Home -> Europe -> Scotland -> Travelogue 2004 -> Monday 15 March

To Beauly in the Highlands

Circumstances dictated that we had to change our holiday plans for this year and therefore we now 'have to' travel to Scotland instead of the whole month of August as we had planned. We don't know if we have time left this year for a long holiday, but going to Scotland for two weeks now, feels very good. Last year we visited Scotland also in this time of year; then we left our castle lodge on the 15th of March and drove to Beauly.
Our flight goes at 3 in the afternoon so we have plenty of time to go to Schiphol. The weather forecast for the Netherlands is very promising, with maybe even temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius, but for Scotland a lot of rain is expected. We don't care too much about a bit of rain, since we come for the country not for the weather. And we haven't seen much rain until now in Scotland, so maybe this time we will see the 'real' Scotland everybody always seems to talk about: always cold and rainy. We don't know it that way, yet.

The plane is delayed a bit but at four thirty (English time, one hour earlier than in Holland) we land at Edinburgh airport. And indeed, it rains when we get into our rental car. But to our big surprise the sun starts to shine only five minutes later, although the whole sky was clouded. The weather gods look down on us in favour, again. Therefore we take a picture from the car now and then, as prove that it really is very nice weather.

This time we take the A9, directly to Inverness and then the A835 to Beauly. It is a three hour drive but we have to wait quite often for road works. We don't care too much, but it is always nice to drive with daylight so we can see a bit of the country.

But there are more nice things in Scotland, like the houses with their shapes and curves and often even with turrets, and we get to see a few on the way. This is our fifth time in Scotland but we are still charmed by this country and its inhabitants. We feel totallky at home when we are here and even driving on the left side of the road feels quite normal, as if we do it all the time.

It is dark when we arrive at Beauly where we stay at the Caledonian hotel, owned by our friends Iain and Cathy. We get a very warm welcome and even a hot meal. We have quite some talking to catch up and we go to bed late. Yes, we definitely feel at home here!

Travel through Europe and Africa

with Elisabeth and Teije