End of the Holiday

Posted on 2007/09/13 22:59:31 (September 2007).

[Saturday 8th September]
So today was the absolute last day of our holiday - by bedtime we were back in our flat in London - but on our way back we did have one final treat, and a completely unplanned yet very nice one at that.

We had breakfast and checked out of our hotel in Inveraray before 10 (pretty good going by our standards) and were back on the road once more. We had basically just to take the car as far back as Edinburgh, where we'd drop it off and then go back by train from there.

On the way out we'd taken the rather boring Glasgow route to the West coast, but on the way back I decided instead to forego the M8, and go along smaller roads to the North instead, taking us via Crianlarich, Lochearnhead, and the down through Stirling.

A few miles before Stirling, we passed through a small and unassuming place called Doune. As we were driving through a road sign pointing off to the left caught my eye. Initially we just drove past it, but the words reverberated somewhat in my head - Doune... Castle... Doune... Castle... Castle... Doune... Doune, Doune, Doune Dounety Doune-Doune-Doune and then it clicked - Doune Castle was one of the main filming locations used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You can imagine the screech of tyres and the abrupt U-turn (it's good that you imagine them, because that didn't actually happen - instead we just turned round quietly and slowly in a pub car park).

It's lucky that I had recently watched one of the special features on the DVD of the Holy Grail, in which Messrs. Jones and Palin revisit some of the filming locations, or else I might not have realised the significance of this most hallowed of places.

We had a fairly thorough wander around, and I tried to remember as best I could which bits of the castle had been in which scenes. Some bits looked vaguely familiar, whereas other bits were immediately apparent - such as the gateway through which Lancelot charges as he begins his indiscriminate slaughter of wedding guests, or the staircase atop which Michael Palin's character says "This is a wedding, it's supposed to be a happy occasion, we shouldn't be bickering about who killed who...". It was a fabulous feeling to be able to remember those immortal lines in the actual place they were originally uttered, and stand in the same spots where my comedy heroes had once stood. The little ticket office / gift shop place even had a halved, hollowed out coconut you cold take around with you. I was in a kind of heaven.

Concious of the time though, we didn't stay too long, and after our little tour we got back in the car and motored on towards Edinburgh. Chie had wanted to see the Forth Rail Bridge, and I managed to find a pretty good viewpoint on the way into Edinburgh to take a look at that, although following that I did manage to get us pretty lost somehow (one of those times where you know you need to get back on the motorway, but all the junctions seem to be exit only.

Still, eventually we did manage to find our way, dropped the car off around 3 as planned, and then following a quick bout of shopping in Marks and Spencer we got on the train back to London at 4.

We went back by standard class (unlike our somewhat more refined outbound journey), and I really noticed the difference - my comparison it felt really cramped, noisy and overcrowded... but I guess for 14 quid for a single ticket you can't really complain (mental note - book all future train tickets a long time in advance!).

It was getting on for 10 o' clock at night by the time we finally got back to our flat. We were really quite knackered (thanks to a few, ahem, purchases, my luggage had become rather bulky and heavy), but in full of that sort of satisfied feeling you get at the end of a great holiday.

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