the Trossachs

Well, our fancy hotel on Loch Lomond turned out to be a godsend as the rain was just torrential, all day Thursday.  We took advantage of not having to be anywhere at anytime to sleep in as late as we'd liked, then we waddled down to the enormous breakfast buffet at 10:30am to feast on eggs and haggis and black pudding (ha ha! not really, just a mouthful of each); then sit by the window with our cups of tea watching the world melt away.  We puttered around the hotel at our leisure, going for a nice swim & sauna, watching TV and reading our books until I could stand it no longer and dragged mum out for a late-afternoon walk around the resort in the rain.  We suffered only wet toes from our not-so-waterproof boots but were refreshed by the woodsy fresh air, enough to make dinner reservations at the sister golf club down the road.  We ventured out for dinner!  Quite a feat for us who are more prone to kick off our shoes and pour our evening drinks at 5pm and call it a day...

I think Fall happened during the night...  We woke to a gloriously sunny day and as we departed the Cameron House we couldn't help but notice that the air seemed crisper than before; that the leaves on the trees seemed just a little bit more colorful, as if overnight their inherent greens had finally acquiesced to the yellows and reds of Autumn.   We also noticed that the south here had a greater 'tamed' feel to it, more like the contained pastoral farmlands of England with hedgerows and stone fences than the wild hinterland of the Highlands that we were used to.


Anyway, we had only a lite day of sightseeing planned - just Inchmahome Priory and Stirling Castle, before ending in Callander, the 'gateway to the Trossachs National Park' .  The first is a ruin of an old monastery on a tiny island in the Lake of Menteith.  Active as a religious center for about 300 years from the mid-1200's, it's popularly known now as one place of refuge used by Mary Queen of Scots when she was just a young girl.  Being on an island, and a rather small tourist sight, there's the charming method of calling the ferry by turning over a sign on the dock so the white face is showing, and a few minutes later a little boat comes alongside to pick up any passengers.  It could be a wonderful place for a picnic, as some hardier tourists were doing, but not for these two wimpy Canadians who were already shivering in the cold wind...

Off to Stirling Castle, one of the great tourist sites in Scotland.  Occupied for at least a 1000 years, the present castle dates mostly back to the 1500-1600's and thanks to a very recent restoration, the Royal Palace looks like just King James V could come strolling through at any moment!  It may be a bit too tarted up for some people, but I enjoyed seeing at least one place as it would have looked originally, not always threadbare and colourless as most castles are...

"Off with their heads!"

James V bedroom

gotta love a castle with guides in tights!

Then, to Callander and the Annfield B&B, our home-away-from-home for 2 nights.  We fell in love as soon as we saw it.  Both the B&B and the town, actually.  It was a lovely Victorian-style inn with very gracious hosts - immediately on arrival we were offered tea in the drawing room, served on a shining sterling silver tea service and delicate petit fours, no less!

 

the town was our favorite

very quaint

we each found something ...

that we both loved to do

Not really being in the mood to visit any more tourist sites, we kept the car parked on Saturday and just spent the day wandering around town.  Our first venture was out on the new long-distance cycle path, recently converted from a disused railway line.  It paralleled a small river which we strolled beside at times, and then only glimpsed occasionally as the birch & larch trees grew thicker along the path.  We probably walked about about 2 miles before turning back to have a simple take-away lunch in our B&B room. 

A little read, a little nap, then out again to walk to Bracklinn Falls at the end of town.  Then, as I have a training program to follow for my upcoming mini-triathalon, I hit the cycle path again for an hour's jog.  I had the best intentions of getting this out of the way in the morning but as it was bone-chilling 38 degrees at 8am I put it off till late afternoon!  Hungry upon my return, we headed down to the local pub for some filling grub and spent the meal being entertained people-watching a local birthday party complete with toasts, balloons and birthday cake.