It had occurred to me that in more than 100 chapters, 750+ pictures, and far far
too many words, I'd barely mentioned my favourite country of the 50+ I've
visited, so here's my attempt to rectify the situation.
The magnificently-named rest stop of "Rest and be Thankful"
Two delightful Germans friend (Aaron and Larissa) I'd met in
Bolivia some 18 months prior
were taking a short break in Scotland. The weather was a bit dreich,
but you can't really expect blazing sunshine in Scotland in May. The midge forecast
wasn't bad either, so we hired a motor and set off for a day tour of the
Highland (route shamelessly lifted from E2G's excellent Highland tour).
We started off in the wee village of Luss on the shores of Loch Lomond, best
known as being the filming location for the twee Scottish soap opera (Take
the) High Road. And while it's a lovely wee village, not sure I could handle
nosy tourists peering through my windows all day.
Luss and Loch Lomond
Next stop was the town of Inverary on Loch Fyne, the Duke of Arygll's (which
also doubles as Cockney rhyming slang for piles) ancestral seat, and home to a
very impressive jail and castle.
Inverary and The Vital Spark (the boat on the left)
Why is every picture I steal off the internet much better than mine?
We hopped back in the motor and drove to Loch Awe, which boasts its own
"monster", albeit one with a much smaller marketing budget. Here, we we
wandered around the slightly derelict Kilchurn Castle, before nipping round
the corner to St Conan's Kirk for some spiritual nourishment.
Kilchurn Castle. Needs a bit of work.
St Conan's Kirk, built by Walter Campbell for his mother who selfishly
died before its completion
The original plan was a boat tour in Oban, but given it was approaching
tea-time and we hadn't yet had our lunch, we opted for a quick fish supper and
a jaunt up the hill to visit McCaig's tower - Oban's "colosseum" that is quite
impressive but doesn't serve any real purpose (except to keep local
stonemasons employed during its construction)
The folly that is McCaig's tower in Oban
Sadly, neither Larissa nor Aaron had got round to seeing Monty Python
and the Holy Grail before they arrived, but we still stopped off at Castle
Stalker - better known in the film as Castle Arghhhh (here's why) - as it's still quite an impressive sight, although sadly privately-owned
and not easy to just pop in for a quick visit.
Castle Stalker
Some of the best views in Scotland can be found in Glencoe - site of a
famous massacre back in 1692. I couldn't actually remember anything else
about the horrific event, so I just made it all up and my guests were none the
wiser. We stopped off at the Three Sisters where I tried to recreate the
picture we took at the top of Chacaltaya back in 2022. I don't know if the pictures are very similar, but I do know that Aaron is very fond of that jacket.
At the top of Chacaltaya in Bolivia
Two of the Three Sisters in Glencoe, Scotland
Our final stop before returning to Glasgow was to the Falls of Falloch.
Sadly, we'd all forgotten our swimming gear, so we could only watch as a
couple of brave souls leapt into what could only be described as bloody
freezing water.
The Falls of Falloch, also known as Rob Roby's bathtub (he must have been a
big lad)
And with that, it was back to Glasgow. It was lovely to catch up with my
German chums and maybe the next episode of this blog will be from there
(thankfully, I didn't join the Tartan Army there to witness Germany and
everybody else's demolition of Scotland at Euro '24).
Footnote: The other reason for this post is that this blog has inexplicably
picked up a bit of a following in Hong Kong. I don't even know if all my
visitors are humans or bots, but if it's the former, then 歡迎, and if it's
the latter, 01001000 01000101.
And I for one welcome our new artificially intelligent
overlords
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