A Boat Trip on Loch Katrine, Scotland

In April this year during our Spring holidays, Alessio and I, along with my parents went for a day trip to Loch Katrine. Loch Katrine is situated in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, it is a 13km fresh water loch. The driving time is over 2 hours from Broughty Ferry.

The name Loch Katrine comes from the Gaelic cateran meaning Highland robber, on the Northern shores of this loch was born the most famous folkloric outlaw turned hero Rob Roy Macgregor. Also for Outlander fans from season 2, episode 13 some scenes was filmed here.

We took a 45min boat trip on the historic Sir Walter Scott steamship, it was very busy trip. You might want to make sure there will be tickets available. The views were outstanding. Suffice to say it was rather chilly but the sun was shining too. Afterwards we had some refreshments at the cafe.

This Christmas we will be going to Scotland and hopefully doing some day trips as well as family get togethers.

Hope you are all having a great weekend

St Peter`s Island, Lake Biel

pavilion

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Former Monastery

One of our day trips with my parents was to St Peter`s Island which is technically a peninsula situated on Lake Biel.

I drove to Biel and we managed to get a boat just after 1pm, it is only 50min ride to our stop. We walked to the former monastery which is now a hotel and restaurant. It does still look very impressive and if you want to visit the chamber of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it is possible but we did not.

Afterwards we wandered up to see a 18th century Pavillion, there is not much to see and we went back down again. Before we caught the boat back we stopped for a snack and for some wine made from the estate and it was very nice.

There are number of walks to do and it is possible to walk the whole peninsula to the town of Erlach. There is also a canal which connects lakes Biel and Neuchatel and it is possible to catch a boat, which does sound like an interesting trip to do.

Happy Weekend

A Trip to Loch Leven Castle

Our transport to the castle

Kinross House

While in Scotland we did a lovely day trip to Loch Leven with the aim to visit the castle on a very small island. Our transport and actually the only way to get to the island was a boat which can carry 12 passengers. The day we went the water was a bit choppy and getting on and off, we needed to be careful.

Loch Leven is the largest loch of the Scottish lowlands and is a protected nature reserve since 1964. Once we arrived on the island we set about visiting the ruins, this is where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned in 1567 - 1568. It is from here that she escaped but only to be caught later on and exiled to England.

There are some lovely views from the top of the tower and one of the views is Kinross House which is not opened to the public. It is a beautiful house by the architect Sir William Bruce.

Also on the loch is RSPB Vane Farm which is part of the nature reserve, we stopped by for a short coffee break and a look around. The loch attracts many different types of birds all through the year.

A visit to Loch Leven Castle is through Historic Scotland it does say that visiting is only in the summer months but we went at the beginning of October. I would guess that now it is closed but come summer again it is well worth a visit!

Views of the Bosphorus

Ciragan Palace Kempinski

Ortakoy Mosque

Maiden Tower

Blue Mosque

During our trip to Istanbul we took a boat trip along part of the Bosphorus. It is one of the best ways to see Istanbul and how large of a city it is. We passed a number of very posh hotels well out of our league, but still great to look at, we also saw many palaces, mosques, gardens and villas.

The Bosphorus strait is 32km long and connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black sea, there were some boats that went right to the Black sea and I was secretly hoping ours would but it did not. It is an extremely busy waterway, with many ships from passenger boats to oil tankers. It also separates the two continents Europe and Asia.

There are two bridges over the straits one is the Bosphorus Bridge and the other the Mehmet the Conqueror Bridge. Our boat trip took 90mins but there are longer or shorters ones, or you can take the ferries to the Asian side which would be much cheaper.

No matter what boat trip you make, it is worth well the effort!!