Warming up in The Highlands

We left for The Highlands today which meant Sir IF and Meg had to venture out on their own to the car rental agency and manoeuvre their way through the city centre of Edinburgh. We were hopeful we would get the same kind of car that we had in Cornwall just for convenience sake so we didn't have to learn another operating system or Sat Nav system but of course that wasn't the case. Wouldn't want us to become complacent and as Grandma K always said, the day you stop learning is the day you start to die. 

We did eventually get out of Edinburgh and Sir IF ably drove across the Firth of Forth bridge which is quite the engineering marvel. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful so we decided to explore and went beyond our route to the Glamis Castle (pronounced Glams here in Scotland). It's almost a fairytale-ish looking castle on the outside and it is where the Queen Mother lived; in fact Princess Margaret was even born there. The exterior and grounds were particularly lovely though it would be even more so in their blooming season however there were already wild daffodils all over. The interior of the castle was often pretty gloomy with very heavy brocade and Jacobite decoration and lots of cherubs and lions, indicative of the castle's occupants over the years. In fact when we went for our stroll on the pathways we passed the current owner of the castle, but didn't realize it was him until he was long gone. Not sure he would have invited us for tea in any regard.

After Glamis we got to our destination in Killiecrankie. It's a lovely small hotel which is quite quaint and in some ways very formal. We got a chance to mingle with some of the other guests for drinks before dinner and met an Australian family and some local older women who came to spend the evening at the hotel for dinner. The chef really went out of his way to create a menu for Meg that would accommodate all of her allergies and they even printed up an extensive one page menu with her name on it. Dinner was absolutely outstanding. So nice to have real food beyond a BLT and chips.  Sir IF finally got a chance to savour some of the local whiskies without worrying about having to drive, and well, seems like he enjoyed the wine, too. Needless to say at the end of the meal he poured himself (or rather tried to pour) a nice large glass from a bottle of still water (but the cap was still on which he didn't quite notice until it was brought to his attention). It was a very relaxing evening of good food and conversation with some of the locals. When we went up to bed, the housekeeper had already been up to turn down our beds for the evening and she tucked in a few friends to help keep our covers warm. The pictures will explain. 

A Polar Bear hot water bottle on Sir IF's side; Meg got the donkey!

Nighty-night!

Got a few tips from the locals on what to explore tomorrow. The weather does not sound very positive for the next few days so we may try to find more indoor activities if necessary.