Eagle Owl FTW!

I don't know how many pictures I'll actually get to post since the interwebs are being super slow. Sorry if it ends up not being very many.

After Inverness, we went to Cawdor Castle. It was described as a "fairy tale" castle. It was kind of small for a castle, but cute. And the gardens were fun. They were walled and we kept yelling, "Colin! I'm in the GAHden!" 

Then we drove down to Kilchurn Castle. For a while we couldn't find it in the GPS until we put it in as a town (it's not a town. It's not even a functioning castle anymore). So after the GPS took us to a bunch of trees, we made a few U-turns and eventually found the right parking lot. There was literally one tiny little sign that said, "This way to castle." The arrow pointed to a small path. 

The ruins ended up being fairly awesome. The view was spectacular and there were just a handful of people around. It wasn't all touristified, which was a nice change of pace. Also, it was free! We hung out at the castle for a while - we soaked our feet in the frigid lake for a while, too! 

My camera battery died, so all my pictures for that are from my phone, which was also dying. Bad planning on my part, but oh well. 

After Kilchurn we headed to Stirling for the night. We basically were trying to find a hostel in a town that wasn't big (we were avoiding Glasgow and Edinburgh). We found out when we got there that they, too, have a castle and old time jail.

So naturally, we checked it out the next morning. It was splendid. In my opinion, way cooler than Edinburgh Castle. The weather was less than awesome with some rain and a lot of wind, but nevertheless, we had a good time.

Oh, and there are huge tapestries with unicorns everywhere in the castle. And the story behind them is really cool. Also, I got to pose with a unicorn horn. My life is now complete.

We went to the Old Time Jail in Stirling, too. Interesting and fun. I love live actors - they really add a great vibe to things.

We didn't go to it, but we did drive to the Wallace Monument, in honor of the great William Wallace. It was quite the site from far away. Very tall.

Then so. much. rain. We stayed outside of Carlisle again, in the same hostel as on our way to up Scotland. Honestly, I was a little nervous we were going to get stuck there because of flooding. Apparently the rain storms this September are the worst they have had for this time of year in thirty years. Go figure. 

But we managed to not get flooded in and got to Birmingham the next day.

We were really just in Birmingham because we needed a place to stay. The weather was miserable so we didn't do much. Then today we drove to Stratford upon Avon. Multiple people had suggested we go there. Honestly, I'm not really a Shakespeare fan so I wasn't that excited about it. But it was nice. Not really because of the whole Shakespeare thing, but because it was a glimpse into the Tudor life. And the architecture and furniture of the era are very interesting. We also got to see a falconry demonstration! There was a sign that said that they have training days so people can learn falconry. I really wish I had time for that! So cool.

Tomorrow TC goes home, and I'm off to Wales. Hopefully that will go well...