Day 56: Friday 3rd June 2022

Day 56: Friday 3rd June 2022

Travelling back across the border to England today! We have loved our time in Scotland so much. Everywhere was so beautiful and loads to do - we are sad to leave, although have been here a long time!

As we were a bit worried about the traffic due to the bank holiday celebrations, we left around 7.45. The roads were not too bad however, so we were able to stop in Dumfries on the way for an hour or two. We got a bit of shopping, but unfortunately did not have time to look around too much. 

We drove through Gretna Green before joining the motorway for the last stretch. Our campsite is near Carlisle, and we are staying here for 2 nights. We were able to have lunch sitting outside - something we should have done much more, as we haven’t bothered to put the table outside up much but should have! 

There was a nice walk to Cotehill, a nearby village, where Mum wanted to get a pint from the pub. However, getting to the pub, we found a big street party for the Jubilee, so we didn’t stop as it looked very busy! Never mind!

Getting back to the campsite, we had dinner and then watched the sunset. This campsite also has a Fairy Glen in the woodland area, which is very sweet! We headed there again when it was slightly darker to see the fairy lights. We also saw a hedgehog! 

Day 55: Thursday 2nd June 2022

Day 55: Thursday 2nd June 2022

Our last full day in Scotland today! As we only spent one day in Glasgow, we decided to get the train there again this morning. This time, we knew our way around a bit more and had planned where we wanted to go, starting off with a drink at a nice cafe in Enoch Square first. 

We then walked towards the Cathedral. The University of Strathclyde has a number of buildings around this area, and we found ourselves wandering around here for a while. It did look nice, and I would have liked to have considered it for my university! 

We were able to enter the Cathedral just before it closed for lunch, so had a look around, and admired the stain glass and how big it was. Located next to the Cathedral is the Necropolis, a Victorian cemetery known for its architecture, where the graves of 50,000 people are located. It was huge, so we only saw a bit of it, but very interesting to see the different monuments. 

From here, we walked to the ‘People’s Palace’ 

 in Glasgow Green. This was a great museum - lots of information about different aspects of life in Glasgow including the war and sports and entertainment. Just after we came out of the museum, it began to rain! The weather otherwise had been really nice. Luckily it did not last long, and so we were able to walk by the river and find Stereo to have lunch. The food was delicious! It was a really cool place too - great music and a nice atmosphere. We went to the shops for a couple of things before returning to Stereo for pudding. 

People’s Palace

We returned home on the train fairly early, as we leave tomorrow and had a few things to do. A really good time in Glasgow - wish we had more time to spend here and in Ayr, as there is so much to explore. 

Day 54: Wednesday 1st June 2022

Day 54: Wednesday 1st June 2022

Quite a busy day today, although a slow start meant that we had a bit less time than we wanted at each place. 

Our first stop was the cafe by the river for a coffee, before heading to the post office to get a few cards posted. We then walked to the Robert Burns Cottage. This was about 2 miles away, so it did take us a little while to walk there. We got there around 11.45, and got tickets to go into the cottage and museum.

The cottage was really interesting to see inside, especially seeing the kitchen and beds set up. There were some statues around the smallholdings, although it was very busy with lots of primary school children running around!  

From the cottage, there was the “Poet’s Path”, a route which connected up with the museum, the Burns monument and Brig O’ Doon. There was a lot to see in the museum, it was very interactive and interesting to learn about Burns’ life, although I’m not sure I like him very much as a person. We read a poem by Burns in the cottage grounds and again by the Bridge which was really nice to do. 

After visiting the monument and gardens, we realised that we needed to head back to Ayr, in order to get to the cafe, Vegan Earth, that we have been looking forward to visiting. They open 12-4 Wednesday to Saturday, so we were very keen to get there and not miss out! 

We were so pleased we made it! One of the best cafes ever - great food choices, and really lovely staff who cared a lot about veganism and spreading the message through food, as well as thinking of recommendations for us when visiting Glasgow. We would love to have it as a local cafe! 

Great pancakes again!

Having done quite a lot of walking again, we were tired so a quiet evening again after another wander around Ayr. We will potentially go to Glasgow again as there is lots more we missed, although we really wish we could go back to Vegan Earth as it was great! 

Day 53: Tuesday 31st May 2022

Day 53: Tuesday 31st May 2022

Up early today to visit Glasgow! We caught the train, which took about an hour from Ayr. Getting to Glasgow station, we were a bit lost getting around, but managed to find the Gallery of Modern Art as our first stop. Unfortunately the exhibition I had hoped to see wasn’t on anymore, but the other exhibitions there were interesting, such as “Revisiting The Work Of Black Artists In Scotland” and “Taste!” 

After getting a map from the information office, we walked to the botanic gardens, stopping at Serenity Now on the way. The pancakes here were delicious! 

The Botanic gardens were really interesting to visit, especially being able to finally visit the glasshouses, as in both Edinburgh and Inverness these were closed. The plants growing in here were huge and amazing to see! Edinburgh did have the best botanic garden altogether though. 

We walked back along the river to Kelvingrove Art Gallery, a big gallery with lots of different exhibitions, including “The Glasgow Boys” and “Glasgow Stories”. Also located here was Salvador Dali’s “Christ Of St John Of The Cross” which we queued up to see - only one group allowed in the room at a time! 

Walking back to the main city centre, we stumbled across the hidden lane, a small street full of independent shops. Unfortunately they were mostly closed, but it looked a nice area. 

From here, we found the Street Level Photoworks Exhibition, with work from a number of different photographers. As we arrived here with not long before closing time, we didn’t have much time here so only managed to look at the ground level exhibition. 

Our last stop of the day was a meal at Mono, which was delicious! It was a cool place with a record store and lots of different food options. 

Quite a long day with a lot of walking, but it was great to see Glasgow. Parts of it felt very different from Edinburgh and Inverness, but really nice to see the city and hopefully we will come back on Thursday to explore a bit more. 

Day 52: Monday 30th May 2022

Day 52: Monday 30th May 2022

We had planned to go to Glasgow by train today, but decided to stay local today as we have done a lot of travelling recently. 

We went on a walk along River Ayr, heading past the university and staying by the river for a few miles. A really nice part of the walk led to some stepping stones and a great location to read another poem. This one was written about a river in Glasgow, but it felt best to read it here as it was a bit more peaceful with less passers by! 

We had to do a photoshoot from the nearby bridge of us crossing - if you could use a better camera to zoom in, it would be an interesting album cover for a band? 

We continued along, but as the footpath veered away from the river on to the road for a while, we decided to head back. We ate lunch by the river before heading back to the campsite.

The rest of the day was not quite as fun, just sorting out the van and all our stuff. Hope to visit Glasgow tomorrow. 

Day 51: Sunday 29th May 2022

Day 51: Sunday 29th May 2022

We packed up and left by 8am this morning as it was a fairly long drive ahead of us. 

From Killin, we were able to pass Loch Lomond on the route, which was incredible to drive past due to its length. We stopped to take a few photos but left fairly quickly, as the lay-by was not very wide, so other vehicles may have struggled to get past due to the width of Marvin. I’d love to come back and climb Ben Lomond another time though.  

Braving a paddle in Loch Lomond!

Driving around Glasgow was tricky! In order to get from one motorway to another, the satnav took us through some of the back streets of Glasgow, where we had to make lots of left and right turns every couple of blocks. We were relieved not to have gone wrong as it was very confusing!

Because we had left so early, we got to Ayr at 11.30am and could not check in to the campsite until 1pm. We managed to find a car park by the river, with lots of swans. I have never seen so many swans in one place before - I counted over 40!! 

The campsite let us check in slightly early, so after setting up, we headed in to Ayr to have a look around and a walk by the beach, before walking back along the river. The beach was nice - sandy and very long! It is nice to see a different part of Scotland, as recently we have seen a lot of mountains and lochs! 

Day 50: Saturday 28th May 2022

Day 50: Saturday 28th May 2022

Having stayed at Killin a month ago, one of the main things we had wanted to do was to climb Ben Lawers, the 10th highest munro in Scotland at 1,214m. However, getting there is tricky, as it is about 7 miles away from the campsite, including a single track road for part of that. Having thought about getting a taxi but realising how expensive it would be, and also difficult knowing what time we would be finished, we ended up driving there quite early this morning. 

We arrived at the carpark around 8.45am, and already it was nearly full, so harder to find a parking spot. Luckily, there was a spot in a corner so although we had worried about taking up too much room with the size of Marvin, we were out of the way for everyone and not taking up too much space, which worked well. We left the van around 9.30am once we had made lunch and got sorted with everything.

The walk was lovely! In total, it took us about 5 hours, with a few stops for lunch/ other breaks and lots of photo opportunities as the sun was shining! The route took us through the Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve, which is managed by the National Trust for Scotland. Here, it is famous for its arctic-alpine plants in particular. We followed the Edramucky Trail for a little way, before following the path to walk up Beinn Ghlas, another munro. This had stunning views of Lock Tay and the other mountains in this area including Ben More. 

Ben Lawers Nature Reserve

The walk ahead of us

Reaching the top of Beinn Ghlas

From the summit of Beinn Ghlas, we followed the path down and along to reach a climb to the top of Ben Lawers. This again had amazing views, although it was extremely windy and therefore hard to stay at the top for long. 

The summit of Ben Lawers 

The view of Loch Tay

We followed a slightly different route when walking down, on an easier path, which was good as we were out of the wind this way, and able to stop for lunch. 

We got back to the van about 2.30, and by this point the car park had emptied out, so it was a lot easier for mum to reverse! 

This has definitely been one of our favourite things we’ve done, having wanted to come here for a while, so we were so glad to have made it. 

The rest of the day we spent at the campsite. We are travelling again tomorrow, on to Ayr, near Glasgow.