scotland

right, back to the scottish holiday. still plenty of stuff to come all you scots-lovers !
One morning we went to Inchcailloch Island
we set off by boat from balmaha boatyard.
The girls loved it:

and so did my father-in-law:

the boat dropped us off at a jetty and went off:

I then walked up to the top of the hill with jane’s parents:

the views were fabulous and would have been even better if the clouds got out the way:

click for big
meanwhile the girls played on the sheltered beach:

then the boat turned up and we got back before the rain:

i found this headline quite entertaining but i’m not sure why. i’m sure the story itself was quite upsetting for those involved, but it does raise a number of comical images in my mind.

as you will have realised our scottish holiday had a good mix of friends and family as well as sightseeing and walking. here is our family and jane’s aunt all looking out for interesting things:

and here is one of those family photos which will hopefully take precidence over the usual boring ones:

definately worth clicking for big

please look away now
we saw one of these slide by above water whilst walking along, helpfully marked by its escort boats. there was a load of people in red clothes standing on the top – possibly having a last stretch of the legs and fill of the lungs before a few months of claustrophobia.
these things (i carefuly haven’t used their name or powering mechanism, but you can follow the link above) are strange anyway, but even more so when floating by for all to see.

there’s a place on the south end of loch lomond called ‘loch lomond shores‘:

it’s very nice and you get to see a nice IMAX video and a very poor animatonic thing.
but the best bit is the view from the top:

our holidayhouse was right opposite the oak tree inn, which is a lovely traditional pub/inn/restaurant/cafe/hotel thing.
here are esther and kezia enjoying a coke:

there’s a little hill in balmaha (near the massive hill) which you can climb up quite easily. on this occasion jane carried kezia.
here is jane getting her breath back:

we were not alone in enjoying the view:

jane’s dad looks and ponders:

everyone looks and ponders:

here is the view from the scrubland in the back of our scottish holiday house:

click to expand your horizons

we had a very nice trip to Milarrochy Bay with cousin catherine, cousin mike and his parents.
here is a view of the loch:

inspired by the children cousins jane and catherine regressed and built a sand speed boat for esther and kezia (mike’s dad provided valuable engineering input):

jane’s parents spot something funny in a tree:

then kezia came down and walked through a very photogenic hollow tree:

we stayed in a village called Balmaha on the side of Loch Lomond. Opposite the pub and right next to our holiday house was this rather lovely play park. the girls loved it (Kezia IS loving the hammock swing, she’s just holding on tight!)

the first night we arrived at Balmaha we walked up a little hill and saw this rather pretty sight as the evening drew in.

i loved scotland. and this shop summed it up nicely. it WAS great outdoors.
but it was also great indoors too ! (especially when we were visiting friends and relations, and staying in a lovely holiday house).

in my experience, which i admit is a bit limited, it isn’t very sunny in scotland. like ever. so i suspect these tanning shops do very well.
i managed to get a tan just standing by this flourescent tan with it’s nice 1980s graphics and type font.