many, many photos. there are so many photos from our first day of biking that i’m only putting half of them up right now. and, of course, this isn’t all the photos; i have attempted to be discriminating.
we had a guide book with detailed directions about the route to take each day, and we had pages of maps to follow. the first day we were supposed to go see our first loch, called loch katrine, but in the directions it said you had to get there by 10 a.m. in order to get on the ferry across the loch. it was maybe an hour to the destination and we decided that on our first day we needed to be more flexible because there were first-day things to be done, like attaching our front bags to our bikes and just generally getting ready to go.
so we decided to take the second day’s tour first. this involved a loop ride going to the town of Doune, and visiting Doune Castle. We packed our guide book and one page of the map. Kevin figured we didn’t need the second page of the trip because it was only a tiny segment that went out to the castle and we had the directions so why need the map?
why indeed? Later we will find out why.
it was a little rainy that morning; the panniers on the backs of our bikes had nifty rain covers. the covers were stuffed into a compartment on the top of the packs and were attached so we didn’t lose them. these bikes and the panniers were nicer than the ones we’d taken in Austria.
but then again, this bike ride was a whole different deal.
here we are, about to set off. i don’t know why i look like i have a growth on the left side of my abdomen there. did i have an apple in my pocket? no. maybe it was a big gob of kleenex, something i can never be without. we ended up leaving that morning at almost 11 o’clock. i mostly stood around while kevin got things ready.
kevin took this picture right as we started off. this is the bike path across from our b&b. we didn’t actually take this path on the first morning; we didn’t take it till the third morning when we were leaving callander for good. for a while i was confused looking at this picture because i had absolutely no memory of taking this path the first day. but that’s because we didn’t.
here i am, one of the many photos of my back, as we started down the road to the castle. on the LEFT side of the road, because that’s how they do it in Scotland. we each had two rear view mirrors for both sides of our bikes. kevin had recently bought the two extras so we wouldn’t get in trouble riding on the opposite side of the road. i don’t know how he managed to take this picture while riding.
after we got out of town there was almost no traffic. it rained a tiny bit, but nothing to worry about. yet another shot of the back of my head; this time documenting my video-taking. it was kind of chilly that first morning.
we did see a group of Serious Bike Riders who whooshed past us on the road. they wore all the gear and they were fast. we never saw a big group of bikers again. perhaps they were in the tour de france and had gotten a little bit lost.
we did, however, see many many sheep along our paths.
it didn’t take us long to get to Doune Castle; it was only about 10 miles or so and took maybe an hour. the road was a little bit hilly, but not a big deal. nothing horribly strenuous. See all those ferns to the side? ferns grow like crazy everywhere in Scotland, only they call them bracken. I love ferns. it was neat to see them growing wild all along the way.
in the parking lot at the castle. i was happy to see the historic scotland toilets. luckily they weren’t really historic, but were modern and clean and nice.
the castle! if you’re a monty python fan, you’ll be interested to know that this was where they filmed most of “monty python and the holy grail.” as we came up to the entrance, somebody was videotaping another tourist clop-clopping along the bricks at the entrance. i didn’t know what they were referring to because i hadn’t seen MP and the HG for a very long time and i didn’t really remember it. in the movie they came clopping up to the castle with the guy clopping on the coconuts as a horse sound.
i don’t know where, exactly, in the castle kevin took this picture, but i think it’s really cool. this must have been when we were inside and it was raining?
Kevins says this is the guest room for visiting royalty. as we walked around the many rooms, we had audio guides narrated by Terry Jones, who was not only in the film but was also one of the directors. he talked a lot about the actual history of the castle, and also about what part of the movie was shot where.
one of the awesome views from the castle. the closest building down there on the left are the historic scotland bathrooms. beyond is the town of doune, which we didn’t even stop and look at. we were at the castle for quite a long time.
i’m pretty sure this is of significance because of the movie. it’s the castle’s chapel.
ditto. for the film this window was covered with a fake wall, and there was a funny scene in front of it – the king is telling the guards to guard the prisoner and not let anyone in, and the guards say, you mean don’t let the prisoner come in and don’t let anyone else out? and this goes on a a funny manner for a while. this might also be the window where the king says “all this will be yours, son?” and the son says “you mean the draperies?”
this is a view from higher in the castle. we did a whole lot of climbing on the stone stairs. it would have been a big drag living there a long time ago.
this is from the very top of the castle. it was great being this high up. it had been raining so it was just a little bit slippery up there but somehow i managed to not fall off.
a little plant growing way up on the tippy top.
and that’s all the photos of the first part of our trip and the castle. we walked around the grounds a lot and then had a very eventful ride back to Callander. soon i will tell you all about that.
ok then,
friday grace.