Stirling Castle

Aiy... A lovely couple. At Stirling Castle.

This is myself, listening to the self guide MP3 player:

Wallace Monument in the distance

Less serious picture of us in front of Stirling. Look behind at the towers. They used to be twice as high.

Never before were you able to view the chambers of Mary Queen of Scots. They just done this up recently and it's a new feature.

Beautiful Castle, but the best is yet to come. We visited Monty Pythons Castle the same weekend. We saw a total of 3 castles in the one weekend. Lot's of blog material.

Craignethan Castle

As I was bored, and Lissa was preoccupied at a fancy artsy coffee shop with a lady from church, I decided to take the rental car and check out another random castle. There are so many available for tour, the locals haven't seen most of them.

Craignethan, is a Castle ruin from 500 years ago. It belonged to a guy that became friends with King James and got a Castle out of the deal. It's called brown nosing. Quite a generous deal, until the English came, destroyed the Castle and that is history in Scotland.

Interesting fact: in the next couple of years, Scotland is having a referendum vote. This is to decide if it will become a separate state from English and gain it's own complete sovereignty. Over half of the population do not want independence. I'm staying out of this debate, but it's pretty interesting situation nonetheless.

The castle is surrounded by a large gorge very similar to Elora Gorge in Canada.

This castle was a ruin, but for a Canadian, any Castle is better then no castle. It also had creepy cat-loving lady on staff. She reminded me of Angela from 'The Office TV Show', in 20 years. Or of a teacher I've had in my past. I was immediately on her bad side, and I didn't even tell her I hate cats.

Glasgow Museum of Transport

Glasgow Transport Museum

This Museum is free to the public, and the reviews were mixed about it, but we found it to be quite enjoyable. There were many old cars, models of boats, old motorcycles and too many city trams. I decided to post some pictures of this day trip as it was very well displayed and lot's of interesting facts about the boats built on the Glasgow Clyde. A note to the residence of Glasgow who think it's lame: your tax money was spent well.

This behind us is the River Clyde where all the ships were built and launched including a massive Battleship called the HMS Hood, which was one of the biggest ships in the world when it was built in 1918. It sunk in less then 3 minutes when it was defending the Atlantic Ocean during WWII

This might be another factor as to why many Scottish folk moved to Canada. It was a steal of a deal to come! Too good to pass eh...

Cars.... lot's of cars

Donegal Ireland Castle and Abbey Ruins

Jay and I chance to stop in and tour Donegal Castle and the Abbey ruins while in Ireland. The castle was pretty cool in that it gave us ideas for our own house (not in a 'we want a castle' sort of way, but in a 'oooh I like the beams and a stone fireplace' kind of way, Just imagine them much, much smaller, lol)… I particularly fell in love with their fireplaces. Couldn’t seem to convince Jay that the size was necessary…




The Abbey ruins were picturesque if simply for their setting right on the water, it was a bright, clear day. We heard about some cliffs about an hour further up the coast (some of the highest in the UK) and we didn't have time to go, but we would have been able to see an incredible distance. If ever back in Ireland, it will definitely be a stop to make.

Like, wow!! So pretty, there were homes along the coast, what a view to wake up to. I think I need to live near water. Stratford Avon River here I come (my only option in Stratford).

I think Autumn is in the running to overtake summer as my favorite season, too bad it is so short. Yet, all the colors are so worth it (and the food), even for a moment. Jay and I were on our way back to Dublin to catch our evening flight, we did great going through the countrysides, it was beautiful! We got all the way to Dublin and managed to get lost, our phone would not work, and we were left to 'feel' our way back. And we did it. I almost had a nervous breakdown (got to learn to relax when directions don't go as planned), yet we made it, with 7 minutes to spare.



One of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Ireland Part 2

After spending a couple days in Dublin we rented a car and headed northwest to Donegal. The drive was fantastic (sunny both there and back). We managed to make it to the gates of the Lough Eske Castle Hotel, even though google had us drive every little back road you can imagine. It was worth it though, tucked back in the woods, all lit up with Autumn colors.

Once settled, we hopped on the complimentary bicycles and set out on an adventure. Short lived cause I got cold, but we still had a nice little cycle down to the water...and by down I mean big hill. I made it back up without having to walk the bike. Proud moment.


That evening the hotel was hosting a wine and food festival (all Stratfordians will understand how exciting this is). We didn't join in for the whole event, but we did sit in the pub, have a drink, a fantastic meal and listened to the pianist hired for the evening. We then recluded to our room while the hotel was bustling below, to drink wine and watch X-Factor. Yes we like the show.


Morning came to us being one of the first guests to emerge looking for breakfast (reason being that we were not up to all hours of the morning tasting wine...or we just really love our breakfast). And it was worth it, oh it was, loads of fresh fruit, smoked salmon, custom made crepes and omelettes....all the meat Jay could even wish for...pastries, cheeses, yogurts, juices. You get the picture.

Oh and I went for a massage at the spa, I was a bit of a space cadet afterwards. SO relaxed. The spa smelled of Lavender, was cosy warm and the treatments were perfect.


I would love an excuse to go back there on this trip, we will have to see. There are loads of other spots to go to, and possibly warmer ones:) Nevertheless, Lough Eske Castle Hotel is top of my list for Honeymoon destinations. Or in our case, future Anniversary celebration destinations.


Oh! And I did I mention how cool the hotel looks lit up at night? They have all these statues round about (which can kind of give you a fright), but once you are used to them they seem tell a story.

Ireland Part 1 of 2

One of my favorite things about Dublin? The colored doors. On an average street everyone has a different colored door, and I love it!

One arriving in the morning, Jay had scouted a French restaurant where we could have breakfast. Jay enjoyed a delish crepe and I had a ‘melt in your mouth’ almond croissant. It was a splurge weekend before cutting out gluten and dairy for the time. And oh I did enjoyJ

We wandered around the city a bit, found a fun café/pub where they host live music, all sorts of historic architecture, great shopping (!), and we bumped into some fellow Stratfordians!! What are the chances right? Too much fun.

Note the clear blue skies… love it.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, there was a graduation event and so we were not able to get in, the outside was still astounding!

We found Tim Hortons (in a Spar shop), the coffee wasn't anywhere near Timmy's in Canada...but atleast they tried.

The grounds at Dublin University, everything you imagine an old University to be.

My hubby stylin' a hip hat.

And what is a trip to Ireland without visiting the Guinness storehouse? I actually have grown a taste for beer (gasp!), specifically the dark stout beers. I am currently staying away from Gluten though, so my new found taste for beer will be on hold for the time. Oh well, back to wine.

The MASSIVE barrels that they used to store the beer in.

Hand carved oak barrels for shipping the beer, they were a lot of work to make and they made thousands upon thousands of them.

Jay earned his Guinness certificate here.

Rewards of his labour, a perfectly poured pint.

View from the 7th floor of the Guinness storehouse, overlooking the city of Dublin.

This display is all the different bottles they have used over the years all over the world.

In the evening we made our way up the coast to Howth, a beautiful town that we would love to visit again some day, we were just in time to catch the sun setting.

I would love to go back to Ireland, but there are a few other places we have yet to see (by few I mean MANY). I will put together pictures of my romantic Ireland for our next blog. For those of you that are engaged…start dropping hints for a honeymoon locale.