Today was another transition day, from Stirling to Glasgow in preparation for our 3 day tour to Skye starting tomorrow.

We got one more hike done in Stirling to the top of a hill overlooking the city where we found a historic display of The Beheading Stone.

After a bittersweet goodbye to our AirB&B hostess, we were on our way to Glasgow.

After a brief settling in with our next AirB&B hostess, Lindsey, we made our way a gorgeous 6th century church The Glasgow Cathedral for the Evensong service.

It was beautiful and inspiring. Not a bad transition Sunday and now we are ready for our next adventure to the highlands and Skye starting tomorrow.

This was the Malcolm travelers’ full day in Stirling Scotland. We came here last year but felt we did not give Stirling the time it deserved. Today we gave it that time and it was time well spent.

The day began with an amazing breakfast provided by our hostess Mandy. From there it was a bit of a bus ride to the village of Doune and then out to see the historic castle where parts of Outlander and much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed.

The story of the real people including kings from 1300 forward who built and populated this castle was fascinating. We had our time travel seeing what life was like in this cavernous castle. A great morning.

Our return bus ride followed by a delish lunch at Molly Mallone’s in Stirling. Then we set out to walk to the inspiring monument to the Scottish national hero, William Wallace.

It was a taxing walk to this amazing monument and the climb to the top was 246 steps. We made it to the second level but they were closing.

A great day in Stirling. Now to rest up and on to Glasgow and then on to Skye!

Jerry is doing a great job of creating blog posts. I’m grateful that he volunteered to handle the blogging this year so I could focus on navigating and arrangements. I will probably still create a few posts, but am happy to leave much of it to Jerry.

I would like to share a few additional photos with you, though. here are some from Crawfordsburn, Northern Island.

We woke up in Crawfordsburn Ireland in the in where C.S. Lewis homeymooned. What a great hotel.

After an amazing breakfast we learned of a trail that could take us to the beach. Off we went and sure enough we spat out on the shores of the Irish Sea. A perfect way to end our short time in Ireland.

We had a long afternoon jumping over to Scotland but have settled in to our AirBnB in Stirling, the site of William Wallace’s (Braveheart) greatest victory. We saw Stirling bridge and are eager for more tomorrow

Spoiler: Tomorrow we visit Doune Castle, site of much of the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Outlander.

We started our day with the loveliest breakfast in recent memory in the dining room of The Old Inn.

Jerry had the full Irish breakfast, complete with sautéed mushrooms and both black and white pudding (sausage). I had eggs with delicious salmon and crème fraîche.After breakfast we spent a couple of delightful hours walking through nearby  Crawfordsburn Park.

The trail led to the shore, so we took the opportunity to put our feet in the ice cold sea!

We saw such beautiful sights that it was not easy to pull ourselves away to catch our cab to the airport. However we made our 2:30 flight to Edinburgh 

ed a walk to see Stirling bridge, which we enjoyed very much. She also recommended a cafe nearby, from which we bought take out meals to eat on her enclosed patio. It was a lovely evening.

Tired but happy we discovered this beautiful city today. The weather was perfect. After exploring city center we went directly to C.S. Lewis square, our reason for visiting. I loved the reading the Narnia series to my son and reading many of Lewis’s other classic books.

The visitor’s center and library had lots to share. The square itself was teeming with Narnia characters.

The highlight of today was a walk through Belfast. After a 2 hour bus ride from the Dublin airport, we began at C.S. Lewis Square. One of the librarians at the nearby Holywood Arches Library helped us get our bearings and we walked nearly two miles to see St Mark’s Church where Lewis and his brother were christened.

I was even more pleased when we walked further and found Little Lea, Lewis’ beloved childhood home.

We took a cab to The Old Inn in Crawfordsburg. This beautiful inn dates to the 1600s and part still has an authentic thatched roof. I chose it because I had read that Lewis brought his wife Joy here for their honeymoon in 1958.

We got a free upgrade of our room, so we enjoyed some nice extras and a beautiful big room.

I’m sure I have more than replaced all the calories I’ve burned with all the walking we have done by consuming a delicious plate of fish and chips in the inn’s dining room.

We started very early, taking off from Tulsa at 7 am. After a brief layover in Houston, we flew to Boston, where we ate, charged our devices walked around and otherwise killed just over 7 hours.

The wait was brightened by a group of energetic students from Northeastern University on their way to study abroad in Ireland for the next month.

Tomorrow morning we will wake up in Dublin.

Welcome to the blog for our 2nd annual trip to the Malcolm homeland. Last year we enjoyed our trip so much that we started planning this one before we got home. If you want to see what we did on our first trip, you can visit http://malcolmsinscotland.blogspot.com/

Last year the focus of our trip was Fife and Edinburgh and we were able to visit places where Jerry’s ancestors lived. This year we want to see something of the islands and highlands. Our itinerary includes Glasgow, Stirling, Skye and Oban. We will also spend a little time in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Dublin, Republic of Ireland.