April 6th, 2014

Today, Franny and I took a day tour to Loch Lomond! We started our day with an early breakfast at the Caledonian. They had toast & jam, fresh fruit, yoghurt, lots of different stuff. I had toast and jam. Then Franny and I walked up near the castle to the rendez-vous spot for the tour. We were early so we walked around the shops a bit, looked around a bit. We went with the Timberbush Tour Company. Our driver’s name was Eric. He was amazing, we couldn't have asked for a better driver! He gave us history on the area, told stories, played traditional music. 

On the way to Sterling Castle he played “Caledonia” by Frankie Miller  I believe, it was a good song. Our first stop was Stirling Castle, the castle where Mary Queen of Scots lived. It’s a beautiful castle set on top of a huge hill overlooking plains. A great spot for a castle if I do say so myself. The Castle was absolutely stunning. We took a tour of the castle and even saw dressed up interpreters! It’s definitely worth a look. 

We stopped for lunch in Callandar, known as the gateway to the Highlands as it’s the last town between the highlands and the lowlands of Scotland. Franny and I had lunch at a small restaurant called Munchies. It was really good, and frequented by locals. On the way out of the village, we stopped quick to see some Highland Cows. They are so cute and shaggy! 

The roads up to the highlands are very windy, kinda made me nauseous a bit unfortunately. But we saw some pretty cool sights along the way, like an old Duke’s house that has been turned into a private resort, and Loch Drunken where they used to store old whiskey barrels (they whiskey leaked out of the barrels into the Loch). We also stopped at a lookout where we had an amazing view of the foggy highlands.

We finally reached Loch Lomond and it was pouring rain! Like coming down in buckets! But luckily we had a boat cruise so we didn’t have to walk around in it. It was amazing being in a place I sang about in choir for years! Loch Lomond is beautiful! Half-way through the cruise the sun came out and we even saw a rainbow! Ben Lomond (the mountain) was beautiful as well.

We stopped in the small village to grab some postcards and souvenirs quickly before we had to return to Edinburgh. The guy behind the cash register was very chatty. Apparently lots of famous people had passed through such as Micheal Jackson, so that was really cool.

On the way back to Edinburgh, our guide took a detour because he wanted to show us the Forth Bridges. I’m glad he did because they were beautiful! He also played us a different version of  “500 Miles” from movie Sunshine on Leigh. It was an amazing rendition of it! I didn’t know I could love that song even more than I already do. So the guide gave us two options for drop offs, where we met or on Princes Street. Franny and I were the only one who wanted Princes Street (it was closer to the hostel) so the guide decided he’d just drop us off at our hostel, which was so nice!

For supper we went to a local pub and I had a ceasar salad, it was very good. Then back to the Caledonian to hang out. Although Franny lost her key so we had to get new ones!