Today was a driving day from Inverness to Glagow. We left the Airbnb on time at 10am and as we were leaving had a very nice chat with the cleaning lady who was slightly jealous of our large van as she was the oldest of eight kids in her family. MBM really enjoyed talking with her.
After a brief walk to stretch everyone's legs, we all piled back into the van and made our way to our next stop which included lunch at Queen's View, which over looked Loch Tummel and the River Tay. The food was ok (AA enjoyed his meal, everyone else was not impressed with theirs) - many tomato and roast pepper soups, a pastrami sandwich for AA, tuna salad for Lola, tuna sandwiches for T, MBM and DD and mozza sticks for B (and half a tuna sandwich).
But the lunch stop wasn't necessarily for lunch, it was for the view which was remarkable.
After making their way back to the van, it was time to drive another 1.25 hrs to their next stop at the Glenturret Distillery. B had a couple things she really wanted to see and one of them was a cat at a distillery - she watched a documentary about a cat that killed over 28,000 mice, the same cat that we learned about at the Scottish Whisky Experience tour back in Edinburgh.
B was SO EXCITED to see the bronze statue of Towser (the famous cat) and was even more excited to meet one of his (or her) predecessors, Glen, in the distillery shop. Excited is probably an understatement.
We wandered around the shop, used the bathrooms and then continued on our journey to Glasgow, another 1.25 hrs away. We drove through a quaint little town called Crieff and along more country roads (again, all paved) making our way to back to the A9 highway and then on to Glasgow.
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and it certainly feels that way, with the traffic and "big city downtown" feel.
We found our Airbnb and got ourselves in and settled. MBM found a restaurant called Cask and Clyde at a hotel near the house. DD was skeptical because it was a "hotel restaurant" but was pleasantly surprised with the quality of food. AA had high expectations ;)
The haggis bon bons were a big hit, although B could not come to grips with eating haggis. The food was also very good - AA and DD both had chicken tikka masala, B and T each had pizzas, MBM had "grannies roasted chicken" and Lola had a steak (not one of the better ones from the trip so far).
The highlight of the meal was when DD was ID'd by the waitress, who was then very embarrassed when she found out how old he was. We all had a good laugh.
Oh, and B lost one of her molars - finally, as she has been saying how painful her mouth has been with the loose tooth.
After finishing dinner, we made a quick pitstop at a nearby grocery store, getting some breakfast essentials, before going back to the house.
The kids, again, got ready for bed quickly so that we could play a couple rounds of Towerfall before going to sleep. We were interrupted by the smoke detectors going off in the house, which were very loud. There was no smoke or fire found, it is suspected that the detector in the kitchen went off because the heat detector sensed too much heat coming from the boiling water in the kettle for tea, boiling water on the stove for eggs and the lamp in the room that was facing "up" to illuminate the large ceiling was too much. Fingers crossed there are no issues tonight.
After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up to play a couple games of Monopoly Deal. We called it quits after Lola "finally won a game" - she was trying since the other day to win a game and was finally successful.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to exploring Glasgow and experiencing the science centre, which came recommended by one of DD's colleagues.
