We came, we saw, we had a fistful of haggis. The road was long and we covered about 1500 miles in a week with visits to uncountable cities, towns and villages.

We attended a Yazoo concert in Glasgow, witnessed large men tossing lodges at Highland games in Markinch, had Oban in Oban and somehow even got the time to down a few pints here and there.

Castle Stalker The photogénique Castle Stalker.

We also found the Doune Castle, where John Cleese once gave his best insults in a French accent to the “English knigghits” in the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, as well as the Castle Stalker (aka Castle Aaarrgh) where the Graal quest came to a rather abrupt end.

Reine in Glenfinnan Reine the Highlander in Glenfinnan.

In the 1986 movie Highlander, Glenfinnan is the home village of Connor MacLeod. But the castle depicted in the movie is actually Eilean Donan, located a far bit to the north of Glenfinnan. At least we got to see the Jacobite Steam Train from Harry Potter fame cross the Glenfinnan viaduct.

The trip included a lot of interesting historical tidbits. We saw the Stone Of Scone deep inside the Edinburgh Castle, walked across the battlefield of Culloden, examined the cellar of Rosslyn Chapel, visited the Stirling Castle and walked uphill to the the Wallace monument.

Since the trip contained a lot of music, we payed homage to The Proclaimers by roaming through their hometown Auchtermuchty with the windows down, playing “500 miles” on loud volume. We are probably still on their “most wanted” list for that one.

2 comments

  • avatar
    Tess
    16 Jul, 2008

    Looks like you had a great trip! Impressive itenary! Who was the tour leader of the Bagpipe Bastards? :-)

  • avatar
    16 Jul, 2008

    We used the PPS (Pär Positioning System, a.k.a. “Pär with a map in his knee”) during the whole trip, so I guess he would hold the honorable title of tour leader. :)

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