Visitors from the colonies

The recent weekend saw a visit from some colonial Australians. Despite some difficulties understanding their accents it was good to catch up with Jeremy and Sarah again. First stop Wallace Monument and Stirling Bridge. After climbing the 250 odd steps to the top of the monument we had a nifty view of the area directly beneath the monument and the Ochils! Arrch, Ochils so close. They are coming to get us soon. We also got a good view of the local pubs in the area and planned out a route taking in some of the finest local drinking establishments.

This included cat-pub not to be confused with cat face who has a big cat face. He also floats around the town. Well after some beverages we went for some pubbish food and Jeremy tried his first haggis, which proved a reasonably large hit although he was disappointed that he couldn't have the bad boy burger.

The next day dawned at around 1am, well it feels like that at the moment up here, sun goes down around 11pm and it seems to be permanently light. Of course, that doesn't bode well for winter but at least we'll have whisky and haggis to keep us company. We headed back to Stirling castle for a 21 gun salute for the queen's birthday. Now the territorial army could only manage 18 shots because the gun jammed or something. They had two more guns still in perfect working order but called it off right then. Cheapskates.

Afterwards it was the Falkirk wheel, which is a giant ship moving thing that basically raises barges about 70 metres from one canal to another in only a few minutes. Sure, its an impressive engineering feat but really not that exciting as a tourist destination. Oh well, live and learn about the wonders of Scotland, the natural world appears far more interesting than recent engineering feats.

Castles and more castles

Stirling castle has been the scene of many a famous battle, jacobite revolution, musket battle and light sabre fight but why? Well the answer lies in its unique geographic position, nestled on a high hill on a river that traverses the country with solid ground and gentle hills all around. Basically its the only sensible place in historic kinds of times where you could get to northern Scotland. So there was a bridge here and due to some poor tactics on behalf of the English, a bunch of them were massacred by the Scots and William Wallace.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Scotland we took a tour to Balloch and Loch Lomond. Yeah its a large lake filled with fish, drunken scotsmen and boat tours. Still its worth a look and around the forest park nearby is another castle. This one is closed to the public but is actually pretty well preserved. The park was also filled with lots of people using portable bbqs, no, not as we know them but basically little steel grills filled with coals that you buy pre-made from the supermarket and fire up in the park. Meanwhile no one remembers that they might actually burn the grass, table, seat or whatever else they are sitting on. Pure genius I say.

I'm not entirely sure of what to make of this photo, its clearly a normal scottish street scene.
1. Because its raining
2. There's a learner driver in the distance, they are everywhere.
3. There's some local running because he's just made off with some stuff from the local 'offie'

Ah well, its amusing nonetheless.

Stirling, what a sterling place

Well, that was definitely the worst pun in the history of the universe. So, what about Stirling. First of all the old castle is perched on the hill above the old town which is filled with old cobblestone streets and pubs. The town itself is somewhere in the vicinity of 50,000 people. It depends on which of the tiny little villages nearby you include. Some of them are definitely attached and some are not. Glasgow is 30 mins away on the express train, but Edinburgh is closer to 50 mins, because of the lack of express trains!

Off to one side of the city is the wallace monument, which dominates the skyline from all directions. From there is a view of all the famous battles that took place all over the place. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, the cold war, all took place right here in this wee sleepy village. There's lots of stuff around of historical significance, including cannons, bridges from the 1500s and a collection of jails, old houses and stuff to rival the rest of Europe. Plus as an added bonus, rent is a bit cheaper than Glasgow!