A trip to memory lane

Our perfect day was the 16th of May 2004. The day Manuela and I married in Scotland. It was at the Belladrum Chapel in Beauly where it all happened. Marrying in Scotland was our big dream and after making plans and consulting a wedding advisor - you really can’t do without when you are from abroad - it actually happened on the 16th. What a day, it was perfect, 22 degrees, sunshine, everything worked out fine and we lived that day as in a dream, riding on waves, feeling the luckiest couple in the world.

One year later we went back to Scotland. In exactly the same period but we stayed somewhere else. From the 14th till the 21st we stayed in a cottage called tigh-na-locha in Morar overlooking Loch Morar. But we had already planned to relive our wedding day and revisit the places we were last year. When the 16th of May knocked on our door, we woke up early to travel the road to the isles to Fort William. We booked a great hotel near Inverness because we weren’t to come back to Morar until the 17th.

[image1_right]The weather was cold, it was clouded and windy. Not the weather we had last year but we enjoyed our trip and looked forward to come back to the area where the wedding had taken place. We passed fort William, stopped to be once more impressed by the huge Ben Nevis, and continued passing Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle.

Near Drumnadrochit we continued over the A833 to arrive at Belladrum Estate at 10.30. A wonderful feeling came over us when we walked again from the gardener’s cottage to the chapel. And all the wonderful memories we had came back to our minds and were as present as if time had stood still. Accidentally the same housekeeper from last year arrived and opened the chapel for us so we could have another glimpse of the inside. Of course it looked exactly the same and we were again overwhelmed with happy feelings.

[image2_left]Later that morning we went to Beauly and had a coffee with scones at the “Made in Scotland” centre. The restaurant is great, they serve good coffee. The Made in Scotland centre is very interesting and they offer a lot of Scottish handcrafted items and fresh products if you are willing to pay the price. After our coffee we went on to have a walk in Beauly and visit the Beauly priory. We had lunch in the Lovat Arms hotel. A lovely hotel with very friendly staff. We knew the Haggis they made was excellent last year, so we had Haggis for lunch with a big pint of Guinness and later on we travelled direction Inverness to enjoy the main course of that wonderful day.

[image3_right]At 3 o’clock we arrived at Bunchrew House. This is the hotel where we had had our wedding dinner in the evening. Bunchrew House is a 17th century Scottish Mansion and dates back as far as 1505. It was built by Alexander of Lovat and was originally a “Black House”. When we entered Bunchrew House, we were welcomed by Anne who still remembered us from last year. We were taken to our room and impressed by everything we saw. Bunchrew House is a fabulous hotel and we enjoyed every minute of our stay there. [image4_left]After a coffee in our room we went to the dining area and sat at a table near the window overlooking the Beauly Firth. The weather was getting a bit worse. Dark clouds rolled over the hills and the weather report had snow in the forecast. It didn’t bother us, we were comfortably enjoying our superb dinner and afterwards we sat in the lounge near the open fire. We enjoyed a fine whisky (Laphroaig), I had a cigar and we felt like the Laird and Lady Laird of Bunchrew.

Later on we enjoyed a warm bath and fell asleep as in a dream knowing that we actually had relived that perfect day.

The other morning when we woke up and after having a delicious Scottish Breakfast, we checked out and there another surprise was waiting for us. The lady at the reception deducted 20 pounds from the bill telling us that Ken and Maureen had given us a present. We looked at each other surprised and didn’t understand it at first. And then I remembered, Ken and Maureen from Undiscovered Scotland had been in the area and had obviously decided to give us this fine surprise. Just before we had left our home I had given them our Itinerary so they would know exactly where we were going to.

Later on, driving back to Morar, we looked at each other and realised ourselves that this trip to memory lane was almost as wonderful as that day one year earlier. What a country Scotland is! And what a day we had!