Reykavik airport was chaos, even at that time of the morning. We finally boarded our flight and a few hours later were at our new accommodation in the heart of Glasgow but we couldn’t check in so had to leave our bags and go exploring. It was Nandos for lunch and then we headed through the main shopping street – it was really beautiful with a whole lot of old buildings. We decided on a whim to get the hop on hop off bus and that turned out to be a great idea. We visited the transport and art museum and they were both very cool and hands on. The transport museum was a particular highlight for me. After doing the rounds, we decided to get some food. We found gluten free pizza so had some of that then headed back to our accommodation. Leon had sent us sim cards which was so helpful so used those. An early night as the next morning we were meeting my aunty Jacqui, cousin Tegan and Jacqui’s partner, Allan.
We walked for 30 minutes in the drizzle to Starbucks on the other side of the bridge where we all met up. We had a nice breakfast and coffee together and then Allan and Jacqui dropped us off at the airport so we could pick up our hire car. Once we were in that we headed to Stirling where we explored the Castle which set the scene for many battles between the English and Scottish in the fight for independence. We did a free walking tour and then explored by ourselves. The hill upon which Stirling castle was built has been a fort for the last 2500 years and the view was spectacular. We visited the sites of two famous battles involving William Wallace and Robert the Bruce - Stirling Bridge and the Battle of Bannockburn. From here we got some supermarket lunch and headed to Sauchie Tower. This was special for me as the Schaw family who owned it, are direct descendants of my Mum’s family – Grandma’s maiden name is Schaw.
- Danielle