Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - The Scotland Saga

Awake and showered by 7:15. Glenda and Jeff returned from their morning walk (a trek to the tower) around 7:45 and we all met for breakfast at 8:30. A very good breakfast well served by our host Robert.  Robert provided excellent information regarding our impending drive and visit tomorrow to Glasgow.

Finished breakfast and at 9:45 we filled the "park and pay" meter until 11:47, and walked off in search of shops, which was not far nor meager.  We wandered in and out of the small shops, making various purchases up and down the Main Street. We also stopped at the Oban Distillery, in place in the center of town since 1794. An interesting display, although we did not take a tour, nor did we do a tasting - too early in the morning and too much time involved for the tour.

Back to the car and headed towards Glasgow, along Loch Lomond.  We stopped for lunch at Inverrary, enjoying a tasty repast and walk around in this charming village making some small purchases and generally stretching our legs. Striking out again we continued towards the big city, arriving on the beltway around 5:30, rush hour.  We navigated our way towards the Village of Strathaven and found our way to Bamflatt Farm, our lodging for the next two nights, arriving around 6:30.  This is a brand new, built to suit, B & B set up, and the site is still under construction. We had booked a two bedroom suite with a shared bath.  Whoever did the design was not really thinking, as the bath was accessed through one of the bedrooms, making it a bit awkward for a pair of older couples such as ourselves.

As this was not acceptable, we negotiated with the proprietor and were able to cancel our second night.  We then repaired to our suite for our evening wine and a search for our next night's accommodations.  The Internet and Wi-Fi have revolutionized travel, at least the way we do it. We determined that Glasgow was too much traffic and too much trouble, so we narrowed our search and came up with a manor house in the village of Peebles, south and a bit west of Edinburgh as our next night's destination.

That determined, we set out on our next adventure, driving into the village of Strathaven for dinner, after dark.  Luckily, the designated driver was not imbibing. We eventually found the town square after a number of misses, (sorry Rutledge Farm) and ended up at a lovely small Italian restaurant up a flight of stairs off the square.  Although we did not finish until nearly 9:45, this was one of the best Italian meals we had ever encountered. 

Back in the dark to our farmstead and down for the night, looking forward to a new adventure tomorrow to a destination none had ever been.