#a87

Just back from a weekend on Skye, this first set of pics is from Loch Ness Loch Duich and the road between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh.

My friend Iain and I travelled up by train, first from Falkirk to Stirling then on to Inverness, where we had around 10 minutes to catch our connection to Kyle of Lochalsh, the train was delayed, and we missed that connection, I was okay with that, there was four hours till the next one and I was going to take Iain round the town and see the Castle and Flora MacDonald statue, alongwith the views along the River Ness, oh and of course a few pints in my favourite “Sneckie” for those unfamiliar with the word Sneckie, it is an abbreviated form of Inversneckie, that or The Sneck  is an affectionate term for the Highland capital.

So we’re off the train and I am about to check the information boards in the forlorn hope that the Kyle of Lochalsh train has also been delayed, before I did this Iain was questioning a member of Scotrail staff who asked us to hang on a minute, he was waiting to see if anyone else was going onwards and had also missed the train, there wasn’t and the guy radioed his control, and was informed they were arranging a taxi for us! Result!  “We’ll have time for a pint?” I asked and was informed we would and that he would come into the pub, which is on the station concourse, and get us when the cab arrived. So the  Ness and Thistle it was then, a crowd of women from a 50th birthday party got to the bar before us, so it took a wee while to get served and only had time to sink half our drink before the Scotrail guy appeared and took us out to the cab. 

The driver was and friendly Polish guy call Wojtek and I asked if it was okay to stop and grab a takeaway, he was fine with that and stopped at a chip shop, allowing us to eat it in the car, afterwards Iain got his head down in the back as I chatted away with the driver, I asked him if he had been to Edinburgh and seen the statue of the  bear raised by Polish soldiers who helped take Monte Cassino from the Germans,, he laughed and said “of course, we have the same name, Wojtek” Wojtek spent the rest of his life after the war in Edinburgh Zoo.