Today was a relaxation day.  We had two nights scheduled at the Stirling cottage, so it was nice to wake up and not have to pack up all our belongings.

There was also a washer, so laundry was attempted and hung.  This was the first of several days to come where damp laundry is strung out on the line and all over the house in a desperate attempt to have it become dry and wearable.

Around noon we cooked a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon.  Scottish bacon is different than American bacon, and it is oh-so-delicious.  We also had blackcurrant jam (which was a tad expired but the shopkeeper assured us was good, as he had just given his wife a jar with the same expiry date).

Around 2pm we left to go exploring.  First stop, Doune Castle (of Monty Python and the Holy Grail fame):

While walking around the back side of the castle, we noticed a farmer combining the field below and across the river.  One of Chris's goals this trip was to drive a piece of farm equipment, so he became excited with the idea of finding this farmer and asking to ride in the combine.  It became our new mission.

We drove down back road after back road, getting lost several times, until we finally dead-ended at another farm.  That farmer wasn't combining at the moment, but he knew the farm we were talking about and gave us directions to the field we had seen.

Following those directions, we found the field and the farmhouse, but there was a fence between us and the field, so Chris walked up and knocked on the farmhouse door.

It was answered by a somewhat confused woman who asked, "Are you looking for the farm or the farmer?"

"Both" he explained, and got directions to access the field.

As we approached the field, the farmer was almost done combining.  Chris sprinted across the field towards the combine, in the hopes of catching a last-minute ride.  Here he is, sprinting across the field with Doune Castle in the distance:

























He didn't make it in time for that field, but the farmers were moving on to their next field, and invited us to come along.  We followed the slow-moving combine down impossibly narrow wooded roads, until we arrived at the next field.

We were lucky to catch them, they said, because it was still early in the season for combining.  This was their first day working the fields, and the only reason they were still at it this afternoon was because they had gotten rained out in the morning.

After the farm adventure with the two nice Scottish farmers we drove to Stirling.  Although most of the day had been pretty nice, alternating sunshine and clouds, the clouds had taken over now and the weather had turned cool and drizzly.  We briefly checked out Stirling Castle (from the outside; it was closed for the day) and Old Town before heading to the Riverhouse restaurant for dinner.

We called it an early night to pack and rest up for the flight to Ireland tomorrow.