Glasgow

Leaving Inverness was hard to do, it's a beautiful town on the banks of the River Ness with a peaceful feel to it. Staying in the Beaufort hotel was a pleasure too, an excellent hotel with a very comfortable bed. The plan, and it's probably the least settled plan I've had so far, was to head for Glasgow, back down south. Was sorry to be leaving the highlands, the epic scenery, and the cheerful, relaxed and friendly attitude of Inverness and its locals. I had been pondering heading further north to Thurso, and from there possibly to the Orkney Islands. Probably should have read the lonely planet guide before getting on the train to Glasgow, as it turns out I could also have taken a train to Kyle of Lochalsh from Inverness, on the west coast.

To get to Glasgow from Inverness, I took an Edinburgh train as far as Perth, then changed for a Glasgow service, coming through from Aberdeen. For Glasgow, I'd booked a night in the new Z Hotel, which opened two weeks ago. They're still painting in certain parts of the hotel, including in the central light well which runs from level 1 up to a large skylight in the roof. Being a brand new hotel, everything is pretty swish. They have cheap rooms available, which are internal only, with no window. However the rooms have 40" tvs, and individual air conditioning. I thought I'd suck it and see with a windowless room at £60, but as I came down on the train, my plans firmed up, and would need two nights in Glasgow. On check in, and before I'd even been up to the room, I booked a second night. Turned out to be a win, the room they allocated me, and I don't know if it was a mistake, was one on level four with a large window facing into the light well, and the skylight directly above!

Thus none of my qualms about a windowless room have been put to the test. As well, the individual split system air conditioner was very good at keeping fresh air coming into the room (the window itself doesn't open), so was less stuffy than some other hotel rooms I've been in. Somewhat curiously, you can see directly across the light well into the hotel rooms on the other side, however there are very good blackout blinds when it's time for privacy. The bathroom is in the room, but separated by floor to ceiling glass walls, an arrangements which provides a comfortable sized hotel room, with a feeling of space, complete with bathroom in what is actually a fairly small footprint.

Another nice feature of this hotel is the free wine and cheese offered each evening from 5pm in the bar. Not sure if this is an opening special, or will be a long term offering, but it's another plus for this hotel! They were quite happy to change my free wine to a Heineken yesterday, today I'm being more adventurous and am trying the Sauvignon blanc. Not sure where it comes from, but it's not half bad. A range of very decent cheeses, olives, dried tomatoes, dill pickles, with chunks of bread and dry biscuits to choose from.

Today I became even more of a tourist... Booked a bus tour with a company called Rabbie's. Small coaches advertised, the tour visited Stirling castle, Aberfoyle, Loch Lomond, and the Glen Goyne whisky distillery. None of these would have been accessible by train, so the bus tour was a great way to do it. What I hadn't realised was the advantage of a knowledgable tour guide who have a great history of the places we visited, including some of the Glasgow landmarks on the way out of the city. The tour guide made it worth taking the tour, even if I had been able to get to the destinations by train or bus! An interesting fact, as we passed by another wind farm, is that Scotland makes 38% of its electricity needs through renewable methods - wind, hydro, solar, and tidal generators in the North Sea. They aim to have 50% by 2020. What a different attitude to what we have in Australia.

Stirling castle was fantastic, and well worth a visit. Perhaps biased, they reckoned their castle was much better than Edinburgh's. A Historic Scotland guide led us on a guided tour around the key points of the castle, interspersing Scottish and royal history, my knowledge of which is pretty basic. The tour guide on the bus took great delight in rubbishing the film Braveheart and all it's historical inaccuracies. We got a much better crash course in history from her, and the Stirling castle guide. Stirling castle has been restored relatively recently, until 1964 it was used as an army barracks, where they had essentially desecrated the amazing buildings, turning the great hall into accommodation by turning it into a three storey building, removing the roof and original windows. All of this happened over a few hundred years, but since 1964 the castle has been painstakingly restored, and opened in 2011.

A stop in the village of Aberfoyle for lunch, then onto Loch Lomond, where we did a 2km walk requiring a fair amount of exertion, to climb a hill giving great views of the loch, and of Ben Lomond in the distance. The Loch is the largest in surface area in Scotland, though not the deepest. 38 Islands can be found within the loch, several of which are inhabited, including one with a population of wallabies, created by an eccentric lady who divided her time between Scotland and Australia.

Onto the Glen Goyne distillery, and a fantastic tour (and tasting) through the distillery, following the processes of how whisky is made. It's essentially the same process as creating beer, up until the distillation step. Truly amazing smells as we walked through (and climbed) the distillery. Glen Goyne don't use any peat in their barley malting process, so end up with a fruity rather than smoky whisky. Interestingly, the distillery straddles the border between the lowlands and highlands whisky regions - the distillery on the north side of the road means the whisky can be considered a highlands whisky, however they bottle and mature the whisky in large sheds on the south side of the road. An interesting fact I hadn't known, the whisky when it comes out of the distillation process is clear. It attains all its colour from the oak barrels it's matured in, Glen Goyne, like many scotch distilleries, use Spanish sherry casks to age their whisky. The colour depends on if the cask is being used for the first, second or third time. A cask costs £800 and is used for approximately sixty years.

Another night tonight in Glasgow, then the rough plan at this stage is to head for Fort William, from where you can catch the Jacobite express steam train to Mallaig. This is meant to be a very scenic trip, and crosses the Glenfinnan viaduct. However other than the train option, Fort William has been described as fairly plain otherwise with not much to see or do. There's still an inkling to head back north, to Wick or Thurso, though that would be a very long day on the train. Once I finish with Scotland, I'm aiming for Windermere in the lakes district, where I'd like to stay a few days. This will hopefully allow me to carry out a childhood dream of sailing on the same lake as the swallows and amazons, from the children's stories by Arthur Ransome.