Advertisement
Inside St. Conan's Kirk
Inside St. Conan's Kirk Our last day of the tour began around 9am again. We headed South towards Edinburgh, stopping first to see a rather unusual church (or kirk), St. Conan's Kirk on Loch Awe. This was a church mostly built by one family, the Campbells, so they wouldn't have to travel so far to the church in another town. One of their sons was an architect, so he decided to design it himself. If you look at the photo, you'll see how weird the design is. There seems to be little in common between one section and another, or even one tower and another. Also, it has the only rabbit gargoyles I've ever heard of. Rabid Rabbits? I'll admit I like the inside. It was elegant but simpe, without all the gaudy gold and stuff often found. Shortly after leaving the church, we stopped by the road for a photo of Kilchum Castle, also on Loch Awe.
On our way to our lunch spot in Callander, we hit a traffic jam caused by a head-on collision of two small cars, complicated by a small motor home and another car that I guess couldn't stop in time. We had to sit there for something
Outside (back) of church
Outside (back) of church like an hour and a half. When we finally reached the town of Callander to pick up lunch (no time now to stop and eat) and take a bathroom break, we were so far behind we had to decide to either skip one of the last two sights or cut them both a bit short. We opted to cut the two down and still see both.
We ate lunch on the bus, a couple of hot pastries, on our way to Doune Castle of Monty Python fame. Most of us paid the 5 Pounds to enter the castle and I don't think anyone was disappointed. Doune Castle was built, or rebuilt in the late 14th century by Robert Stuart, the Duke of Albany and son of King Robert II of Scotland. Although it isn't furnished, it is quite complete, and the 5 Pounds entry includes an audio guide. After wandering around the castle and listening to as much of the audio as we could in 30 minutes, we were back on the road of our final stop of the tour, the William Wallace Memorial.
Although I'm sure it is a great source of pride for the Scottish people,
Kilchum Castle
Kilchum Castle on Loch Awe we opted not to pay the 9.50 Pounds to enter. We grabbed a cup of hot coffee, hiked up the steep hill, took some photos, and returned to the bus in about 20 minutes. I might like to have seen the sword used by William Wallace, but not for 9.50 Pounds. We returned to Edinburgh around 5pm, happy but tired.
I will definitely say the tour was well worth the money (about 200 Pounds), and recommend it to anyone, but with one caveat. See if you can book it during a bit warmer time of the year. It was downright freezing at times, which kept it from being quite as enjoyable as it could have been. We had no complaints about any of the hostels, and for those you want more privacy, you can book the rooms yourself and get a private room versus the 6 to 12-bed dorms we had.
After returning to Edinburgh and checking back into our Castle Rock Hostel, we strolled around a bit, got some more money from the ATM, and I picked up some dinner. I had to get the King Rib again, and also an order of batter-fried mushrooms. Both were
Great Hall of Doune Castle
Great Hall of Doune Castle delicious! Tomorrow we check out of the hostel around 10am, storing our bags at the hostel while we see some more of Edinburgh. Our flight to Frankfurt Hahn airport (Frankfurt Hahn, not Frankfurt), doesn't leave until after 6pm. See you next in Germany, although getting in at 9:30pm, I may not take the time to do the blog that night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.318s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 16; qc: 63; dbt: 0.1057s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jo
non-member comment
Thanks
We're going to get there some day, JC! Thanks for sharing your experiences!