Scotland - Three Sisters of Glencoe

'United We Conquer'. That's the sentence embedded on the bronze sculpture of Commando Memorial. It is built to dedicate the British Commando Forces in World War II. It's a meaningful place but it doesn't really excite us. We dropped by here while on our way to Glasgow, which is very very far away from our previous destination. *Imagine the hours we spent sitting in the bus, listening to mostly Mandarin songs on repeat!* 

Next stop was Glenfinnan. The first thing we did when we reached this pretty little town was to climb its hill that has 360 degree panoramic view of the town! Here's Loch Shiel with the Glenfinnan Monument.

Glenfinnan Viaduct. You'll get to see a train passing by if you are lucky. A scene in Harry Potter is filmed here! Not a fan of Harry Potter, so I don't know which installment the scene is in. Kthxbai. 

A creative advert which promote road safety. Be a better role model to your children on the road!

As we getting nearer to Glen Coe, we were greeted with the sight of weird landscape on some hills. Our tour guide said those uneven surfaces on the hills are caused by molten lava as it was an active volcano! *Marked down 'active volcano' on my 'must-visit list'!*

Soon our bus stopped us on a platform next to the freeway. Once we got down of the bus, immediately we discovered what is special about this place. There are three hills joined together, namely The Three Sisters in Glencoe! Two deep ridges separated the lush greenish hills.

"I'm so happy I just wanna flyyyy!"

A portrait with two of the three 'sisters'!

To spend our spare time, we played wrestling! When a group of friends are willing to play wrestling together in the public shows that everyone's friendship is strongly bonded. *Disclaimer: No person is injured in the process of fake wrestling*

It was a friend's wish to snap a photo of us all together which resembles professionally designed poster, normally those for movies and albums. The idea is everyone's pose to be different than one another. Take one:

Take two:

Our effort failed, big time LOL! Nevertheless, we had fun doing it. It doesn't matter if we embarrassed ourselves in front of strangers, most important is we have each other. OK, the last sentence sounds wrong...

NEXT - Glasgow!

Scotland - Old Man of Storr

Far far away... There's the Old Man of Storr. Not sure who gave it such name though, probably because the rock stands vertically all by itself, like a lonely old man overlooking the hill, searching for the sight of his lover. 

That was the moment I get why seniors asked us to bring along a pair of good condition sports or hiking shoes if we are visiting Scotland. Scotland is a place which you interact with the nature, so expect plenty of walking and even hill climbing involved! 

The first stage of the climb passed through a harvested land. Thus, it was unpleasantly muddy and we had to look out on every step we took. It looked like a deserted and destructed area, not a pretty sight. Look pass the eye sore, however, will greet you with a stunning view.

Overlooking the destruction.

Halfway up the hill already took me half an hour to reach there, I was gasping for air. Yes, I admit I have low stamina, and I gave up climbing all the way up to The Storr while my friends decided to move on. The view here is enough to mesmerise me. Fun fact: The Storr had became one of the settings for the movie Prometheus!

See what I mean? But the dark piece of land on the right really spoilt the view...


Again with a scarf!

Model shot!

It was half an hour trip up and the same for down. We are going back to the bus, but first, let us take a selfie!

Say 'peace' with a waterfall!

Parody of a friend's famous pose! Hehe!

A kind of deserted lake, opposite of a quiet row of shops where we had our dinner...

NEXT - Three Sisters of Glen Coe!

Scotland - Loch Ness & Eilean Donan Castle

*Plays mysterious music* Loch Ness monster, a legendary (or is it real?) monster 'spotted' appearing in the Loch Ness long time ago. By the way, loch means 'lake'. I didn't know that Loch Ness is actually situated in Scotland until weeks before the Scotland trip! Still, there is no solid proof about the existance of Nessie (a cute name for the Loch Ness monster) despite various state-of-the-art equipment were used to find it. 

To my surprise, Loch Ness is a very beautiful lake! It's a huge lake which spans 37km across many places of Inverness. The surface of the lake was largely covered by mist when we got there, very mysterious feeling indeed! The naive me was looking for signs of Nessie, especially at ripples on the water which caused by my fellow travel mates. Who knows I'm the first guy who spotted Nessie?

Not far away from the lake is the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre. Visitors can pay a visit to a small museum about Nessie and a souvenir shop to get something as remembrance.

OMG!!! Nessie is on the loose! Runnnnnnn...

Guess what? I found baby Nessie. Now mama Nessie is gonna look for him, and me!

So, is Nessie a hoax or unproven truth?

After a long and winding road, we arrived at Eilean Donan Castle. It's a beautiful setting, a castle built on a small island not far away from the mainland with hills as its background. The food in the nearby cafe was super expensive, costed us a bomb to have a simple lunch there.

A group pic before we leave!

It seems like Scotland has plenty of nice looking bridges. Here's the Bridge to Skye:

Too bad our tour didn't go to Falkirk Wheel, the bridge that I wanted to see the most in Scotland! It's an engineering marvel, designed to deliver ships from the lower part of the river to the upper part through rotating compartment! Don't believe? See for yourself:

NEXT - Old Man of Storr

Scotland - John o' Groats

A scenic ride. That's what I can describe while travelling around Scotland on a bus. The picturesque environment, especially farms and roads by the seashores, made us couldn't resist from getting up from our seats and take a few photos... Scotland is pensioner's dream place to live in after retiring. Living here with minimum traffic, fresh air, cooling weather and magnificent view would help you live at least ten years longer!

Bla bla (white) sheep have you any wool?

These barrel-like black plastic cylinders stored grasses, the source of food for the animals during winter.

Where does the long and straight road leads to...

Well, it led us to... erm... two corns on the sea. Wait what?? That's what I've heard from our tour guide whilst on our way there! My imagination illustrated two giant corns are grown on the sea (perhaps I love corn too much!). It turned out to be cones, not corns, to my disappointment :(

Asked a friend of mine to lend me a scarf which he bought in Edinburgh so that I can take few selfies!

My Heart Will Go On on the land... Titanic!

Beautiful scenery again!

Next up, we travelled all the way up to John o' Groats. When I said 'up', I really meant all the way up! John o' Groats is situated at the north-est point of Great Britain. The distance between John o' Groats and Land's End (the south-est part of the Great Britain) is 876 miles. John o' Groats is a small town, the amount of building in the city can be counted in just a minute. 

The colourful chalets reminded us of the seaside stores in Whitby!

We were so far from the city of New York!

My two wacky friends posing for photos in the souvenir shop!

Our friend, Yew Lun, seems a little emo on that day. He put on a happy front for us to see, but we think he cried a little inside LOL

Trying to hide his tears from us by covering his eyes with rocks?

Ok, well, Dunnet Head is the most northerly point of Great Britain. Then I supposed John o' Groats is the most northerly city of Great Britain?

For the first time, we get to see cows with long fur! Such cows can only be found in cold climate places, where the fur is designed for the cows to adapt to the cold environment. 

This shocked us. A full tank for our tour bus in Scotland worth 540 Pounds! Simple mathematics will show that 1 litre of diesel costs approximately 1.40 Pounds. Malaysian are pretty lucky with our fuel price actually, but it's a different story when it comes to car's price. 

NEXT - Loch Ness