We spent three nights in Fort William to experience the beauty of the Highlands and could have easily spent a few more days here. The views change as you drive every few miles through this diverse countryside, a car is a must to really get the most of this area. There is lots to do here especially for the outdoor enthusiast but shopping, dining and lots of other activities are also available.
A few days ago we made a trip to the town of Roslin to view its famous landmark, the Rosslyn Chapel. It was made more famous by Dan Browns book- The Da Vinci Code and movie of the same name starring Tom Hanks. if you recall it was the locale for the scene of the climactic ending as Sophie Neveu and Robert Langdon race from London to Roslin, chased by the French police and Catholic zealots. They are on the brink of exposing a 2000-year conspiracy to rid evidence that Christ had children and Sophie was one of those decedents. They discover that the Holy Grail itself once resided in Rosslyn brought by the Templars many centuries ago but has since vanished.
On Sunday we settled in to our second house sit as our billets left for a holiday in Sherwood Forest, Nottingham. Yes, the home of Robin Hood is a real place! Well thank goodness for a housesit, the timing was needed as both Janet and I have been sick. Mine only lasted a few days as a bad cold/flu bug but as soon as we settled in to our second place Janet got hit hard. She’s been in bed since so we’ve just been laying low and enjoying our temporary home. Luckily we were fine on moving days as I don’t know what we’d do if we had to travel while being sick. We had anticipated getting ill at some point but not so early on, hopefully we’ve got that done and over with now. If Janet’s not better tomorrow we might need to make a trip to the doctor.
In the Stirling area another interesting Castle we totally enjoyed visiting was the Doune Castle which has been a popular filming location for movies such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Game of Thrones, Outlander and many others. As you wander the castle grounds Actor/Director Terry Jones from Monty Python narrates the audio tour handed out at the castle entrance along with Outlander clips from Sam Heughan (James Frazer), Janet’s favorite parts! They help bring to life the history surrounding the castle and add an ambiance as you make your way through the castle trying to remember scenes from the movies filmed here.
Well we are a few days into our first house sit in a small village called Cambus, in the Clackmananshire area of Scotland, near Stirling. It’s suburban but on the edge of a rural area so the best of both worlds with sheep farms and countryside a step away. We’ve settled into a routine and living life like the local Scots which really isn’t much different from life at home, only the accents are different.
We’ll it’s day three in Glasgow and we’re starting to come out of our surreal fog as our long sojourn becomes a reality!
The few days before leaving it started to sink in that we would be away for a long time and we struggled with the emotions of saying good-bye to friends and family, thinking about leaving the dogs and especially the kids. We hadn’t anticipated it being hard, Janet cried on and off for the two days prior. The word ‘AIRPORT’ became the trigger and the kids and I made a game of it, maybe a bit cruel like tickling but we thought it was hilarious!
