Pipes and Highland Dancers

Ballygally Castle garden
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After breakfast this morning we had a quick walk around the back garden of the hotel - BallyGally Castle. Although now with many extensions, the original building has been restored and you can view the towers/turrets from the back garden.

As we left the hotel and turned the corner, we saw the little known Polar Bear of BallyGally (see photo). It was then on to the ferry terminal for our 2hr trip to Scotland. First we had to pass through the security checkpoint, where they randomly picked 5 overnight bags out of the luggage area and those people who belonged to them had to get off the bus. The bags were then searched and the related people frisked. Luckily neither of our bags were chosen!

Celebrating the Haggis

The Ballygally polar bear
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The bus drove on the ferry with us on board and then we all had to get off and climb up the stairs to the main deck. Here we sat in a lounge and had coffee and tried to amuse ourselves. This got boring very quickly, so we headed out on deck for a look around and didn't see anything but water on our side of the ferry. We checked out the souveneir shop then ended up in the video room watching part of the American Gangster movie. We had been told to have lunch on the ferry before docking at 12:30, so we shared a toasted panini around 12noon. On docking at Cairnryan dock and an announcement from the captain, we all desceded the stairs and boarded the bus, and were driven off by our trusty driver Jim. There was another security checkpoint in this side, but we got waved through without a problem.

Boarding the ferry to scotland
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We set off along the Ayrshire coastal drive, taking into scenic views of Island of Aran and Mull of Kintyre. We stopped in Alloway, the birthplace of world renowned poet Robert Burns. Here we enter the birthplace museum and after watching a short film about his early life, walk through the farmhouse where we lived his childhood. We then walked 800m down the road to view the Robert Burns National monument, the bridge Brig-a-doon, and the ruins of the Auld Kirk - the old church and cemetary where Burns' parents are buried.

Robert Burns birthplace
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We then head off and arrive at our stop for the night - Crowne Plaza Glasgow. This is a very modern city, and the Opera House looks suspiciously like the Sydney Opera House. After a break for about an hour, we head off for our optional dinner evening. This was located next to the Robert The Bruce National Monument in Bannockburn. On arrival we were greeted by a scottish piper, who led us down a path, first to the monument, then over to his huge statue. Our host for the evening John Beatty talked to our group about the history of Robert The Bruce. Within the 11 miles of the Stirling area many a battle was fought between the anglo-scots and the anglo-english/vikings/danes etc, as this area is the narrowest part of the country.

Ballygally castle hotel
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We were then piped from the monument back to and into the dining room of the local hotel. Here we were served a four course dinner. Before the second course, four of our companions were called away to meet the Chieftain. This turned out to be a furfy, and when they returned, they were following the piper, the first lady was carrying the Haggis, the second lady a tray of glasses, and the two guys each a bottle of Whiskey. We all then celebrated the haggis and upon being burst by a dirk carried by the poet/comedian, we were all served up some whiskey and toasted the Haggis. A small bowl of haggis with whiskey sauce was then served to everyone - luckily it was the modern haggis, filled with minced lamb, barley, oats and was very heavily spiced. It actually tasted like a very spicy sausage!

Robert Burns national monument
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After the main course was served we were treated once again to the highland piper, then a young bonnie lass provided a highland dancing exhibition. Then the poet came on and recited a number of Robert Burns poems, but with his thick scottish accent, was sometimes hard to understand. Our host explained that the poet was a world renowned performer and had appeared on TV specials in Canada and Australia. Our Highland Dancer at only 16yrs, was the Scottish, Glasgow and Irish champion and most recently came 6th in the World Championships.

Brig-a-doon
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We were given one final round of piping, the sword dance and final poems by Robert Burns before ending the night about 9:30pm. Our bus was then parked in in the car park. This was soon rectified by our Tour director Mike, travelling companion Hermin and host John, who promptly lifted the car in question out of the way!!

We all agreed with Mike that it was a great night. It was roughly a 35min drive back into Glasgow to our hotel, where once we arrived, everyone headed back to their rooms.