Scotland the Bravest

As part of our ABC tour of Scotland (Another Bloody Castle) we stopped at Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness and later at Doune Castle (which featured in Monty Python's Holy Grail movie).

We saw lots of snow covered mountains and beautiful lochs in our trip from Fort William, Inverness, Aviemore, Laggan (the village used in the TV show 'The Monarch of the Glen'), Pitlochry (lunch), Kenmore, Killin, Doune and back to Glasgow where we had dinner in a pub at Drymen.

Kerry, Natasha, Nick and I set off to explore the western highlands of Scotland.

Today we went via Tarbet, Inveraray, Oban and Fort William where we spent the night. Although it rained almost all the way - the rain hasn't stopped since we arrived at the wedding reception last Saturday - the scenery was spectacular!

While Natasha caught the train to Edinburgh to spend the day with ex-Cowra girl, Nicole Wolters, Kerry, Nick and I had to return the kilts. Following that we decided to go for a wee drive. First stop was Dumbarton Castle near the mouth of the Clyde River. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best with showery rain. However, we all found it very interesting. After the Castle we went via Helensburgh, past the nuclear submarine base on Loch Long to Tarbet and then on to Luss - a quaint village on the banks of bonny Loch Lomond.

The differences between an Aussie wedding and a Scottish wedding were interesting but the wedding and reception were a great success!!

Mar Hall, the location for the reception, overlooks the Clyde River just out of Glasgow and is now a 5 star small hotel. Matt and Karen had a three room suite that has been previously used by celebreties such as Elton John, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Lou Reed and Liam Gallagher. The bathroom alone was the size of most motel suites! It even had its own fireplace and chaise lounge .....

Tomorrow they leave for 2 weeks in the Maldive Islands ..... laying on a beach in the sun is just what they need.

The weather hadn't improved much, if at all, over night.

While the women went and had their heads done the rest of us watched Scotland win all the gold medals at the Commonwealth Games on TV .... well that's the way it appears from here!

When it was time for the two 7 seater Daimlers to pick us up the weather started to clear and patches of blue sky appeared.
While I'm not much on describing what everyone wore what I can say is that the bride and groom looked stunning!! A perfect couple!! I'll let the photos tell the story .....

The typical spring Glasgow weather returned today with rain and showers all day. Hopefully they will clear by midday tomorrow ......

Went for a 'quick' drive into the city. It seems it doesn't matter which city you are in the world Friday afternoon isn't the best time to be driving.

Only two days to the wedding!

Karen has gone to stay with her parents until wedding day and the rest of us had a pretty quiet day - except for Matt - who was interviewed at the flat by a reporter from the Observer, followed by a two hour photo session! An article will appear in the Sunday edition of the Observer on April 23rd featuring Matt's CML and the search for a donor.

The other highlight was trying on the kilts! It's been awhile since I last wore a dress (end of year staff dinner??) but I think it quite suited me .....

Allowed to sleep-in this morning before accompanying Matt for his regular blood-test at the Western Infirmary. Waited for the results which were good and spoke to the specialist.
We then took the wee subway into the centre of Glasgow to do abit of shopping .... well at least the females did!

Today was spent at Stirling including Stirling Castle and the William Wallace Memorial.

On the way back we stopped at Loch Lomond

The day was spent in Edinburgh with the highlight being the tour of Edinburgh Castle.