Scotland 3rd Day — Tuesday, July 1

Jon awakes me at 11:30 am!! Apparently, the Sominex worked too well!! If feel that I have slept the day away, but I forget that the sun sets at 11 pm, so not all is lost. I cook a full "Scottish breakfast" -- eggs, bacon, pancakes, OJ, putter about and finally leave the house at 3pm (the "magic" hour)! Again, too late to get a full tour of the castle, and it's gray and drizzling out side, so we hop into the car and take a ride to the Wallace Monument. Since the weather is not-so-hot, we hike up the path and take in the view from the base of it. We will return for the tour and a better day, but it was a nice visit nontheless. They have removed the statue of William Wallace that looked like Mel Gibson. I don't blame them. The monument on it's own is quite spectacular, and they light it up at night. (I will post a photo of the monument later)

We then hop into the car and visit the town of Bridge of Allan and the local golf course. Very quaint, but keep in mind...it's still raining. We decide to head on back to the flat, and once there we walk a couple of blocks towards the castle in search of the famous "beheading stone", thought to have been used for capital punishments in the 15th century. We end up meandering in the local graveyard, and can't find the stone, but find several old gravestones with the preface of "here lieth." My favorite being —
" Here lies the body
Of Margaret Bent
She kicked up her heels
And away she went"

Off to the flat for a cup of hot tea and dinner.... another ham and cheese panini in the George Forman grill that I found...yummy. Tea and biscuits. At 10pm we decide to head on down to the local pub "The Settle Inn" for a pint or two. We meet George, the friendly Scottish bartender with bad teeth and a wry sense of humor. Jon goes about trying a few whiskeys, and decides he likes the local one "Deanston." I drink two half-pints of Stella Artois and meet up with a nice local lady named Christine, who tells me I MUST visit the Trossachs area. She tells me it's VERY romantic, with it's lochs and scenery, so I have now put that at the top of my list ----along with going on a haunted castle tour...of course. I pull out my camera to take a picture of George, and it is then that I notice that the memory card is corrupt. Which means ALL photos from the first 3 days of this trip are destroyed. Oddly enough, this seemed to happen AFTER Jon and I took a stroll through the local graveyard! I felt I was being respectful, but maybe not enough. I am sad, but a shot of whiskey should make me feel better.