Jen and Rebecca Have a Stirling Day

R: Sunday morning, we made the short drive back to Stirling to explore Stirling Castle. Like Edinburgh Castle, it’s perched high atop a hill, but it also afforded great views to the William Wallace Monument that we went to visit later. This castle visit was okay, but I think we’d had so much fun at Linlithgow the day before (or maybe we were too tired from our evening and weren’t yet ready to face more sightseeing), that it wasn’t quite as awesome for me. It could also be that half of it was covered in scaffolding as well! I did enjoy seeing the weavers working on recreated tapestries, some of which are finished and hanging in the chapel.

J: The castle was impressive, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if the actual castle portion of it weren’t under restoration. I’m sure it will be a fantastic site once they’ve restored it to its original grandeur. After we finished our castle tour, we headed across town to the William Wallace Monument. The large tower was built to honor one of Scotland’s greatest heroes – and we happened to visit on the anniversary of one of his greatest victories! We witnessed a re-enactment of his arrest, a little bagpipe music and some folk dancing, all before tackling the 246 steps to the top of the tower (with a few stops for exhibits along the way).

R: To further my disappointment in the day, we stopped at Loch Lomond. I was really looking forward to a nice hike in Trossachs National Park and views of this Loch made famous in song and poem. However, more map misinterpretation in addition to my belief that the Loch Lomond visitor’s centre would actually be a sort of trail head for paths into the park instead of the glorified shopping mall that it was, left me feeling a bit downcast about the experience. To cheer me up, we had milkshakes (which I’m pretty sure made Jen happy too.) Then we found a nice look-out point further along on our drive by the Loch where I got to enjoy a short walk and prettier scenery, so I ended up much happier!

J: Eventually we made it to Inveraray, our final stop of the evening. I had booked hotels/B&B’s for every night of our trip, so we only needed to find the B&B, check-in and then wander about the cute little village for the rest of the evening. However, not everything always goes according to plan. We found the inn without a problem, but it took us nearly 30 minutes to get anyone to answer the door. Finally, June, the proprietor, came out to help us, but insisted that we didn’t have a reservation. They had no bookings, so she let us stay anyway and then finally we were on our way to dinner. We wandered a bit aimlessly around the cute village and then went into the George Inn for a delicious dinner and our first ever Gaelic coffees (coffee with some sort of Scottish whiskey and lots of cream). It tasted a wee bit like cough syrup to me, but Rebecca really enjoyed hers.

Waiting to get in the B&B

R: Loved my fine dinner on the shores of Loch Fyne, the longest sea loch in Scotland. And my hand-pulled cask ale. We are having great luck with tasty dinners on this trip so far. Also with hotels. Despite the mix-up, we had a nice, clean room, and we were the only guests in the inn, so we had plenty of privacy! (This is especially nice when the bathroom is not en suite.) And best of all, June discovered that the missing booking was her fault, not ours, so we were vindicated in the end. I love a good vindication.