After a long day and night of travel, we arrived in Glasgow after making stops and changing planes in Houston and changing airlines in London. Heathrow is huge, and we walked about two miles to get from the arrival gate, through customs and immigration, and on to the departure gate. I had arranged for a three-hour layover, so we had plenty of time to get through all the procedures required. We carried on all our luggage which let us skip the step of retrieving bags from United and rechecking them on British Air.

In Glasgow, the rental car desk was easy to find and we eased into our BMW hatchback and took off for the thirty-mile drive to Stirling. As Philip was getting used to driving on the left again, I was looking for our first stop of the trip. We took a few wrong turns, but finally found signs pointing the way to Stirling Castle. We never did find the William Wallace statue, but gave up because we were too tired for another site on the first day in the U.K.

Stirling Castle is beautiful. Since it is one of the most popular attractions in Scotland, we were prepared for crowds. I purchased tickets on line while still at home, and we went straight into the castle without having to wait the line for admission. We did not stay for a long visit since we were pretty jet-lagged and ready just to rest, but saw enough to agree that this is one of the best castles in Scotland.

After seeing the castle, we headed north about fifteen miles to the Doubletree in Dunblane. We could use our Hilton points to make this stay, as well as four nights coming up in Ireland, free. The hotel is a grand old building in a lovely setting. Our room faces the front where we have a beautiful view of the manicured lawn surrounded by trees. Dinner was the prix fixe menu in the Kailyard Restaurant in the hotel. The service in the hotel and the restaurant has been very good.