Day 15
The whole goal of staying at "the hot tub place" was to rest and relax before our trip gets crazy again (our friend Kevin is joining us soon and we've jam-packed those days with as much as possible). However, since the hot tub part was misleading (see last post for details on that), we alternated our plans a bit.
We started by sleeping in, which was pure bliss for us. We've been waking up early most days, so it was nice to turn the alarm clock off and just wake up naturally. After multiple cups of coffee and general chilling out, we left around 11:30am to check out some local standing stones.
Apparently, the Lochgilphead area was quite the religious center 5,000 years ago, and they have tons and TONS of standing stones, cairns, and other such amazingness just lying around in farmer's fields. There was a mile long loop that looked at a bunch of various temples, stones, and burial chambers, so we did that walk and Paul was very patient with me as I reverently touched each one and stood quietly by them all to give them the respect and awe that they all deserve.
After that, we headed into the cutest town ever (something I have said about nearly every Scottish town we've gone through) to pick up some smoked fish for lunch. And what do you know, Paul just so happened to know where a fishing tackle shop was in town as well. We got smoked trout and pickled herring (YUM) for lunch and Paul chatted with the fishing shop owner to learn where to fish and get a local license.
We headed to a loch that the fishing shop guy promised was simply teeming with fish. I sat and read a book and Paul caught....zero fish. Oh well, it was another lovely spot to hang out, so all was not lost.
Then we headed into another cute seaside town for dinner. I got haggis nachos (YUM) and Paul got another helping of Cullen Skink, his current favorite soup.
Day 16
Today was partly another driving day (Paul isn't getting sick of driving yet...really) and partly a hiking day. Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park is an incredibly beautiful area and it's loaded with hikes to do on these breathtaking mountains.
Note to self: if we come here again, do more hikes in this area! We chose to do Ben A'an hike, which, despite being only 2.5 miles round trip, was one of the hardest hikes we've done so far in Scotland. It went straight up the mountain, and it was exhausting climbing all of the roughly cut stone steps to the top.
But it was totally worth it! The views at the top were incredible. We hung out at the top for a good amount of time because we just had to soak up those views. The way down was easier, but about half way down, our knees started to feel like jello from the steep descent, so we were pretty exhausted when we got to the car.
Paul convinced me to try one more walk in the area, so off we went to the Brenachoile Trail, which is along the water. This was *supposed* to be this mystical experience where you walk in the footsteps of authors and poets from the past who were inspired to write things while walking this path. There was supposed to be signs and pieces of their poetry to read aloud and even kinda-dorky footsteps to stand in to look at the same views as so-and-so poet.
Maybe we took the wrong path, but we went over 1 mile down it without seeing anything at all about poets, not even a sign or arrow pointing the way. We DID find a random box that you had to wind up and then it played 'Ave Maria' but there were no descriptions about why this box was playing that song.
Since we were exhausted already, we just turned around and headed out. So if you're in the area, I'd avoid the "poet trail" until they fix things (perhaps they took everything down for covid reasons or something). However, if you aren't expecting a poet trail, it is actually a lovely walk along the water and has beautiful views.
Then it was off to Falkirk/Stirling area to eat and sleep. Our airbnb was above someone's garage and we had to climb a not-very-safe wobbly steel spiral staircase to get to it. Fun times.
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