5-16-2025 Rabbie’s Tour (the name of the tour company)

 5-16-2025 Rabbie’s Tour (the name of the tour company)

Our tour started at 9:00. Our guide was Maggie. She drove the16 passenger bus and was also our guide. This one was booked as Stirling Castle and Loch Lamond. Here’s a general rundown.

Stirling Castle

Records show that something was on the site of Stirling Castle since the 1100s. The castle in its beginning form(s) was built between the 14th and 16th centuries. Over the decades and centuries, it grew and changed. Along the way, it served several royalty in various ways and there was a lot of back-and-forth with wars, and take-overs between England and Scotland. Some of the more famous events and people include

1) Robert the Bruce who fought and won Scottish Independence in the early 13th century. This is the time period when my early ancestors lived in the area. William Sprewl was the seneschal for the Earl of Lennox.

2) The early Stewarts took over the castle and it became an early center for royalty.

3) The castle was involved in the Jacobite uprising which was the downfall of the Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745.

4) English forces and the British royalty took over and there you have it—until it became a tourist attraction of course. (Whew!)

Here are some pictures I took on the tour….

The castle…and the guide

The banquet Hall. When it was renovated, they made it like the original without any nails or screws in the ceiling. It keeps itself up by….heck I don’t know…it just does.

The chapel. One of the newer buildings.

The courtyard with the gold building…

The kitchens—after the tour, I went to see the medieval kitchens. I got carried away with photos.

I also took a little walk-about around the outside wall of the castle. Here is what I saw…

…and that’s it.

Coos at Aberfoyle

And what is this, you ask? We stopped to see Scottish Coos. In the United States, they are called “cows.” In Scotland, they are still spelled “c-o-w-s” but pronounced “coos.” And what’s so special about Scottish coos you ask? Well, I be telling yous. First they are hairy, and second, they have horns. If the horn points grow up, it’s a girl coo. If the horn points are down, it’s a boy coo. If it has no horns, well the horns are missing on the head because the balls are missing on the…., you know.  AND what if the horns are growing horizontally? Well, you decide what that one is. Hmmm. Is that possible!? Here’s a visual. Boy or girl?

We walked around this very small place called Aberfoyle and looked at things Scottish…like this sign that says “Hamish. Apparently, Hamish is one of the friends of the coos.  

I saw something very interesting. I ask you…why is there a picture of a Scottish coo under a woollen mill sign? Do coos make wool? Huh?

And I know you’ll figure this one out..What are these little dark blobs on this barbed wire fence? Yea, a no-brainer.

Onward we go into the countryside…

The Callendar House, built between the 14th and 19th centuries….redone in the French Renaissance style— probably during the French Renaissance. It hosted some famous people in its day. Now it’s a fancy hotel??? I don’t remember.

And then it was time for lunch. Teresa and I ate with Denise who is from Australia and Canada but currently Australia. I had Fish and Chips and Denise had…

Next was a fabulous tour around Loch Lamond…the largest lake in Scotland with dozens of islands. Here’s what we saw…

A steamboat from the Victorian era (obviously not working).

More castles and etc…. (No pics of the etc)

Here’s what I learned… There is a very long fault line that runs through Lake Lamond. It officially separates the lowlands from the highlands. The most interesting thing about it is that you can see the division in the land at the fault line. The lowlands are lush and green and, well, low…while the highlands are barren, rocky, mountainous and, well, high. Take a look at these pics and you can see the difference.

And there you have it…two happy boaters having a great time on the largest lake in Scotland.

But wait, there’s a bit more… Here are some fun pictures I took…

1.        In the bus station I took a pic of this man. I love the plaid…

2.        In the bus station, I also saw this statue. Ahhh….

3.        In the bus station, I also saw this blue boy—I have no idea what this is about…

Finally, I found this on the street. It’s how I feel sometimes… (but not when I’m traveling of course)

 

 

5-15-2025 Glasgow

 May 15, 2025 Glasgow Scotland

Today was the first day of our Glasgow adventure. Teresa set her alarm for 6:00 (groan). I went back to sleep until about 7:30. Before leaving for the day, we decided to purchase online train tickets to Edinburgh for Sunday. After to-ing and -fro-ing about tickets and times and prices, we settled on a time. I clicked “purchase” and voila!  the tickets were sent to my account to download on the app. YAY! Oh, wait, only one of them/was downloaded. Boo! Going to the train station became first on our list.  After wasting time trying to figure out what else we wanted to do and where we wanted to go, hunger took us out to the Café Wander which is this very small but authentic café that serves strong coffee(!) and real breakfast. I had porridge. Authentic Porridge! YAY!

OK, our order of business was 1) go to the train station to straighten out the ticket. 2) go to the bank to get money from the ATM 3) Go to the tourist office find out what to do. 4) go to the National Piping Center. 5) end up at Mackintosh at the Willow for High tea at 2:00. So what did we really do?

1) We were told to figure out the ticket problem Sunday morning before we left. While at the train station, Tee discovered that one needs 50 pence to go into the potty. Time for an ATM.

2) At the bank, the outside ATM didn’t give us money but the inside one did. Then Teresa needed to make little money from the big money. She still needed that 50 pence. She waited in a line to get change. Not! She got in another line to get change! Not! She needed to have an account to get change. Not! She went back to the first line and the clerk said he would in some way get permission to give her change for her 10 pound note. He went into the back room and eventually came back with a bagful of pence because one needs to get all pences—not notes and pences. All this for 50p!!! We finally left and went back to the train station and…well we did the other “p” after paying the 50 “p.” Whew!

3) We went to the tourist office, which was right next to the bank we had been at and talked to very very nice and helpful person who loaded us down with maps. (Yay!)

4) By this time, there wasn’t enough time to go to the Piping Centre so we went to St. Munros Cathedral. It was built in the 1200s, became Protestant after the Reformation and is now mostly a tourist site—but they still have services there. Take a look.

5) We walked to the MacIntosh at the Willow and my-oh-my, like my friend Julie said, “It sets the bar so high for tea, doesn’t it?”  We had tiered plates of sandwiches and scones and nibbles and bites. They were the most amazing nibbles and bites enticing my tastebuds. (Yowzer!)  By the time we were faced with the 5 little desserts, we were groaning, so got to-go boxes. What was the most amazing thing we had? T’was Whiskey Infused Tea, t’was. Cheers! And as my friend Eric remarked, “I guess high tea has a different connotation with the whiskey.”

After the tea, we took a little tour of the historic building. It was interesting…as I find all history to be…and reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright (who influenced the architect, Charles Ronnie Mackintosh).  <It looks like the only photos I got were in the Salon de Luxe…and one other.>

OK, almost done. We wandered back to the hotel which was quite close. Along the way, we perused a few shops. What else would you expect of tourists!?

Postscript:

Here are a few random photos…

Pointe A Hotel. You can rent an umbrella for the day as you leave.

Miscellaneous scenes of Glasgow.

Teresa at the Tardis (fictional Time Machine and spacecraft—Dr Who).