Exploring Europe

Well, I don't quite know how to organize this massive amount of information, but I'll do my best.
Jenny, Pam and I started our 3-day tour of Scotland on Monday morning. Our tour guide, Fergus, and driver, Fergie (coincidence??) were both enthusiastic and entertaining. Just outside the city, we stopped for a quick look at the Fourth River Rail Bridge and Road Bridge -- the former being one of Scotland's big landmarks. Fergus told us that during the construction of the massive steel bridge 57 men died -- only one was murdered. To make a long story short, the guy fell down a shaft on one of the steel support beams and broke his arm, leg, and back, just two days before the bridge was set to open. Since there was no way to get him out of the shaft (he couldn't pull himself up on a rope and no one else could fit down) other than slicing open the shaft and having to rebuild the entire bridge, they poisoned a ham sandwhich they gave him and he eventually died. Weird. After that we stopped for a short hike near the River Tay and Dunkeld Cathedral -- the cathedral had a really pretty courtyard in the back, with some tomb stones. We then made it to Culloden -- the site of the last battle on British soil in 1746. After the Scots had been slaughtered by the British soldiers, the King made it illegal to wear kilts, speak Gaelic, etc. Finally we headed up to Ft. Augustus, home to the "most famous body of water" (according to Fergus) -- Loch Ness: at almost 24 miles long and averaging 3/4 of a mile wide, it was absolutely massive. We did take a short tour led by a marine biologist on his boat out on the loch to "hunt the monster," but unfortunately there were no sightings.
On Tuesday morning we drove west toward Eilean Donan Castle (where they filmed "Highlander"), still occupied by one of the original clans. In typical Scottish fashion, it started to rain, and Fergus said we "hadn't experienced Scotland unless we'd been thoroughly soaked." He thought it would be a good idea to take us out to a river to tell us some mythical story about warring clans and fairies and the power of the river -- well, I got distracted when one of the obsessively camcordering (I just made up a new verb) men from our tour slipped and fell in the river waist deep. He was ok, but to be perfectly honest we all had a good laugh -- and we all got wet. We also got to the Isle of Skye, saw the Five Sisters, the Giant's Fist, Kilt Rock, Mealt Falls, and the legendary Old Man Storr (again, with the fairies) and took tons of pictures. Our bus driver took our 40 passenger "mini" coach up the windy one-lane road to get the views on Quiraing -- it was gorgeous.
One really neat thing about this island is that all the farmers own a part of land, but not a specific plot -- meaning they rotate each season, and during the year they let all the sheep out to fend for themselves until it's time to shear them for the wool. The only way that they differentiate the sheep is by colored spray painted marks on the backs of the sheep -- so it was pretty funny to be driving around seeing all these different colored sheep everywhere.
We stayed the night in this wee little town on the island called Kyleakin (pronounced ca-ol-eh-kin): three hostels, two pubs and not much to do.
Wednesday morning, much to our surprise, it was raining again. We made our way back down toward Edinburgh with several memorable stops along the way. They took us to Glencoe, and despite it's tragic history of betrayal and violence, it is amazing. We also went through the West Highlands, where the British Army still sends recruits to fend for themselves in the wilderness for three weeks. In the afternoon we drove by the infamous Ben Nevis -- a 4,406' summit that kills more people per year than Mount Everest -- specifically ill-prepared tourists who underestimate the devastating conditions and either walk off a cliff in the thick fog or freeze to death in perpetual sub-zero temperatures. We also made a quick stop to see Hamish -- a 10 year old, four-ton highlander cow more commonly referred to as a "Hairrrry Coooooo." He had huge horns and just about took the head off of girl in our group who was standing too close and definitly not paying attention. But he was still adorable. En route to our last stop of the tour, Fergie (the driver with a much thicker accent) recounted in graphic detail the story of William Wallace's defeat of the British Cavalry and his subsequent torture and murder (as depicted in "Braveheart"). The monument, set out at the top of a hill in Stirling, is the largest monument dedicated to the memory of a single individual. After hearing the story, I understand why.
Anyway, I think I hit most of the highlights (if not more than you wanted to know). We go to Dublin early tomorrow morning to continue our travels.