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!

Scousers love a man with a baby at the Grand National

A beer festival that ran out of beer!!!!

I went with a few mates on the train to Canterbury complete with tents and sleeping bags ready for an informative and educational experience at the Kent Beer festival. It was all going well until they ran out of beer at 5pm on Saturday!!!

Being adaptable worldly sort of blokes we adjusted our plans and hit Canterbury instead. Having hamburgers from a food caravan in the street at 3am we decided that we had not wasted our trip to the lovely city of Canterbury...

Man Versus Horse marathon

We just spent the weekend in Wales with some friends watching a marathon (well almost - it was 22 miles instead of 26) where people raced against horses!

More to follow...

A Brau bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht!

I joined Marisa and Ben in Edinburgh, Scotland for a few days cruising around. We went from Edinburgh to Inverness, John O'Groats, Tongue, the Isle of Skye, Fort William and a detour to some hill otherwise known as Hadrians wall.

Marisa and Ben left a couple of days before me so I went up on the train to Edinburgh to meet them. On the way up I got a great view of the East of England and I think its a shame I havent been here before as some of the country side is quite beautiful. I met Marisa and Ben and also our Uncle Adrian who was in town for a couple of days.

The next day we headed up to Inverness. We went to Loch Ness and whilst we didnt see Nessy herself, a bus load of backpackers turned up as we did. They provided the entertainment as about 4 blokes and 1 girl went swimming!! The water was very cold and I'm glad it was them and not me!!

We had an interesting night in Inverness where a local woman declared 'I like girls' while grinning at Marisa and patting my head (what the??). We moved pubs and got talking to some local lads and playing pool. Marisa and Ben got an insight in to UK football culture when a brawl of about 5 blokes kicked off seemingly out of nowhere between supporters of Celtic and Rangers. I had gone to the toilet and when I came back out the pub was virtually empty with a few people looking out the window. The brawl was moving up and down the street so we waited until it went the other way and we went out the door to head in the opposite direction! So from there we toned it down a bit with some Itallian food instead!

Next day we headed further North to a town called Tain - where my great grandparents emigrated from to Australia in the late 1800's. We called in at the local Glen Morangie distillery but unfortunately they were booked out! So I bought some whiskey anyhow to conduct my own 'tour' later... From there we went to John O'Groats on the north tip of Scotland (the actuall most northern point is a few miles away - we went there too) before going around to Tongue on the North Coast.

Next day we set off to the Isle of Sky - where ancestors on our mother's side came from many generations ago. I wondered if I would feel like I had arrived home when we got to Skye..........hmmm.........no....nothing. Its a nice place though but I may as well have been on Mars for familiarity!

On the way back we stayed in Fort William and then drove alongside Loch Lamond before making a loooong journey home!