Monday Afternoon, September 26

After finishing our mini walking tour of Glasgow we checked our maps, programmed the GPS unit & set out for Oban.

The GPS indicated that it would take us about 2 hours to drive from Glasgow to Oban. We started out on a 4 lane divided highway & the roads got progressively narrower.

We were about 3/4 of the way to Oban when the GPS “told” us to take a sharp left turn off the main road. Catherine thought that we were headed in the wrong direction but I was confident that the GPS was taking us the right way. It wasn’t too long before the road narrowed to a single lane & we were in the middle of steep rolling hills farm country & I was proven wrong (again) 😡

We debated turning around but the GPS showed this road on the map & “said” that we only had a few miles to go. Plus the scenery was stunning.

We stopped along the way to ask a local for directions but it was obvious that he had never been to Oban. Either that or he didn’t want to say too much to us because Catherine was reluctant to put the car window all the way down.

We finally made it to Oban & checked in to our hotel – a classic building on the front street and a room with a view of the harbour.

The locals in the town are also very friendly & quite happy to make a picturesque pose in exchange for a treat. This guy was parked on our hotel room windowsill. Obviously this was a good place to panhandle & I too rewarded him for his patience.

To my pleasant surprise the Oban Distillery was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel. How could I come to Oban & not tour this world renowned facility?

Catherine decided to check out the multitude of interesting shops on the main street while I took a tour of the distillery. We had a great host for the tour & even had a few samples to savour along the way.

Next on the agenda was dinner. The hotel restaurant has a special feature meal they called “Scottish Tapas” that included samples of a variety of popular & traditional Scottish food. Among the delicacies was s sampling of haggis. I approached this portion of my meal with some trepidation but was very pleasantly surprised at how delicious the haggis was!

Tomorrow we visit a castle!

Sliante!

Monday Morning, September 26

We wanted to see a bit more of Glasgow before heading to Oban. Our first stop was the University of Glasgow, which was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

The architecture is beautiful. As with the Botanical Gardens, we could have easily spent an entire day wandering around the campus but sadly we only had an hour to look around.

The cloisters were really neat to see & walk through. We also took a quick tour of the chapel and, as it turned out, we were just in time to attend a brief ecumenical service. Even with the service being only about 15 minutes’ duration, it was very moving for us, with Catherine & I each thinking of our fathers.

Our last stop on our walking tour of the city was for a photo op at the “Dr Who” Police Box on the street corner across from the hotel. I knocked on the door but there was no answer- sadly, the Dr. was not in.

Time to set out for Oban!

Sunday Afternoon, September 25

We arrived at our hotel on the west side of Glasgow around 2:00 pm. We stayed at the Hilton Grosvenor on Grosvenor Terrace using credit card points. What a beautiful hotel inside & out! The picture below does it little justice.

After checking in & having a brief rest we set out to see a bit of the city on foot. The Glasgow Botanical Gardens is just a few steps away from the hotel. We toured a few of the greenhouses & walked through some of the grounds. You could easily spend an entire day here & still have lots left to see on many return visits.

Our next objective was to find a place to eat dinner. Nancy DePutter, a good friend of Catherine’s back home has a daughter who lives in Glasgow. She recommended that we try “The Bothy” a popular restaurant that was just a few steps down a nondescript alley off the main street.

We had a great meal there & headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest before some more exploring the next morning & then head to Oban.

Sunday, September 25

We started our day at the inn in Aysgarth & headed off to Askrig, where many episodes of the BBC TV series All Creatures Great and Small were filmed. The scenery on the way there is spectacular & the town of Askrig is very picturesque too.

The architecture in the Village of Askrig is really neat. Many of the buildings on the main street are all joined together to form a continuous row that follows the curve and the inclination of the road.

We enjoyed our visit to James Herriott “country” but we’re looking forward to starting our tour of Scotland.

…. and so on to the north we go!

Sláinte!

Saturday, September 24

Norma, the Office Manager at Claymoore was kind enough to arrange for a taxi to take us to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport where we picked up our rental car. In addition to being named after John Lennon, the airport has a yellow submarine outside of the terminal arrivals area. When you get off a plane here it’s easy to see how big an influence the Beatles have on this city.

The car wasn’t quite ready when we got there so we went to the Starbucks in the terminal to have a coffee & a snack. Catherine also took advantage of this “free” time to do some route planning.

We had planned to drive north towards Glasgow, Scotland and on the way take a side trip into Yorkshire Dales National Park & James Herriott “country”. Catherine & I loved reading Herriott’s books about life as a veterinarian in this part of England & the spectacular scenery featured in the TV series.

Our rental car is a nice new Ford Escort with a 6 speed manual transmission. It’s quite a bit shorter than the narrowboat we just got off but it will move a fair bit faster.

Driving on the left hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car takes a bit of getting used to but I’m doing OK with it.

The M6 motorway was pretty easy because all of the cars in “our” lanes of the divided highway are headed in the same direction. That all changed when we got off the M6 & headed cross country to Aysgarth! Now we were on narrow two lane roads with no shoulders & often tightly bordered by high stone walls on both sides. Very beautiful to look but a bit really challenging to drive on. The narrowboat canals were spacious compared to some of the roads we were now driving on.

The scenery here is spectacular & I’m so impressed by all of the stone walls & stone buildings. It’s hard to imagine the amount of effort that had been made to “pick” & move all of those stones & to construct the walls & buildings.

We arrived at the George & Dragon Inn around 4pm. The timing was just right as neither Catherine or I had the energy to drive any further.

After a brief rest we went for a walk to view a waterfall nearby where a scene from the movie Robin Hood starring Kevin Costner was filmed.

The Inn where we stayed was great with lots of warmth & character. I even found some time to have a pint of the local brew before supper!

Cheers everyone! 🍻