Well, that was a nice day....

We went into Stirling on Saturday; dove to the Park and Ride and then got the bus. We wanted to check out the new Sostrene Grone shop that opened in Stirling on Friday. I'd never heard of Sostrene Grone until last November when we wandered into their shop in Chambery and bought a couple of small things but we we very taken with it, so it was good news that they were planning one so local to us. 

It was very busy, which I suppose you would expect on Day 2. After shuffling round ( like IKEA it's a one way, go past everything we sell layout - although one doughty couple were en fact wandering around anticlockwise which was, you know, an achievement in the circumstances, but one which was very annoying to almost everyone  else in the shop.

After that we walked up to the Castle. We are having the grandsons to stay shortly, in fact they are arriving tomorrow evening, and Stirling Castle is one of the places we're planning to take them so we wanted to do a brief recce before then. The castle is strategically placed on top of a very large and steep hill and by the time we got to the castle gate we were both so exhausted we knew it would be a waste of time actually going in.  We  were too tired to walk around it. So we bought ourselves an ice cream instead, and sat on a defensive wall* and discussed the likelihood of getting the boys up the hill, the verdict being Not A Chance. Fortunately we had noticed a different park and ride bus which goes up the hill almost to the top, so come the day, we'll be catching that. 

*I want to say rampart, but I'm not 100% sure that I know exactly what a rampart is, so I'm gong with wall, rather than risk making an idiot of myself

Once we'd recovered we wandered back into town. I visited the library to see  if they had anything I might like to borrow before Bloody Scotland next month, and they did, and then we walked back to the bus station via another quick dip into Sostrene Grone, this time to buy something I'd been delighted to spot when we had our first look round. 

Photos.

The Wallace Monument from the castle walls. 

Three (hopefully) good reads and two packets of liquorice fudge, unfindable for many many months. Hooray!