Scotland - The Logistics

We did Scotland using Untours and what a wonderful experience that was.  I guess it was almost a year ago we decided to go, we looked at the properties available for just two people and the two week period we wanted to travel.  We then booked it with Untours and other than our finding the flights, they took care of the rest: booking the rental property, reserving the car, arranging for airport to car rental transfer, supplying us with GPS and cellphone, and stocking the kitchen with groceries.  We were pleasantly surprised to find there was an orientation to Scotland the day after we arrived.  Untours has many properties in Sterling and vicinity, but that arrival week we were the only ones so didn't have to share the orientation with anyone.

Our flat was the only one in Dunblane.  Others were in Stirling and Bridge of Allan.  We had a two bedroom here in this old mill building on the Allan Water.

The flat had the three large windows on the far right, first floor in the building below.

There was a lovely walk on both sides of the river.

We met Val, our Untours coordinator at the Dunblane Cathedral that first Thursday and were given a tour by a member of the church.  More on this cathedral in another post but cathedral dates to the 13th century and the lower part of the tower to the 11th century.

When we came out the sun was shining.

Val took us to a local restaurant for coffee/tea and scones where we met Padraic who regaled us with poems about Rob Roy in both English and Gaelic.

We popped in to the Dunblane Museum.  More on that another time.  Tennis champ Andy Murray is from Dunblane.

He's responsible for this mailbox being gold.

We then walked over to the Leighton Library, the oldest private library in Scotland.

Robert leighton (1611-1684) was Bishop of Dunblane and left his collection of books to the town along with funds to build a library.

Our last stop was for tea at Another Tilly's Tea Shop where Val answered all our questions and some we didn't even think to ask.

Much more to come on our trip, but I can't say enough about how wonderful Untours and Val were for us.  After that orientation we felt ready to explore on our own the land of the Scots.