Blowing the Budget in Style

We had a fairly lazy start to the day, necessitated by James' addiction to Harry Potter (#2 completed in 2 days; #3 not yet in possession, hopefully to be rectified tomorrow).

Eventually, we went walking:



... around the bottom of the loch. It was pretty enough, although there was a bit of murk around.

Blowing the Budget #1 involved going to the Loch Lomond Aquarium:



We liked the Asian short-clawed otters - watching them get fed was very entertaining - and I liked the seahorses a lot. Of course, these sorts of huge tanks are always entertaining to watch, too (Alex G, you better be good to my tank) - especially when the decorations etc are so non-authentic as to include faux Viking helmets and Roman ruins.



The Aquarium from the loch - it's so ugly! And so big, it's utterly incongruous.

After wandering the aquarium, we looked with some bemusement at the Loch Lomond Shores mall: it's a small-scale, very up-market shopping centre, and I just don't get it. Why would you travel to Loch Lomond to go shopping in somewhere like that?? People are weird.

For the afternoon, we decided to go on a cruise of the loch (Blowing the Budget #2).



We had hoped to go on the two-hour cruise, because that would take us past a few of the islands. Sadly, it wasn't running today, so we had to go with just the one hour version. We did still go past some interesting stuff - including the biggest island in the loch, which is privately owned and home to Scotland's oldest established noooodist colony. Things I like about Loch Lomond: it's the largest body of fresh water in the UK; it's one of the deepest (over 600ft deep!); and there are running arguments about how many islands there are in the middle (some say 23, some way 30, others are in between).

It was a good idea. Tomorrow, along the River Leven, which flows from the loch to the Clyde - and we go through the glory that is Glasgow.