2807130800

Sunday

This morning we’re castle-ing; off to Stirling castle located on a rising taper of rock extruded upwards out of a narrow plain and bounded on two sides by bog and marsh (back when it was first built). It’s location was of immense strategic importance as it was located between England and Scotland, and one could seewhomever was moving trrops or goodies for trade from North to South. ‘T’was here William Wallace, (operating under the sobriquet of “braveheart”) took an effective swipe at 10,000 Brits with a hopelessly small force about 1/10^th that size and gave them a pasting. The audio guide was brilliant as were the restoration works and exhibits. We rocked up in the rain at about 9.30, scored a parking spot close by, (why pay 4 quid?) and decided to meander through the place for an hour or two. The best laid plans of P&P went “all a’glay” and 6 ½ hours later we left having learnt much and seen a chunk of  N-S relations failures culminating in sieges, murders and massacres.

The lunch in the cafe was excellent and the local beer (refer to picture) was a corker, as was Pauline’s soup, “as god as I can make it”. We have been enjoying some of the prepackaged sangers in the supermarkets, these would be classed as gourmet sangers in Oz, but then there’s probably a more discerning clientele here. Our food habits have become quite casual (and enjoyable) and we have commented on a few (more than a few?) occasions how good are the crockery set from T&B, the “cold” bag from G&Y, and the mini gas stove from Young Robski.

On the way out had a look into the former residence of a Lord Argyll, interesting! In one of the rooms he managed to upstage many modern houses with walk-in wardrobes, he had a walk-in fireplace in his kitchen No 2. The place was furnished pretty much as if he’d just walked out of it in the 1700’s.

The day finished on a bit of a sour note, the twerp who took our booking for the two nights unfortunately (especially for the wallet) only booked for one night instead of the two we specifically requested so the one night price was double what we were expecting to pay. Another lesson learned- talk to someone who can translate English directly in lieu of doing via some Eastern European head with limited vocabulary in the English language, We took a philosophical approach, paid the extra night (fortunately at a discounted rate) and shot off a moderately vitriolic note to the booking agency.