Pitlochry and Loch Lomond

Today, Monday, saw us travelling from Edzell in Angus to Glasgow. As I mentioned when outlining the route for the holiday our original plan was to go up the West coast and come down the East, but due to us not being able to book a restaurant we wanted to visit, Tom Kitchin's, on the day we would be in the City, a Monday, we rerouted ourselves. Causing a cross-over between routes today.

The route today, amended from my original plan, looked like this:

I say amended because for the fifth time on this holiday we have visited somewhere suggested by a friend which I added in to the holiday after leaving home. This time it was Paula Keys who even before we had left home said:  

So apologies to any people I know in Dundee because a journey there was omitted from our route for the wonderful experience of seeing the Queen's View near Pitlochry. 

Queen's View

We left the Glenesk Hotel at 8.05 and within a few minutes were heading south on the A90. At Forfar we headed onto the A94 and travelled past Glamis Castle another of the titles used in Macbeth. The hills around had low clouds wafting past them, I thought at first it was smoke, but no, just wispy clouds. Our route followed the River Tay, Scotland's longest river, along the A9 and via the village of Pitlochry to Queen's View itself. 

Queen's View, named for Queen Isabella, Robert the Bruce's wife, who lived in these hills in the times when her husband was fighting for his throne, is a remarkable place. It gives a view along the River Tummel and across Loch Tummel which seems to allow you to see right across the heart of Scotland over lochs, hills and mountains. To call it a beauty spot is to downplay how spectacular it is. I don't have enough superlatives to explain how beautiful the view is and will rely on the images themselves. 

Queen Victoria visited the location in 1866 and the location plays up this connection. The View has retained its draw for tourists since that day. In the short time we were there we saw people from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. I am surprised I'd not heard of it before, thanks Paula for giving me the tip-off. It was well worth making the effort to find our way here.

Crossing our own path

Coming down from the Queen's View we follow the River Tummel down to Tummel Bridge where the river runs at a pace strong enough for a Hyrdoelectrical dam and some lovely riverside walks. Indeed the road here was full of people from the Tummel Bridge hotel walking towards us as we drove. 

The B8019 which we had follewed along the Tummel Valley turns into the B846 at the Bridge and becomes the A827 at Fearnan which then runs along Loch Tay, with even more lovely views, down to the A85 just after Killin. 

For the next 11 miles we are on a part of the A85 that we have travelled along previously between Killin and Crainlarich. This is one of the two points on the journey, when our Northward route and our Southward route overlaps.

From Crianlarich we travel along the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. This is another immensely scenic part of Scotland and it is clear why so many people come here to stay. The Loch and the hills around are attractive from all different directions. We travel the length of the left side of the Loch and then from Balloch at the end of the Loch to Dumbarton and then on into Glasgow.

Glasgow

We arrived at the Premier Inn, George Street at 2.30 and after checking in we want for a walk around the streets of Glasgow.

I have only once been to Glasgow before, to a meeting at Strathclyde University of the Heads of e-Learning Forum, so it was a great surprise to me to find that the first building I see when leaving the hotel is the same building that we had met in when I last visited!!

Drew on the other hand has most of his expereince of Glasgow from the TV series Taggart. So occasional renditions of: "I know the city like a lover!!" or proclamations that "There's been a murder" were heard from him.

Our walk took us through the august George Square and the streets around it passed the library with its statue of Wellington with a traffic cone on his head, along the River Clyde and over two of its bridges and along to St. Andrew's Catholic Cathedral. Glasgow always seems a much more accessible City than Edinburgh, somewhere where a wealth of history is matched with the everyday lives of the population. Whereas Edinburgh, at least the parts I have seen, seems more tourist (and Fringe) focused.

We got back to the hotel at 5.30 pm to shower and change ready for tonight's meal.