From the east to the west coasts of Scotland

We ate breakfast downstairs at the hotel. Greg must have picked up a sinus bug. He came down late but we still enjoyed our breakfast.

We walked to our bus stop at 8:45 am. We met our bus driver Bill and boarded our tour bus. We headed west towards Loch Lomond and River Clyde. We had a short bus tour of Glasgow to see this industrial giant. It was a mixture of both old and new buildings. (I personally like Edinburgh better because most of the buildings are still old.) We stopped at the Glasgow Cathedral even though they we reconstructing it. It was built before the 13th century. After a short self-guided tour of the cathedral we reboarded the bus to exit the Glasgow. This is where Bill told us about the Duke of Wellington Statue. Apparently the teens in the city put an orange street cone on his head every night only for the police take it down every day. It was there, on his head, as we drove by.

We left Glasgow and headed for the River Clyde. It does heavy building as well as shipbuilding. Our next stop brought us to the bonnie banks of the Loch Lomond. We took a boat cruise of the loch (lake). It’s the biggest expanse of fresh water in Great Britain. It’s also known as the Gateway to the Highlands. There were many old buildings and sights to see from the loch. One in particular was the Cameron House. It was built in the 18th century. They converted it into a hotel. Lots of American stars have stayed there. There we also saw the mountains. They were snow covered and so pretty. (This resembled the Rocky Mountains to me…oh how I miss my Rockies.) The cruise was a cold ride and luckily there was an upper deck outside and a lower deck downstairs. We all started out outside and ended up inside.

Next, we came to a village called Aberfoyle. It was a quaint little village and we stopped there to have lunch. Luckily they also had a shopping barn like store for the shoppers in our group. (Even though I’m not a shopper I am still having a BLAST seeing the sights.) I liked the fact that they had sheep, ponies, and chickens to occupy JD’s time.

On the drive around the lochs we saw lots of sheep and some Scottish bulls. (These were not the famous lochs where the Lochness Monster "Nessie"was spotted.) We were even fortunate enough to see a mom and a baby. The driver was surprised because that usually doesn’t happen until April. We drove a bit further up the mountain and saw Scottish heather covering the landscape. There is jewelry here that they make out of this heather wood. We were told July is when the heather flowers bloom. This was the backdrop for Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy and the Lady on the Lake.

On the way down from the mountain we drove through the village of Callander and we passed the Castle Doune. This 14th century castle was used in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Our last stop was Stirling. We visited the Stirling Castle. It was under construction as well. This made for a short walk around. We all were super surprised at the end of the tour because they were having a bagpipe competition. Nothing less than PRICELESS! I certainly don’t know how these people can walk around in kilts when the weather is so “fresh.”

This area was famous because of William Wallace. There was a 200 foot memorial there, but some of us didn’t see it very well.

Our drive back home was short because he had a CD on that played Scottish music and some of us dosed off. This was a great opportunity to get warm again. We got off the bus at our hotel and went out to eat a Wanna Burger again. (That spicy chicken with guacamole rocks!)

The rest of our night included hot baths and a movie in the room. I hope Greg gets to feeling better soon.