Day 50. Downton

Day 50. Downton. Lets take a moment to think that it is day 50!! Wow! 27% of my adventure here is complete!! That is crazy!!! Ahhhh. I'm really enjoying my vacation to Scotland. Its nice to clear the mind and get ready for round two of culinary school.

 Today we got up, ate breakfast and headed to the mechanic to turn in the keys to get the car fixed. They said it would be ready in an hour. So we milled around the bay looking for options for our day. The ferry to the first island the girls wanted to go to left at 8am, the mechanic didnt open until 830, so we had to reinvent our day. Also, the next islands the girls wanted to go to no ferries/transports were going there due to the weather. We stopped by the Visitors Center and were told that the only touristy things still open were the whiskey distillery, and a castles grounds, not the castle. If we wanted to charter a boat tour we had to have 7 in our party. Neither options were appealing. We got the car, and found out that the front left tire was flat, and the back left tire had an air buldge, so they replaced two tires. Not one. Nice. Not. I am sure the tires had had lots of previous damage from American drivers bumping into the curbs on narrow roads in the rental car before, we just got the after affects.

 After getting the car back, we headed back to the hotel to find other activity options for ourselves as locals didnt even know what we could do in Oban. We found a few castles. Mindy really liked the sounds of one, so we went there. It was about an hours drive, and we stopped along the way taking pictures of the scenery through the midst and constant light rain.

 The castle was amazing. It is actually a working/living Castle as the Duke of Something lives there with his family. Half the house is open to the public and the other half is the private quarters. Little did I know but parts of it were filmed for Downton Abbey! Say what? That's right. The dining room, and back entrance were filmed as Cousin Rose's parents house....season three I believe. So cool to be where they have been. Ha. The grounds and the rooms were so amazing. And we could actually take pictures inside....something you dont hear about when walking in castles here. There was a weapons room filled with over 3000 weapons, in the tallest room in Scotland of course. The grounds were amazing too. Fall colors are everywhere.  We took a walk on the grounds into a foresty area, moss covered trees and leaves of every color and bridges to everywhere.  Truly fantastic imagining being a Lady here would be quite nice.

We walked around the little village town. Had pumpkin soup (my tribute to Halloween) at a really old pub before heading back to Oban. We were a bit tired. We got back, used the Wifi to find a dinner place and were off again. We went to a fish & chips place, and no one got fish & chips. I got chips & baked beans. We shared this Scotish Christmas pudding for dessert. Amazing. All the seasonings (ginger, nutmeg, all spice) in this lovely dish. So good.

 My phone has reached its max on photos, so I spent some time deleting blurry/unneeded/double photos from my phone. Now I am sitting in the Hotel lounge as there is no Wifi in the rooms, only common areas waiting for my phone backup to complete on the worlds slowest wifi. Oh well. It was a lovely day. Downton. That was a pleasant surprise. ttfn.