Day 16 - Sunday 15th October

Today we'd be leaving Edinburgh and driving to Pitlochry.

It was another cool morning - only 3C.

On previous mornings, I'd ventured out to buy some croissants or pastries for breakfast but this morning the coffee shops I'd been to were not open yet (being a Sunday). However, Starbucks was open and they had a good choice. I got a couple of blueberry muffins. Perhaps this is where I should have gone previously.

We left the apartment just before 11am and caught an Uber to the Enterprise car rental depot which was located in the multi-storey car park at Waverley railway station. It took a while to finalise the rental arrangement and we left the carpark at about 11:45am.

The vehicle was a black hybrid Jeep SUV. We wanted an SUV so there was plenty of room for our luggage and because I'm used to driving my Hyundai Tuscon SUV at home.

Many of the streets in Edinburgh are paved with a cobblestone surface. Many of the other streets in the city and suburbs also have rough surfaces.

Before too long, we were out in rural areas with green paddocks and herds of sheep.

Eventually, we reached the motorway which took us across the giant new Fourth Bridge. We could see the old bridge nearby on the right. The new bridge is 2.7km long and is the longest 3-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Several people had suggested that we should stop in Dunkeld on the way to Pitlochry. It was a quaint town located next to the River Tay.

We had an excellent lunch at the Taybank Hotel before heading off to explore the town.

At the pub, several people had dogs with them in the restaurant and, as we walked down the street, we saw other venues that advertised that they were pet friendly. We seemed to be just about the only people not walking a dog.

One of the highlights of the town was the Dunkeld Cathedral which is more than 800 years old.

We walked back to our car along the river taking photos of the river and the bridge. It was a great setting.

We reached our B&B, Atholl Villa, at Pitlochry at about 3:30pm. Luckily we are on the ground floor because Suzy had requested ground floor access to avoid having to carry luggage upstairs.

Our room had a king size bed, small work desk, cupboard, carpet, plenty of power points, heater but no air conditioning. No safe, no fridge. The wifi speed was about 60 Mb/s down and 16 up. The bathroom had a walk-in shower with a grab bar and non-slip mat.

The room was cool and Suzy asked the owner about the heating. It turned out that he needed to turn it on from the office. We had some control too in the room after that.

At about 6pm, we set out to explore Pitlochry. It's a pretty town. We noticed people on the footpath selling coloured lights and further on there was a long queue of people waiting for buses.

One of the pubs that our B&B recommended was the Old Mill Inn and that's where we went for dinner. It's obviously popular because it was crowded and we were told we would have to wait 20 minutes for a table.

It turned out to be less time than that. By that time, I'd bought a bottle of an Australian Shiraz. When we were allocated a table, our waitress was an Australian from the Sunshine Coast.

We both had delicious seafood main courses followed by decaff coffee. Our B&B had given us a card that entitled each of us to a free glass of wine (house red).

Heading back to our B&B, the street was lit with coloured lights and the queue for buses  had more than doubled in length. I asked one of the blokes in a fluoro vest where all these people were going. He said that they are going to the Enchanted Forest and they come from all over Scotland.

We were back in our B&B at 8pm. By this time, the room was warmer than when we left. Previously we'd thought that we might need to wear the thermal underwear we'd bought for Iceland but perhaps now that might not be necessary.