Day 2, August 13, 2007

After a good and hearty breakfast, the second day took us from Musselburgh via Linlithgow, Stirling, Dollar, Muckhart, Kinross, Glenfarg, Bridge of Earn, Perth, Methven, and Gilmerton to Crieff. The distance was 270 km. We were particularly looking forward to our host in Crieff for the day. Michael Lynch of James Cottage had already impressed us during our initial email exchange as a helpful and welcoming person.

The first leg of our journey was rather short, as we were determined to visit Stirling Castle. However, we soon spotted signs pointing to Linlithgow Palace. Wait a minute, that rings a bell! Linlithgow is considered the Versailles of Scotland, with a castle where Mary Queen of Scots, was born in 1542.

At least one of us absolutely had to go (no names will be mentioned), and a visit to Linlithgow Palace is truly worthwhile; the castle is quite well preserved and seems to have an endless number of rooms and chambers. However, all the wooden intermediate floors were missing, having been destroyed in a fire. Many of the information signs are multilingual (including German), which makes understanding the wealth of information considerably easier.

After about an hour, we headed towards Stirling. Stirling Castle towers over the old town on Castle Hill, a steep, volcanic hill. The approach to the Stirling Castle car park was accordingly pleasant (or not): uphill, cobblestones, and a long line of cars. Naturally, a parking attendant was in sight, demanding the parking fee. When it was our turn with the motorcycles, he approached us and said, "You can park up there on the right," and didn't ask for the fee. It wasn't as if he'd seen us for a while and could have waved us through, no way. But anyway, we got into the car park and didn't have to rummage through our gear for money; the castle entrance fee was more than enough. We'd barely taken off our helmets when a light drizzle began to fall.

If you want to pay the entrance fee, you can choose whether to walk through or rent a device with a cassette and headphones for £2, which explains everything. We decided to forgo the constant audio and read the information panels ourselves. As soon as we entered the castle courtyard, the drizzle turned into a downpour, forcing us to seek shelter. The rain stopped after about 20 minutes, and we had two dry hours to continue our exploration. This is the minimum amount of time needed to absorb the wealth of information and impressions of this historic castle.

Afterwards, we wanted to visit the Wallace-Monument, but we didn't really want to pay the entrance fee just to see a monument. The entrance fees aren't always commensurate with the value of the monument; it's a shame, we would have liked to see it, but to get there we would have needed the shuttle bus, and that was only available with an entrance ticket. No matter, time saved.😉

So we continued on, discovering for the first time just how beautiful the roads in Scotland are. The first stretch, almost 10 km long, between Glenfarg and Bridge of Earn, which seemed to have been designed specifically for motorcyclists, was simply fantastic! We then headed towards Loch Leven near Kinross and caught a glimpse of Loch Leven Castle, which can only be reached by ferry, as it sits on an island at the western end of the loch. In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in this castle and forced to abdicate.

From there we set off for Crieff. The A85 between Perth and Crieff was also refreshingly winding and well-maintained. However, this section of the road can be tricky to find, as the signage in Perth isn't great, and it's advisable to head towards Inverness. The signage improves shortly after.

Around 7:00 PM we dropped by Michael's place, a very funny and friendly man who's always good for a joke or a funny gesture. He offered us his garden behind the house as a motorcycle parking spot, which we gratefully accepted.
When we wanted to go out for dinner, we discovered that restaurant kitchens in Scotland only stay open until 8:30 PM (9:00 PM at the latest). During a short walk through Crieff, which fortunately has several snack bars, we discovered a takeaway and treated ourselves to two pizzas, which we ate in the town center, complete with benches; but nobody seemed to mind.🙂

Then we'll slowly make our way back to the B&B to process the experience. What awaits us tomorrow?