Saturday, May 27. Stirling is a town about 45 minutes northwest of Edinburgh. It was the seat of power in medieval times, and is (so I'm told) featured prominently in Braveheart. The Scottish kings ruled here from Stirling Castle.

We stayed at the Firgrove Bed and Breakfast, which was a lovely place. Fiona, the woman who runs it, is wonderful, and we finally got a little bit of four-legged attention from her terrier, Pip.

In the morning, we went out to Stirling Castle, stopping along the way at the Church of the Holy Rude. The castle was great; beautiful architecture and excellent views of the countryside.

In the afternoon, we drove out to Doune Castle, famous in some circles as being the castle used for most of the scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Also very cool; in addition to being an impressive old castle, it was fun to try to figure out where different scenes were shot. The giftshop even lets you borrow coconuts.