Life at Willis Creek Ranch: Stirling, or bust

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Stirling, or bust

Thursday, June 16, 2016

We were all so exhausted from our long journey to Scotland that we slept in Thursday morning. When we finally awoke, Jennifer went to work at school and Julie took off for a walk through Holyrood Park while Mama and I sat semi-comatose on the couch drinking coffee and looking at the view. :D (travel tip #1 - know your priorities) ;)

There goes Julie! :)

One of the many 'faces' of our Holyrood Park view.

By 12:30 we were already (ha!) ready to try to head out for the planned jaunt up to Stirling to visit Stirling Castle. Yes, we knew it was late but figured we might as well give it a try. What could go wrong?

I had spent hours at home prior to the trip mapping out the routes we would take for each driving day and printing off the directions. In spite of this, we chose to 'have an adventure' and try a different route. (Yes, reading that statement now DOES ring alarm bells. Did I mention we were still jet lagged??)

So off we took to follow a new route to Stirling. And of course, you know what happened. We got horribly, dreadfully lost in Edinburgh. Edinburgh... the city that I was determined NOT to drive in. The city with all the warnings about how difficult it is to navigate. All the warnings are correct.

But, after some stressful moments, desperate reading of street signs (which are pretty darn lousy, I must say) and some pleas to God to HELP US GET OUT OF EDINBURGH we did in fact find ourselves on the M9 heading toward Stirling. Ah, we thought. Now we have this.

We were discussing how strange and foreign (yes, I get the irony) the road signs were to us when we noticed one particular sign about the M9. "Isn't that a funny way to show the M9 route," we said. It wasn't until we had already veered off course onto the M8 that we realized the 'funny' way wasn't really showing us the route for M9. We were now speeding on our way to Glasgow. ugh.

One thing we noticed in Scotland is that once you are on a road, you are ON THAT ROAD. In the States we have exits quite often and typically an easy way to cross over and go back the other direction on a highway or road. Not in Scotland. We drove almost 18 miles before we could get off the highway. By that time we were tired, hungry and needed a bathroom. There was a restaurant right there and although it certainly wouldn't have been our first choice in other circumstances, we parked the blasted car and made our way inside. We ended up having a very nice meal, actually, of sausage and mash.

After eating we felt somewhat revived and asked the waiter for directions to Stirling from that location. He didn't know. He said he had never been to Stirling even though it was only 45 miles away. But, his manager gave us directions and we determined to give it another try.

Now I mentioned in my Grace over Scotland post that I arrived in Scotland quite ill. By this point in the day I was truly feeling horrible. When we got outside the restaurant I had a coughing fit so bad that I threw up. (sorry for TMI but just know right now that that scenario was played out all over Scotland and even northern England!!!) We looked at our watches and saw that it was almost 4:00 pm, it was raining, and I was a mess. We decided to just make our way back to Edinburgh and the apartment.

On the way home I have to admit to feeling a bit defeated. My own voice kept replaying in my head... "Let's go to Scotland!" I had said. "It'll be FUN!" I had said. Ugh.

We finally got back to the apartment where Mama and I showered and resumed our morning positions on the couch :) while Julie decided to walk and meet Jennifer for dinner in Old Town Edinburgh. They ate at Mother India's Cafe, a lovely Indian restaurant that is a favorite of Jennifer's. After their dinner they walked around Old Town a bit and then brought back take out for us at the apartment.