Loch Ness, Scottish Theme Park

You keep hearing about Loch Ness, how eerily long and narrow and deep it is - and, of course, about the monster that is supposed to live in it. Loch Ness for us was a smooth, untroubled lake, offering neither foreboding nor mystery. We spent an hour at a "Nessie" museum in Drumnadrochit, watching videos and examining rather cheesy exhibits on Plesiosaurs and monster-hunting equipment. Most of the effort in presenting the place to tourists went into the gift shop, where I splurged on a Scotland T-shirt (that shrank) and a "Nessie" coffee cup for my father-in-law. Drumnadrochit is close to another iconic Scottish wonder, Urquhart Castle, which was only a few miles away. Between the "Nessie" museum and the castle lay Bank of Scotland ATM's, pre-fab B&B's and the "Highland Games" festival shown below, which unfortunately was ending just as we arrived.