Day 3 - Scotland

So we woke up this morning in Blackpool, in a lovely B&B with they tiniest shower I think I have ever stood in. Matters are only complicated more by the super tiny sink, overlapping the toilet. One one hand it gives me hope that my dad's farmhouse can have multiple bathrooms, on the other hand, I felt like standing in the bedroom to brush my teeth :)

We go downstairs and are greeted by our hostess asking us what we would like for breakfast. By now, we are in LOVE with the traditional english breakfast of bacon (so big it's essentially ham), eggs, beans, and toast. It is an excellent way to start the day!

After breakfast, we pack up and head north to Scotland. First stop, Threave Castle! Threave Castle is a castle that is on a little bity island on a loch (lake). You have to walk down a path to get to the boat, ring a bell, and a boatman comes over and ferries you back. You see the appeal for me and Joe?







I really enjoyed this castle! It had a certain creepiness to it which one always enjoys in a 11th century castle and it had pictures of how it used to look as a working castle/household. Plus the grounds surrounding it were simply majestic.

So my favorite part of this castle was the history museum guy/boatman telling us the story of the Count/Earl that used to live there. Apparently, when you were no longer in his favor he didn't bother shooting you, he just hung you from the roof. Mean, mean dude. When the castle was conquered by the English in 13xx, they shot a cannon at the tower wall. There was a dinner party going on at the same time and the Lady of the Castle (mean dudes wife) had her entire arm blown off by the cannon ball. Later they found remains of her arm with the wedding ring still attached. They say that if you listen closely you can still hear the sounds of organ music playing in the great hall.





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Next Up: the Creamery!

I don't know how it is that Joe and I love to visit dairy farms, ice cream places, and creameries, but we do. So, of course, we found one in Scotland. This one in Scotland , proved to be the hardest to find! Two hours to find something that was less than 15 minutes from Threave castle. But we finally made it! And boy, did they have some AWESOME ice cream. They also had awesome hamburgers (we were starved by this point), walking paths, beautiful scenery, etc.

These were actually the views from the creamery ... can you imagine waking up to this everyday... glorious!





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So in a moment of pressing on or stupidity, we decided to drive back to London from Scotland... approximately 5 hours. Now here is where this country is really interesting... the daylight hours seem to extend forever. It is mid-May and it doesn't even begin to get dark until 9pm. But back to my point, I wanted to drive to London a different way because I wanted to see more of the countryside and more importantly Derbyshire. However, when you leave Scotland at 6pm, it is not likely that you will see much of anything by the time you get back into England, cut across and then down to head towards London. Ach, but it was a good try, and we can say we went all over England now.

So it's the wee hours of the morning when we arrive in London and have to find our hotel. Joe has called ahead and gotten some directions, but even with those directions we still managed to tour parts of downtown a little. Bonus: Following in the path of the cabs, I also made a few u-turns in London :)

Next Up: Seeing the sights of London!