With another pretty sail in. We were not too sure what the weather was going to do for us again today... As we sailed up the river you knew we were getting close cause you heard the sound of bagpipes filtering up on deck.... we rushed over the side to find 2 lone bagpipers welcoming us in..... Then much to everyone’s delight out popped this inflatable Scotsman. He jigged his way up and down the dock to the sounds of the pipes, playing up and waving to the crowds that were building up on the decks.
Here we were being met by Garry’s niece Vicky, her partner Ron and her daughter Ellie. It was great to walk down towards the port gates to see them there waiting for us... After lots of hugs and kisses we were off to our first destination Stirling Castle. Like most of our ports we had arrive a little early so we found a little cafe for coffee and for the others breakfast as they were up so early to meet us. The picture shows a full Scottish breakfast .... when I asked the difference between English and Scottish was ..... It was the big black round things on the plate known as black pudding.... I had a little sample but I think that was enough to satisfy my curiosity...
Whilst there we were also joined by Bruce ( Ron’s brother) , Sarah his wife and son Alistair... this was a real treat as we had met Bruce a couple of years ago when both brothers visited Australia for a day on the way to New Zealand.
The boys made a good team in conducting our tour, Bruce with his wealth of knowledge and Ron with his great sense of direction LOL.......
Stirling is an old city and a real contrast to the villages that we had been to in England.... I didn’t know how to describe it until someone mentioned coal mining town.... I thought yes more industrial or was it that is was just older and more functional or just that all the buildings are grey..... but pretty all the same....
I have decided that I love castles ... This one was much more ornate and preserved than Dover Castle... it was the home of King James V. Here the walls and ceilings have all been restored to their former glory and beautiful tapestries hang from their walls. Many of the rooms have a representative of that era ready to tell you about their times.... The one that really caught our attention was the gentleman in the kings quarters. At this stage Ellie and I were having good fun having our photo’s taken along side these handsome young boys .... until it was pointed out that this particular one had an unusual piece of clothing which he decided to tell us about..... Lo and Behold sticking out from the front of his shorts was his Codpiece..... Used to keep bits and pieces that can easily be reached ( see photo above ) .... well Ellie turned the brightest shade of pink and hid next to her mother and I .... couldn’t stop taking pictures of it......gosh we laughed...
After containing our composure we moved on.... One of the things that Stirling Castle is famous for are the Wooden disks that were carved to decorate the ceiling in the kings inner lodgings. These colourful disks depicted people of importance around that era such as King James himself, his wife , children, his uncle and foe King Henry VIII ..... and not to mention the carvers daughter..... well there has to be some perks for all your hard work...
The medallions on the ceiling are reproductions and the originals are in a separate to gallery to keep them safe.
Now this is when all the planets align themselves so something amazing happens.... On the way out we had to do the obligatory gift shop crawl and I was determined to get one of these disks in form of fridge magnet ..... This meant that we had to go back into the castle to another shop to buy them... This of course delayed our departure a little.... when we finally got to the car park I thought I look at around just see if there was anyone princess there... cause you know we always see someone!! Looking across I saw someone with their princess bag... aha.. I knew the bus would turn up sooner or later.... But hang on I know those people!! It was Col and Judy who very sadly for us got off in Dover.... It was like one of those scenes with long lost loves meeting again after many years... in our case a few days.... more hugs all round.... They were only at Sterling Castle cause their car broke down and need to be fixed , so the mechanic dropped them up at the castle to fill in time.... how is that for chance....
After this quick reunion we were off to the Wallace Monument, a tower built dedicated to Sir William Wallace. What a great feat that would have been back in the 1800’s as we had enough trouble getting ourselves up to the top of the hill, let alone getting all that stone to build it up there... Not only is there a steep climb up to the moment but then you are faced with a long narrow spiral stair case to get to the top of the tower, but you are rewarded and not just with the T Shirt that says “I climbed the 246 steps and survived”, but the beautiful views you get across Stirling and the winding River Forth.
From here the brothers Stuart decided to take us towards Loch Lomond. Lock or lake that is the question!!... I asked Ron what is the difference between a Loch and a Lake....he said “ nothing “... so I have now deduced that the difference between the two is a drunk Scotsman that instead of Lake he slurred Loch in his heavy accent and so the name stuck.
At this point there was a little confusion about which direction we were travelling and after a couple of mobile calls we turned back and decided to have lunch at the visitors centre.....As you can see from the pictures once there the boys were still debating who was right....
It was here that we said our goodbyes to Bruce and his family and we started heading back to Greenock... we had just enough time for a fleeting visit to Loch Lomond ..... Whilst there I said to Garry ...”oh we didn’t see the Loch Ness Monster!” to which he replied “ wrong loch”.... I said “ yeah, but he might be on holidays” Boom Boom
On the way back there was a bit of bank up of cars on the other side of the motorway and we thought how lucky we are not to be caught... Once back on ship our sail away was delayed by over 45 mins because 2 of the princess coaches were caught... This was causing a bit of angst as we needed to make the Dublin Tidal window to ensure we could enter the port.
Once again there were lots of hugs and kisses when we said goodbye to our family. Down on the dock we had a band of pipers entertaining us as we sailed away and even our little inflatable friend made another appearance.
Now it is full steam ahead to get to Dublin.... lucky we have all 4 generators in working order now.....
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