On the road to Stirling-only 1 mishap

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Last night we walked down the street for dinner (in the rain of course). We went to Clan MacDuff restaurant. It was pretty good. They had a tasting of 4 local whiskeys so I tried that. Pictures here in the blog with the descriptions. My favorite was the 1st one and my least favorite was the last one, from the islands with the smokey flavor. I had the sea bass on top of potatoes and rocket (very grassy salad greens) with shrimp and chorizo. Pics in the blog. Dot chose the fish of the day - haddock lightly crusted in pistachio crumbs. Both pretty good. For dessert I decided to stray away from chocolate for a change and tried the Bread and Butter Pudding. The waiter suggested having it with both custard and ice cream - can't go wrong with that suggestion. It was a nice bread pudding floating in a bed of custard topped with homemade vanilla ice cream. A good finish.

Tomorrow we leave Fort William and head for Stirling.

The next morning:

Our B&B in Fort Williams was very nice, but we couldn't wait to leave. Our host was way too talkative and fake friendly. Drove us bonkers. We tried to go in and out when he was busy with someone else. We finally checked out and got ready to drive to Stirling, with several sites to stop at along the way.

So we had a little mishap with the car. If any men are reading this blog they will think we are idiots. When we started the car this morning, the Tire Pressure Hazard light came on. I know that doesn't bother most people, but we are in a foreign country, on a Sunday, a holiday weekend and no AAA. Plus, full disclosure, a couple of days ago I sideswiped that front left tire pretty hard against the curb on the side of the highway. Didn't realize I was drifting to the left of my lane so much and I was going fairly fast. (remember, I am on the other side of the car) So, we were afraid we might have a slow leak. We knew there was a gas station about 10 miles down the road, so we proceeded on our way. There was NO Way we were going to go back into the B&B to ask Mr. Talkative for help or advice. We were worried about finding air, because in Colorado (Winter Park) we went to 4 gas stations and no one had air. We got lucky...first gas station had a nice air pump. Figuring out how to work it was another challenge. The car's driver door had the air pressure required, just like in the USA. However, (picture included) their pressures were in kPa. It also had different pressures for number of people in the car - because it's a small car? So I chose the pressure for 2 people at 210. The air machine said to enter the desired pressure, then put the money in and it would then fill the tire to that pressure. I tried putting in 210 but the machine wouldn't go that high. It was in PSI. Thanks to Google, I translated the kPa to the PSI at 32. (proud moment) I keyed in 32 and we aired up the tire. However, when Dot connected the machine, it said my tire was at 35 and started letting air out to my goal of 32. Crap. I turned the car back on the hazard light was still there. Dot went to see if the gas station had a tire gauge - or course not. So I went to the next level on the diagram, for 3 people, which converted to 39 PSI. We redid the whole process and increased the pressure to 39. We then checked the other front tire and it was around 38. Turned the car on the Hazard light was gone! Success!! The girls figured it out eventually. Of course, we will worry until we return the car that we have a slow leak due to my poor driving skills, but we'll see what tomorrow morning brings.

We proceeded on our way without further incident through the scenic valley of Glencoe. It was a beautiful drive and I have included several photos, although as usual it was a little foggy. All along the valley we were surrounded by green rolling hills with many streams/waterfalls flowing downward. It was like the hills were crying. A couple of large waterfalls too. See pictures in the blog.

We made one unscheduled, off itinerary stop today. We were driving along and came to this quaint little town with cute shops along the main road. Plus a bakery. We stopped, of course. We had lunch here and did a little shopping. Don't even know what the name of the town was, but it was a nice stop.

One of our big site seeing stops today was at Castle Doune. Also known to Outlander Fans as Castle Leoch. For Connie Z, this was also used in Monty Python and the audio tour was narrated by one of those guys. They also had special narrations by Jaime from Outlander talking about how they filmed some of the TV show here. The narrations really brought the castle to life. It is mostly a ruin-no furnishings but you can still see how the rooms were laid out. Several pictures in the blog. Also, there was a sign there about Game of Thrones and Winterfell. Not sure if they used this Castle in one of the shots of Winterfell or if it was some weird advertising.

We made it to our B&B in Stirling without any more incidents. 2 beds again - yay. This owner was also pretty talkative, but I didn't mind. She was appropriately talkative, and genuine. We can walk to Stirling Castle and town from this B&B. We walked up to the Castle and I included a few photos, but we will tour it tomorrow and hopefully get some better ones. Wandered on into town to check out the shops and find something for dinner. Being Sunday evening, most of the shops were closed. But the town looks super old and quaint. Many of the buildings are castle-like.

We dined at a wonderful restaurant called Brea. I included the pictures because the food was nicely presented and amazing. Who knew that Scotland also makes Vodka? Back to my usual fruity martini. It was perfect. Blackwoods vodka mixed with a tropical blend of mangoes, passion fruit and a splash of orange juice. Dot had salmon and I had haddock wrapped around smoked salmon in a creamy dill sauce. Official descriptions on the photos. Everything was excellent. Dot had her sticky toffee pudding for dessert and it was the best yet.

After dinner we waddled back to our B&B to make plans for tomorrow. Only a couple of days left!

Total of 37 pictures, scroll down for the rest.

14,000 steps today. Not sure how, we were in the car a good portion of the day.

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Photos

Since we walked to dinner....
I decided to try a whisky tasting. 4 whiskeys from different areas of Scotland. Details in next picture

Detail of the 4 whiskeys
Did not like the 4th one. Way to smoky flavored- the islands use Peat to make it.

Sea bass on top of mashed potatoes (hidden underneath)
served on a bed of Rocket (which seems to be very grassy lettuce over here) mixed with shrimp and chorizo. (the chorizo was excellent)

Dot had the fish of the day
Pistachio encrusted haddock.

Bread and butter pudding for dessert
Sort of bread pudding, served with custard and ice cream

Our B&B provides Midge Repellent
Such a big thing here.

Hikers form at the B&B
I guess so we don't have to chew our arm off, you fill this out so they can search for you if you don't show up after a few days.

Tire pressure info on our car door
What in the world is kPa?

Tears of MacDonald Waterfall
Beautiful waterfall along our drive. The name comes from the fact that the British murdered the entire clan of MacDonalds in Glencoe Valley after enjoying their hospitality for several weeks.

Castle Doune
Also knows as Castle Leoch to Outlander fans. Also used in Monty Python

Dot standing in the giant cooking fireplace in the kitchen of the Castle
Outlander reconstructed this same kitchen on a movie studio.

Comments

[Judy]

Hi
Your B&B looks fantastic and the food looks scrumptious! Great way to wind down your vacation! Enjoy your last few days and safe travels home!

[ChrisandDot]

B&B
yes, so far, this B&B is pretty nice. we'll see how we sleep tonight and what breakfast is like tomorrow morning. That last B&B was way to healthy for me. The breakfast cereal was unrecognizable. All healthy shit. Our meal this evening was awesome. See you soon.

[Marilyn P Ash]

Restaurant
The food looks really good. The desserts look especially yummy. Waterfalls are beautiful. B&B looks very nice. Chris is turning into a lush! good thing you walked 14,000 steps.