Today we’re heading to a really lovely bakery for breakfast. And sure enough, it has the widest selection of baked goods we’ve ever seen – all made on the premises. Gabi goes for a classic croissant, I order a key lime donut, and Chrige’s sweet treat was gone so quickly I didn’t even have time to look at what it was. We also pick up a few things to take away for a snack.

After that, we set off on another long drive: today we’ll be covering the longest stretch of our journey to get back to Edinburgh. The sat-nav takes us through vast forests and over barren hills once again, always making sure to choose the narrowest possible roads. Perhaps that’s the default setting for rental cars for tourists? On the way, we stop for our first refuelling break. Luckily, I haven’t forgotten how to do this after three years of driving an electric car.

We arrive in Balmoral just before 1 pm. Every year, Queen Elizabeth II spent the summer months here at her summer residence. This was her favourite place, and it was also where she passed away in 2022. We start by having lunch at the café: mac and cheese, a panini and a chicken pie with potatoes.

The castle is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is still in use. As a result, we can only explore the gardens and the relatively new ballroom, where many photographs of the Queen are on display. In one of the gardens, we find a maze in the shape of a thistle bud. But the other gardens are interesting too. Alongside a kitchen garden in full swing, at the rear of the castle we come across a sunken garden and another pleasure garden with amusingly trimmed bushes.

From a distance, we’re not sure whether we’re seeing Highland cattle or ordinary cows in a field far off in the distance. So we walk over there and do indeed come across a small herd of these typical brown, long-haired animals. We haven’t seen any this close before, and this is surely our last chance before getting to the city. Up close, they look even more amusing with their shaggy coats, which hang well over their eyes and noses, and their broad horns, which they like to use to scratch themselves from time to time. The “coos”, as they are called here, are both curious and a little shy. They look at us with just as much interest as we look at them, but please: remain at a safe distance.

The journey continues, taking us once again over rolling hills and through wide valleys, where streams of varying sizes wind their way through the landscape, often in numerous bends. At the highest point, we spot a chairlift for skiers, which is currently running. At the moment, however, it’s surely only taking hikers up and back down. The few patches of snow lying at the very top of the mountain ranges are certainly not enough for skiing.

At Queen’s View, we tuck into a late afternoon snack – it’s already 6 pm. As we do so, we take in the beautiful view. It was the Queen’s favourite spot, though not Queen Elizabeth II: it is named after Queen Isabel, wife of the Scottish King Robert the Bruce, about whom we learnt a great deal on our first day at Stirling Castle.

At last we get onto the motorway… and soon find ourselves stuck in a traffic jam. Here, too, the roadworks – with traffic restricted to a single lane, not per direction – and the traffic lights are causing this. On the way, we stop at a service station to buy sandwiches for our evening meal. It’s a good idea, because by the time we finally arrive at our hotel after more traffic jams around Edinburgh, it’s already nearly ten o’clock in the evening.