Aberdeen to Inverness (Elgin)

Part two ensues.

Well, more or less. I have fewer comments on this one.

This would be Elgin Cathedral, found in... Elgin. (Didn't see that coming, did you?) It is a gorgeous ruin of a cathedral originally built in the thirteenth century.

(Extreme photo overload ahoy)

Above, hiding in the corner, is an octagonal chapter house, apparently unique among Scottish churches.

The picture on the left comes from a platform built at the top of the towers -- I think it was the east one. The stairs were frighteningly narrow and uneven, and the platform was high.

Very, very high.

I have to put text in here, now, otherwise it looks like I didn't know what I was doing.

Oh, wait.

This is a view from about a third of the way up, I think, on a walkway between the two towers flanking the front gates.

One comment I do have to make is that the stonework was absolutely wonderful. The intricacies lining the arches, the effigies, the pillars -- really, everywhere conceivable -- was stunning.

Also, note the size. In the overhead view up top, I couldn't fit the whole thing in one picture.

Above on the left is the inside of the chapter house, which had been kept up. It sounds so snooty, but allow me to direct your attention to the upper part of the window. Each of the windows had similar working, and each was unique. The ceiling was spectacular, and fascinating. I could only catch a little bit of it without my photos looking like an Escher painting.

A graveyard surrounded the cathedral ruins, which made for some fun pictures.

I reiterate my words on the stonework. It was gorgeous.

And that'd be the end of it. Interesting about Inverness, though. We got to the hostel and sat in our rooms, and were eventually joined by an Australian woman named Liz. She was almost aggressively friendly, and got everyone -- by the end of the night, there were six people in our room -- introduced and talking. We discovered that Mom and I had been in the same hostel as her in Aberdeen -- in fact, we shared a room, only Liz was in so late and up so early that we never met her.

That was actually the best of the hostel experiences. Liz was, as I said, very friendly and talkative, and managed to make all of us comfortable with each other. She had loads of stories to tell, too, particularly about the drama that ensued in the Aberdeen hostel before our arrival

Choir tonight, and school tomorrow, so again, I'm not sure when I'll next continue this virtual epistle. No worries, though. I'll get to it eventually.

Extremely eventually, maybe, but eventually.