Scottish countryside

The next day was a big castle day. We started out at Stirling Castle, only a short drive from our hotel. The castle is beautifully situated on a hill overlooking Stirling bridge, site of the battle depicted in Braveheart. In fact there is a monument to William Wallace visible from the castle. We had a great guide who told us all about the castle history in his melodious accent. The castle had several fun places to explore, including a great hall, a recreated kitchen, palace rooms with costumed actors telling us about life in the castle as a servant or noble woman, and beautiful unicorn tapestries that had just recently been restored.

The view from the castle is spectacular, and we had the typical crazy Scottish weather (dramatic clouds, wind, occasional rain) to make it even more dramatic.

From Stirling we headed to Doune Castle.This is a very old building, in slightly downtrodden condition but it's been used for filming Monty Python's Life of Brian as well as more recently, Game of Thrones and Outlander. The audio tour is narrated by a Monty Python alum. I loved the ancient feel of the place, with the giant fireplace that could fit many people, to the crumbling stairs and drafty giant rooms. It's hard to imagine people living in these conditions.

After Doune we headed to Loch Lomond for a late lunch. The area of the loch we ended up at turned out to be a little touristy, but we managed to get a hearty meal, friendly service, and I was able to pick up a tartan blanket, which was the one thing I wanted to get for myself.

After lunch, we were able to find another spot, Balmaha, to view the lake that was more picturesque with ducks and a boat launch.

As we headed back to the hotel for dinner, we decided to just stop at whatever pub we could find in Dunblane. I remembered a place called The Riverside on our way out of the town. This turned out to be one of our favourite meals! All of our food was top notch, and they had some fantastic desserts but all in a cozy pub atmosphere.