Day 9-Our last full day in Scotland

Day 9-Wednesday, July 18, 2018

We leave our B&B, Kathleen's B&B in Gardenstown, Scotland and head towards Glasgow.

Since this is our last day here, we packed the night before so all we had to do was get up and have our breakfast, and pack our bags into the car....again.   Breakfast was excellent as usual and Kathleen outdid herself with our breakfast.  I confused her though as I opted for the oatmeal this morning instead of the full Scottish breakfast.  I did, however, ask for some of that delicious pork sausage and Kathleen apparently doesn't get orders for just one item very often.  She served me my sausage  on a huge plate...all by itself.  It did look kind of lonely all by itself.

Jess and Rachel








Then we packed up our car and headed west.  We decided since this would be our last full day, that we should try and get to Glasgow as quickly as possible.  That way we would have some time to spend in Glasgow.

Our gps decided it would be quicker if we hugged the coast, then angle over towards Glasgow.  The roads were more of a highway on the route we took back so the going was pretty smooth.  We ran across some traffic when we went through the towns, but it was pretty fast going.  

Funny story...(don't have any pictures for this though).  We decided to take a break after awhile and saw a McDonald's of all places to pull into.  As we were walking up to the door of the building, an older gentleman went running past us--I mean he was seriously in a big hurry.  I said, "Someone's gotta go to the bathroom!" Just jokingly.  When we got inside we looked for the restrooms.  They were in the corner with hand drawn stick figures to show you boy, girl, family bathrooms.  We opened up the girls bathroom door and immediately saw the older gentleman standing in one of the stalls going to the bathroom.  We shut the door quick as we could and started laughing about how he must have rushed in there.  Several minutes later here comes Rachel out of the bathroom.  I didn't even see her go in...she must have been in a hurry too.  Lol.  She laughed and said that the guy finally did close the door to the stall when he saw her go by.  A few minutes later, out comes the man.  He looks at the door as he comes out and said, " I must have went in the wrong place."  Do you think?  We got a good chuckle out of it.  

We made it to our hotel in Glasgow around noonish.  Check in wasn't until 4:00 pm, but we thought we'd ask if we could drop off our luggage at least.  The hotel clerk was very gracious and said we could put our bags into their office.  Then they offered us free complimentary tea and coffee in their restaurant.  We sat down for some coffee, tea, and cookies offered to us to relax a few minutes.  Then we went to go ask how long before we might be able to check in...they said our rooms were actually ready now.  Yay!  We took our bags upstairs and dropped them into our rooms.  As we sat having coffee, Jess checked out the bus schedule into downtown Glasgow.  We all downloaded their app and purchased a day pass via our phones.  So off we went.   We walked across the street to wait for the bus. 

Nan read in Rick Steves book on Scotland about some shops located on Victoria Street that would be good shopping.  We headed for the street that was recommended in the book and found a quaint little street full of restaurants and shops.  We walked up and down the street trying to decide where we should eat.  After a bit of indecision, and differences of opinions. lol- we ended up in a place that used to be an old theater.  They had this huge movie screen on the wall and we read how they would show movies during their dinner hours.  

Dinner was mostly good...Nan had some issues with hers so they comped her meal.  I went into the ladies room and laughed when I saw a curling iron on the wall that you could put money in and use to curl/straighten your hair.  Funny. 

Next we walked over to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy their flowers, and herbs. Rachel met a friend in the gardens.  Some bit fat kitty and of course she had to go say hello. 

Netty talking to the kitty.

Then we headed back to the bus stop.  There was some construction going on so we had to reroute our stops.  I was a little bummed because I had wanted to get a Harris Tweed bag before I left.  Jessie picked one up while we were at Loch Ness and it was the perfect size for school.  Most of the shops were closing down already and I thought I would miss my chance at getting one.  Luckily, as we went to find our new bus stop, I saw some shops that were still open and the closest one had some Harris Tweed items in its window.  So I told the girls to hang on cause I wanted to run in and check out the store.   Alas, no luck on the bag I was looking for.  

When I came out of the store, Jess and Cindy were there.  The other girls, Nan, Netty, and Rachel decided to go on to the bus stop on their own.  We decided to continue shopping as the shops on this street were still open.  I think I found my bag in the third store I tried.  It was not the color I was looking for, but it was a beautiful pink and purple plaid.  So I went ahead and bought it. Jess found her last souvenir item for Libby there, and Cindy bought something as well.  It was a good stop.  

When we came out of the store, we decided that since we all had what we needed, that we would go ahead and head back to the hotel.  Only the next bus was not coming for another 45 minutes.  Jess decided to order an Uber ride and the man came and picked us up on the corner. That was so perfect! He drove us back to our hotel and we went up to our room.  I think we all plopped down on the bed when we got there.  What a long day!  We packed our bags....Cindy had to toss out a couple of pairs of jeans to make room for all the gifts she bought--LOL.  And we hit the hay pretty early...about 10:00 pm.  I set my alarm for 12: 00 am so I could check in for my flight from JFK to Tampa the next day.  

At 12:00 am the site would still not let me check in, so I figured I'd have to wait until the morning.  

For some reason I woke up at 3:00 am and I tried checking in online again.  Success!  Now I could sleep.  7:00 am would come too soon. Sigh.  Our last day in Scotland.  It was bittersweet.  I know we all were homesick for our loved ones at home, yet we wished we could have a few more days in Scotland.  There is just way too much to do and see.  I felt bad because I had arranged our last B&B so far out on the coast.  I didn't realize how far away it was from everything else.  I kept thinking if we had only stayed closer to Culloden that we wouldn't have lost so much time in travel.  Travel there.....and then travel back.   The way there didn't feel so much like lost time because we stopped at several places on the way there, but the way back seemed a waste of a perfectly good day in Scotland.    Hindsight though....we'll know for the next time to stay closer and do less traveling to a destination.  

Scotland is embedded into our hearts forever. 

Day 8-A Day of Relaxation

Okay.  So we don't do relaxation very well.  We did, however, sleep in until 8:00 am.  That felt good. And I went upstairs to eat breakfast in my lounge wear.  No rushing today.

Our host was very meticulous and was very eager to make sure we had everything we needed.  She had the breakfast table all set up for us and it looked lovely.

This is her kitchen.  Wish we had gotten a photo of the lovely table setting.  Anyways, our host Kathleen told us about the kirk yard near by and we decided to go for a little stroll through town first. Then we might hike up to the kirk yard (it's on the side of the cliff).  A kirk yard is a graveyard.

So we headed out down the narrow street.  It was all so quaint.

When we got down to the bottom of the steps, we found ourselves on the street that borders the sea.  It was a narrow one track street with no railings on the edge.  Now that would be scary to drive on!

But as we got down to the end of the street we could see the kirk yard up on the side of the mountain side.  The tide was out so it would be easy to walk to the path.  We all somehow just felt the pull of the place and headed that way.  Now, the girls, Jess and Rachel, did NOT like the smell of the place.  Seaweed, fish, salt, and stinky fishy sea smell.  LOL   So they rushed away from the street and onto the beach.

As I passed the rocks, there looked like one might possibly be a cave.  So I wandered over there to check it out.  Alas, it was not a cave, but I went inside as far as I could and the view was awesome.  I decided to get a picture from inside.  Just about then Nan came walking up and got in the picture.  It turned out pretty cool.

We headed up towards the kirk yard, Nan and I.  The rest were way ahead of us.

We wandered around the place for awhile taking pictures, reading the headstones, and taking in the view.

We took lots of pictures!

Then we headed back to our B&B in the seaside town perched on the edge of the sea.

  Next we decided to take a drive into Banff and check out a tea room we had heard about.  After some more miscalculations from our gps, we found the place we were looking for; Duff House.
The tea room was inside the Duff House.  When we pulled up to it, it looked a lot like the house used in Downton Abby.  I could just picture the servants all lined up to greet the master of the house as he pulled up in his cairrage.

We had our tea in the tearoom, bellies full, and decided to tour the house as it was on our 7 Day Explorer pass.  Might as well get the most bang for our bucks.  

The place was gorgeous.  All set up to look like it did in the day when people lived there. 

Lol-I had to take this picture to show Tom the gravity fed toilet.  

After touring the house, we headed back to our B&B for some rest. 

We took a nap, some of us.  Some of us tried working on our blog posts because this was the best wifi we have had since we've been here. 

After a few hours, Netty and I looked up to see Jessica and Rachel standing in the doorway with their purses.  They were hangry!  Rachel wanted food now.  So they said they were going to go next door to grab a bite to eat.  We had planned on going over to the next town-Frasersburg-to a pub called "Cheers" (yes, after the T.V. show Cheers.  With Fraser in it.  -lol)  But the girls wanted to eat now.  So we all scrambled to get our purses and go with them.  After all, it's no fun when we all go to separate places.  Well, we didn't even get to the pub and Jess and Rachel were turning around.  The pub was not open on a Tuesday.  Weird.  So then we tried looking up a place in town near us.  Nope.  It was closed too.  So we ended up getting in the car and driving over to Frasersburg.  It was a nice little drive, with narrow, two -track roads full of hills and curves.   The roads in Scotland are narrow and hilly.  And the local drivers come flying around those curves and hills -usually in the middle of the road.  Yikes!  I tried to take them very carefully because there are a lot of blind summits there.  That's a hill that you cannot see over-so you don't know if a car is coming, or don't even know if the hill goes straight down, or curves away.  Anyway, we made it to Frasersburg and found the place Cheers.  I took a picture of the sign.  It looks just like the Cheers  sign in the T.V. show.  

We saw the sign and turned to go into the pub, but it was actually an alleyway.  So we walked down there. 

We made it inside and ordered our food.  Just before we left, Rachel asked the bartender about a good choice for whiskey to share with friends.  He ended up schooling our group on the different types of whiskey there are and gave them several samples of whiskey.  He was very informative and helpful.  The last whiskey he brought out was from a bottle he had given to him during an event he attended.  It was one of the most expensive brands....and I noticed he didn't offer a sample of that whiskey.  LOL

Rachel ended up buying some whiskey from him, and so did Netty.  They would both have to check their bags at the airport now because it was a full size bottle.  Slainte!

Back to our B&B.  The view was awesome.   I went straight to my room and packed my things.  Tomorrow we are headed back to Glasgow.  It is a four hour drive.   So I definitely wanted to get some sleep.  Good night all. Sad to be leaving Scotland.  Time just flew by.