Stop Three: Inverness

The scenery on the bus trip from Aberdeen to Inverness was, in a word, bleak. With the exception of Elgin, which looked like a kind of interesting little city, I don't see myself spending time any more time in Scotland's northeastern corner.

Whatever the case, it brought me to one of my favorite cities anywhere- Inverness. As I've said before, it's just the right size, a half hour drive in any direction leads to magnificent scenery, it's small enough to walk around, and it's one of the more "wallet-friendly" cities in Scotland.

On this visit, I spent three days in and around the city. Among the highlights were buying a kilt (Modern Clan Donald tartan), walking up to the ruins of the Pictish fort on Craig Phadrig, and visiting a museum and an art gallery.

The lowlights: Being denied a trip to Dingwall to see Ross County FC play Brechin City because torrential rains had flooded the pitch, the small size of my room at the B & B, and eating at KFC (I try to avoid junk food- especially of the American variety when I travel- one needs to try to be adventurous, doesn't one?).

And then there was Kenny. Kenny was the proprietor of the B & B where I stayed. I had already made up my mind about him ("life-long bachelor"...not that there's anything wrong with that...), but then on my way out on the last day I saw the painting on the wall: Kenny in the middle wearing a red sweater surrounded by a ring of individual portraits...of his cocker spaniels. Uh huh.