Free-dom!

OK, maybe the title of this post owes more to the fictional Braveheart than it does to the real William Wallace, but the photo was taken at The National Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig at Stirling on Thursday morning.

I had been planning to visit the monument for some time, in fact ever since it reopened after its major refurbishment, but had never got round to it. A few days ago I decided Thursday would be the day. The weather forecast was for a bright morning, clouding over by late morning and turning to heavy rain by the afternoon - and so it turned out. A bus trip into Stirling and another out to the monument was rewarded with glorious views in all directions from the top.

However, just towards the end of my visit when I was taking shots - like this one - of the monument's exterior, spots of rain started to fall and the descent down the path to the visitor centre (I eschewed the bus trip which, I confess, I took on the way up) was completed in heavy rain. Into the cafe for a bowl of soup and a sandwich - and almost having to take out a second mortgage to fund said purchases - it was quite gratifying to note that I had visited the top of the monument in the best of the day's weather. Bus back into Stirling, a wee wander round the shops and the bus home. A very pleasant day in the land of 'have bus pass, will travel'. Now that kind of freedom I can live with.