Scotland - Stirling, Glencoe Pass and Fort William (Part 2)

After finishing up the "back walk"on Wednesday, we headed back to Castlecroft Bed & Breakfast for breakfast. Breakfast was good (made to order), but we didn't linger as we had a full day planned.

We had about an hour's drive to Glencoe Pass. Glencoe Pass is a glen in the highlands of Scotland. It is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful places in Scotland. We didn't realize we were in the pass until a little bit through it. We kept saying how beautiful it was and there were cars pulled off the road and people taking pictures. We decided to stop, here and there, and take pictures. I thought that there would be some signs saying where we were and what mountains we were looking at and there was nothing like that. It was so remote and just gorgeous. We did finally get to the Glencoe Visitor's Center which had information about the glen. At that time, we realized that we drove through the whole thing and the Visitor's center was at the end. It was breathtaking. I told Luke that every time we come to Scotland, we have to drive (even out of the way) just to go through the pass. I want to see it during different times of the year.

Swoon...that little house. Gosh, that was like the only house I saw for 40+ miles and it was about the size of one room. I adore the house and the backdrop...totally gorgeous.

See the stone embankment? See the road and how very narrow it is? That is pretty much like every single curve in Scotland. Beautiful.

Our pictures don't do this justice at all. You will just have to believe me when I say it was the prettiest place I've ever seen.

Part 3 of our Wednesday journey (Fort William) is coming up. =)

Scotland - Stirling, Glencoe Pass and Fort William (Part 1)

We woke up Wednesday morning super early so we could do the "back walk" behind Stirling Castle. Breakfast was served between 8-10 and we were out the door by 7:30am.

The "back walk" is supposed to be one of the prettiest walks in all of Scotland. Luke and I both enjoyed it and I think would have enjoyed it more if we had done it before we had seen the castle. The walk basically circles the castle on a cliff and ends up at the castle/town graveyard and abbey. It was pretty neat, but nothing compared to what we would see later in the day.

"Back Walk" Pictures:

Not sure if you can see it in the above picture, but there were little benches all along the path.

See the arch? We think people get married there. There were stumps and a bench that overlooked that particular area. It was super cute. 

Stirling Castle is above.

At the end of the walk, the picturesque town of Stirling:

STL with the Beard Family

Last weekend, we took a little trip to St. Louis with the Beard Family. We stayed just one night, but managed to fit in quite a bit. We went to the Magic House on Friday and the City Museum on Saturday. In between all of that, Leslie and I went shopping at the malls, the boys put the kids to bed and then had to wake them up again to hunker down in the fitness room of the hotel for a tornado, we went swimming, we did a bit of grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was a busy two days but we all had lots of fun.

Future All-Star