Stirling Castle and Wallace Monument

This morning we picked up our rental car at the airport and headed to Stirling. First stop: the Wallace Monument, as in William Wallace(Braveheart). We really liked this monument, not just for the great views from the top (246 steps,mostly spiral) but also because it does a good job of presenting Wallace's importance in Scottish history. Plus it's just a really cool-looking building. ;) There are 3 separate exhibit rooms, one of which features a "talking head" that portrays Wallace at his trial. You can also see his sword, it's a massive thing - I think it must be over 4 feet long! After the monument, we went to Stirling Castle. There's a lot to see here and we spent a couple of hours checking it out.Stirling Castle has been the home of many kings and queens including Mary, Queen of Scots. The castle has several nice exhibits plus some areas that aren't made up as displays so you get to use your imagination to think about the life people led hundreds of years ago. You can stand on the castle walls and see for miles around in every direction, a good thing for a castle because they would want to see attacking armies as early as possible. We had an enjoyable day and the weather was absolutely gorgeous with bright, sunny skies.