Chronicle for 19 May 2012

We awoke this morning to a short bed, low ceilings, a tiny shower, however the sun is shining into our window and into our little room, so everything feels as if it is going to be alright.

As well as the tiny abodes that we are enjoying here at the George, they also have some well appointed opulent rooms on offer as well. Firstly we usually prefer to go budget and also the other rooms were booked out. It is obviously a popular place, perhaps it is the only place in this small town.

Being small however doesn't exclude this town from offering a castle and a historic jail. There isn't much more than that other than the hotel and an Indian restaurant. The castle is a permanent residence and so access is limited and the gardens are yet to meet their seasonal prime.

We are not too far away from where we started this journey in Stirling although that feels like such a long time ago. Looking back over the last couple of weeks it seems that we have complained a lot about our various accommodations. Perhaps we need to return to Europe and some of the dodgy places that we stayed in over there to remind us of just what the important things are. On the defensive side the accommodation on this side of the ditch is considerably more expensive than there and with that comes certain expectations.

After breakfast we commense a mosey around this little town and ended up wandering up towards the castle. It is a large building in the classic design that you would expect in a fairytale castle with a turret in each corner. It is built out of an interesting grey/green coloured stone. it really is impressive especially when you consider that it is someones private home.

On the way back we spotted some boys playing the local game of shinty. A game that we had explained to us as 'hockey for idiots'. From what we saw it is perfectly legal to raise you stick as high as you like and the ball can be hit the length of the pitch above everyone's heads. It seems like a recipe for smashed teeth and cheek bones.

We popped into the visitors centre and discovered that Inveraray was habitated by Clan Campbell and until 1743 all that it had to boast was a church, a tollbooth, a school, 43 taverns and over 300 herring skiffs.

Looking at the map we wondered where to explore today and we found a place just a stones throw from here that has a place name that just calls out to be visited, 'Rest and be Thankful'. It does make you wonder just how dire the diggs and offerings are there that even the town name tells you to stop complaining and enjoy it. So we headed in that direction.

We headed through 'Rest and be Thankful' without even realising it was there and perhaps we should be thankful for that. We then headed on through Tarbet and on down through Balloch travelling alongside Loch Lomond. This brought back memories of our trip up to Glasgow just before Christmas 2010. Whilst in Glasgow we took a train trip up to Balloch and a ferry ride out on Loch Lomond. At that time this whole place was under snow and ice. It was a rather different experience this time with the spring trees showing their spoils of fresh leaves.

We then stared heading towards Stirling where we began this journey, up towards Aberfoyle and through the Trossachs. A range of peaks that was visited by Sir Walter Scott and habituated by Rob Roy. The former instigated the beginning of tourism to Scotland. The later ... well history speaks for itself. He was the instigation of myths, legends, movies and hundreds of books and folklore.

We made a short detour to Loch Katrine. A very pretty loch and went for a two hour walk along it's length. there are various ferry rides from here as well as cycle rentals. We noticed that they also rent out the modern version of a PennyFarthing cycle. I would be tempted to give one of those a go. I suspect that they are more challenging then of a practical use.

From here we wound our way north and west through Lochearnhead, Crianlarich, Clifton, Dallmally, Cladich and home to Inveraray, all the while passing through glens, looking up at snow capped peaks, and passing along loch edges.

We are going to miss this country, we have loved it. We have loved getting back into hill country (something that we have missed so much), we have loved getting back to within sight and smelling distance of the sea, we have loved the lochs, the highlands, the colourful people that we have met and conversed with, we have loved the friendly and natural disposition of everyone and anyone that we have met. This is a wonderful place. We have been entertained by some of the experiences that we have had, and as with all of our journeys we have gleaned memories to last us for the rest of our lifetimes.

We will not forget the response of the woman in the Talisker Distillery when a very effeminate man wanted to take his little fluffy dog on the tour through the distillery with him, because the dogs name was Talisker. The look on the face of the rather staunch looking woman behind the desk said it all. She was thinking 'you have got to be kidding!'

Tomorrow we leave this fantastic part of the world and hope that we get to come back here soon.

Chronicle for 18 May 2012

We left our friends at the the Loch Leven Hotel this morning with mixed emotions. We still didn't manage to get a smile out of our waitresses however we don't hold them entirely to blame for that. We feel that this hotel is run with an iron fist and it probably isn't the nicest place to work. We get the impression that she hires people that are willing to work for next to nothing, and then puts them in client facing positions in which they don't feel entirely comfortable. We could hear and experienced their misunderstandings due to their English language being minimal. Despite this place being promoted with its chef service we suspect that it is some time since a chef of any repute has worked here judging by the food we were served the other night. We're not sure of any chef that would serve vege out of a frozen bag, the 'haggis parcels' that we discovered were really Haggis Wontons were stretching the 'Scottish Fusion' food a little too much towards the confusion end of the scale.

The large matron that runs this place tried to overcharge us considerably on leaving, despite this place being well overpriced for what you get anyway.

On leaving here we headed through Glen Coe and on through the hills towards Clifton, through Glen Lochy, across the top of Loch Awe, before arriving at Oban. This morning we had a white cloud cover, but no rain which has been nice. Much of this journey was spent driving through glens, valleys, and across tops, looking up towards the peaks often with the snow line peeking out just below the cloud level, giving us a teasing glimpse of what lay above. It was a wonderfully scenic trip.

Our first stop in Oban was the distillery which has a great reputation and manufactures a very fine drop. Unfortunately we were a little too late for the tour and we weren't inclined to wait two hours for the next one. We did however manage to get a free tasting, free always being good.

Outside we found a waterside offering a gathering of fishing boats and ferries. Oban promises to be the fishing capital of Scotland and judging by the number of fish'n'chip shops and the quality of their offerings it is easy to so why they hold this promise. The ferries from here go to Mull, Jura, Islay, and many of the smaller islands around. Judging by the look of the ferries they are built to withstand some very heavy weather.

For all intents and purposes Oban sounds like a similar service point as Mallaig, however we found Oban to have a lot more energy and buzz to it. Perhaps this is because it is a lot more accessible, this also makes it a lot more crowded in high summer. Whatever the reason we found this to be nice place to hang out for a few hours. We finished our stay here having coffee and scones in the 'Oban Chocolate Company', a place that we recommend, not just because they serve great coffee, food, and lots of chocolate, but also because they treated us while we were there to the sounds of Bic Runga.

From Oban we headed south via the main road, past coves and through glens before heading north again to our destination of Inveraray. We found somewhere to park before finding our hotel, where we were told that the Pay and Display carpark was the only such carpark in town, all the others are free.

We are staying in the George Hotel, which is an old pub/hotel with quite a few rooms attached. We are staying in one of the detached rooms, amongst a rabbit warren of hallways, passages, stairs and little doors that you need to duck through. We have been in and out of our room several times and each time by a different route. It would be quite easy to get lost and never find your way back to where you came from. Perhaps next time we should leave a trail of peas. The room itself is simple and small, with a small private bathroom directly across the hall. Although it is all quite dated and looks like it needs a bit of an overhaul, it is all that we need, and less than half the price of where we have spent the last couple of nights and so it far more satisfying.

We had dinner at the hotel and we were very impressed with the food and at very reasonable prices. They also finished our evening with a live 'cover' band. All in all this is a great place. Tomorrow we go out and explore some more.