Monday 22 August: Belfast to Scotland

We left Belfast on the Stena "HSS fast cat" ferry to Stranraer in Scotland. A large and very pleasant ship, and a nice smooth crossing.

In Stranraer we picked up our new hire car (a Ford Mondeo) and drove up the west coast of Scotland, through the outskirts of Glasgow to Drymen.

Our friend Johnny Reid had thoughtfully provided a detailed set of driving instructions from the AA website (http://theaa.com). This proved very accurate, once we got past the very first line: "Turn left at the roundabout". There wasn't a roundabout in sight, but we did eventually find one, zeroed the trip meter, and set off. Other than a couple of laps around the Tesco's carpark somewhere in Glasgow, the instructions were well worthwhile.

Our B&B was at Drymen, on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Sadly, the weather was unkind and all we saw of the loch was some dirty grey water under grey clouds. Drymen (pronounced "drimmen") is a pretty little town, with the oldest pub in Scotland.

We stayed at a small B&B called Mar Achlais, a particularly nice property run by the lovely Glynnis Nicholls and her pleasantly eccentric husband Peter.