If only...

I had several pithy titles in my head for today, but given the gravity of our primary destination, I felt they were not appropriate.  The night passed somewhat restlessly.  I will never complain about the AC bill again (especially, since I maintain dictatorial powers over the thermostat).  While the temperature dropped overnight, it did not in our room, even with the window and curtains wide open.  It wasn't until about 5:30 this morning, that it felt comfortable inside.We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed down for breakfast.  I don't think Carrie was anticipating exactly what a continental breakfast would entail.  It resembled more of an Icelandic breakfast with sliced meats and cheeses, some lovely fresh fruit, and accouterments...oh, and a plate of scrambled eggs that she had requested.  She really only wanted her granola, yogurt, and scrambled eggs.  My plate of egg, bacon, sausage, grilled tomato, and hash browns looked perfect.  Well, except for the fact that the egg was fried.  Carrie graciously swapped with me, as she is not as averse to fried egg as I am.Once we had finished, we completed our preparations, and headed to the Culloden battlefield.  This is a hallowed place in Scotland, as it was the last gasp of Scottish independence.  In 1746, Bonny Prince Charlie and his Jacobite forces fought an overwhelming number of English soldiers, and were slaughtered.  Over 1600 men died in 90 minutes, 1500 of them Jacobites.  Those that survived were hunted down, and many were executed in purges.  This also led to the outlawing of Gaelic, bagpipes, and the wearing of tartan by any men not in the military.  The English general, the Duke of Cumberland was so brutal in his treatment of the men, it even caused the English to disparage him as a "butcher."I have been to many battlefields, and they all have a sad quality to them.  This field is in much the same appearance as it was at the time of the battle.  There was so much blood on the battlefield, that English soldiers simply walking around, splashed so much on them, they were covered in it.  In addition, if the Jacobite army had continued marching on London, there was a French invasion fleet preparing to leave for England, and who knows how history might have been different.  There are some similarities to our American Civil War.  Both sides had red and blue uniforms, there was tartan worn on both sides, both sides had bagpipes playing as war cries.  How would you know if the person in your sights was friend or foe?  It must have been the true definition of Charlie Foxtrot.We left the center and drove to an ancient burial center, the Clava Cairns.  This site is over 4,000 years old - older than Stonehenge.  There were two different sites in the complex of stone burial mounds.  Upon entering this ancient ruin, Carrie asked if there were bees around.  I thought it sounded like a gardener at work.  Instead, it was one of those lovely people who feel like they need to buzz everyone around them with a drone.  One nice thing in Iceland, is that it is illegal to fly a drone over people.  While it was low enough, I did wonder if I could strike it with a rock - "oops, I was just throwing a rock, didn't mean to hit your annoying flying craft."Luckily the nice people didn't walk on to the second site in the complex.  On our walk there, we saw a sign for Highland Cows (pronounced 'coos") up the hill.  So, after we made it to the second complex, we walked back to the cars and drove up.  Highland cows are a different breed, with long hair, and usually long horns.  They have been Carries white whale so far this trip, and if she could get some pictures of them (while mooing, of course), she was going to do it.There were some cars driving down the hill when we were heading up, and one of the passengers seemed to give carrie a disapproving look.  Once at the top of the hill, we could see why.  I guess Scotland has a different definition of the plural form of cow, as there was only one, and it was mostly mooning the cars driving by.  Not "mooing" but "mooning."  We turned around and headed back towards Inverness.Since the heat has been such a problem, mainly at the accommodations, I thought we should stop by the local Tesco and pick up a fan that we could take with us the rest of our trip.  Of course, the entire population of Scotland has been thinking the same thing, so the only choice we had available was a tall mounted version.  The clerk suggested we try the other Tesco nearby, but they were out as wellBy this time, we needed to head down to the dock to meet the boat for our cruise of Loch Ness.  We were early, and while waiting in line, there were three asian ladies with around 7 kids behind us in line.  The ladies were far more interested in chatting with themselves, than watching their children.  I still can't believe none of them went over the rail into the loch.  I doubt any of them would have noticed.Once on the boat, the wind picked up, and the clouds darkened.  Finally, some Scottish weather.  It was absolutely beautiful to cruise the length of the Loch.  There is more fresh water in Loch Ness than in all the lakes, streams, and rivers in all of Britain.  Two-thirds of the way down, some rain started.  We had been sitting at the bow of the boat, enjoying the breeze, and decided it was time to head indoors.  The boat dropped us off at Castle Urqhart.  Most of the people on the boat were in a tour that had been given special cards as tickets.  The man helping us off the boat asked us for ours.  We were explaining that we didn't have those, but had a paper ticket instead.  A grumpy German man tried to crash through us.  Carrie started singing the Patience song from The Music Machine musical to him.  It was hilarious.We toured the castle, and a nice German couple took a picture of the two of us.  He told us it was easy, when it was of nice people.  Take that Herr Rudemeister!  By the time we made it to the visitors center, it was time to walk up to catch our bus.  While waiting, it started raining again.  Luckily, the driver came over and opened up the bus, so we could wait inside.  He drove us back to the dock, and we drove home.  Oh, and earlier, I had found some highland cows in the field next to the parking lot, so Carrie got to have some closeups of her coos.While waiting for dinner, we mapped out our day tomorrow.  We have a bit of a time-sensitive schedule, as we have to make the ferry to the Orkney Islands at the very top of Scotland.  Its going to be an early departure tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to even cooler weather up there.