I was working in Motherwell on Friday 7th March so we decided to make the most of it and stay up in Scotland for the weekend. We arrived early and had chance for a look around Motherwell. It's a smallish town and fairly typical of many British towns today - full of cheap shops (i.e. selling cheap stuff) and charity shops. Nothing is "individual" any more, most shops are chains and there is almost always a McDonalds. Which is where we ate breakfast - there wasn't really anywhere else that had a free table and looked remotely decent.
After the meeting finished (about 12.45ish) I got back to the car and Roy had planned a route for us. His plan was to take us across to Ayr and then down into Dumfries - we'd decided to base ourselves in Dumfries for the weekend, as it's got a good choice of things to do around and about and is not too far from "England" which meant the drive home wouldn't be too long.
The day was foul - rainy and windy and grey. We drove across to Ayr anyway, and by the time we arrived the rain had stopped but the wind was fearsome! Ayr town centre looked quite nice but we didn't stop until we reached the promenade... we got out of the car to look at the sea. It was a struggle to stand up - even the seagull seemed to be suspended motionless in the air, unable to fly through the wind. So I took a couple of pictures and jumped back in the car. The one here is attempting to capture the static seagulls!We drove down the coast through Turnberry where Roy was excited to see the Golf Course. Turnberry was like a full sized model village - no real soul to the place, everything was white and purpose built to provide a luxury golfing environment I guess. We stopped just after it for a coffee and sandwich at a roadside cafe over looking Ailsa Crag - which apparently is famous, if you watch the British Open.
We started to head inland - we'd found the road we wanted on a map, but unfortunately we missed it. Still not sure how. Anyway, we ended up driving right through the beautiful Galloway Forest, so apart from a few anxious moments about whether it actually would come out anywhere (as we got further and further away from any sign of human life!) it was a great drive. I have never been through a "working" forest and so it was fascinating to see the tree growth, planting and of course huge areas of felled trees. This area is known as the "highlands of the lowlands". Looking across the forest to the hills, I could see why. Regrettably I couldn't capture this very well on camera.After a long afternoon driving (through the most pretty villages and scenery) we finally arrived in Dumfries at 5.30pm. We headed straight to the Torbay Lodge Bed and Breakfast. We hadn't booked it, but it had good reviews on the internet. Roy popped in and we were lucky enough to bag the last room for the weekend! It was very good - clean, well appointed and best of all, a good powerful shower. We got showered and changed and headed off into Dumfries. The B&B owner had suggested a pub called the Cavens Arms to eat. We had about a 30 minute wait for a table - it was packed - but that was fine. It was good pub grub - I think we both had some version of beef stew and it was tasty and inexpensive. After that we had a nightcap in the Robert the Bruce pub up the road (a Wetherspoons!) and headed for an early night. The room was lovely and warm and the beds really comfy.
