Now, go away or I shall taunt you a second time
So, I feel like I should clarify one thing. On yesterday’s entry, I listed a “Photo of the Day”. We decided to add an element of competition to our trip photography. We are selecting a Photo off the Day each day. At the end of our trip, I will put up a gallery of the daily pics to have you, dear readers, help select the Best of the Trip photo. Due to the highly lucrative element to this, we will keep the identity of the daily winners secret. Well, back to today’s adventure….
Today, we didn’t have to get going super early, but we did want to run into town for a quick breakfast and some warm go-juice. I REALLY needed some caffeine, as my body was not happy with me. We all got ready, and drove in the quest for coffee.
We found a nice little coffee food truck, that not only made a good cappuccino, but freshly made some breakfast sandwiches. Carrie and Walt chose the egg roll, and I chose the bacon one because, well, BACON. They fired up the grill and cooked up some fresh bacon, and fried up some eggs for the rolls. Somehow, the cook gave Walt’s roll to the person who ordered after him, so she quickly fired him up one. Unfortunately, his was a little messier than Carrie’s, as it was more over easy than hers was. The loose yolk did escape his roll and found his hands, his shirt, etc.
Carrie was envious, as she had forgotten that bacon over here is more like Canadian Bacon than our good old US bacon - a lot more meat. It was delicious. So was my coffee.
We made it back to our lodging to go on their farm tour. Matt, our host, put on a great tour. He is retired military, and is totally invested in traditional farming techniques, and doing the right thing for his land, his animals, and his community. We found out more about his military career, which revolved around Special Forces. He even lived in the US for a few years instructing our vaunted Seal Team Six. As avid watchers of the Seal Team TV Show, we understood when he brought up “door-kicking”.
After the awesome tour, we ended up at one of their cabins where Allison, Matt’s other half, had prepared a nice tea for us to escape the rain with. Their chef whipped up a wonderful warming roasted tomato soup. I don’t think I mentioned the weather, but what was a sparse drizzle turned into a very cold rain. So, the fire in the cabin, with hot tea, and hearty soup was a perfect ending to the tour.
By the time we finished our lunch, the rain stopped. We walked back to our cabin to get ready to go to our castle tours. First up was a castle Carrie and I visited on our Outlander Tour a few years ago. At that time, unbeknownst to me we were going to be visiting a much more important filming location than Outlander.
Doune Castle was the location for multiple castles in Monty Pything and the Holy Grail. When scouting locations, none of the more posh castles were approved for their use. Doune Castle was the only one available for them to use, and so they changed filming angles to pretend to be multiple castles. If you’re not savvy on British Comedy, this is the reference in today’s title. It was the location for a savage taunting by poorly translated French knights. I guess I can mention that Outlander did use it to film in as well.
Then we headed to Stirling Castle. We had a nice drive to Stirling and parked in the handy Park and Ride. The last time Carrie and I were in Stirling, we fought our way driving through town to get to the castle. Right before we entered the car park, the road was blocked off, because the castle was full. So, I had to drive back through town, weaving in and out of the oddly parked cars and brazen jaywalkers. We decided we would not see the Castle today. So now, they have a nice free parking lot and a very cheap bus that took us almost all the way to the castle - much better!
After the bus let us off by the old Jail, we walked up the hill and made it to the castle. Walking through the car park, Carrie saw a wallet on the ground next to a car. It was full of money, and I’m sure someone would be really upset at its loss. So, we left a note on the car, and took it to the car park attendant, so hopefully it would find its way to its owner.
We made it into the castle, and saw some amazing views, and a beautiful garden. We started back down the hill and visited the Holy Rude church. I’ve met more than a few people in various churches who would be a good fit there. It is a very historic church - where Mary Queen of Scots worshipped. There were also a few cannon there - my kind of church. If I weren’t so tired, I had a whole plan of making a meme out of one of the cannon. It involved making a sign on the wall that the cannon faced, saying “Worship Music Complaint Department”, and a caption of something like “If you didn’t like the worship music in church today, please fill out a form here…”
After the church, we got back on the bus to head to our car. We made it back in, and drove off to see if we could get a closer photo of the William Wallace Monument, as we couldn’t enter, due to it already closing for the day. Afterward, we went to dinner at a recommendation from Allison. It was the restaurant of Nick Nairn, a famous Scottish celebrity chef.
We ate out on the patio, which was covered, and they provided blankets and a heater. It was perfect. The rain came back during our dinner, and we were warm and happy. For being a Celebrity Chef’s restaurant, it was very reasonably priced (for Scotland). After dinner we drove back to our farm, and began the work of sorting photos. Rosanna served up some ice cream, and I made Carrie a mug of hot tea. We planned out tomorrows driving routes, and I sat down to write. My work is done, and as soon as photos are picked, I’ll post. It was a perfect first full day in Bonnie Scotland.
People Photo of the day
Animal Photo of the day
Still Life Photo of the day
Flower Photo of the day
Landscape/Building Photo of the day