We stayed in a family room so that three of us could be in the same room. We 'smuggled' ourselves a bottle of prosecco, strawberries and a birthday cake to eat in our room when we checked in.
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| 'Happy Birthday, Maria - Queen of Awesomeness' |
Ah, I forgot to mention... when we checked in, the receptionist give us Chocolate Chip Cookies. There was a tea/coffee making facility in the room so we had these first before we scoffed a bottle of prosecco and cakes!
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| Yummy chocolate chip cookies - sorry, it's upside down... |
Our dinner was booked for 8.30pm so we still had good few hours to kill. After we had some cakes and prosecco, we went out to walk around the hotel ground.
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| Dunblane Hydro Hotel |
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| This is our Family Room with sofa bed |
Back to our room, having more glasses of prosecco with strawberries, we watched Britain Got Talent on TV lying on the bed, munching packets of crisps and M&S's Percy Pigs. Hope we got some room for proper dinner later....???
At 8.30pm, came dinner time, we were ready. The dinner was served at The Kailyard Restaurant by Nick Nairn, Scottish TV chef. Our weekend spa package includes an allowance of 32.50 sterling pound per person to dine in his restaurant and we could choose anything we want from the a la carte menu.
For starter, Emily had Classic cocktail of brown shrimps, Loch Duart Scottish salmon 'Nick Nairn', Hass avocado & cocktail sauce. I had Trout 'Nicks' Potato salad, beetroot and fresh horseradish. This was meant to be grilled Peterhead mackerel but the waiter told us that they ran out of mackerel so it was replaced with trout. I could not remember if there was horseradish but anyway, the trout was lovely. Maria had 'Nick's' chicken liver parfait, Cumberland sauce and warm brioche.
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| Brown shrimp cocktail |
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| Trout with beetroot and potato salad |
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| Chicken liver parfait |
For main course, Emily had Slow braised feather blade of Scottish beef, mustard mash, Swiss chard, truffled celeriac and red wine gravy. Maria had sauté breast of chicken, smoked butter mash, glazed parsnips, pancetta and king oyster mushroom. I had Pan fried Scrabster halibut, herb mash, wilted spinach, Avruga caviar and chive butter sauce.
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| Braised Scottish Beef |
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| Saute breast of chicken |
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| Pan fried halibut - can you see some sprinkles of Avruga caviar? |
By the time I finish the main course, I was so full, I could not move. I could not even sip any water so I watched Emily and Maria enjoying 3 British cheese 'in good Nick' with handmade fruit chutney. Actually 2 British cheese as Emily did not want blue cheese so she asked for 2 cheddar and brie cheese.
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| Emily & Maria sharing cheese and biscuits for dessert. |
We were really full. I thought Emily and Maria wanted to move to the bar for cocktails but no, they just wanted to go back to our room with me just to chill and lounge in jammies and it was not even 10.30 yet! Those days were gone when they did not go out to the town with friends till almost midnight for clubbing, so I bet they are feeling 'old' now...ha ha ha.
The next day was Sunday we we had a little bit of long lie but not too long so as not to miss our breakfast. Breakfast was buffet style so you just pick whatever. I had scrambled egg, sauted tomatoes, potato scones and beans. Maria and Emily had full Scottish breakfast - fried egg, potato scones, black pudding, square sausage, tomato, baked bean and a role.
Our check out was 12.00 and we finished our breakfast just before 11.00am so we went back to our room and relaxed. We booked our massage for 2.00 and 2.30pm in the afternoon so we checked out, went to M&S to get Sunday newspaper and some magazine and went back to the hotel's bar for tea and coffee till our appointments.
Maria had facial and Emily and I had aromatherapy neck, shoulder and back massage. It was really lovely, so relaxing. We really enjoyed staying at the hotel, in fact the whole weekend package - room was lovely, service was great, staff were very friendly and attentive, food was good but the highlight of this weekend was the massage. After the massage, we were given a glass of water each to drink for hydration and were advised to relax and not to get stressed.
We then got into Emily's car, phoned my mother-in-law Mary to let her know that we were on our way to come and pick her up so that we could all go for late lunch at The Hollybank Restaurant (http://www.thehollybank.co.uk) in Stirling for ladies lunch! Yahoo!!! We were all relaxed, feeling great, looking forward to our impending lunch at the Hollybank, just with 4 'girls', salivating whilst discussing what to eat off the menu. Soon after leaving Dunblane however we got stuck in terrible traffic jam, found out that the motorway was temporarily closed and there was a long tailback on the back road all the way to Stirling. We were surrounded by erratic, rude and impatient drivers. So much for the relaxing massage we had just had.... we were now tense!
After almost one hour later instead of what it would have only taken 15 minutes journey Mary's house from Dunblane, we finally arrived in Stirling, picked Mary up and went to the Hollybank at last.
The Hollybank is a family restaurant, serving hearty meals to locals in many many years. I forgot to take photo but had Hollybank bruschetta for starter which I shared with Emily and Maria.
For main course, Mary had half portion of breast of chicken and pepper sauce on rice. Sorry, forgot to take this photo too.... I am doing not well, am I? Maria had Chef's home made burger with chilli, I had scampi and chips and Emily had hot chilli bowl of home made chilli with cheese, nachos and rice.
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| Chili burger |
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| Scampi and chips |
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| Chili bowl with nachos ad rice |
Maria's burger was really dense, meaty and proper burger, none of those processed meat rubbish, but it was too big so she could not finish. Between Maria and I there were quite a bit of chips left so all these left overs were carefully wrapped with napkins for Robbie, Mary's beloved family dog. So Mary's doggy has doggy bag!
Anyway, overall, we had a great Girls' Weekend. I love to do this again some day.
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| Stunning Stirling Castle, taken by Emily. I actually work at Stirling, not far from this castle and in fact, I pass by this every morning to drive to work, isn't this great!!! |
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