A cruise around Scotland and the Lake District

With the first weekend in May being a long one, we thought it was a good time to go up for a drive and have a look at Scotland. We left on the Thursday and headed up to York in the North of England. Its a nice little place and very popular with the tourists. As is usual Melinda and I pottered around and took off a bit later than we would have liked but we still got in to the hotel and had time for a walk around town. York was really more of a stop over for us so we went in to town the next morning and checked out York minster - a very large and impressive cathedral.

Then we took the coastal route up to Edinburgh where we met up with our friend Gary, who flew up from London. Edinburgh was also a short visit as we wanted to get out in the car and see some of the countryside. It might seem a bit rushed but after the last 3 and a half years of travelling around, we have started to like looking at the countryside just as much as the cities of Europe.

We headed up to Inverness which is right at the end of the famous Loch Ness. We also met up with a mate of mine from work who lives in Inverness on the weekends and went out for dinner with him. Next day we had an excellent drive along the 'quiet' side of Loch Ness (there is a main tourist route on one side and small roads on the other). The scenery was beautiful and we made our way across to the Isle of Skye. We did a bit of a drive around Skye but not before we had to go back and prove to Melinda that we had in fact driven over a bridge and we were on an Island! It seems she was looking in a book and missed the bridge! If you have been to the Isle of Skye via the bridge at the Kyle of Lochalsh, you'll know its hard to miss!

Anyhow we stayed at a tiny little village called Uig where the hotel was owned by South Africans and sure enough, 2 bloody Aussies working there!!! You cant escape Aussies, we seem to be everywhere... But having said that they were very friendly and we had a good night.

Next day we dropped Gary off at Glasgow to fly home (poor bugger had to work the next day) and went down to Keswick in the lake district. We stayed there for 2 nights and the weather was atrocious! They say that Keswick is the outdoor clothing capital of England and they aren't wrong. Everyone seemed to be decked out in Goretex jackets, gaiters, hiking boots and sporting multi strapped backpacks. Walking around in my jeans and thongs (flip flops) I didn't really look the part! We had a great time anyway and I wasn't really that pleased to be home and back to work!