A Day of Castles

On my family's last full day in Scotland, we decided to visit a few sites closer to Stirling. Our plans were to visit Doune Castle, Stirling Castle, the Wallace Monument, and to just kind of wander the downtown area of Stirling. So after a later start than usual, we all hopped back into the car and headed out to Doune. Doune's very close to Stirling, so before long, we were at the castle. For those of you who don't know, Doune is the sight of the Monty Python film. It's the castle they launched the cow out of, and most of the scenes inside a castle are filmed in different parts of Doune.

I had seen the castle before, but this time, I decided to get the audio guide as well. The audio guide through Doune was narrated by Terry Jones, who played more than one character in the Monty Python movie. It was pretty cool doing the audio guide, because they don't have many plaques to explain things in detail throughout the castle. But on the audio guide, they explain not only the actual rooms in the castle, but also the history behind them. I heard several historical stories, about the man who had overseen the construction of the castle and then lived there most of his life. I also heard several stories about the Monty Python film sites throughout the castle. It was pretty cool.

Doune Castle!

Naptime for all the lambs! And their moms too, but the
lambs were by far the cutest.

After about an hour at Doune, we headed back to Stirling to see Stirling Castle. This time, I didn't really feel like walking around the castle again. When I had come to see the castle with the FYSAE group on our arrival in Stirling, I had spent what felt like a few hours wandering through the castle, looking in all the rooms, reading all the plaques, and exploring the outside of the castle. So this time, I just hung out in the courtyard while my family toured the castle. After they finished seeing everything they wanted to see, we headed into town for tea (or hot chocolate) and something small to eat. I ended up with hot chocolate and a cinnamon swirl pastry, while everyone else got a hot chocolate and a hot cross bun. We also stopped so Mom could see more of the sheep...that are all over Scotland.

Wallace Monument, as seen from my kitchen.

We were going to go see the Wallace Monument, but it's a bit expensive to just walk up the stairs to the top, just to see a few very small rooms with a handful of historical artifacts on the way up. So we decided to just head back to the dorms, where Mom was going to make her Quidditch Player's Pie for dinner. Since we weren't hungry after just having had a snack, we decided to go for a walk around the loch, maybe stop to feed the swans, and then to head to the kitchen for dinner. Alyssa was the one who fed the swans, and they are attracted to food very, very fast. Before she had even tossed a piece of bread out onto the loch, the swans were making a beeline toward the shore. I was highly entertained because as soon as the swans started to get angry at one another, and then kept moving closer and closer to Alyssa, she started freaking out a little, and started moving backwards as fast as she could while still throwing pieces of bread.

Finally, it was time for my first home-cooked dinner since I moved into Stirling's campus housing. Mom cooked her Quidditch Player's Pie, which is made by baking beef, carrots and peas all mixed together, and then making mashed potatoes and spreading that on top of the mix of meat and vegetables, and then baking that for a few more minutes. It was delicious. There's nothing quite like a good, home-cooked meal, which I have missed quite a bit since leaving home! It was certainly a good way to end my family's last night in Scotland with me!

They can smell food from a mile away...or at least from halfway across the loch!

A tout a l'heure!