So, after being in Scotland for three days, we really have a feel for the place.\u00a0 Obviously, this is a place where the weather is always warm and sunny\u2014just like the Pacific Northwest!\u00a0 Today it was actually hot, in the low eighties (28 C).<\/p>\n
The past two days we toured the Loch Lomand and The Trossachs National Park<\/em>.\u00a0 Yesterday\u00a0we drove the Trossachs Trail,<\/em> and today around Loch Lomand<\/em>.\u00a0 With the gorgeous weather, it was a little busy on the roads.\u00a0 Some roadside pullouts were full, even on a Monday. \u00a0But the scenery is what we expected: Beautiful!<\/p>\n At one point we stopped at a little roadside park near a waterfall (Falls at Falloch).\u00a0 At the bottom of the waterfall was a swimming hole.\u00a0 There were young people climbing to the top of the rocks and jumping down, having a lot of fun.\u00a0 I could not help but think that in the U.S. access to those rocks would have been blocked \u201cfor your safety\u201d, or more accurately, to protect the park service from lawsuits by stupid people.<\/p>\n My only negative comment so far: Scots are litterbugs, but enough said.<\/p>\n The Scots like to have fun, maybe a bit rowdy now and then.\u00a0 They are also very hospitable and accommodating.\u00a0 The first night in the country was a Saturday night and we had trouble finding a place to eat; every place was completely filled for the night. \u00a0There was one little spartan hole-in-the-wall Italian place in Doune.\u00a0 It did not look like much from the outside, and we would never have gone there, but our lodging hosts recommended it.\u00a0 It was also full, but one kind couple dining there overheard our plight and volunteered to vacate their table fifteen minutes before kitchen closing time so we could have something to eat.<\/p>\n We have noticed that in England and Scotland, if you are patient and not pushy, they will often come up with something.\u00a0 Not only were the restaurant owners hospitable, but their food compared favorably to most big city Italian restaurants.\u00a0 They had their own homemade bread and doctored their oil and balsamic vinegar with honey and herbs, and it was delicious!\u00a0 The Chianti was very good and very reasonably priced (like everything else). \u00a0And that was even before the meal came!<\/p>\n We love our little garden studio, so we decided to stay an extra night, until Friday. \u00a0We can eat in the little Italian place one more time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, after being in Scotland for three days, we really have a feel for the place.\u00a0 Obviously, this is a place where the weather is always warm and sunny\u2014just like the Pacific Northwest!\u00a0 Today it was actually hot, in the low eighties (28 C). The past two days we toured the Loch Lomand and The … Continue reading “June 6: Warm and Sunny Scotland”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}