Braveheart Land aye!

I am under a time limit for this entry as I left our power converter in our last room!

Ben and I celebrated our 1 month anniversary driving around Scotland. Beginning in Glasgow we saw Loch Lomond, the Trassach’s, the town and Castle of Stirling and finished in the capital, Edinburgh. From the towns surrounding Loch Lomond, being Balloch and Luss we really enjoyed the scenery. It’s a beautiful place, however the view in Ballach was tainted by rubbish scattered on the banks of the inlet.

At Luss we stopped for another bowl of soup and scones. They were good. The soup was a traditional Scottish soup (called Scotch broth) which included lamb, oats and a collection of vegetables. The scone was a large one with double cream and strawberry jam. Yum!

After Luss we headed off to the Trassach’s which according to the information booklet would be considered the soul of Scotland. It was a nice drive through the winding roads, rolling hills and various Loch’s. However, the view was marred slightly when the information booklet stated that a lot of the land had been felled for its timber and no piece of land has been untouched by man. Evidence of this was everywhere including a large pile of felled logs up upon a hill.

Still, the views were nice, however I think the Lake District was better in terms of colours and the stone walls running all over the mountain sides and along the road.

We pushed on to Stirling where we visited Stirling Castle. We arrived at about 3pm and spent about 2.5 hours there! The castle sits on top of a hill and is still under renovation and restoration. However, we did get to see the Great Hall which has been restored to what it would have looked like around the time of King James VI (we think). The tour guide of the castle was a quirky man, telling us fibs such as the castle being haunted.

There were a few interesting pieces in the castle, including the ancient kitchen, but one to note was the Unicorn Tapestry which the original is in New York. They are recreating these for the Queen’s chamber once it’s restored. There were 5 scenes to this tapestry, all to be recreated on tapestry by the people working on the castle. Explained by the exhibit, the unicorn was a symbol representing Christ, the men representing his enemies. The scenes were:

One: The men heading out to capture the unicorn. These men represented Christ’s enemies.
Two: The unicorn purifying water for the other animals to drink from which symbolized Christ’s death for our sin.
Three: The unicorn being captured although it tried to escape through a river.
Four: The unicorn being brought to the King. The unicorn had a crown of thorns.
Five: The unicorn alive within a circular fencing. This was to symbolize Christ’s conquering death.

Interesting, I thought, but it took me some time to get my head around the link between a unicorn and Christ!

As it was about 6pm when we left the castle we headed into town for dinner.

We found a bar which charged around £5 per meal. When we were inside we discovered that dinner would be £12 for both of us. We could choose anything on the menu and there were a limited selection of alcohol we could choose from. Dinner was good!

I had a coke along with the Manhattan burger (very Scottish!) which was a beef patty with cheese & mushrooms. Ben had the scampi with chips together with a class of house white. I was starving after only sharing soup and a scone all day so dinner was very satisfying!

Now, here we are in Edinburgh. Ben is watching the soccer whilst I type this entry. Our room looks exactly the same as the other two except; the chair, the kettle and the bathroom taps. Convenient eh?