Blogs from Callander, Perthshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

Day 6 Catch Up to Callander I arose this morning to have my £2 international hostel breakfast with people from Germany, Sweden, Spain, France, China, USA, Scotland, and England. A good simple breakfast of coffee, juice , cereal, scones, toast, oatmeal, and fruit. Today was to be my test day for my saddle sore remedy. Hopefully, caught early enough to resolve. The ride started overcast, with some brighter spots, and was initially the usual climb and decent. There seemed to be lots of manor houses along the way, with many of those who were not in manors living in what were once the gatehouses to the manors. They must still have gamekeepers for some manors also, as I cycled through a few flocks of pheasants. One group along the road, had to be a hundred or ... read more

The weather meant we would soon be moving out of Scotland and back into England. The sun followed by rain followed by sun meant the midges were out in force making it impossible to have even the windows open. This is not pleasant in a metal box. Today we travelled to a local farm to try and solve their Maize Maze. It was quite a humid day and being surrounded by six foot maize did nothing to help this. The idea was that on our way around we should come across boards with pictures of animals on. With each animal was a stamp and to complete the maze correctly we had to collect all 8 stamps. This was easier said than done. As we got more and more lost and found no animals tensions rose. It ... read more

Having seen a few reviews on the internet for Callander’s chippy it would have been rude not to give it a go. Opinion was divided. The fish and chips fell somewhere between acceptable and the best ever - and the service somewhere between barely acceptable and perfect - and quite often the review would be mixed, with exceptional food and unexceptional service or vice versa. I was pleased so see that the chips were cooked in animal fat. This was something that our local chippy had always done and the taste was way beyond anything vegetable oil could produce. I was also happy when I entered the shop to see unusual and locally sustainable alternative catches available alongside the normal cod, Haddock etc.. I ordered one Megrim and one Haddock (needing to do a taste comparison), ... read more

After driving through the strangely named Kilmahog, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our site in Callander. Having had to book something at the last minute we were not expecting that much. Our pitch had its own water supply. This may seem like a strange thing to get excited about to those of you living in houses with running water. But believe me, when living in a caravan, its things like this that make it easier. After setting up we drove into town and had a wander around the many shops. It was good to be close to so many amenities after our daily tips to Inverness. Town was still about a mile away from the site so the site was still nice and quiet. We found plenty of pubs, shops selling shortbread and ... read more