This past weekend we went out to Balloch, a little town on the edge of Loch Lomond (which supplies Glasgow’s water). It’s a neat little town, although we didn’t see much of it except for a wood, its mall (about 15 shops), and the aquarium. You can guess where we spent most of our time. (We passed the castle of Dumbarton on the way there and back: we’ll have to take B. there, and are saving it for the day he returns to visit and hoping the castle will actually be open then.)
As part of our “let’s not be so Hobbitish” campaign, we’re just picking places and … going. We’ll have more for you from somewhere else later on next week. We don’t know where, but as it’s T’s birthday this weekend, it’s likely to be somewhere a bit out there.
People have asked us whether we’ve been to England, or Wales, or Ireland, and our answer has always been that we haven’t. As to why, well, because we haven’t seen what’s close by, that’s why! If it’s not too rainy, we’re told we should go to Helensburgh, to walk up and down the beach, eat iced cream, and have fish-and-chips. We think that we’re going to aim a bit farther out, like perhaps for Aberdeen, or Aran. Someplace that takes a few hours on the train will be nice, so we can watch the world go by for a while, and so that we’ll feel like we’ve gone somewhere in earnest.
We’re open to suggestions, of course, but we’re also just kind of feeling our way into exploring Scotland for ourselves, without anybody else’s pace to consider. No matter how much we truly do like the kind people from the International Family group of the University, traveling with wee children really does rather limit the day.
For more pictures, check out the Slideshow Here. And until the end of the weekend, we’ll just have to keep you all in suspense as to where we’re going, particularly since we don’t know either.
There are a few landscape shots in the slideshow which look a bit odd: they are something D. is playing around with, where we take 3 shots at different exposures and then merge them together, so that you can see the detail in both light and dark spots in the pictures (called HDR, or High Dynamic Range imaging).
– D & T
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I am so sad that we missed out on this trip 🙁
The photo of the ray-like creature morphing into frog-like before my very eyes is quite intriguing, if not a bit horrifying. Great capture.
: )
I think it’s great that you’re REALLY exploring your immediate surroundings. Thanks for taking me along on your latest trip via the Flickr slideshow. I loved it.
Happy Birthday, T!
Sending you a big hug from New York City,
Paz
Why go farther abroad when there is so much to see nearby?
And I Didn’t Know about the peculiarities of the Loch Lomond River Lamprey. Thanks for sharing.
Happy Birthday T!
Happy birthday T! It was Heather’s birthday weekend, too (all four days of it!), so we took advantage of some cheap bus tickets to Leeds… and visited a small village outside of the city. Ever been to Luss? Worth it just for the bad poetry. Oh, the International peoples had a Dollar Glen walk a couple years ago which I highly recommend. I’m hoping to take Heather over there once it’s a bit warmer and the wild garlic is blooming!
Thanks for the birthday month wishes, guys!
Nope, we’ve never been to Luss — and that poem is indeed startlingly bad. At home, the garlic blooms pretty early in the Spring, but as it’s still snowing, you’ll have to actually give us an idea of when that happens here…!