Checking off Items on my Mom's Bucket List

Jeff had a 3 day weekend, so we took advantage of his time off.  We took my parents to Scotland and visited:

• Glasgow
• Stirling
• Edinburgh (see next post)

Ever since I was little I remember my mom talking about visiting a castle.  So when Jeff and I were given this great opportunity, we knew we could "drag" my mom over here to do some exploring and see not only 1, but 3 castles and 2 palaces. As you know, her first day here, I took her to see the Nottingham Castle, but to me that isn't quite what she probably had in mind.  We started our Scotland adventure in Glasgow (which Jeff and I had visited before) and took the morning to see a few of the sites.

We got in late into Glasgow, explored a little to try to find a pub, but apparently all the pub-like places close at midnight and only the clubs were open.  We decided to get some rest and head out bright and early in the morning.  We grabbed breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast places which has the best blueberry muffin ever....although luck was not on our side as there was some sort of issue with delivery trucks and they had not delivered our blueberry muffins so....croissants were the next best thing.  Enough about food...

After enjoying our breakfast on the square, we headed to the Glasgow Necropolis which was this incredibly large cemetery.  My parents enjoyed the view of Glasgow as well as reading the old headstones.  We even found the author of Wee Willie Winkie's headstone. We walked around the necropolis for a while, and then headed down to see one of Jeff and I's favorite cathedrals, Glasgow Cathedral.  

 Enjoying some Costa coffee in front of the entrance of the necropolis. 

William Miller, author of Wee Willie Winkie's grave site. 

Jeff and I have a huge appreciation for the Glasgow Cathedral as it is simple and beautiful.  We enjoyed it because it was different from the other cathedrals as many of them have bright stained glass, gold, and murals everywhere. You could tell this was still a functioning place of worship and not just a place for tourists to visit. It definitely ranks in the Top 5 for churches for us.

 The picture doesn't do the size of this cathedral justice. 

 Inside of the cathedral

The cathedral is right next to the necropolis, so we got a great shot of it in the background. 

We walked around the city some more, and ended up heading out around noon to visit Stirling, which held the Stirling Castle.  Before we headed to the castle, we stopped in a small pub and had some lunch and a couple pints.  This meal was one of my favorites, and probably ranks pretty high on my favorite pubs since we moved over here.  My mom and dad enjoyed these meat pies that are pretty popular over here.  Jeff and I enjoyed one of our favorite dishes, bangers & mash.  This dish was even better at this pub because you were able to pick the type of sausage, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  Custom order...can't go wrong. Hmmm...here I go again talking about food! 

 We weren't the best at remembering to ask someone else to take a picture of the four of us...

After lunch we headed up to the castle, which had some of the most amazing views of the small town of Stirling and the countryside.  We enjoyed a guided tour around the grounds of the the castle and were able to explore the inside of the castle buildings as well.  It was great to see my mom's excitement to the castle as now she had visited two castles in her few days over here.  My dad really enjoyed the history side of the castle and city. 

Jeff and I in front of the castle grounds. 

 Jeff next to one of the many cannons they had at the castle.  

 LOVED the views from this castle.  We have visited many castles, and this one probably had the best views.  

  Close up of the buildings inside the castle walls. 

 Each room was decorated so exquisitely. There were even actors inside giving a detailed explaination of what occured in those rooms many years ago. 

 A few of the rooms inside. 

Hooray! We finally got a picture together. 

Our exploring lasted right up until closing time.  We were glad we did because a bag pipper played as everyone left the castle.  We were not sure if it was because it was closing time and that was their way of signaling people to leave or because there was a wedding about to start inside the castle grounds.  Either way, we were glad we were able to listen to him play for a few minutes.  

After the castle, we hopped in the car to head to our next destination...Edinburgh.  On our 30+ minute drive to Edinburgh that night we passed these large horse heads. I knew I had seen these heads in some sort of research I had been doing about the UK. I quickly snapped a few photos as we went by and I'm glad I did.  The horse heads are called The Kelpies and were just finished in 2013.  They are a new attraction, and right off the motorway as you can see. Pretty impressive architecture. 

Onto our next adventure...