Lizzie's Dram

I'm told that we are not only in THE Scottish Highlands but that we are also in the highest B&B in Scotland.

That alone is worth the price of admission.

          

Elsewhere in my blog I've quoted my favorite author Paul Theroux....

"Travel is glamorous only in restrospect."

Monday morning was case in point when flying from Belfast, Northern Ireland to Edinburgh, Scotland......the security measures were thorough. I had my bag totally emptied and the security guy seemed obsessed with putting my stick deodorant in a plastic bag. (I just kept my mouth shut). The stairs to the plane for exit were slow and so our de-plane-ing was delayed until they found some guy with the authority. The line for our reserved auto was an hour and fifteen minutes wait.

And yet....it was all worth it.

                     

"I think there is a castle between the airport and our B&B for tonight"  I say to Makaila. 

She checks the Hertz wifi thing-y that we've rented....(what IS a map?)

There it is......Stirling Castle! We head for it.

                    

Castles by their very nature are built on hills or mountains and so when we came into the town of Stirling to eat at Victoria's Tea Room (by the way....just by entering the place...I lowered the medium age by five years.). We parked. We ate. We got back in the car to go to find the castle only to realize it actually was on the other side of the hill or town or whatever. 

Finding a parking space, even in September at a castle is no mean feat....but down on the other side we found a famous "Pay and Display" street for parking.

And we walked up the cobble stone alleyways to the castle.

                            

I think Disney may be to blame for us Americans thinking that all castles should look like the one in their parks. In reality, castles are pretty austere, cold, and clammy,. They need a ton or restoration. But, looking beyond the restoration and appreciating the history...one can capture the times a bit. I especially enjoyed looking out over the valley to the Scottish countryside.

                   

But I will give Stirling Castle very high marks for their authentic restoration of the time when this castle was alive and serving (or subjugating) the people. They even had costumed actors discussing aspects of daily life or the complexity of the restoration.

          

But our destination for the afternoon and for the night was our B&B. 

It's simple....it's stunning.

The Scottish Highlands surrounds us...the highway is a quarter miles off to the east and the rapid train to Edinburgh is only a couple feet (!) to the west.

Lots of Scotland all around us.

                           

We're welcome by our host and hostess. The place was totally restored when they decided to purchase the property and design a B&B. It's clearly a labor of love but I'm sure it has been hard work. Running a B&B is doubtless much less glamorous that we might imagine. But our hosts seem to enjoy it.

              

One can barely hear the "whoooosh!) of the train that passes every so often. We're told that we could bicycle to the town a few miles north, lock our bike, hop on the train and zip down to Edinburgh in a bit over an hour, should we choose to do so. 

We don't...we're only here for the night.

Our host's lively conversation centers for awhile on the whiskey making of Scotland. Just up the road is Dalwhinney....and it's spirits. Two of the other guests are afficianados of whiskey ...in fact, that is why they are traveling in Scotland.

Our host goes into the other room and emerges with a bottle of Dalwhinney....and pours a bit for the four of us. Alas...it's not Lizzie's Dram....that's $125 dollars for the autographed bottle...but this sample is pretty darn good.

Indeed....in retrospect, travel IS glamorous. The key words being "in retrospect."

Peace,  Bob