Glasgow, Scotland

 Today’s excitement was a short train trip west to the little town of Balloch on Loch Lomond. 

The train was almost empty leaving Glasgow station…..

And then a gaggle of schoolchildren boarded a few stops later…

Generally well behaved but made our hour on the train less relaxing for sure!!

Arrived at Balloch to grey skies.  First really “private boater” marina we’ve really seen.  This is on a river feeding Loch Lomand.

The main purpose of the trip was to tour the large park there with castle ruins .  

Of course there was a lot of conflicting information online about the castle. It apparently is closed for long-term renovations and doesn’t look like it’ll be opening anytime soon.  But wonderfully maintain grounds.

I plan to hike the 3.5 mile loop Winney Hill to a spectacular overlook for the billing. It was a lovely walk through well-maintained forest path.

But the overlook I also wanted to see of Loch Lomand Was closed because they were doing a bunch of tree trimming. Very disappointing! But the walk was still invigorating.

Some misty views back into Town and small views of Loch Lomand.

For those of you humming the tune of the song, thanks to my sis-in-law I know know the song’s origin: Loch Lomond" tells the story of two Scottish soldiers who were so imprisoned. One of them was to be executed, while the other was to be set free. According to Celtic legend if someone dies in a foreign land, his spirit will travel to his homeland by "the low road" - the route for the souls of the dead.

After about 4 miles of hiking, we were back on the manicured park grounds.

Trail took us to the shore of the Loch  

I don’t think I’ve really mentioned it, but there are gorgeous rhododendrons everywhere! Mostly they are the light lavender ones that we see at home, mixed with some pink and white ones. But these beautiful purple ones really stand out!

There is a lovely wild garden as well, and whoever the groundskeeper is makes having lush vegetation look easy!

Back over the bridge to the train station, we made a fairly early day of it. Still 20,000 steps in, and a lot of them were uphill!

Back on the train to Glasgow, there were a few murals on buildings. In for early night, will be traveling now towards home.