Happy Hogmanay!

Today's journey was from Oban to Stirling.  We stayed three flights up in a simple room over the local pub.  The neighbours were loud and the smell of beer wafted up the stairs.  Also, no internet apart from about five minutes' worth when we arrived and again just before we were to leave.  Oh the humanity!  But, for all of you who are concerned, I managed to survive until the morning.

The island of Mull in the background.  This is where our castle is.

Hogmanay is certainly interesting in small town Scotland.  Not that we saw much of it.  I preferred to hide out in the room than watch strangers drink themselves silly.  There were organised fireworks in this small town though and it would have been better if we'd have been able to see them but they sounded ok.  We cranked up the heating too and the room was quite cosy.  New Year's Eve dinner was fish and chips.

This morning, we wandered around the waterfront and found a little cafe that was open so we had a coffee and a fry up.  Then it was off to Stirling.  The journey was relatively short today and it was again through some stunning scenery.  Lots of snow covered mountains and even some snow on the ground.

Upon arrival we, yet again, got ourselves lost.  I blame the lack of street signs.  And I'm sticking to that story.  This time we managed to find something to do when we were lost because we headed up to Stirling Castle for a look around.  It was awesome looking at all the Scottish Monarchs and reading a nit about their story.  It was pretty cold outside and the wind made it really bleak so it was great to go into the inside parts of the castle and get a bit warmer.  We also went and had a look at Argyll's Lodging just down the road.

Then it was off to find our beds for the night.  It turns out that we were over-thinking our directions and needed to trust google a little bit more.  Plus we turned right one roundabout too early and that threw us a bit.  The other problem is that it is a bit tricky to keep track of all the roundabouts!  We got there in the end and it all worked out ok.  The room is lovely, the bed is comfy and the shower is awesome!  Though currently it is festooned with our handwashed smalls.  Dinner was across the road at EatingInn which is kind of like Cobb n Co.

And some more pictures from today.

The stairs

Yet more tartan carpet

Finally snow!

More cows

Stirling Castle