Today was a rather relaxed day. We left at about 9AM after breafast for the 90minute drive from Dailly to Stirling. There we visitied the Old Town Jail, a Victorian jail built in the early 1800's when prison reform in Scotland started. It was a most interesting experience, made so by the tour guide who acted out various parts, all with perfect accents, although he was from Glasgow. Then we went to the castle, which is almost like a smaller version of Edinburgh Castle, and then for a walk around the village.
Then it was then about 2.30PM and the kids were complaining about being hungry, so we found a park below the castle called King's Park, where we had a cream tea - we managed to find clotted cream and pre-made scones at the supermarket. Not quite as good, but that way we were able to make pigs of ourselves and have 3 scones each. The flask and cooler bag that we bought when we arrivesd in Bedford have served us really well up to now.
I was a bit tired after that so Jeanette drove us home. It was the first time that she has driven any distance anywhere other than in South Africa and did really well followingthe Satnav.
We arrived home just before 6 tonight(somewhat earlier than previous nights) in order to pack up our possesions, which have grown somewhat in volume and weight for the trip down to Kerri and Al tomorrow, which we are looking forward to.
It is only about a 4 hour drive, but we will be up and off early in the morning as we are going to stop at Bowness on Lake Windermere for a cruise on a steam boat, and then an interesting drive on the way down.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Pedometers
James' pedometer says that he has walked 5.04kms today, and we had a pretty relaxed day in respect of walking. We spend a lot of the day in the car.
Thursday 1st July
After spending the night in Inverness last night, we set off pretty early this morning(battled to get thekids up). We spent some trime in Nairn for a walk around the harbour, Fishertown, and the City Centre. The tide was out and the kids were amazed to see that there was a rather large boat just lying on the harbour floor.
Next was off to a smaller and very quaint town called Forres fo a walk around, and then on to The Macallan for a distillery tour. Whilst the distillery is in it's annual maintenance shutdown period, we were shown the entire process from Malting the Barley to distillation, and then the filling of the barrels. They also talk quite a bit about the barrles that they use and where they source them from as this is probably the most important part of the whisky making process - the aging. The tour was finished with some samples. We of course managed to buy some rather larger samples to bring back with us. Next was a drive through the village of Craigellachie, and then a stop at its bridge, which is no longer in use, but was built by Thomas Telford in 1814, and is the oldest stell bridge in Scotland.
Lunch was in Aviemore at a pub called Mackenzie's, and then back on the road to Dailly. What was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive ended up taking almost 5 hours due to 2 quire serious accidents on the way back.
We stopped for fuel after driving 1099.7kms on a tank(61.6l) of diesel(5.6l/100km). It is quite amazing that a large modern car can achieve such mileage, and it is fantastic not to have to be filling up every 5 minutes with the price of diesel here being between GBP1.15 and 1.22/litre.
Next was off to a smaller and very quaint town called Forres fo a walk around, and then on to The Macallan for a distillery tour. Whilst the distillery is in it's annual maintenance shutdown period, we were shown the entire process from Malting the Barley to distillation, and then the filling of the barrels. They also talk quite a bit about the barrles that they use and where they source them from as this is probably the most important part of the whisky making process - the aging. The tour was finished with some samples. We of course managed to buy some rather larger samples to bring back with us. Next was a drive through the village of Craigellachie, and then a stop at its bridge, which is no longer in use, but was built by Thomas Telford in 1814, and is the oldest stell bridge in Scotland.
Lunch was in Aviemore at a pub called Mackenzie's, and then back on the road to Dailly. What was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive ended up taking almost 5 hours due to 2 quire serious accidents on the way back.
We stopped for fuel after driving 1099.7kms on a tank(61.6l) of diesel(5.6l/100km). It is quite amazing that a large modern car can achieve such mileage, and it is fantastic not to have to be filling up every 5 minutes with the price of diesel here being between GBP1.15 and 1.22/litre.
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