Europe 2016...Forres, Scotland

 Our first stop in Scotland was at a port in Invergordon.  We rented a car and driver for the day and he took us to Forres, Scotland and showed us some sights along the way.  Our first stop was at Clootie Well.  To quote from Wikipedia again..."Clootie wells (also Cloutie or Cloughtie wells) are places of pilgrimage in Celtic areas. They are wells or springs, almost always with a tree growing beside them, where strips of cloth or rags have been left, usually tied to the branches of the tree as part of a healing ritual. In Scots nomenclature, a "clootie" or "cloot" is a strip of cloth or rag."  This place was pretty amazing to see.  So many different rags or strips of cloth.  Among the rags we also saw flags, baby clothes, shoes, and more.

 We made it to Forres and met up with our guide, Jess, at Brodie Castle and walked around the grounds for a bit before heading into town to meet our other guide, Trevor.  The weather was perfect, cool and sunny!

 Forres is known for it's beautiful flowers and their season was just starting so although we didn't see as many flowers we got to see some neat things like the cage above that would eventually be a peacock with the feathers fanning out behind it.  This park was beautiful and we enjoyed the walk and the statues and the tiny daisies that were growing all through the grass. 

 We walked through town and honestly, after so many touristy places it was neat to see just a regular Scottish town.  I couldn't even find a magnet to add to my collection! 

 If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the two animals on top of the building.  If I remember correctly, at least one if not both of them are unicorns which is actually the national animal of Scotland. 

 We had lunch at a nice little diner.  Cheryl thinks that the UK has some issues with France.  They call "French's" yellow mustard, English Mustard and they call "french fries," chips.  She's confused.  :0)

 After lunch we went to this beautiful overlook area where we took too many pictures, here's just a few of them!

 We said goodbye to our guides and as we headed back to the ship, we made a couple of stops.  One was at this area of standing stones, there were actually three circles.  These places are all over Scotland and are always so interesting to see.  Most date back to the Bronze Age and are likely religious sites, many line up with the setting or rising sun.  I've been reading a book series (which is also a tv show) called Outlander and it centers around time travel through standing stones.  Thankfully, I've never heard any buzzing when I've been to any of these sites.  :0)

 We made a quick stop to Loch Ness where we all spent a little time looking for Nessie.  Unfortunately, no sightings. 

 Our last stop was at a big store that had all sorts of Scottish merchandise and the scary guy above welcoming us there.  Below...walking back to the ship after a long, wonderful day!