Tuesday May 6th & Wednesday May 7th

On Tuesday I left Holy Loch after breakfast to drive to Prestwick.  

The ferry from Dunoon to Gourock was straightforward with only a short wait and the drive along the coast uneventful. 

The only point of interest that had been mentioned to me was a Viking monument called The Pencil at Largs. I missed it!

In Prestwick I stayed with Katie (Jan’s pen pal since they were 10 years old) and Hugh.  They had put together for me a fabulous sightseeing trip of the area around Ayr. 

I learned that Ayr was the birthplace of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.  We visited the cottage where the family lived when he was born then explored the museum dedicated to his life and poetry. 

Prior to this about all I knew about Robbie Burns was that he wrote the words to Auld Lang Syne.  

After the museum we left town and visited the ruins of Dunure Castle (dating back to the 1300s) on the coast of the Firth of Clyde near the village of Dunure. 

From here we travelled to the Electric Brae where cars appear to move uphill by some unseen force (hence the electric in its name). Though the road appears to be running uphill, if you take the brake off the car it rolls “uphill”. The apparent uphill slope is an optical illusion and the road actually has a slight downhill slope.  Try as I did, I couldn't see the downhill slope.

The drive back towards Ayr took us past Turnberry Golf Course (actually 3 courses) and resort owned (or being purchased) by Donald Trump and home to the British Open 4 times to date.  

For the complete golfing holiday you can stay at the resort where the accommodation costs range from just under £300 to just under £2000 per night.  I think it was booked out so I didn't stay there!

From here we visited Calzean Castle – a well preserved castle with beautiful grounds now the property of the National Trust.  

The entry to the castle was through a room decorated with a huge number of guns, swords, bayonets and other blades.

 There was a beautiful oval staircase and a huge kitchen. 

Back to Ayr and we stopped at the Auld Kirk and Brig o’Doon – the setting for one of Robbie Burns’ most well known poems Tam o’Shanter.  

If you know the poem, the Kirk is where Tam saw the witches and Brig o’Doon is the bridge over the Doon River where he managed to escape from the witches, although his horse, Meg, lost a fair chunk of her tail to one of the witches. 

I had to read the whole poem when we got back to Katie and Hugh’s place.

This morning I had an easy drive back to Glasgow, handed over my little green Fiat (I rather like that car) and spent what was left of the day visiting a few more key sites in Glasgow – 

The University of Glasgow, 

the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow Cathedral,

the city offices

and Buchanan Galleries for a bit of shoe shopping. 

I am staying at the same hotel as I did on my first night here two weeks ago and have worked out where to get the bus to the airport tomorrow for my flight to Cork, Ireland. Stage 2 of my holiday begins!