Stirling; Monday, 09 June, 2014

Checked out and with my luggage being kept at the hotel I headed back over to the bus station to catch the bus out to the nearby town of Doune.

At one time Doune had played an important role in Scottish life. Its castle was heavily refurbished and expanded by the Duke of Albany the man who was the power behind the crown for three successive Scottish kings in the mid to late 14th century, turning it into an impressive fortress.

The castle is still in reasonably good nick, which is possibly why it’s been used for many period dramas and films, the most famous of which saw it doubling for at least five different castles from the mighty Camelot through the weirdly named Anthrax to the down at heel Swamp Castle.

For it was from the battlements of this castle that a French soldier taunted King Arthur and over these walls that a Trojan Rabbit was launched in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Having looked round the castle I headed back into Stirling, with the original plan of spending a bit more time looking round the city.

However, on the way back what had started as a light shower appeared to develop into full on heavy rain, and after sheltering for some time in a café in the centre of Stirling it was clear that it wasn’t going to get any better, so I cheated and got a taxi round to the hotel, asked him to wait whilst I picked up my bags, and headed back to the station thus avoiding getting utterly soaked.

I arrived back into Glasgow just as the evening rush hour was starting, so I decided it was probably best to head out to the airport then and be early rather than risking it.

On a wet Monday evening I was glad I’d made that decision as the bus took nearly 50 minutes to make a journey that should have taken just 15, arriving at the airport with plenty of time for me to make my flight, but clearly having cut it very fine for some of my fellow passengers.