Last Day in Scotland

Monday  4 June 2012  - Saying goodbye to Scotland

Day 53 and 106 to go

We had a luxuriant sleep in today waking at 8. It was nice to be a little lazy. Paul was up and having a shower, though it wasn’t working very well. I opted for waiting until after breakfast. We wandered down to enjoy our last cooked Scottish brecky. It was so sunny outside and the breakfast room was lovely and warm.

We returned to the room and I had a shower that was now working well.

We packed up all of our things and checked out. It took a while, as our Visa card would go through eventually we found a card that would.

Paul then drove to a near by supermarket car park where we attempted to even out our bags with weight. Unfortunately he dropped one small bag containing glasses he has bought and we heard the smashing of glass. Luckily there was only one casualty.

With our bags sorted we then started our drive heading west. We drove to Falkirk  first and then directed the GPS to head along the road that would take us along the edge of Loch Carron and catchment. We stopped briefly at the Carron Dam to check it out and the Hairy Cows grazing on the hill. 

We then continued on to the bottom edge of Loch Lomond and the town of Balloch. We came across Lomond Shores. This is a lot like Hillarys with many shops that spread around the edge of the Loch. There were also hire boats and canoes. It was quite a busy spot. 

We enjoyed the wander checking different things out and seeing the steamboat that was moored. It obviously hadn’t moved for a long time. We then came back to the shops where we bought an Asian stir-fry to have for lunch before continuing our journey to find a drink. We drove into the town of Balloch drove the main road twice before locating a pub where we could park. We enjoyed a quick pint. Unfortunately the sun was beginning to disappear behind the clouds and it was beginning to get cold in the open air.

With our drinks finished we drove along the Loch Lomond road before diverting to Helensbugh where we stopped for fuel and then followed Loch Gare to Garelochead. We parked again and went for a walk along the waterfront before stopping at another pub for a drink.   

With time getting on we decided we needed to begin heading to the airport in Glasgow so we set the GPS and followed the scenic route along the Loch before making our way over a large bridge and back into the Glasgow area. Before we knew it we had found our hire car drop off, we had all of our things and we were wandering into the terminal.

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Unfortunately we couldn’t check in our bags so we found somewhere to sit and have a meal while watching the BBC news coverage of the Jubilee concert.

At 6.15pm we were returned to the easy jet check in and finally put our 3 bags through. Even though I had bought 12 extra kilos of weight we were still over by a kilo, but we were let through thankfully. We then wandered through the departures and screening before sitting in another pub to waste the last hour away before boarding.

At 8.15pm we were up and away yet again this time heading to Luton an hour away. The flight was an easy one and by 9pm we were back on the tarmac. Our bags were delivered fairly quickly and then we wandered outside the terminal to wait for Chell and Mary to collect us.

It was so great to see them both.

We drove to Chell’s place about 20min away, dragged our bags in and then made ourselves at home in the lounge. With a glass of wine in hand it was time to relax and catch up and chat about our holiday so far.

We showed off some of the video and photos bits before the day caught up with us and we called it a night.

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