Into the Wilds (The Trossachs)

We were headed into the Trossachs...or the wild area....which essentially is what we would consider a National Park. It did happen to be 'wild' at the moment, because the heavy wind and rains made most of it impassable for our bus. 

Our intended destination was Lake Katrine, one of many lakes in the Trossachs National Park. This was actually a pretty significant recreation area and over 50% of Scotland's population lives within one hour of the park...which tells us that it is pretty big...like the Smokey Mountains I would imagine.....with more lakes. (lochs)

If you recall Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott...you will recall that the Lady was found in Lake Katrine.  Scott's 1817 novel, Rob Roy was also set in this area.

One of my favorite Pre-Raphaelite painters John Everett Millais did his painting of John Rusking here....and the background of the painting looks much like the 'rapids' seen by our students. 

Trossachs National Park

We made it to the park, but not to Loch Katrine, however Loch Lammond was a suitable substitution. We could see the snow in the mountains even if we could not touch it.

Yes, it was chilly and we were not certain that we wanted to get out of the bus!

The view to the west

A great place for thinking and for journaling. (And if my hands were not freezing....sketching!)

This just screams....friends forever. Can you even imagine being in 10th grade and being on the other side of the world with your best friends......pretty special!

Yes....it was really windy....and icy cold.

Five cheerleaders and five rocks....hmmm....now what would you do with that?

Leap, of course!

Togetherness also means...warmth!

Trip to the rapids....ok, the bus met a little dip in the road.
Teamwork got us out of it though!

This was to be one mushy, wet, muddy trip. It is a good thing waterproof boots were on the packing list! But these brave hikers made it into the woods and back again!

To the rapids and back with lots of fun along the way.

Sometimes the weather is on your side and sometimes it is not, but like most things in life, if you look on the sunny side of things, you can always find something else to do. All in all, it was better to have misty weather and a smaller lake than to have arrived earlier in the week and be stuck in a hotel room due to the storms!
I was very thankful to have a group of kids that remained flexible and did not complain about potential changes....and they found fun whereever we traveled.
Flexibility and smiles make for better outcomes all the way around!

Mills and Mountains

Our journey took us through the countryside and up into an area called The Trossachs

...which means something like 'wild area'....I suppose we would call it a National Forest.

More about the wild area later. We were trying to get to Loch Katrine but the heavy rains and winds had a lot of the roads still underwater or covered with fallen trees. We stopped for lunch at a little woolen mill. 

OK...we found some nice shopping opportunities as well at the Trossachs Woollen Mill

Our resident photographers were great subjects as well! The countryside was beautiful!

This camera gave some interesting panoramic effects! 

The resident weaver kept the two looms running. There is a different tartan (or plaid) for every clan and these fabrics are still made the old fashioned way.

The girls were looking for the wooly cows. Coos. They are called Highland Cows and live in the ....Highlands. This was as close as we got to a Highland Cow.

Cutest aprons ever!....The girls too!

Viking princesses.

Time for lunch at the mill cafe.

It was a nice little stop and we always love shopping for things made by the locals. The afternoon would hold more adventures for us as we headed into the Trossachs.....would we make it to Loch Katrine or would Terry and Davey devise another plan?

Every day can be an adventure if you remain flexible and expect something wonderful to happen!

Bridges over the River Forth

35 Gigs of photos later, the initial sort is now complete and hopefully I can complete the trip journal and get on with the photo album. We left Edinburg Castle and will continue onward toward Dublin, Ireland. More photos and less text may be the pattern for the duration of the trip! Hopefully by the time I complete this journey we will be announcing the next destination!

Our days always started early and shortly after breakfast we headed out of town with a destination of Stirling. The countryside was beautiful, even on the overcast day. We were so thankful that though the day was chilly and windy, it was not raining. The rains so far had been arriving during the night.

Countryside drive with the hills in the distance.

The Forth Railway Bridge....is named for the River Forth - the one on the north side of Edinburgh. This area is called the Firth of Forth, which is comparable to what we would call Tampa Bay. You will also see another bridge for cars. This is actually a pretty remarkable structure, built between 1883 and 1890, it was the worlds first major STEEL bridge, at 1.5 miles long. It was one of those great construction marvels like the Eiffel Tower. 

The link provides lots of technical information about the 'cantilever' style of the bridge, but I thought it was pretty interesting that the surface area needing continual painting equals 45 acres. That is a LOT of paint! The bridge evidently continually had painters on it for the first hundred years. Now they have developed a new paint that lasts 20 years, so we did not get to see any painters, since it was last painted in 2009.  Look for the train in this photo.

Now it is easier to see the train. Yea for a great ZOOM feature! The bridge still has up to 200 train movements daily! 

The span between the two bridges was far more than arms length. The smaller bridge on the left is the passenger bridge...for cars. 

The Two Bridges Hotel is across the street from the river and overlooks the bridge.

It is always fun to play with perspective!

The oldest Post Box in Scotland. These boxes are cast iron, painted red and they are embossed with a crest indicating their date of installation into service. This one has the crest belonging to QUEEN VICTORIA. Next trip over, I will have postcards ready for mailing!

Because we became clever enough to take the group photos BEFORE we gave everyone time to check out the locale, we managed to get the entire group. It was SO COLD on the shores of the river! Notice the passenger bridge on your left and the rail bridge on your right. Queen Victoria's Post Box is in the middle.

Back to the bus and a chance to warm up! 

We were continually amazed at how green it was in January. It was mush and wet. but it was green!

We saw lots of sheep, but found that this was the wrong season for the sheep-shearing. They spend the winter growing out their wool. Surely we should have known this...we are from Florida, after all!

Off to the Woolen Mills
and
a fresh post.
For some reason my next series of photos keeps going to the top of this page.
I do not want them in that location, thank you.

Build bridges, but don't burn them.
You never know when you might need to go back to where you started!