Two Guys and One Dog in Scotland

Hi everyone.

For some strange reason, Dougal decided, about half-way through this year, to hate the Edinburgh trams and now barks at them every time he sees them. This brings him in line with most residents of Edinburgh, who view the trams as a £1billion waste of money, as they only go from downtown to the airport, even though they were supposed to run all the way down to the Leith. So, half the distance built for twice the budget. I am sure they would like to bark at the trams as well.

On Sunday morning, we decided to take Dougal on the tram, just to see how he would react. Unsurprisingly, he did bark when it arrived, but once on board he was at least quiet, although he wasn't exactly comfortable and relaxed. We haven't tested him yet to see if he will still bark at them, now that he knows they take him somewhere, but we are fairly certain that he still will. After all, you can take a terrier on a tram, but you can't make him less of a terrier, as they say.

Once upon a time, in a land not too far, far away, their existed a magical, mystical place known as Stirling. One day we decided to search out this fabled land, so we hopped a train and, much to our surprise, it took us right there, which was much less of a fuss than a trip to Hogwarts.

What we found was a lovely town at the base of the castle. We had been to the castle once before but never to the town. The first order of business was, of course, food, and we found a very nice Irish place. What we then did was what we do best - wander. In Stirling, this involves a lot of uphills that don't seem to balance with the downhills, but it was worth it, as you get lovely views over the surrounding landscape. We didn't plan to visit the castle again, but seeing that one road climbs to another road and so on, we found ourselves at the gates. We have Historic Scotland passes, so the temptation proved too great. In we went, where we enjoyed some falconry, restored halls (under restoration last time), and the general atmosphere of what, to us, is a more interesting castle than Edinburgh, which may be sacrilege seeing as we live in Edinburgh! The kids at the castle were making cool hats that gave Rick a good idea for a craft if he ever teaches about knights and dragons again.

Leaving the castle is where things went downhill, literally and figuratively. We stopped in a pub before our train ride home where, so it would appear, Bob bumped into a table and "knocked over" the 3 beers that the lone occupant of the table was drinking. We hope you have never experience being yelled at by a drunk Scotsman, as a difficult to understand accent becomes undecipherable when old yeller is drunk. In all honesty, the worst that could have happened was that some of the beer may have sloshed out of his glasses, but that was apparently a crime, for which Bob apologized and offered to buy replacements. The problem was that we needed to keep asking the fellow what he was saying, which was frustrating him, so he eventually told Bob to go home from where he came and stormed off. At that moment, going home seemed like a good idea. Still, can't let a drunk Scotsman ruin what was, overall, a grand day out!!

Why, thank you very much! I am sure we will enjoy our visit.

Stirling train station.

At the pub for lunch, with the obligatory Guinnesses (Guinnessi??). Rick checks out what we can do and see in town.

Bob's BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado) that turned out to be heavy on the BACON!!

Gosh, another uphill battle to what was, it would appear, and uphill battle site.

The Beheading Stone, which was used for pretty much what it says on the tin. Ick. Still, a lovely, if last, view from up here.


The view across the valley toward the Wallace Monument, where there is a statue that looks suspiciously like Mel Gibson. Wasn't that an amazing coincidence?!

Looking the other way from up upon high. As it was early April, there was still snow on the distant hills.

BOOM!!!

Not really sure what this is, but if it is a house, it is very nice indeed.

This seems to be an amalgam of styles, but also shows a bit of the steepness of the streets that we wandered to reach the castle.

Mr. Falconry at the castle.

Who's a pretty bird then??

This area of the castle was being used for all sorts of activities for the kiddies, which made it a fun place to visit. It looks like some poor dad got to enjoy holding the end of a skipping rope, which probably made his day.

View from the castle. Location is everything!

The great hall, fully restored and looking lovely.

Crowds inside the great hall, which also had events for kids - drumming this time.

Paper jester hats aren't just for kids anymore!!

Inside the living chambers.

Bas-relief and painted ceilings were all the rage. Once again this shows that the castles of this era were hardly dreary affairs.

Fit for a king or queen. It seems to us that Mary, Queen of Scots slept everywhere in Scotland, so it is possible that she slept here. That poor woman got around.