ON THE BONNIE, BONNIE BANKS...

Well, sadly, this is it.  The last day of our journey--if you don't count tomorrow's haul from Edinburgh to London to Phoenix.  We do love that we can fly non-stop from London to Phoenix with British Air. I've always hated the hours spent in New York or Chicago or Atlanta waiting for connections between wherever and home.  The only thing that could make our trip better tomorrow would be comfortable seats.  I think the plane we flew to London was one of the original 747's from decades ago--it was well worn, and a bit dingy, but it got us to here and we'll expect it to return us to Phoenix just as carefully and safely. What always surprises me, and makes me moan, is how many people are packed into the fuselage of the aircraft every single time we decide to fly.  It was a full house three weeks ago when we flew from west to east.  Fingers crossed for the return trip.

This morning, we'll visit Loch Lomond to enjoy its scenic beauty and walking trails.  Our lunch has been planned at David Marshall Lodge.  It's billed as a lunch of sandwiches and scone with jam. We've had two or three similar lunches, and the sandwiches have always been very good.  They've been daintily cut into halves or quarters so one never feels like a pig when eating three or four. If God is with me and my research is accurate, the David Marshall Lodge would have been built for a visit from Queen Victoria during the years that extensive water-works were being created at Loch Katrine. The populace had not intended to build anything for the Queen's visit, but she demanded a Royal Cottage and so it was done.  As she arrived, the obligatory 21-gun salute was performed with such enthusiasm that all the windows in the brand new Royal Cottage were blown out and, suddenly, the Queen had nowhere to stay.  That rather seems like Divine Retribution to me.  A few years ago, we visited a beautiful house in Ireland that had bankrupted its owners as they remodeled, replaced furniture, and completed renovations required by their royal visitor, who happened to be the very same Queen Victoria.  She always seemed so sweet in her pictures--short, chubby, mourning her sweet Albert for decades.  But, maybe that was a ruse.

Loch Lomond, the more famous of the two lochs we'll visit today, is also the larger, stretching 24 miles in length.  Per Wikipedia, it lies on the Highland Boundary Fault that separates the Scottish Highlands from the Lowlands.  Research suggests that much of the beauty credited to Loch Lomond is due to the nearly 30 islands scattered here and there across its surface.  I just found out that one of the islands--Inchconnachan--is home to a colony of wallabies.  They are a very long way from home. What a surprise if you sailed onto that island beach and began unloading your picnic goodies, only to be surrounded by wallabies.  Who knew?

We'll be going for a walk in order to have more and better views of Loch Lomond, and our choices are the short walk or the long walk.  We decide on the long walk.

The short walk, we learn later, is not only shorter (as advertised), it is much more civilized if these rocky steps are any indication.

The longer walk, by contrast, clings to the edge of Loch Lomond, but if you don't fall in during the first hundred or so feet, you're good for the entire journey.  In the picture above, we're just starting out and will soon find ourselves on the beach of the loch.

And here we are--me in my new rain gear and BC, who is obviously sure enough of his masculinity to carry my Vera Bradley all over the U.K.  Good job, Sweetie.

We've climbed from the beach through this lush forest, and are at the highest point of our journey.  As we rounded the last corner--with just the slightest amount of hard breathing, we met an entire pack of young (grade school aged) scouts, learning about plants, leaves, birds, stones...it didn't matter what. They were just ecstatic to be here today instead of in their classroom.

We've gobbled up our lunches, and are unloading from our short drive to begin boarding the steamship, Sir Walter Scott.  One of the very nice perks of a tour is that no matter how long the line may be, we go to the front.  Some days I feel rather badly about that, but most days I don't. I simply remember Queen Victoria and take it as my due.

Sir Walter Scott will escort us around Loch Katrine.  I think she will be equally as scenic as Loch Lomond, but we'll have an hour or so to view it from different angles.  Loch Katrine serves a number of purposes:  Besides simply being there in all her beauty, Katrine has been poked and prodded, deepened, plumbed and extensively engineered (rather like an aging screen actress) in order to serve as a reservoir for Glasgow's water supply.  I'm most impressed by all of this work when I realize it was done well over a hundred and fifty years ago.  The Sir Walter Scott itself, a steamboat, has been remodeled to burn bio-diesel instead of oil.  All the better to keep the Loch (and Glasgow's drinking water) as pristine as possible.

Historically speaking, Rob Roy MacGregor was born near the head (or north end) of Loch Katrine.  I had always heard of him, but never had details.  He and his father joined the Jacobite uprising, but when that effort faltered, his father was jailed and Rob Roy was always viewed a bit askance as an outlaw.

There is probably more fiction than fact about Rob Roy, but his life style is definitely the stuff of which movies are made.  My favorite line was that Rob Roy was a "cattle lifter." Back in Kansas, his sort would be called cattle rustlers and shot on sight.  The term "cattle lifter" just struck me as being veddy veddy British.

One of the few islands in Loch Katrine.  I would take a guess as to which one, but that would be very foolish.  We sat at the front of the boat out in the open, cutting the wind for all those behind.  I thought I would freeze to death, but Bruce was very into this whole adventure and so I stayed by his side.  It was miserable but, as you can see, very beautiful.  Especially for us Arizonians whose landscaping is covered with 3/4" granite stone in a variety of earth tones.

Thus endeth this beautiful journey to England, Scotland and Wales.  I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything else.  The group we traveled with were wonderful, our leaders were outstanding, the organization was perfect and I would do it again in a heartbeat.   Thank you for letting me relive this most wonderful of vacations.