Day 33 Thursday 23 June 2016

What a blur today has been. The Sound of Raasay was just as beautiful this morning while having breakfast as it was last night at dinner. Something had to make up for breakfast. We were away at 8am, passing through Kyle of Lochalsh just over the Isle of Skye Bridge & stopping not long after at the Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most beautiful scenes in Scotland, we recognise it from photos & movies it has been featured in. We pull up next to one of the polling booths where the British are voting whether to stay or leave the European Union. The television here has been full of debate on the issue ever since we have been here. TV must be full on with our Federal election in Australia.

We travel along the valley of Glen Shiel, twisting & winding along the narrow roads next to the river & then loch before climbing through the narrow pass then down into Glen Garry as it widened out. The loch here is used for hydroelectric power generation & the water levels were fairly low. We turned south at Invergarry & followed Loch Lochy along for a long while, all the time the scenery just got more stunning, with treeless steep tall mountains & rugged rocky outcrops towering above. Some of the mountains had smatterings of snow near the summit & then we got to the big mountains. Ben Nevis is the tallest in the British Isles & had a fair bit of snow near the top, so were his tall brothers close by. We stop for a break & cuppa at Fort Williams at the foot of Ben Nevis, this town also has an interesting early history of settlement & conflict with all manner of peoples settling & fighting there over the centuries. This place is very quiet now, it used to be a real tourist destination but now they have cheap flight & accommodation over in the continent so the Brits seek the cheaper & more exotic places for their holidays.

Part way along Loch Linnhe we turn East at Ballachulish & drive along Glen Coe, stopping at the site of the treachery of the Campbell Clan. The valley & mountains are so beautiful & rugged, it is difficult to imagine that so much bloodshed occurred here.

Each corner we turn in the road reveals spectacular scenery, it is so hard to describe how good it looks, the photos we take don’t even come close to doing it justice. Our lunch stop is at Tyndrum at the infamous Green Welly, a complex of shops, cafes & restaurants that sell, as part of the business, very flash & expensive (150 pound per pair) green Wellington boots (gum boots). On the road again we turn south at Crianlarich along the edge of Trossachs National Park & the famous Loch Lomond, another very narrow, very twisty stretch of road barely wide enough for our coach, let alone vehicles in the other direction. Passing trucks or cars is done very slowly, with any or many of the vehicles stopping or even reversing to let the other pass. Stunning scenery though once again. Needless to say there is not much in the way of habitation.

We arrive in Glasgow early afternoon & get dropped off at George Square, full of bronze statues & people lolling around on the grass in the warm afternoon, it is around 22C. We are soaking up the sunshine, unbelievable it is warm in Scotland. The locals are in flimsy summer clothes – we don’t think it is that warm, just nice. We commence a walk around the central part of Glasgow for a few hours by ourselves. We have a slow walk along the main shopping mall of Buchanan Street before turning at Cathedral Street & walking just past the University up to Glasgow Cathedral (there are a lot of uni students running around in their gowns because they had graduation today). This is the oldest building in Glasgow & started being built in the late 12^th Century. We have a look inside the cathedral, there are some nice stained glass windows & old original oak doors dating from the mid 1400s near the altar, they are characterised by numbers of bullet holes in both doors indicating a troubled past. A church bell at the back of the cathedral is nearly as tall as Tereza. Along both sides are memorials of notable people, some tell tragic stories. Outside at the back of the cathedral is a small hill that is covered with gravestones & tombs & memorials.

Our walk back to George Square from the cathedral passes firstly the oldest house in Glasgow, the Provand’s Lordship, built in 1471. We then pass Dr Who’s Tardis before walking down the High Street past an old row of stone buildings with a magnificent mural on one end. Back at George Square we both comment that Glasgow has a good feel about it, we both feel that it is a far nicer city than Edinburgh & the buildings are that much better looking & not very many buildings are dark & depressing like we felt Edinburgh buildings were. The medieval old buildings in Glasgow have been demolished & the city rebuilt, they didn’t use a lot of the rocks that unfortunately turn sooty/black with age (when the buildings are cleaned the rocks end up turning mouldy so it’s best to leave them as they are).

We have an hour at the hotel before we are off to dinner in a nice restaurant in the old Merchants House, a refurbished marketplace building. We have a delicious meal & another good chat with some more people from our tour group. Another great day, each one seems to be better than the last, if that is possible.

Scotland has barely any trees, other than the pine plantations, it is so bare, cold, windy & inhospitable, but then you come to such beauty as we have seen the last couple of days – it is amazing.  We really liked Scotland & it’s harsh beauty.