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“"Rolling green hills dotted with little white sheep."” |
Today we headed out early to Stirling Castle, about a forty minute drive from Dumbarton, with Meaghan, Adam, and Meaghan's cousin. The drive itself was quite beautiful as we were fortunate enough to have another sunny day. Glasgow's country-side is full of rolling green hills dotted with little white sheep and cottage homes. It was nice especially, because it's baby season for sheep, and we saw plenty of them.
Addmission into the castle was a bit pricey (£8.50 each) but well worth it. This was an actual castle, unlike in Dumbarton, with a beautiful chapel and great hall. We even got to see a woman making tapestry the old fashioned way. Meaghan and Karin got the oppertunity to ride another cannon at the castle that had a striking resemblence to the one at Dumbarton (maybe made by the same company?). Another interesting bit of history about Stirling Castle was it's active role in Scotlands military, as it served as a base for many years. They had a large section of the castle made into a mueseum dedicated to this, with bits on both world wars.
The castle, and town surrounding it, was very crowded with tourists, which made the experience a little bit less authentic. And, as usual it seems, food was terribly overpriced (Christy payed £2.50 for a small bottle of orange juice, or as they say, "fresh orange"). Fortunatly we had the foresight to pack a small lunch to go with us.
Just below the castle in the town we also visited Argyll's Lodging, where the Earl of Argyll once lived. It was very nicely recreated, and thankfully much less crowded. Afterwards we headed over to the base of the William Wallace Monument. Admission turned out to be £6.50 a head, which we decided was too expensive and ended up just taking pictures from bellow. A group of kids overheard us chatting and asked us if we were from France. "No, no, Canada," Christy said. A girl huffed and muttered, "But you were speaking another language just then." We shrugged and continued on. I guess we never thought of Canadians as having an accent, but hey, we can't understand what most Scottish people are saying if they talk fast, so I guess they can't understand us either.
Overall we've had a great second day in Scotland. Karin has also managed to book tickets for the 8th to Amsterdam, and we look forward to the rest of the journey.
previous travel blog entry
issy says:
hi issy's! I miss you both sooo much! Laurens pretty much settled in now...after hours of cleaning :-P thanx lots. scotland looks so beautiful, I wish I was there with you both. alls well at home, zorro misses you both very much, but suprisingly he isn't too mopey with you gone which is a very good thing. (he says hi) tell meaghan and adam i say hi also. talk to you soon