Iceland-Scotland-Ireland and Back Home Again: Scotland green

3 and a half days in Scotland...
We have been cruising the gorgeous rolling, green hills of Scotland for the past few days while sleeping our best sleeps yet in a lovely Airbnb outside a tiny village called Parton. The Airbnb which is a converted stable house and hosted by a massage therapist and nutrition consult, Lorna was the reason we ended up in the gentle quietude of Southern Scotland. Rick Steves so incorrectly stated that it's a boring area. It's not boring, it's Zen levels of peaceful.

This peace is exactly what the doctor ordered after driving on what the Scots call the "proper" side of the road in a car that is opposite to any car we've known.

Day 1- dine in Ayr and get to Parton alive
The stone walls, stone and brick homes and buildings, the architecture, the lush greens, the cloudbursts, and the terrifying narrow streets.

Lunch was lovely. I had fish and chips with smashed peas and a side salad. Hamburger and braised salmon were our other meals. Outside the restaurant windows people with newspapers, jackets, or umbrellas protecting their heads scurrying intermittently as the skies opened and closed with rain.

When we arrived at our Scotland oasis, in Parton, X and I roamed the hills for an hour. Sheep, cows, pines, foxgloves, and fields of ferns.

Day 2- Sunday, the town of Castle Douglas- lunch and food shopping, Kirkcudbright- Stewartry Museum, a remote beach off of B727, and a glimpse of Threave Gardens in the rain.

Most places were closed on Sunday, but we found a nice restaurant in a hotel on the main drag where we ate steak and ale pie (a first for me), macaroni and cheese with fries and roast beef with veggies and potatoes. Starters were chicken strips with garlic mayo and breaded mushrooms with a sweet pepper sauce. Dessert? Of course. Sticky Toffee Pudding and vanilla ice cream. Meals done for the day. ;)

Then we went shopping at a large chain grocery store called Tesco. A wide variety of prices:
80p for a still-warm loaf of brown bread, 2£ for about 20 cherries, 2£ for 10 slices of ham for sandwiches, and 2£ for 4 Kinder chocolate bars. Ibuprofen is packed as something very different from Advil.

Day 3- water test, Homemade breakfast, Cardoness Castle (Gate of Fleet, McCulloch clan), Castle Kennedy,. Home sweet home.

(Pics are in reverse order of events)

Castle Kennedy and its 75 acres of beauty. Inexpensive, expansive, impressive. Best day yet.