Author: Adelle

YK-Calgary
Calgary-Toronto
Toronto-Glasgow via Halifax
Westjet PLUS

Posted a couple pictures of the Robertson Headframe. I anticipate this will be the last time I’ll see the iconic landmark I grew up with in my neighbourhood. It was supposed to have been demolished in April sometime; since it wasn’t and I wanted to watch it come down then of course that means it will happen while we’re away.

Aside from Westjet switching from using the Jet to a Dash-8 out of Yellowknife (so much for roomy PLUS seating on a Dash-8…grrrrrr), the flights today were uneventful. Honestly, I do love flying with Westjet. They are fantastic.

Dan slept most of the way. I read about half of my book by Neil Oliver on the history of Scotland. And I managed to get the census done during our layovers while still in Canada. Extremely little turbulence, a breeze getting through Scotland customs, and our luggage even made it without incident! Completely exhausted, though.

Robertson Headframe from my house

Robertson Headframe from the sky

Calgary

Toronto

Halifax

Glasgow

Had a little hiccup with the car rental: I thought I had booked an automatic, they thought I booked a manual. They ended up getting us an automatic Jaguar with all the fancy bells and whistles, including a GPS. Guess the GPS we brought is redundant now…

Figured out how to drive on the “wrong” side of the road. My constant mantra is “stay on the left, stay on the left, stay on the left”. I’m finding the in-car GPS really doesn’t give much of a heads up for upcoming turns. I’m curious if we can program that. Might try using our own GPS simultaneously to see if there really is a difference or if it’s just me being REALLY cautious over here.

Parking so far can be difficult to find, at least in the university area. We did a self-guided tour of the campus, which was actually quite lovely, especially considering how tired we were. The park areas around the university are nice, too.

Made it to our B&B: Manor Park Guest House. Lovely so far. Did not anticipate our room would be on the third floor. Not a problem were we not so tired. Actually, not a problem anyway. It was nice to have a shower.

Supper at St. Louis Cafe was fantastic. Fish cakes, gumbo, and nachos…

And to top off the day, yes, we managed to get a geocache! Woohoo!

Glasgow University

Near Glasgow University

Dan at the East Cloisters

The Unicorn and Lion Stairs

The View of Glasgow from the University Flagpole

The Little Red Post Box

The Jag

Started the day waking up late for breakfast. Yup. I guess we were tired.

First stop was to see the Antonine Wall near Croy. Walked up the big hill, met a dog whose bark was worse than his bite, saw some cattle, marvelled over the earthworks required to build this ultimately ineffective Roman Wall, and took in the beautiful scenery.

Next stop was the Battle of Bannockburn Heritage Centre. Visualizing 8,000 Scots fighting against 20,000 English on this huge piece of land is really something. Especially when you consider the Scots won. Took some time to find a geocache while we were here.

Next stop, Stirling Castle. In a word, fantastic. What a great site to see. It’s at the highest point of what was the major crossroads of Scotland. The views are incredible. There are three architectural styles to the castle: medieval, Renaissance, and Victorian. The exterior walls of the Great Hall were recently repainted with the same material that would have been used when it was new, a colour I believe is called Stewart Yellow but looks more like a slightly pink-ish yellow, very bright. At one time the whole castle would have been this colour and it would have shone brightly from its perch. The tour guide was awesomely Scottish, a well rehearsed performer and well informed. The Queen and her handmaiden gave us golfing tips, and the handmaiden invited introductions to our son for her younger sisters; her own dowry was up to eight pounds now, if anybody’s interested.

We finally made our way to our B&B in Doune, Creity Hall Guest House. Wonderful place, I highly recommend it. Karen was our Irish host and was very accommodating. We started walking into town for supper, but after 15 minutes we realized I must have made a directional blooper because we were nowhere near a village, let alone could we see Doune Castle. We turned around, picked up the car, and drove two minutes in the opposite direction to sheepishly find our destination. We had supper at L’Angelino’s Pasta and Pizzeria. Another fine dining experience, albeit not local fare.

Quarry wall at Croy

Antonine Wall at Croy Hill

Dan on Croy Hill

Southern Scotland to Northern Scotland

Rock Cut Trench at Croy Hill

The King of Scots’ Standard Robert the Bruce planted his standard here prior to the Battle of Bannockburn. A glorious victory for the Scots against the English, against numerical odds.

Iconic Statue of Robert the Bruce

This tree is covered in vines. Weird.

Stirling Castle The view from the outer defences above the main gate.

Stirling Castle The Main Battery

Stirling Castle The King’s Hall

Stirling Castle Part of the ceiling in the receiving room (I forget what the room is called). Those pictures were individually carved, painted, and then installed. When they were repainted recently, they were not removed from the ceiling. The painters had to lie on their backs on scaffolding to hand paint them.

Stirling Castle The Queen’s Hall

Stirling Castle Uh, Scottie or Laforge, the holographic shield matrix appears to have failed. Think you could do something about that? This is a lift (elevator) for the less mobile that was installed in Stirling Castle.

Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle Dan, a cannon, and the rock formation the castle is founded on.

Stirling Castle The King’s and Queen’s Knots (read ‘gardens’).

Stirling Castle There were several areas cordoned off for restoration, but I think this area was cordoned off because it was far too tempting for rock climbers.

Stirling Castle

Karen at Creity Hall served us up a wonderful breakfast that included smoked salmon and eggs for me and an Ulster breakfast for Dan. Dan’s included fried haggis, which we found actually tasted very much like tortiere meat. Clearly many of the same spices are used.

We started the day visiting Doune Castle. Another great experience. The organizers have done a fabulous job with the audio guide. It provided valuable historical context and significance while also making references to both Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Outlander. The castle was also used as Winterfell for Game of Thrones. A lovely walk around the grounds included finding one of two geocaches.

From there we drove to Glencoe, stopping at the visitors centre. The drive took approximately two hours on narrow roads with a ridiculously high speed limit of 60 miles per hour. For the most part, there was no way in hell I was going to navigate those roads at that speed. Don’t get me wrong, the roads were beautifully paved, well-marked, and well-maintained, but they were rather narrow and twisty. There were some areas that were really not wide enough for two lanes of traffic. There were some areas that were posted with signs warning of oncoming traffic being in the middle of the road. Why? Don’t know! Maybe if the speed limit was slower traffic wouldn’t have to cross the centre line when going around a corner. Just saying…

Anyway, the scenery was lovely. There were several areas that reminded us of driving through the Rockies, in particular going towards Fernie and Kelowna.

We arrived at Treetops B&B in Fort William around 5:00 pm. Met our hosts, who are lovely people. Got the tour of the house, which is gorgeous. Then went for supper at the Ben Nevis Inn, which sits at the foot of Ben Nevis. Spectacular view of the highest peak in Great Britain. Actually, it’s a very vertical view. Supper was really good. Tried haggis again; it was a different recipe. Still similar to tourtière meat, but with more peppercorns. The texture of this one was more like a loose, meaty stuffing, not fried. I really liked it, honestly, but I preferred the spices in this morning’s haggis. A short walk around the foothills prefaced our return to Treetops, where I finally felt awake enough to complete these last two days’ blogs!

Creity Hall A tree fort above a creek behind our B&B

Doune A church in Doune

L’Angolina’s Pasta and Pizzeria

Doune Castle

Doune Castle Looking up from the cold storage room

Doune Castle Looking down the stairs from the Lady’s privy. Note how narrow the hallway is.

Doune Castle The Great Hall

Doune Castle The view from the top

Doune Castle The dining hall

Doune Castle The kitchen. Dan is standing in the fire place.

Doune Castle

River Teith Dan had to find out how cold it was. Nothing we’re not used to.

Glencoe A little crick behind the visitors centre.

Glencoe

At the foot of Ben Nevis

Valley beside Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis The view from Treetops B&B

Well, after a brief side trip to the hospital (don’t worry – it turned out to be nothing serious), we were on our way to Edinburgh. It took us nearly five hours, but that includes a stop for lunch at the Loch Lommond Lodge and navigating the first two hours through ridiculously narrow roads. I keep telling Dan I don’t want to know how few inches there were between the car and the stone guard rails or bridges on his side. Getting on the M8 was like a breath of fresh air, even with the construction delays, and made for a very relaxing final hour and a half of driving.

We unloaded our stuff at our room at 4KT Guest House, then walked down Coates, Haymarket, Clifton, Atholl, and Shandwick before stopping at The Cellar Restaurant for supper. It literally was in the cellar of a bar, and the booths along the outer perimeter were sunken rooms. Service was great, food was great, it was all great.

We talked about our activities over the next few days here, then walked back to our room. I thought to do laundry, but apparently the laundrette (laundromat) closes early compared to at home. We found an alternative that we can use on Monday. Don’t worry, we won’t be walking around in stinky, dirty clothes for half of our stay.

Not just any maple syrup flavoured bar

Loch Lommond

Loch Lommond

Loch Lommond

A former school for the deaf…we think

Our lower level booth at The Cellar Restaurant

William Eward Gladstone

Monument to football players who died in WW1 & 2