Scotland

I use to think that I am pretty methodical in doing things till I received a full detailed itinerary from my sister which even included what time we needed to get up and what time we were to leave for a place including the time we were to get out of there in order to reach the next destination.

So, in the morning, as per the schedule given by my sister we got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. The sweet Scottish lady had prepared a scrumptious Scottish breakfast in her  kitchen downstairs and we were more than happy to gobble everything into our empty stomachs. Today was a fresh new day and we were ready to start our first ever 13 day road trip starting from Scotland, England, Wales and then back to Scotland, practically doing a full circle around the UK.

Stirling is surrounded by forts and I love visiting places with lots of culture and history and our first destination was the Wallace Monument, located on top of a hill. It was quite a climb for all of us especially me who is not a fan of walking at all. The 248-steep spiral staircase is indeed a considerable climb that ultimately reaches the crown of the monument, nevertheless the panoramic view was breathtakingly beautiful and worthwhile.

After getting our beautiful shots we went to meet Rinku and saw her cute apartment. It meant a lot to me coz this is for the first time I saw my lil sis all grown up and staying by herself. She was really excited to show her beautiful 310 acre Stirling University which is one of the most picturesque university campuses in UK. Who else can boast of having a golf course, lake, meadow, woods and a castle in their campus. What can be better than studying in one of the best universities and right in the luxurious lap of mother nature.  Since she had her dissertation to finish she couldn’t join us on the trip immediately and was going to join us later on.

Therefore, after dropping her off to her apartment we started our little adventure towards Keswick. Rinku had told us to visit the Falkirk Wheel, we had no idea of what it actually was till we reached the Scottish Canal and wooah what an extraordinary experience for all of us. Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift, I didn’t even know that such a thing even existed. This beautifully engineered wheel raises the boat from a canal below and transports it to the upper canal. It is one of the very few boat lifts made in the world. After enjoying the ride, we drove to the neighboring country England…

It was really cool driving from one country to the other, stopping wherever we wanted. Although on a timeline yet defying it sometimes when completely smitten by the beauty of nature; soaking it all in slowly but surely. Our halt for the night was at Keswick, the Lake District. It would be totally criminal if we were at the Lake District and didn’t visit a lake, so on our drive which was almost all along the lake we decided to stop at one of the viewpoints. The kids had a great time running around on the pier until it got dark and we headed to our accommodation. Every view point we crossed it was fun to see people fishing, some youngsters were just having fun listening to music, eating, dancing, kids playing. The country side really shows you how people can enjoy life without being slaves to electronics.