The next day we headed into the North. We took the train from London to Inverness, the capitol of The Highlands in Scotland. Due to limited time, we bypassed the bulk of Scotland, the southern section where the population is, and went to farther north, to the part that looks like an island on a map because it is cut off by Loch Ness. Inver' means river mouth. Inverness, mouth of the river Ness (or Nessmouth if it were in England!). Inverness is a city that is growing fast, sprawling and very touristy.
We were met at the train station by a teenager in a Loch Ness Monster costume. What a terrible summer job! We wandered around the pretty, but touristy center of the city on the first day.
We went on a dolphin watching boat trip on salt water Moray Firth. It was a wonderful ride, beautiful scenery -- but like the monster in the Loch, the dolphins were elusive. (The Royal Family however were not! They seemed to be following us. They took the dolphin cruise the day after we did and for several days they were just one day behind us!) We slowed down a little and relaxed in Inverness a bit. We had been going pretty full on for a month and the quiet time was needed. On the last day walked along the Ness river and the Caledonian Canal locks before hopping on the train to Carbisdale Castle Hostel.
