My Passport’s Travels

Tuesday June 9, 2026

Breakfast arrived a little early this morning, but we have to get up and going, so it was a good thing. Today we arrive at Invergorden, Scotland! We received our tour stickers in our stateroom yesterday, but before we can join our tour, we have to go through UK Immigration. They have it down to a science. They called our group at 8:47, we joined the line and walked halfway through the ship to the theater where the nice agent looked at us, glanced at our passports and said, “You’re good!” On the way out, we received a sticker on our stateroom key showing we had been cleared.

We did leave have to leave our towel bear behind to show our stateroom hosts that he had misbehaved!

Our excursion was the Loch Ness, Water Monsters & Highland Castles excursion. After a couple of quick pictures we met our guide, Eileen, and our driver, William, at bus 16 and left on a drive through the Highlands.

Mom wouldn’t let me keep him!

We passed through several towns along the way. Dingwall:

Maryburgh:

Muir of Ord:

Golfers in Scotland!

And a coo! (With a bonus fun store name)

Beauly:

Yellow gorse bushes outside of Inverness:

As we approached Loch Ness, Eileen told us that Whiskey increases your chance of seeing Nessie! Our first stop was the ruins of Urquhart Castle, on the edge of the loch.

The visitor center had a short video of the castle’s history (pretty much changing hands every few centuries until the final residents blew it up rather than let the other side have the castle). The setting is beautiful though!

We had a short drive back to Inverness for lunch.

Lunch was at a hotel along the River. They served tomato and red pepper soup; roasted chicken breast with mashed potatoes, mixed veggies and gravy; and a roll with English butter. Mom and I both chose a local beer with our meal. We decided to skip dessert to have time to walk along the river Ness.

Along the river’s edge! Loved the motto on their canopy!

We crossed over a pedestrian bridge – it was very bouncy! We were very glad to cross back on the roadway bridge, which was much sturdier!

Back on the bus, we headed out of town.

Gas was approximately $8/gallon! Yikes!

Our final stop was Cawdor Castle.

While we were given the opportunity to tour inside the castle, Mom and I chose to enjoy the gardens. They were stunning! One part was a traditional English garden, absolutely humming with happy bees floating between flowers.

Such a fun fountain!

Behind the castle was a forest trail over a creek.

Back to the main gardens!

Loved the bird feeder! Each section had different food to attract different birds.

When we arrived, the weather was lovely, so we left our coats in the bus. But about halfway through our time, it started sprinkling. We ducked under some trees and eventually made our way to the main castle building, grabbing lattes to enjoy in the cafe. We had seen the clouds moving in and out all day and did not think much of it. But when it came time to head back to the bus – the sky split! And lasted just long enough for our 5 minutes walk to the bus. Once we were soaked – the rain stopped!

The drive back continued to be beautiful and uneventful.

We enjoyed the excursion – Scotland is beautiful and the people are lovely. Our guide was a little scattered. She’d start a story, get distracted and move on – or forget to tell us an important piece of information (She was telling us about a ship model in Cawdor Castle, telling us about the incredible detail and that it was used in building the HMS. No ship name, just HMS.) But, she got us everywhere we needed to be and was sweet enough.

We arrived back at the same time as (what felt like )everyone else on the ship. The line to board was probably half the length of the ship. However, they moved us quickly and we were back on board. After dropping our coats and purses in the room, we had dinner in the buffet, with a gorgeous view of sail away.

We grabbed our game bag and went back up to the Crow’s Nest, which was crowded, however around the corner is the Arts and Crafts Room, which has large tables and floor to ceiling windows. It was a great place to continue our game from last night.

I know it’s not the greatest sunset picture – but I wanted to share that it was taken at 9:52pm this evening. (Can you see all the wind mills in the ocean? We sailed past the wind farm in the North Sea for well over 90 minutes, and we had just switched to oil platforms we went to bed!) We change our clocks back an hour again tonight. Captain said that sunrise is at 2:15am tomorrow.

Trip Report Index

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Thursday – Saturday, June 4-6, 2026 – Flight over and Rotterdam

Sunday June 7, 2026 – Embarkation day

Monday June 8, 2026 – Day at Sea

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Tuesday June 9, 2026 – Invergorden, Scotland

Coming soon

Wednesday June 10, 2026 – Day at Sea

Thursday June 11, 2026 – Seydisfjördur, Iceland

Friday June 12, 2026 – Akureyri, Iceland

Saturday June 13, 2026 – ľsafjörður, Iceland

Sunday June 14, 2026 – Reykjavik, Iceland and Helsinki, Finland

Monday June 15, 2026 – Helsinki, Finland and flight home