Scots, Shocks and a Smoky BBQ Part III

Ok, so we move on to the final part of the trilogy. Phew, I hear you say...

I left you with Mum and Mal singing over the sea to (from) Skye. The ferry crossing to Mallaig was nothing spectacular, just very comfortable and surprisingly quite quick. From there we drove along some very windy roads (stuck behind a caravan for a lot of it too, rather annoying), past some lovely scenery and beautiful Lochs, back towards Fort William. From Fort William we headed across the country to Pitlochry. En route stopped at the House of Bruar, a kind of Scottish Harrods, in that it had expensive cashmere and interesting food halls - had lunch there, which was nice. Not far from there is Blair Atholl, our reason for coming to this area - but by the time we arrived the castle was closed, so we drove into Pitlochry and found a very pleasant B&B for the night, Annslea - the owners were extremely friendly and the breakfast the next morning was excellent. Mum and Mal had a little rest and I wandered off through the town, it has a hydro-electric facility attached to it complete with a fish ladder for spawning salmon (although not the season now for salmon), and some quaint little pubs and shops. We headed out to one of the pubs in town, The Old Mill, for dinner later that night, which was very enjoyable.

The next day, Monday, we headed out to Blair Castle. Mum and Dad tried to go to this castle when they visited the UK in 1982 on the recommendation of Nanny and Grandpa, but the day they went there it was closed. So it was really wonderful for Mum to be able to get the chance to see it this time. As we approached the castle we could hear the soft strains of bagpipes. The castle itself is very impressive, the entrance hall contains a spectacular display of armoury and weapons. The main corridor on the ground floor is decorated with the skulls of stags that roamed the grounds. I think the thing I liked best about the castle was that you got to see artifacts belonging to and pictures of the various Dukes of Atholl's family as they grew up, and the visitors they entertained at the Castle, including Queen Victoria. To see some pics of the interior of the castle, click here.

After our visit to the castle we started on our journey back to Stirling. Things were going merrily, until we went round a bend, and - you guessed it - our old friend the scraping noise was back. And getting worse. So we pressed on to Stirling and found the Kwik Fit - unfortunately it was right on closing time. We decided to stay the night in the Formule 1 at Falkirk and come back the next day. At least with the Formule 1, we knew what we were getting, right? Wrong...

We checked in, made our way to our rooms, and made plans to meet in an hour or so to go for dinner. I had no sooner started to make my bed, when suddenly, a high-pitched, shrieking alarm went off! And we could smell smoke!

So we quickly gathered our valuables, checked the emergency evacuation poster to see where to go, and opened the door - to see the woman from the room opposite, with her door open, smoke thickly streaming out, calling out "It's alright, its just our BBQ". She had one of those disposable bbqs in her room, and was cooking up her dinner. Come on, seriously? A BBQ in a hotel room? What planet is this woman from? And what planet is the hotelier from, that they didn't chuck the woman out? Oy...

apologies for the jumpy video - but it was an emergency fire evacuation...

It was too smoky in our room so we headed out there and then to the pub for dinner. When we got back, the smoke had cleared and everything had calmed down, which was a relief. I tell you, there's nowt like the Formule 1's for a bit of excitement and action...

Tuesday. On the homeward stretch now. Oh hang on, no, we have to go and get the shocks sorted out. So Mum and I head back to Stirling real early to get the car fixed. Only, when the bloke has a look at it, he says the shocks don't need doing at all. I asked if the bit of tyre rubber had fallen out, thus causing the scraping noise again. No, its' still there - but there's a hole in it. His solution is to remove the bar that the muffler was scraping against. Ok. Oh, and as we're there, there's a few chips in the windscreen - so an hour and £25 later, we have no scraping noise and no chips in our windscreen. We headed back to get Mal and then basically hit the motorway for the day, aiming for Liverpool.

Why Liverpool? Well, its roughly a couple of hours from London, so our last day's drive shouldn't be too stressful, has a Formule 1 there - oh and my brother in law is mad about the football club and would like a jersey, and Beck would like a hat, oh and rompersuit for Marcella... so off we go.

Mal wasn't too well and decided to skip the Formule 1 this time and stayed at the hotel next door, where we had dinner that night.

Wednesday - our last day. Mum met Mal for breakfast at Mal's hotel, whilst I hoofed it into the city centre looking for the jersey and other Liverpool FC items for Beck. Do you think I could find a jersey that would fit Demo? Not in the colour he wanted - went to about 8 shops and finally found one for him. Phew. You be the judge of how it fits - Beck sent me this pic.

So that's pretty much it. After I got the jersey we basically hit the motorway back to London after a really lovely holiday. No more Scots, no more shocks, and certainly no more indoor smoky BBQs...