Mike and Wendy's holiday blog

Friday 21 August

Set off at 6am, got to Tebay and decided it was too early for breakfast and motored on.

Saw signs for the Falkirk Wheel so went there.

But of shopping at Tesco then found the accomodation. We were early and it was still being cleaned so we walked to the Kelpies along the river.

Got settled in the accommodation and had a meal

Walked back to the Kelpies on my own in the evening to see them lit up.

Walked back over the canal down to the riverside - lovely reflections in the water.

Saturday 22 August

Train into Edinburgh then met up with Ema and JP.

First things first, food and a cocktail.

Then a wander round the city.

The seating structure for the Tattoo is temporary!

We left Mike and JP in a pub and went for a wander to some of the viewpoints.

A lone Piper.

Greyfriars Bobby's nose is starting to degrade with all the touching and stroking.

More walking. Nice in the sunshine.

Coffee and cake stop.

Lots of good street performers for the Fringe.

Street food before queuing.

Great atmosphere for the Tattoo.

Tried to get out early to beat the rush but ended up having to wait - and inadvertently got the best views of all the performers.

Followed the pipers down the street out from the esplanade.

Got our train. Sat on the priority seats for elderly, disabled or pregnant passengers. Interesting seat materials.. 🤣

A fabulous day!.. 👍

Sunday 23 August

A day for recovery. Went into the village of Culross.

A perfectly preserved 17th century village with the historic Culross Palace - well a merchant's house - built for Sir George Bruce who made his fortune in salt and coal. The house overlooks the Firth of Forth so he could keep an eye on his ships going up and down!

In 1625 a violent storm flooded Sir Bruce's revolutionary underwater coal mine The Moat Pit which was built with high walls out in the river - so the village started to decline and because there was no money to demolish and rebuild, the houses remained mostly derelict but intact.

Beautiful painting on the wooden ceilings and walls.

All very picturesque and used in several film and TV series including The Outlander.

Had a bit of a ride round and then went back to our accommodation to chill - both very tired after our busy day yesterday.

Didn't get to visit House of the Binns. Next time.

Monday 24 August

First stop Stirling - breakfast in the sunshine.

A walk up to the castle.

Then to Bannockburn to the (surprisingly interesting!) battle reenactment.

Next.. Alloa Tower.. a fortified tower which was part of the defensive chain along the Firth of Forth trade route.

Four floors in height.. after the first floor the stairs were tight and circular - designed for right handed sword defence in the case of attack. I didn't make it up the last flight of stairs to the roof.

Our next stop should have been the Wallace Monument near Stirling (we'd caught glimpses of it in passing) but Mike put the wrong coordinates in the sat nav and we ended up nearly in Glasgow before realising. Luckily we'd seen it before.

So.. off to our next accommodation in St Fillans. View from our window.

The Mirror Man (or Still to give the statue its correct name) stands right by the loch over from the hotel.

The light changed every few minutes.

Had a message from Ian to say that Julie's operation was successful and she was in recovery. A good place to receive the news.

Tuesday 25 August

Total change in the weather. Misty, drizzly and grey.

We went for a walk anyway.

The sky cleared up a bit.

Another sculpture piece by roadside - with mirror mosaic horns like the Mirror Man.

Finlarig castle ruins.

The beheading pit. Enemies of the Campbells (owners) were sentenced on Judgement Hill by the big holly tree about 50 metres away.

All noble criminals were beheaded here into the pit and commoners were hanged from the nearby Hanging Tree. When the tree branch was cut off in about 1900 it had a deep groove from all the rope marks.

Killin.

The Falls of Dochart.

Wednesday 26 August

Out to Balquhidder to look for Rob Roy's grave in the church.

Very pretty little churchyard.

Drove up along the loch side to see if we could join up with a bigger road. Turns out we couldn't.

But we did find a beautiful little spot for a picnic at Loch Voil - and the sun came out briefly.

The Irn Bru came too.

We drove onwards until the road ran out and then turned round and came back.

Some beautiful views.

A lovely day just tootling around.

We eventually made our way back along the other side of the loch where we hadn't been before.

Our hotel is the white blob in the middle distance.

A nice, lazy day.

Thursday 27 August

Loch Iubhair (pronounced yew-ar!) with a little castle.

Then onwards towards the Great Glen.

So.. Many.. Tour.. Buses!. even though we are on the shoulder season.. Dread to think what it is like in summer.. everyone jostling for places to park and as for stupid tourists posing.. 🙄😳

.. but we managed.. we missed out some of the photo places and motored on to beat the buses.. 🤣

So beautiful in the sunshine - it's always been freezing cold and rainy/snowy when we've been here before!

There's our little blue car.. 🥰

Turf house at the Glencoe NT place.

Motored on to Appin Bay and got there early but Mike was in and our room was ready.

He was very apologetic about all the mix up (only one loch view room as booking.com had overwritten our private booking) but it had all worked out well (we'd cancelled one room months ago but Mike had forgotten) in the end!

Still had glorious views over the mountains rather than the castle.

Walk along the loch side looking out to Castle Stalker.

A drink at the pub.

Then back to our room to sit out on the balcony, drink Australian wine, eat Scottish salmon and enjoy the view.. 🥰

A lovely place to watch the sun go down.

Friday 28 August

Bit of a grey start to the day but it started to brighten up.

Delicious Thai breakfast.

Think that this is the Morven mountain that the room is named after.

It was a grey day in Oban but not cold.

We'd wondered about a sign we'd seen near Port Appin about the Lismore ferry - and the map explained it. Don't know if it was just a foot ferry. Hardly any distance between them.

Had some fish and chips - delicious haddock and really light and tasty batter.

Then we met up with Pete, Alex and the boys - had a wander and an ice cream then they went back to Luing and we went to pick up our hot smoked salmon and crab sandwiches from the fish stall.