Stirling, Scotland, United KingdomPremier Inn, City Center, Stirling, Scotland
I seemed to get up earlier and earlier.
It was before 4 am when I first looked at my phone but I managed to stay in bed until 6:34 am then I got up, showered and started breakfast to get to leave for Stirling. I had done most of my packing the previous night.
When we came back to the apartment yesterday, Marilynn asked the desk clerk to get us a taxi for 9:50 am . Marilynn wanted to get help with her big suitcase so we went down early but when we went out to wait for the taxi, none came. Marilynn went in to check what had happened and discovered there was no record of their calling and arranging the taxi for our morning pickup. We then had to hustle to Bridge street to catch a bus down to the Waverly train station. We got on a bus but the traffic was slow and Marilynn announced that we only had 15 min to catch the train which would not be enough time. Unsure of where to get off the bus, Marilynn asked and the bus driver told us the nearest stop to Waverly. I never got the streets totally down so that I would recognize where the station would be.
I had the wrong street. I thought it was Prince which would have been too far down the hill. Instead it was the Mound. But, luckily, Marilynn got us to the station. She printed out our tickets and we went to Platform 10 to catch our train which was now at 11:03 rather tha 10:30. A breather for us.
We had a nice little section in front at a table for 4 and our bags were stacked behind us. The ride was sort of pleasant but the tracks are surrounded by fairly high hedges and trees so I didn't get to see much landscape. I did see some farm fields with hay bales and a few suburban-like towns. We went through quite a few stops and then reached Stirling shortlyly after noon. We took a taxi the short distance to the Premium Inn and had them store our bags while we went into town. We walked over the pedestrian bridge and it wasn't so far at all. The GPS had given 1.6 km but it was much shorter than that.
We walked around a bit to try to find somewhere to eat a light lunch and ended up at Brea or something like that where I had a fantastic soup cullen skink (no it was another word) with smoked haddock and potatoes in a cream sauce (like a chowder) with Thistle Cross traditional cider. Marilynn had a goat cheese dish. We had a nice young waiter and gave him a nice tip. The service was a lot better than at the tea shops of the previous few days.
After that we walked up the hill - Scotland has a lot of hills - and got tickets for the guided tour of the Old Town Jail.
We waited maybe 15 minutes and even got an audio guide - which I did listen to after the the part of the tour with a live actor. He was a tall young man with a dashing mustache who did impersonations of the various famous people involved with the transformation of the horrible old jail to the new reformed jail that was intended to rehabilitate prisoners rather than just torture and kill them. He was very good as he shouted and came dashing down the darkened corridors of the old jail building. After the performance, we could use our audio guides and also go to the terrace on top of the prison and look out over the city of Stirling and even see the castle where we have tickets for Thursday.
We went to the gift shop where I got 6 postcards including one of a curly coo (Highland cow)- all for 2 pounds. A very good deal. I also bought a map of Scotland. We walked back down the hill and Marilynn saw some mailboxes so I mailed my Manx and Scotland postcards to my "kids." We continued on down to the street next to the train station and crossed the pedestrian bridge back to the hotel.
We checked in and retrieved our luggage. When we got to the room, it was big and cold but only had one large bed so I went back to reception to try to get it changed. They told me that the room had a double or bigger bed and the sofa could be converted into a bed which they would do when we went out for dinner. I came back upstairs but Marilynn still felt that we should get twin beds because we didn't have much space to put things if the sofa was turned into a bed. We both went down and they explained that there were not actually any twin bed rooms - the double and sofa bed was the only twin sleeping arrangement available, so we accepted it. Marilynn reminded them that we still needed another hand towel. She also reminded me that we had the same problem at the other Preium Inn that we had stayed in. The chain must have chosen this arrangement in order to give itself the most flexibility.
We got settled in our room and surveyed the possibilities for dinner. Marilynn could not find any restaurant with acceptable food - all had the usual pizza, pasta, burgers pub food. I ended up looking at places that had music, but they all had the typical pub fare. Finally Marilynn suggested we go to Pizza Express as an alternative because they did have a gluten-free pizza. We went there and I had a venezianno pizza and Marilynn had cannelloni which she liked OK. My pizza was pretty good too. We came back and watched Midsummer Murders and now I am finishing my blog in the bathroom because Marilynn has gone to bed and I didn't want the light to disturb her. I didn't have any Nikon photos to upload.
2025-05-22