YOU TAKE THE LOW ROAD & I'LL TAKE THE HIGH

 In 2014 I made a trip to England to visit my daughter and her husband. They had a trip to Scotland planned and I was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of seeing the country of some of my ancestors.

We left Cobham, Surrey at 6:36 a.m. and drove until about 3:30. Made really good time in my son-in-law's Saab convertible even though we stopped at several places for potty breaks and photo-ops. The entire drive was one big photo-op! The countryside is fantastic so just use all the fine adjectives you know to visualize what I saw.  They are so organized in the British Isles! Every few miles on the motorways there is an oasis where you can pull in, visit the TOILET, get information and a snack. Not so commercial as our stops and very convenient and clean.

We arrived at our hotel/inn, Suie Lodge Hotel, Glendochart,Nr, Crainlarich and found it to be a lonely old lodge in the middle of nowhere. We laughed and joked about it because compared to places all of us have stayed, this was a bit rustic. However, it was charming, clean and had a beautiful view of the mountains.



The first evening we had a delicious supper of lamb shank with vegetables that was so tender it fell off the bone. The breakfast in their charming dining room was fried egg, sausage, beans and toast, juice and bad coffee. Except for the coffee, each meal we had there was great.

The bathroom in this lodge was a new experience for me for a couple of reasons. One, I had to use the towel warming rack in the bathroom for heat because the owner said they don't turn on the heat until it gets cold. Ha! By South Texas standards it was already cold! I couldn't figure out how to turn on the shower in the morning so I had to get the owner in to show me. It's difficult to describe, but it looks like a cylinder and has temp on one end and water control on the other end. Maybe if we had stayed a week I would have been able to work it out. That, coupled with the cold room, caused me to reconsider showering. Well, missing one day isn't too bad.

The next day we left for a drive through the mountainous region where my son-in-law used to climb before MS struck. Our destination was the city of Oban on the Western shore of Scotland. It is a beautiful port city with picturesque old buildings and fantastic seafood. We ate sitting on the seawall after getting our food from a dumpy little stand. No matter the condition of the stand, the steamed mussels, grilled scallops in garlic, stuffed crab and prawns were absolutely mouth watering.   


I have many more photos but as they are probably on the Net you can google Scotland and see how beautiful it is. 

Tah, my friends



 

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