We surprised the kids with a castle stay after leaving Stirling. We hopped on a bus and headed for Airth Castle. When we walked up the path, we saw this:
While there are rooms in the castle, we stayed on the castle grounds in this building nearby:
After finding out the next day from a young front desk clerk that there are rumors that the castle itself is haunted, it was good that we were staying in the other building, or we would have had some jumpy, sleepless people in our room — of all ages! 🙂 (49-year old would probably have been okay, but he would have been by himself! 🙂 )
We decided that even though we didn’t have a room in the castle, we felt like we were living like royalty for a few days with a swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, full breakfast each morning and lunch and dinner on site, just down the hall from our room! In addition, we weren’t responsible for cooking, cleaning, or doing any laundry! It was a very relaxing and fun few days!
Beautiful decorations for Christmas (and the biggest lamp I’ve ever seen!).
Happy swimmers!
A handstand (G) and a somersault (L).
Fancy family photo.
Delicious dinners.
Fun “Frosty” desserts!
A traditional Scottish breakfast often includes haggis, which L tried AND enjoyed but doesn’t really know what it is! Mike, knowing what it is, ate it and enjoyed it, too! 🙂
Floating peacefully…but who’s this? Surprise!!
Downtime in the room…G and L working on a stop-motion videos — Mike researching lodging/transportation — Jody blogging.
A nice late lunch/early dinner and of course dessert — meringue and candy floss for the kids and Christmas pudding for me. (Mike had an ice cream sundae, but we have no picture to share.)
After lunch, we decided to go and check out the castle. (It was only 4:00, but it gets dark early!)
Beautiful chandeliers, L checking for ghosts with his ghost detector (aka drink stirrer), and a cool staircase looking all the way down from the top!
And a quick family photo on our way out of the castle.
I see you are making it easy to come home and return to reality, having shifted from Air BnBs to castles complete with laundry service. I will be thinking of you, as we reach -26 zero tonight. All our castles in MN will be feeling a bit drafty tonight! Best of luck sorting plans around the holidays. They can be so special spent in far-away lands.