Stirling, Scotland, United KingdomPremier Inn Stirling Scotland
So it was another typical morning.
I woke up a little before Marilynn's alarm. I did the usual - can't remember in what order. We went over to the hotel restaurant for our breakfast. The maitre d' asked for my name and room number and tried to check me off when we had already told him that we had not pre-paid for our breakfasts. I had muesli with yogurt, OJ, cappuchino from a machine and mixed fresh fruit. There were no bananas - I was disappointed. When we left, we were asked if we had paid yet, so I went to the register to pay.
We spent a little more time in the room before walking over or rather up to the castle for our visit. We got there about10 minutes before the next tour at 11 am. We had an older man who wore a green plaid pair of trousers and talked in quite a loud voice. He was quite enthusiastic like all of our previous guides. We visited the great hall in one building, several courtyards, and learned quite a bit about the castle in its 900-year history as well as some of the famous battles for Scotland's Independence and the Jacobite wars. I think we went into some other areas - could it have been the royal palace with the king's and queen's bedrooms and sitting rooms. After the formal tour, we visited the kitchens,the carved heads and the Tapestry Experience as well as the gardens. I think it was the queen's rooms that had several tapestry replicas but the king's area was more bare since he had just died and the rooms were stripped of belongings such as the mattress in the four poster bed.
Marilynn had wanted to visit the highlanders museum until she found out that it was mostly military. We also went to the gift shop before leaving the castle.
We saw an ice cream truck and both had ice creams before starting on the back path walk. Oh, yes, we stopped for lunch in the castle resatauant the Unicorn Inn or something like that and both had tomato basil soup since that was the only kind left. I had some potato chips too and sort of looked at the haggis chips but decided against them.
Marilynn had a printed copy of the walk but we had to do it backwards since we didn't want to start at the start and have to walk all the way back up that huge hill. So we started by taking some steps that led to the Old Stirling Town Cemetery. We debated about the next turn and ended up taking a road down the hill between two cemeteries - the second turned out to be a war cemetery. There were more choices and we followed the GPS over a groomed path of sorts and some ungroomed short-cuts where there were a series of wooden scultpures along the way.
We wound down the hill on the side of the castle and cemetery. We ended up by some stairs that seemed to go nowhere but then backtracked and got on another paved path that led to the road that started with B (maybe Back o' Hill Road). That was tricky because it was narrow and there was no sidewalk. A car stopped and offered us a lift to the castle but we said we wanted to walk. Even then, I am not too sure we really did want to walk. We were going uphill again. We came to a path, then to an intersection with a map that pointed to Gowan Hill but we kept going and ended up on the road again. We crossed the road and asked at a McDonalds and were told to go along the road, take a right and we would see signs for Gowan Hill. We did that and it seemed to work, We were following the signs and still not sure if we were on the track of the beheading stone when a couple headed down the path toward us. We asked them and they said we were only 5 minutes away. Jubilation. I think it took us more than that but we finally reached the top of the hill and there was the beheading stone with a nice little cage around it. There was a great view from there - you could see Wallace's Monument and the Stirling bridge too I think. on the other side we could see the bridge over the train tracks to our hotel so we headed in that direction. I saw a lovely line of cool buildings and wanted to follow that since it looked as if it went straight to the bridge but Marilynn chose a different way.
We did end up by the train station and were able to circle the train station to our hotel without going over the bridge and taking the elevator (which are broken) or the stairs, which were difficult for Marilynn.
After a short time regrouping at the hotel (I had a coffee and sent out some photos from my hone), we headed back to town for dinner. Marilynn asked me if I had chosen a place for dinner. When I did or thought I did, it turned out it wasn't what I thought it was - a pub - but another Italian restuarant so I checked trip advisor for another pub. When I came up with my choice, Marilynn countered with another. I think I had seen that her suggestion supposedly had local ales, so I said it was fine. We got our train tickets printed out on the way over. Of course, I had trouble typing in my confirmation code or whatever.
When we weree starting to walk up the hill into the city center, Marilynn asked me about some other pub, but I had no idea about their beer offerings so I was disinclined to choose them. We eventually walked up to the pub Marilynn picked for me. It was pretty empty when we got there. There was a narrow space with banquettes, tiny tables and backless stools, we ended up both sitting on the banquette beside the little table. I ordered the smoked haddock fish cakes which were very good and Marilynn said she liked her chicken dish and fries more than she had expected. I got an IPA because it was the only local beer on draft beside a lager and Marilynn had wine. I was a bit tipsy as we walked back to the hotel. It turned out to have been a great choice!
We got back just after Vera (Bristish mystery series) started and I tried to pack and do my photo chores during commercials. I started on the blog anfter Vera finished. Now Marilynn is under the covers and I am done and ready to get ready for bed.
Sharon
2023-02-28
This is great. Your usual artistic photos, skill with blogs, and daily feel for the place. It looks a bit like Ireland but not surprising. A fun read!