leaving tain...

After leaving tain I went on with a few of the others to Inverness for a day and half before taking the overnight train back to London. Inverness was designated as a City in Scotland going into the year 2000 which seems to be a big deal since the tour guide said the last time a town was made a city was over 100 before. The population didn't really matter when renaming a town as a city but one requirement is that it had to have a Cathedral which Inverness did. It's also the site of the Highland Games and we were there one day after they were held...I'm sure you've seen some of these events held in the games... the caber toss- seeing how far they can throw a giant tree trunk. They also see how far they can throw other things like rocks and hammer and just weights of different masses. I think the highlands of Scotland must be a rough place to grow up.



Loch Ness is very near Inverness so I went on a tour to see if I could catch a glimpse of Nessie.Actually I had never realized how big Loch Ness is - It's not the largest in surface area but because it's so deep it's total volume is greater than all the other lakes in England and Whales combined. It's also very beautiful, surrounded by sharp rising hills covered with grass and heather. Urquhart Castle is also right on the lake. As a historical strong point in nothern Scotland it had stood for hundreds of years occupied by differnet rulers of the time.












After Inverness I took the overnight train back to London. This time it was a direct train with no change so it would be a very long ride. I think from about 9pm to 9am the next morning arriving in London Euston Station. Because it was an overnight train sleeping train again you needed to make reservations in addition to having a ticket. I guess I made the reservation too late because I didn’t get a bed and had to spend the whole night in just a normal seat. NNL

So arriving in London I had one day to see the city before getting to the airport that night to fly to Barcelona. Not knowing what to do in the city, I got a ticket for a hop on- hop off city bus tour which ended up being pretty good for getting around and seeing the main tourist sites. London Tower. Tower Bridge. River Thames. Parliament Building. Big Ben. Buckingham Palace. Picadely Circus. Hyde Park. Fleet Street.

The Tower of London- inside are the crown jewels...
The Tower Bridge. I think this is a nice looking bridge.
London Bridge. This is the most recent of the London Bridges, the last one that stood in the same place was falling down so some American bought it and shipped it over to Lave Havasu in Arizona and rebuilt it.
Big Ben. You'll never guess what time I took this picture.
Buckingham Palace.

The London Eye... I don't think this is iconic of Singapore since it's pertty new there- installed for y2k. Singapore liked it so much that they coppied it and built their own one here, but bigger of course.

I was surprised how much I was able to see in a pretty short time…given I only had half a day. And London was freezing also... It was fun to go around the city for one day but since I had no warm clothes I couldn't enjoy too much and I was ready to move on to some warm weather- in Barcelona