Invergordon, Scotland And Back to Europe

 At Invergordon, we visited the  Culloden Battlefield and were regaled with tales of the brave Robert the Bruce. Here's Robert's horse:

And here's the battlefield as it appears today. Remember, the way these battles were fought, back then, was for two sides to line up and charge, drums pounding and flags waving. Difficult to imagine.

Our next stop was Edinburgh. We were docked at Leith, which lies just south of the city center. From our ship, we were looking right at the Royal Yacht Britannia (now a museum). After our last visit here, we saw a TV show about Stirling Castle and it looked really interesting. Off we went.

The castle was home to James V, Mary of Guise, and their daughter Mary, Queen of Scots. One of the Ladies in Waiting was embroidering, which was what those Ladies spent most of their time doing.

One of the most impressive rooms in the castle contains the Sterling Heads, oak carvings produced in the 1500's for the Palace ceilings:

Of course there's a beautiful garden!

But can you find the ant?

We stayed overnight, and the second day was ours, so we took the shuttle into town and went to...wait for it...M&S. The town was really crowded since their annual festival was in full swing and that included the evening Edinburgh Tattoo. We didn't know that or we'd have tried to get tickets.

But here came the weather again! Ships coming into Leith have to pass through a lock to get into the sheltered "pool" that is the bay, and exit through the same lock. It was too windy for the lock, so we got a bonus night that became a bonus day. We rode into town on the shuttle again and this time walked back to the dock, stopping for pies along the way. Nice day.

That bonus day in Edinburgh caused us to skip Newcastle on Tyne so we were off to Zeebrugge, Belgium.