London

Eek!  I've been home a week and I haven't finished our travel tale yet!  So here goes:  after the Trossachs we fly down to London for 4 nights & 3 days of city sightseeing.  We'd both been there a couple of times before so we didn't have to succumb to madly rushing about seeing all there was to see.  As it was, we arrived during a torrential downpour, which lasted for 24 solid hours.  We lugged our luggage from Heathrow to Waterloo Station via the Tube, then suited up for the 10 min walk to our hotel. 

Our hotel is actually pretty nicely situated - not in a pretty neighborhood like Knightsbridge, but very central and convenient to all transportation.  As we were just around the corner from Westminster Bridge, we ended up walking most days and taking the tube only when our feet rebelled against any more sidewalk walking.  Also, it was roomy (a key consideration) with a little kitchenette and a living room; and the hotel had a gym and free laundry (a necessity for us by this stage!).

Our first adventure was a tour of Buckingham Palace which was magnificent (my apologies, QueenE, for squelching all over your lovely carpets as we were absolutely soaked thru and thru) .  So glad this was our last 'house tour' as it understandably put all the others to shame.  Prince Charles gave a very nice introduction via the audio guide and we saw the lavish State Rooms, Picture Gallery and the Royal Jewels - not the Crown Jewels from the Tower but the ones the Queen actually wears such as fantastic brooches, tiaras, necklaces extra.  It was a special exhibition for the Diamond Jubilee.

Other things we saw and did:  walked along the vibrant South Bank of the Thames from Westminster up to the Millenium Bridge at St. Pauls and back the north side; toured Westminster Abbey with Jeremy Irons (audio guide narrator); gawked at the fabulous creations in the food hall at Harrods; window shopped both Regent and Bond Streets;  overloaded on art at the National and National Portrait Galleries; imitated Harry Potter at King's Cross Station; and viewed the treasures of the British Library.

"really Teddy, Winnie said what?"

But simple folk that we are, we were probably most excited by Virgin America's Upper Class lounge - we even tried to get to the airport extra early on our departure day just so we could take advantage of what they had to offer!  We only managed eggs bennie and a mini-facial (me) but there was enough there to entertain a body for the whole day!  Maybe next year....

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.

Heading South...

We had an early start from Portree on the Isle of Skye in order to make the 10:10am ferry from Armadale at the bottom of the island over to Mallaig on the mainland.  It was a beautiful clear day and we whipped down the island with time to spare.  I had carefully timed our trip so that we would have just enough time once the ferry landed to quickly traverse the scenic Road to The Isles and arrive at Glenfinnan just at the moment the Harry Potter steam train crossed the viaduct.  Well, unfortunately the website info was wrong and the train passed by 30 mins previous! 

just imagine a puffing steam train passing by...

As important as the Harry Potter movies are, Glenfinnan is historically known as the place where Bonnie Prince Charlie started the 1745 Jacobite uprising trying to take the British thrones.  There's a small tourist info center and a large monument marking this occasion as well as some splendid scenery...

can't resist in a man in a kilt

We continued driving south, thru Fort William which now felt like our 2nd home, and down to Benderloch (7mi north of Oban) to Barcaldine Castle which was to be our accommodation for the night.  We were absolutely thrilled to be staying in a real castle, built circa 1600 no less; so much that we didn't even go out for dinner as we wanted to spend as much time as possible soaking up the atmosphere!

Yesterday was an easy day of driving.  South into Oban to find a large-ish grocery store so we could buy some ice to stock up our insulated bar bag, then on to have a look at Inveraray Castle, home to the Campbell Clan.

a relatively modern 1745 castle, it was always been a 'home', not a defensive structure

a lovely entrance.  No pics allowed inside unfortunately

Thursday:  Rain, rain, go away....  It's absolutely bucketing down outside so I guess it's fortunate that we're booked into our hotel for 2 nights and today was designated our Rest From Sightseeing Day anyway.  The Cameron House Hotel has a lovely library with a cozy fire, a wonderful pool/spa/fitness center complex, and we've enjoyed a humungous breakfast buffet that will carry us thru to dinner so we're quite happy to stay inside ensconced in luxury while the elements continue to rage on outside.

A 2nd Day in Skye

The master plan was for the weather to be better today as yesterday was more the sightseeing day and today the hiking day.  Unfortunately, the one thing you can't plan is the weather...

Today we circumnavigated the Trotternish Peninsula with an ambitious schedule of 3 walks, 2 ruins, and a couple of monuments to visit.  Already behind schedule due to our inability to say 'no' to a large English cooked breakfast, we didn't get on the trail to The Old Man of Storr until just after 10 am.

It was lovely driving up to The Storr (the Old Man is the pointy bit sticking up in front of the cliff face)

But it soon starting raining, then hailing, and was muddy, windy, and cold.  But what else is new?

Very atmospheric but as visibility was reducing caution triumphed and we turned around and headed back

Kilt Rock

We shed our layers and piled back into the car for a couple of drive by photo-ops before stopping in a warm cozy island house turned tea shop/art gallery (a popular idea on the island).  We sat at a window table watching a ferocious rain storm blow over the Storr while our little cafe remained basking in sunshine - who can predict the weather?


Ready for hike 2 we continued north to the Quiraing, a magical craggy escarpment reached by driving up to the high moors where the walk begins as a pleasant stroll thru the heather before becoming a thin vertiginous path just barely squeezed onto the side of the cliff.

The Quiraing

Off we go...

The view behind, across the way...

And the view ahead

As the drop became steeper, Sheila became more of a leaner ("keep to the inside!")

Better for goats than people, I was quite proud of Mom who has a fear of heights

but the beautiful views made it all worthwhile

After the Quiraing our day was getting short so we flew up and around the top of the peninsula, blowing by the ruined castles (these were very ruined castles and so we didn't feel we were missing much) and made one last stop at the Fairy Glen.  A magical place of tiny hillocks and ponds that could easily double for Hobbit-land.  One had the urge to run up every mound just to see the view from the next but time was ticking and dinnertime approaching so we called it a day and wound back down to Portree and our welcoming B&B.

check out those horns!