George picked us up at 8:30am, and we headed out to see Braveheart country. Yes, we were going to the home
of William Wallace. It was about an hour and a half drive from Kilconquhar. Our first stop was the Wallace
Monument. At the base of this huge monument is a statue of Wallace made by a local sculptor 5 years ago. Yep,
you guessed it- it looks just like Mel Gibson! We all took our picture with Mel, did a little
souvenir shopping, and then headed through the town of Stirling to the castle. This was our second experience
visiting a castle, and I think this is more what we imagined. It had dark, stone rooms with only narrow slits
for windows. The throne room
was so vast, yet sparsely furnished. I climbed the castle ramparts and towers and was rewarded with an amazing view of the Scottish countryside and mountains. Carol discovered that people were shorter during the 14th century.
We left Stirling and headed through the Trossacks, also known as the "highlands in miniature". The Trossacks are west of Stirling and Kilconquhar. We passed by many lochs (lakes) as we wound up into the hills. The scenery was breathtaking, and we enjoyed an early look at Spring due to the unseasonally warm weather (but it was still cold enough for us Texas gals to have on coats, hats, and gloves!). We traveled down to Aberfoyle and had lunch and shopped in a local woolen mill. Shopping and food- a true vacation!
Tired and weary, we headed back to Kilconquhar. We had an evening of laundry and packing to look forward to as we prepared to leave beautiful Scotland and head to England.
