Scotland 2026 - Day 10 - (September 27)

 Today was a rain day.  It was a good thing we had indoor plans, recommended by one of DD's colleagues, which was the science centre.  We started the day with brunch at The Brunch Club.  There was a 35 mins wait for a table so we decided to walk around the Glasgow University area a little bit, in the rain.

AA guided everyone to a War Memorial statue that was nearby and then to a statue of Lord Kelvin (one of the founders of modern day thermodynamics principles) who was a professor at the University.  After returning to the restaurant, we were able to be seated at our table.

The food was good - MBM had crocque madame and a hibiscus iced tea.  B had biscoff french toast and T had the breakfast burrito. DD had the vegetarian breakfast bagel (with halloumi, an egg and hashbrown) - the sandwhich was better with some hot sauce. Lola had "just breakfast, not very exciting" and a berry smoothie.  AA had eggs benedict and a coffee.  After everyone had finished their meal, and they tracked down a waitress to pay the bill, it was time to drive to the science centre.

It was a short 10 mins drive.  In the rain.  Just long enough for T to pull out one of his teeth in the van.

After we finally got admitted into the centre (with pre-purchased tickets), we were mildly overwhelmed with the number of children and families spending the day indoors.  However, it didn't feel overly crowded even though it was busy.

The kids enjoyed the many hands-on exhibits, and so did the adults.  We all joined in to take a photo with the heat-sensing camera display.  We were very surprised by the person who showed up with a beard.  It was also very hard to distinguish MBM from Lola.

There were many different exhibits with optical illusions which were quite neat.

We had tickets to a show at the Planetarium which started at 3pm.  It was a nice break from all the noise in the centre and to learn about some of the constellations that are visible in the Scottish autumn skies.  DD and MBM may have fallen asleep, however they did not snore as much as the guy in the row in front of us.

After the show, we finished the last floor of the science centre, learning about the human body and doing some activities testing speed, strength and "mindfulness".  Lola really enjoyed how she could beat both kids at "Mindball" which measured alpha and beta brain waves and the more relaxed you were, the more you would move the ball towards your opponent. 

Closing down the science centre, it was time to drive back to the Airbnb, first dealing with the Sunday Glaswegian traffic.  We had just enough time to drop off bags (change socks) and head to The Butterfly and the Pig pub which we had a reservation at for 6:15.  MBM was excited to go for "Sunday Roast" which was advertised at many of the restaurants we were at earlier on the trip.

The food did not dissappoint.  MBM and AA both had the pork roast, Lola and DD had the ribeye roast while T had steak pie and B had a chicken burger.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals and both kids were able to get some dessert.

It was a short walk to the grocery store for some more drinks and then back to the house for another end-of-day session of Towerfall.

Tomorrow we have some short drives to check out some nearby sites.  AA and Lola are both pretty excited.

Scotland 2026 - Day 9 (September 26)

 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.

Our first stop was approximately 1 hr into the drive.  AA didn't check the stop location that ChatGPT made for them, which was basically at an intersection of the A9 highway.  They carried on down some smaller "country roads" (all paved) and came to a small village called Carrbridge which had an old stone bridge built in 1717.

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.