Day 8: Balloch/Loch Lomond

Happy to report that Steve did a fine job driving on UK road! He got us out of Glasgow and drove us to a small town by Loch Lomond safely.

Loch Lomond is the largest freshwater lake in UK. Balloch is a charming little town next to it with a busy dock. Our hotel is right across street from the dock. A busy restaurant is on the bottom floor of the building, they were getting ready for a large crowd due to the championship game of Scotland Football League when we arrived.

We took a relaxing lake cruise, learned some interesting things about the area. The line dividing Lowland and Highland of Scotland is right in the middle of this lake. Mary Queen of Scot spent her last days as free person in a castle on an island of this lake.

However, we didn’t truly appreciate the beauty of the lake until we climbed a little hill that locals fondly called “the dumping”.

We were the only people climbing the hill, stopping once a while to enjoy some very classic Scottish scenery as we walked. Once we reached the top, the entire lake expended in front of our eyes. Stunning, simply stunning views of the sparkling water, the dotted islands, the blue sky and white/grey clouds, and the mountains peaks on the horizon. WOW!! What an amazing view!

Since we were the only people on the hill, we lingered for a while and patted ourselves on the back for coming here.

Next, we headed to Finnich Glen, a hidden glen near here that appeared in the show “Outlander”.
There were very few parking spaces here and we were lucky to find one. Walking on the muddy path right by the cliff of the glen was a bit nerve wracking, and the stairs going down to the water was steep and broken. We decided not to risk our lives for photos, instead walked to the end of the trail and headed to the water in a much safer way. It’s interesting to see how red the water was…iron in the clay perhaps?

The boys insisted having proper Scottish Fish and Chips for dinner. So we went to a take out place that seemed attracted many locals. The fish were fired golden brown and crispy! Although we had to take them back to our hotel room and sat on the floor to eat them. Very different than our posh dinner in Glasgow last night 😂Read more