Today we were able to drive around Glasgow in a tour bus. We saw Georgian Square (I have some pics that I'll have to "dump" on to Facebook later), Learned about the River Clyde (Clyde means "strong"). The river divides the city into the East End, West End, North End and South End, much like we, in Colorado we use the Mountains as directions. Our tour guide, Marge, showed us where certain famous people/inventors lived - and always ended those tid-bits with "because the Scots invented everything" 😂 She's a riot! We learned that University of Glasgow is 500+ years old. Highland Cathedral is known as the Gaelic Church (one of the few churches that were preserved in the many revolutions that have happened) - they speak only Gaelic in their sermons. Its so beautiful, this picture doesn't do it justice (also, its rather difficult to get a good picture while in a tour bus that's on the move)!
Another bit of information we learned is that Dumbarton Castle used to be guarded with geese. Anyone that's been chased or attacked by a goose KNOWS how effective they can be as guard animals. We had a good chuckle over that one.
Next, we made our way to Loch Lomond and went on a cruise from one side to the other. This cruise boat is deceptive in the size when you first look at it. Once you're inside, it's quite spacious and nice!
We learned of fault lines that run right through the middle of the Loch (Scotland used to be part of North America), that there is a herd of wallabies on one of the islands (some pets that were brought in by the
island's owners reproduced and created a whole herd), that another island contains Scotland's only established nudist colony (thankfully the weather was such that no one was out haha), and that the wildlife likes to swim between the islands! We also managed to get a picture of an Osprey nest where one was standing on the edge keeping watch over the eggs inside.
After the cruise, we went to a whiskey distillery and toured that. They didn't allow cameras in most of that one, but we were able to grab a few pics in certain areas. Did you know it takes 50 liters of water to make just 1 liter of whiskey? I didn't know this until today! They have their own water source on site at this location, they've turned the waterfall into a beautiful and serene pond area. We learned that they used to call the evaporation of the whiskey as it ages the "angel's share". They called it this for a couple reasons 1) they didn't know about science back then and 2) Scots don't like wasting their whiskey, so they just share it 😂 Another bit of info we learned was that it takes 6 YEARS to create a wooden cask from the time it is felled to the time it can store liquor (that's quite the process). The type of wood will change the flavor over the years as well. The picture with the bottles on the wall (terrible lighting, I know, they didn't allow flash photography in that room) represents what the coloring looks like each year (there are 29 bottles in each display).
Next stop was Sterling Castle. We spent 2 hours exploring and loving every minute absorbing history, and could have easily spent another couple hours at minimum! The legend of the Unicorn came from here in Scotland - Sterling Castle to be exact! They have tapestries telling the stories of the hunts they would go on for the great and beautiful creature. Queen Anne's gardens were stunning and peaceful to be in. This castle was so interactive and child friendly. They had a game of Chutes and Ladders as one of the displays where you could "lay siege to the castle" haha I'm sad we didn't get to go wander through the graveyard (I know, I'm weird, but I enjoy looking through the headstones and wondering at the people that are resting there and what their lives must have been like).
Another odd thing we noticed here at the castle was that there was an inner courtyard that...possibly held a lion! WHAT?!
If there were fires in the castles, they made these long iron hooks that they could pull the beams down in order to try and save the rest of the castle.
Tomorrow brings our 20 year anniversary (YAY!!) as well as more tours of fun places and sites! Onward!
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