It took a couple of years before I had another vacation. But in 2005, we went on a 21-day trip to Scotland, Wales, Ireland & Northern Ireland. We chose the trip because we would be able to travel to Caernarfon, which was where my mother’s maternal grandmother’s family was from. Since we had only bypassed Stirling Castle in 2003, we arrived in Glasgow a day early to take a day tour to Linlithgow Palace, Stirling Castle and a boat ride on Loch Lomond.
This was the trip where, in order to get from the gate where our delayed flight from Minneapolis arrived to the gate from which our connecting flight to Glasgow was departing, while going through the European Union entrance process at the airport in Amsterdam (Schiphol), we ended up literally running to the gate, just as they were getting ready to close it. I ran ahead while Mom followed as best as she could. I figured that, if I made it to the gate, I could ask them to wait for her. Fortunately we made it. Unfortunately, our cases didn’t. We were able to check in at the hotel right away and we had our carryon luggage, which included my camera. So, we let the hotel know that our bags would be arriving on a later flight and headed off to get some lunch and explore for a while.
The hotel was in a different part of the city from when we were there in 2003. So we weren’t close to George Square. We were close to an interestingly named thoroughfare – Sauchiehall Street. The Kelvingrove Art Museum was still under renovation, but some of its exhibits were being housed in an art gallery on Sauchiehall. A fair amount of the street was also pedestrian only with lots of restaurants, cafes, tea houses, shops, etc. After lunch and the art gallery, we walked around for a while, exploring that part of the city. Once we figured that our luggage might be at the hotel, we headed back. It not only was there, but they had already placed it in our room! We reorganized to get ready for the next day and arranged for a taxi to take us to the bus terminal (from where our day trip was leaving) in the morning, had an early dinner and relaxed with some wonderful British television before going to bed.
The information I had gotten from the tour company that was running the day trip spelled out exactly which spot we needed to be in the terminal to get our tour bus. Easy. Our group included a couple from Iceland, who had flown the two hour flight from Reykjavik just to spend the weekend in Glasgow, hanging out and doing some shopping. We also had a threesome from some Eastern European country who didn’t speak any English. The first part of the trip was driving to Edinburgh to pick up some more folks there. We got five. So we just had a total of 12 on the trip.
When we got to Linlithgow, the palace was mostly a ruin. But it was a royal palace for a couple hundred years. It was begun in the 14th century and greatly rebuilt and enlarged in the 15th. Mary, Queen of Scots, was born there in 1542. In more recent years, the palace was used as Wentworth Prison in the series “Outlander”. We didn’t spend a lot of time there. Just took some photos and moved on.
We had much more time at Stirling Castle. We arrived just in time for lunch. Then we began exploring. Stirling Castle is one of the largest castles in Scotland, so there is a lot to see. Like Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle sits on top of a large crag. The difference is that the crag Stirling Castle is on was never a volcano. Although a few structures date to the 14th century, most of the present castle was built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Located near the center of the country, Stirling has always been strategically important and has seen its share of battles.
The first place we headed for was the Great Hall. This building had been restored to its former glory a few years before our visit. The hammerbeam ceiling had been restored and the exterior of the building had been limewashed with a golden color. Only a couple rooms of the Royal Palace were open to visitors. They had not yet been restored. We explored the buildings in the inner courtyard, which included the Royal Chapel. Then we went for a walk along the top of the walls, taking in the views. We could see the stone version of Stirling Bridge (the original on which William Wallace defeated the English in battle was wooden) and the Wallace Memorial off in the distance. We came down from the wall to visit the Great Kitchen, which had already been restored, along with mannequins and representational foods.
Naturally, the castle is reportedly haunted by a Green Lady (thought to be a servant of Mary, Queen of Scots) and a Pink Lady, thought to be Mary herself. She really gets around. Her ghost is said to haunt several places in Scotland and even a few in England. We both really liked Stirling Castle and were glad we had taken the extra day.
Near Stirling is a village named Doune. It is known mainly for two things – Doune Castle and the manufacture of pistols. It is said that it was a Doune pistol that fired the first shot of the American Revolution. Built in the 14th century, the castle has been very important in the history of Scotland and, more recently, in the history of film and television. Much of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” was filmed at Doune Castle, with various parts of the castle standing in for nearly all of the castles in the film. It has also been Winterfell in “Game of Thrones” and Castle Leoch in “Outlander”.
We passed through Callander on our way to Aberfoyle for an afternoon break. By this time, although I did not yet have a digital camera, I was getting a disc of my photos along with my prints when I had my film developed (so no more scanning in photos for this blog). I also had purchased a video camera that filmed directly onto a mini-disc that I could play on my DVD player at home, watching whatever I filmed on my TV. I looked for and didn’t find my little dancing owl friend. Either he was no longer there or he just wasn’t in the mood for dancing that day.
Our final stop of the day, before returning to Glasgow, was Loch Lomond for a boat ride on the loch. I love going for boat rides and I was especially pleased to be riding along on one of the most famous lakes in the world. In all my trips to Scotland so far, this is the only one where I have had the opportunity to take a ride on Loch Lomond. There were villages, the occasional lone house, some mansions and a couple castles along the shore. The weather was pretty good, so we had a very pleasant outing and chatted with our new Icelandic acquaintances.
