really wasn't in a state to enjoy it, but my parents also didn't feel too keen on it. Some spectacular scenery, but nothing much really to do.

So, we left Skye yesterday morning and headed over to Inverness for lunch (at which point i was still gradually reintroducing myself to food, so i was very pleased to eat 2 chicken strips). The weather in Scotland is pretty miserable - cold, windy, and at a bare minimum always drizzling. It's not really my kind of place i think - although that opinion might adjust as i feel better.

In the afternoon after we left Inverness we checked out Castle Cawdor (Hail to thee Thane of Cawdor, thou shalt be king hereafter). The castle itself was a bit disappointing - it's more of a large manor house than a proper castle, and the people who had laid it out for tourists hadn't done a wonderful job of it. The garden however was spectacular, especially the wild gardens which were exquisite. I wish we could have spent more time in that garden.

We stayed overnight at lovely little seaside village called Nairn (presumably the namesake of the former Member for Eden-Monaro). In spite of the fact that it was wet, windy and about 12 degrees it seemed that all the kids in the place were out on cricket grounds playing around - i can only assume that for them this IS summer weather. Amazing. The hotel we stayed at was very nice, but unfortunately some cats decided to conduct a whirlwind romance outside my window at 4 in the morning, so sleep was missed a little.

We're now heading a little further South (thank god - at Skye the sun didn't set until 10 and came up bright as day at 4 in the morning!). We're currently about 5 miles away from Balmoral, which is the Queen's summer residence (anyone who has seen the movie The Queen would be familiar with it). We probably won't get an opportunity to go through the castle itself, but apparently it has very beautiful grounds, and we're looking forward to that.

After that i believe we're heading down to a city by the name of Perth (small world...) and then tomorrow we will probably be heading over to Edinburgh for a couple of days.