MSC Magnifica picture heavy fun review -- 12 days British Isles incl. DIY port trips

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

anybody interested in a brief history post about Urquhart castle?

 

Lol -- I'll wait till tomorrow...if there are no requests, we'll skip that. I don't want to torture anybody.

 

Stef

[tsahall01]

anybody interested in a brief history post about Urquhart castle?

 

Lol -- I'll wait till tomorrow...if there are no requests, we'll skip that. I don't want to torture anybody.

 

Stef

 

me me me meeeeeee!! Bore me!!:eek: Torture me!!:eek: LOL!! JK:D Love your reviews, pictures, stories, and back stories. That is what makes your reviews great--we get a history lesson included!!:o Keep 'em coming, Steff!!:D

 

Susan PS you have 2 days to complete your review--I have to leave for Italy on Wednesday and I NEED to know what the heck happened in Dublin!!:eek:

[suekay]

Me too! Keep it coming[emoji4]

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

me me me meeeeeee!! Bore me!!:eek: Torture me!!:eek: LOL!! JK:D Love your reviews, pictures, stories, and back stories. That is what makes your reviews great--we get a history lesson included!!

 

 

:rolleyes:sigh -- okay...I guess I'll prepare a history lesson for you guys for tomorrow.

 

PS you have 2 days to complete your review--I have to leave for Italy on Wednesday and I NEED to know what the heck happened in Dublin!!:eek:

 

bwwhuhahaha -- 2 days....yeah, right.

 

Lol-- how long do you plan to be in Italy for? because if it's less than 2 months ... you'll be back in time for the all important Dublin post:D.

 

Stef

[denisey]

I know you already said you would give us a history lesson. That makes me happy, I wanted to hear about it also.

 

oh, and while otters look cute and cuddly, they are really mean little buggers!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

:)Upon the requests of Tsahall01, Suekay and Denisey we have a history lesson coming up.

 

:pSo grab some coffee, get your school backpack from the attic or whatever else you took along as a kid and head to the classroom please. Class starts in 20 minutes:eek:.

 

Stef (lol -- teacher for the day:cool:)

[suekay]

Ready and waiting, Miss Stef[emoji4]

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

RRRRiiinngggggg.........

Urquhart castle --- a history lesson

Okay class, sit down, grab a pen to take notes and let’s go.

Anybody else here thinks this name “Urquhart” sounds weird? I’ll start with telling you where this term comes from, since this fits neatly into the very beginning of our story.

In the year 580 A. D. St. Columba was travelling to the court of Bridei in Inverness, which is where the king of the Picts resided. When passing Loch Ness on this journey, he was called to an elderly Pictish nobleman named Enchath at the settlement Airdchartan (the Gaelic word for … yes, you guessed correctly: Urquhart!).

One believes that Enchath’s residency was situated on the rocky promontory, where we find the ruins of Urquhart castle today.

Although there are evidences of an early wooden fort, the first actual stone building was probably built here by the Durward family in the 13th century. Alan Durward was a son in law of King Alexander II and got this land as a gift after a revolt of the local people of Moray against Alexander II failed and was put down.

All the way until the 17th century there was a bizarre tug-of-war going on between the English and the Scottish crown, the Grant family and the clan Mac Donald, who were lords of the Isles to the west.

All of those where at one point or another holders of this castle. The hardest time for the surrounding population sure was the time after Robert the Bruce died and the Mac Donalds started raiding the glen and the castle repeatedly. Their last and biggest raid took place in 1545 and the clan left with a loot of three whole big ships filled to maximum capacity.

At one point Urquhart castle was the only Highland castle NOT under English rule!

Although people lived here on and off, it was never a peaceful place. The Grant family even built a tower (the Grant tower) on the premises and took up residency (yet never permanently) in there.

In 1692 the current occupants of the fort which were 300 Highlanders under the command of James Grant decided to destroy it by a large explosion, so it wouldn’t fall into the hands of the Jacobites, who wanted James VII to be throned.

Grant was loyal to Queen Mary II and her husband William II. In 1695 the parliament granted a 2000 pound compensation for the laird of the Grants for the loss of Urquhart … but the money was never received and the castle never repaired.

But for once the people living in the surrounding glen benefited – They took the stones and the masonry to build their own stone houses.

In 1913 the castle came under state care and is nowadays one of the most popular sights in Scotland.

I think that sums it up…To list the constant changes between ownership between the Scots, the English and the Mac Donalds (who pretty much represented their own celtic state at those times) would definitely make all of you - who are hopefully still awake at this point, surely fall asleep.

:DClass dismissed!

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Holiday Planner]

Hi Steph, loving this bit of your review as we've enjoyed several holidays on the shores of Loch Ness staying in beautiful apartments at Fort Augustus - here is a photo of the view from the window

[Holiday Planner]

Hi Steph, loving this bit of your review as we've enjoyed several holidays on the shores of Loch Ness staying in beautiful apartments at Fort Augustus - here is a photo of the view from the window

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Thank you Holidayplanner for the beautiful photos!

 

The scenery sure is stunning. I agree.

 

It inspired me to take some black and white landscape pictures...they're coming up shortly lol -- see it as a reward for paying attention in my little history class. No text...just pictures....so lean back and enjoy.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Urquhart castle (post three of five)

 

 

 

fiddled around with the camera ... enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

stay tuned!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Urquhart castle (post four of five)

Sightings?

As soon as we walked down to the castle grounds Tarik was on a mission. He wanted to shoot a picture of Nessie.

I suppose all of you heard of Nessie? The alleged dinosaur living in a cave underneath Loch Ness?

There are tons of web pages informing about all kinds of sightings and stories about her… Here’s one example if you’d like to read up on Nessie:

http://www.nessie.co.uk/

There are also two museum type attractions in Drumnadrochit, which can be visited to tell you all about Nessie and the lake itself. We didn’t go see it. All Tarik wanted was a picture…

Here he is on his way down to the lake.

Mhhh – no Nessie. Maybe he needed a better look out spot. The highest point of the ruins is the Grant tower…So that’s where he headed next.

Lol – see me?

View to one direction

And to the other direction.

No Nessie.

He found living creatures ON the lake.

Okay, they’re human…and they don’t swim in the lake…that doesn’t really count. Any animals?

Whoohoo -- nine of them.

But no Nessie.

Bummer.

But like the nice Scot in Invergordon explained to us: She usually doesn’t show on a Saturday ;-)

Tarik enjoyed the castle and his picture dinosaur hunt none the less.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[lamchops]

I'm enjoying your review because we were on the Magnifica in September.

I regret not taking very many pics while onboard the ship but your pics will be my Magnifica reference.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I'm enjoying your review because we were on the Magnifica in September.

I regret not taking very many pics while onboard the ship but your pics will be my Magnifica reference.

 

:psure... I'm happy to reignite some good memories of your trip for you. Hope you had a good time!

 

Stef

[denisey]

Wow! Those Black and White photos are stunning!

 

Thanks for the history lesson!

 

Too bad Tarik didn't see Nessie, maybe next trip!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Denisey,

 

:pthanks!

 

:pYou're very welcome!

 

she was last spotted in 2011;)...who knows? We'll keep an eye open whenever we're there.

 

Stef

[oreosmile]

I did a day trip from a conference once to Loch Ness - took a boat trip and they had cute little images of Nessie on the boat's windows so that you could line up your camera with the water's surface and get a good shot of "Nessie". They also had imaging of the lake floor where you could see little blips that were fish swimming around, but no big Nessie blobs were to be found.

 

thanks for bringing back good memories!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

they had cute little images of Nessie on the boat's windows so that you could line up your camera with the water's surface and get a good shot of "Nessie".

 

 

Lol -- now that's a funny idea! I didn't know they did that.Thanks for sharing.

 

Stef

[Irish Cath]

brilliantly informative history lesson Stef and those pictures are really beautiful. I just wanted to say once again how grateful I am ( and i'm sure everyone else here feels the same) that you take time out of your day to give us all a very entertaining snippet. I for one love the pace that you are going at as it means it will be a long time before you are finished ( because we would miss you and your adventures way too much)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

brilliantly informative history lesson Stef and those pictures are really beautiful. I just wanted to say once again how grateful I am ( and i'm sure everyone else here feels the same) that you take time out of your day to give us all a very entertaining snippet. I for one love the pace that you are going at as it means it will be a long time before you are finished ( because we would miss you and your adventures way too much)

 

:p:o:p blushing...thank you!

 

:Dyup, you're stuck with me at least till christmas.:D

 

Stef

[spinnaker2]

Yes enjoying the commentary, photos and the anticipation of the next one...

Too bad Neesie did not cooperate.

Maybe next time.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Urquhart castle (last post)

Just random stuff

What is it about holes in old stone walls? Somehow they hypnotically draw you to take pictures through them.

No day in Scotland for us from now on shall be complete without a picture of a thistle.

And this is one more thing that was important to me…

this is my favorite woolen pullover. It’s made in Scotland…100% Scottish wool – not imported Merino (and yes - it scratches like hell on bare skin). I’ve owned it for at least two decades and I bought it in a thrift store in California for the insanely high price of $20!

Lol – give me a break -- it was a thrift shop afterall and I was a student…$20 was a LOT! But I always loved this piece of clothing and always wondered if I would ever wear it in Scotland, where it was made a long time ago….Well – tadahh!!!! Here I am with my wonderful pullover…bringing it home.

And to finish Urquhart castle, just three more pictures of us and our “designated picture spot”:

All in all we adored Urquhart castle. The landscape is breathtaking and the ruins interesting to look at. The historic Scotland society did an amazing job showing off this gem. The info posters are interesting, easy to read and illustrated with care. The gift shop was a lot less trashy than I feared and all in all the site was just very well presented. I’d probably come back to look at the whole thing one more time.

Let’s move on to the next sight – Beauly!

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Yes enjoying the commentary, photos and the anticipation of the next one...

Too bad Neesie did not cooperate.

Maybe next time.

 

 

:pthank you!

 

:DLol -- I know -- uncooperative dinosaurs -- a pest:D.

 

Stef

 

PS::( I'm sorry everybody...you'll have to wait until thursday for the next post...the youth agency is coming over to check on us tomorrow...and since I've been spending loads of time on this review...the house needs a little (cough -- LOTS) of cleaning.

[Irish Cath]

 

PS::( I'm sorry everybody...you'll have to wait until thursday for the next post...the youth agency is coming over to check on us tomorrow...and since I've been spending loads of time on this review...the house needs a little (cough -- LOTS) of cleaning.

 

Absolutely no need to apologize Stef. Its obvious that you are excellent parents, heck why don't you just show the agency people this review and they can see for themselves the amazing trip that Tarik has been on - where else would he learn such amazing and worthwhile lessons in life - geography, history, languages, cuisine, navigation, photography - the list is endless.

 

For now, enjoy the cleaning and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday !