UK Day 3-5 An Unexpected Surprise On Inverness City

2011-7-1 Friday

Under the guidance of GPS, we quickly returned to Inverness city.  We were looking for a Tesco supermarket.  We only remembered there is a supermarket in the urban area.  However, we did not know the exact location.

Fortunately, Inverness city is not large. We saw the supermarket right after we got into the city and missed the entrance of parking lot. We needed to move ahead to make turn or find another parking place.

When our car stopped at a traffic light junction, I saw a "TO LET" poster on the glasses window of the second floor of the opposite building. The first thought coming to my mind was why "TOILET" missed a letter “I”!?

Later, when I kept seeing the same words showing up in many places, I realized that British’s "TO LET" is equal to “To Lease” in the U.S!

When we kept moving forward, we happened to see a wide river with scenic river banks.  We thought it is worthwhile to stroll around!  It did not take long before we fortunately found a parking space.in a street alley.

After we parked the car, we strolled along the river to the supermarket. We found a suspension bridge for pedestrians only. Walking on the bridge, we enjoyed the nice river scenery.  There green grass and trees on the river bank of Ness river. The buildings was colored by orange, yellow, and gray. We felt relax and cheerful.

When we crossed the bridge, we looked down the river and found the river clear-bottomed. No wonder there are flocks of seabirds gathering here.

When we looked around, the inverness castle showed up in front of us. It was suggested by Tripadvisor but we haven’t plan to visit it.

After a few walk,  some young men sat on the rocks of river banks.  They were chatting , drinking beers and enjoying the nice river view. One of the young men friendly said hello to us by simple Japanese language. We politely responsed to him by Japanese and told them in English that we are not Japanese. He further guessed that we are from China or Thailand. We told him that we come from Taiwan and chatted with him for a while.  Then, we  walked forward to the supermarket.

After shopping and on the way back to the hotel, we found a very busy street corner with a beer bar. However, it was not easy to find parking space and time is still early, we decided to drive back to the hotel then stroll out again.

On the way from the hotel to downtown, the pedestrians greeted us with a friendly attitiude or smile. We also found a lovely painted “stop, look, listen” pattern on the ground of a elementary school.

When we reached downtown, the sun was shining. Bright rays of sunlight filled the air.  We felt very comfortable.  However, Few people walked on the street and some stores were closed or waiting for lease. We did not know if it was because of weeekday or economic issue.  It seemed only the bar on the intersection gathered more crowds.

After taking some pictuires, we walk back to hotel. On the way back to Hotel, we also took some pictures of local living environment.

When we almost reached hotel, it is about 6 pm. The sky was still blue and bright. 

We found that some local people play football in the park. Some fathers brought their children to play recreational facilities in the playground. John was interesting in playing all the facilities. We stayed there and played those facilities until sky was getting dark. John enjoyed a lot for them.

After dinner, I reviewed the places we visited today and planned for tomorrow's itinerary, I realized Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle are on the way of visiting Eilean Donan castle. We enjoyed a lot for today's wonderful long day.  It's time to have a break for tomorrow’s adventures.


First edition 2011-10-30
Next notice: UK Day 4-1 Walk into the painting - Eilean Donan Castle