Holiday plans in Fort William

A few days ago a friend of mine invited me to his wedding. He's finally getting hitched to his girlfriend of many years, Andrea. Before they both moved to Southampton, for her to follow a course in Underwater Archeology, they lived in Canada. I was not a little surprised, therefore, to find out the wedding will take place on a boat in Fort William (Scotland if you didn't already know). It will start in the afternoon onboard, alongside and then proceed to go up the loch, finally coming back at about 10pm.

Since finding out the location I've been trying to get all sorts of things sorted out. Travel, accommodation etc. This has been further complicated by the fact that I'll be in Birmingham immediately beforehand at a Discworld Convention.

So far I've got the train from Plymouth->Birmingham, hotel accommodation in Birmingham, flight from Birmingham to Glasgow, accommodation in Fort William and Glasgow, and the flight/train back to Plymouth.

Seeing as I was going all that way North I decided to accept the fact I'd be away from home for some days and make the most of it. As a result I've extended the stay in Fort William after the wedding itself.

The last few days have been quite exciting. I've never actually planned a holiday in so much detail before. What normally happens is that I finish a trip onboard somewhere I've never been before and just decided to stay and see what happens. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed some of the places I've been to, but I didn't realise how exciting the anticipation for a holiday could be.

I've looked up Fort William on the web and it looks great (duh! you might say). I've seen there's plenty of outdoor type things to do and visit. In fact they advertise themselves as the outdoor capital of the UK. Ben Nevis is right on the doorstep as well as the loch, ruined castles, walks, cycle paths distilleries, islands, heritage etc. I am really looking forward to this trip.

I should be able to indulge my photography with all sorts of different projects. Landscape, architecture, wedding etc. Not that I'm that good mind but at least I can have a go. I shall have to take plenty of high capacity cards for the camera as well as a decent bag for all the stuff I might need.

I've even decided that I'd like to visit the Falkirk Wheel. If you don't know what that is, visit the website at http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/index.html. Personally I think it looks great.

Only thing I really have to do now is try and book the car hire for a week at a reasonable price. Most of the national ones are quite pricey but I'm unsure of the local ones.