3007130800

Tuesday

Today was another travel day. After enjoying the sleep on the firm bed in the almost salubrious Travelodge at Newcastle on Tyne we had our light breakfast out of our goodies bag. Got started without haste as we had lined up a visit to the Open Air Museum at Beamish, one up from visiting the Amish. Excellent venue; we arrived at 10.30 and  spent 5 hours on our feet there. The place depicted life in the 1850-1910 era. Got to the B&B in Durham, lovely place with very chatty host, and writing this from a small pub about 3 minutes walk away. The entree has been more than satisfactory. Pauline suggested i upload all thee stuff I do first in Word nd edit these later for the addition of the pictures- sounds like a smart idea, as it will certainly speed up the communication lines. AND in the pub here it’s free WIFI so I might as well give it a good hammering.

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Monday

Today was a travel day. Pauline managed to get some washing done at the local “laundry” and was served by an ogre.But the results were OK. Got away at about 9.30 and headed for Falkirk to have a look at the “Falkirk Wheel” a VERY smart bit of engineering. Almost miscued on the direction but after two U-turns got back on track. Watched the “Wheel” go through one cycle and left, walking past another lock and thinking how relaxing a canal barge holiday might be. Ah well, maybe another time? Headed for Jedburgh, the fabulous old cathedral skeleton, driving through the Northumberland forest and well ordered countryside, towards a point where Hadrian’s Wall intersected with the road we were travelling on, but couldn’t find much wall. The nearest bit was the 650AD church which utilised quite a few of the Roman wall blocks.From there to Newcastle-On Tyne and our Hotel which we’d booked from the hotel at Bridge of Allen. Settled in and fanged into some fingerlicken chicken from across the road.

Tonight has been a blog catch-up getting on track for the first time. However I still need to download photos from Pauline and my cameras to get the blog into some stage of realism and of course to rise to the occasion of my daughter in laws comment “all you need to do now is getthe photo’s in there to give it some realism. So to work!

2807130800

Sunday

This morning we’re castle-ing; off to Stirling castle located on a rising taper of rock extruded upwards out of a narrow plain and bounded on two sides by bog and marsh (back when it was first built). It’s location was of immense strategic importance as it was located between England and Scotland, and one could seewhomever was moving trrops or goodies for trade from North to South. ‘T’was here William Wallace, (operating under the sobriquet of “braveheart”) took an effective swipe at 10,000 Brits with a hopelessly small force about 1/10^th that size and gave them a pasting. The audio guide was brilliant as were the restoration works and exhibits. We rocked up in the rain at about 9.30, scored a parking spot close by, (why pay 4 quid?) and decided to meander through the place for an hour or two. The best laid plans of P&P went “all a’glay” and 6 ½ hours later we left having learnt much and seen a chunk of  N-S relations failures culminating in sieges, murders and massacres.

The lunch in the cafe was excellent and the local beer (refer to picture) was a corker, as was Pauline’s soup, “as god as I can make it”. We have been enjoying some of the prepackaged sangers in the supermarkets, these would be classed as gourmet sangers in Oz, but then there’s probably a more discerning clientele here. Our food habits have become quite casual (and enjoyable) and we have commented on a few (more than a few?) occasions how good are the crockery set from T&B, the “cold” bag from G&Y, and the mini gas stove from Young Robski.

On the way out had a look into the former residence of a Lord Argyll, interesting! In one of the rooms he managed to upstage many modern houses with walk-in wardrobes, he had a walk-in fireplace in his kitchen No 2. The place was furnished pretty much as if he’d just walked out of it in the 1700’s.

The day finished on a bit of a sour note, the twerp who took our booking for the two nights unfortunately (especially for the wallet) only booked for one night instead of the two we specifically requested so the one night price was double what we were expecting to pay. Another lesson learned- talk to someone who can translate English directly in lieu of doing via some Eastern European head with limited vocabulary in the English language, We took a philosophical approach, paid the extra night (fortunately at a discounted rate) and shot off a moderately vitriolic note to the booking agency.

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Saturday

Got up this morning and decided to head for central Scotland, but possibly staying out of England for the next few days as Jim advised there were bucketing rains forecast. Hopped into the car, still feeling a bit like Qasimodo, and rang for some accommodation in Stirling. This of course had to be through an agency with a lady whose accent was heavily leaning towards some Eastern European dialect. Upshot was we got into a hotel in Stirling, much to our surprise (again!) and were then able to choof off without the worry of where to sleep for the next couple of nights. We opted for two nights as we need a lay day, heads too full of what we’ve done and seen and we need to unscramble our heads and dirty washing first before heading further south. With  the rain in the south of the country we may stay another night .

So, heading for Fort William and then onto Fort Augustus where the 5 lock cascade is. By-passed FW and went on through to FA through some of the most astounding scenery yet. We took a couple of pictures and concluded that the scale of those hills won’t translate well onto either a post-card size print or a computer screen, so as in many cases before and probably in the future DV we’ll have to enjoy the memories of these spectacular hills with the aid of the aforesaid pics. The locks are a marvel, even today over 100 years later. Although converted from manual to hydraulically actuated lock gates and sluice valves in 1962,Telford was without doubt one of the giants in the engineering field. He designed the Caledonian canal, still considered one of the world’s great engineering projects, as well as the first suspension bridge, the Menai bridge, along with a string of other firsts. Almost as diverse a portfolio as CYO’Connor of Kalgoorlie pipeline fame. Enough of engineering history, look these guys up if further info is required.

The road for the first 150km was primarily alongside waterways including Lochs Lochy and Ness. Would you believe it? The elusive water lizard wouldn’t even stick its nose above the surface; very disappointing! We stopped at a war memorial for the commandos, very tastefully done, very much a British understatement until you think a bit harder. With pictures of young guys who died fighting in Afghanistan and many wreaths surrounding the circular memorial “garden” it was a moving experience, especially when one’s own son has served in the military.

The drive south through the Grampians mountain range was interesting in that many of these huge hills were bare of trees, an environment so different from the alpine areas I have visited, perhaps the tree line here is much lower than in Australia as these hills are probably much higher. While we saw many signs warning of deer crossing, we were not fortunate enough to see any. After Pitlochry we turned off the main road and followed the scenic route to Stirling. Arriving there with only a sketchy indication of which hotel we’d booked, found it quickly and were ensconced in the penthouse suite. Pretty neat room with some excellent sloping ceiling section for banging one’s head into. The shower recess is small here too, I can’t quite wash my feet without lifting them up, even on the diagonal. Maybe the back problem exacerbates that issue.

Spent a large chunk of the evening going through the proposed travel back to London and concluded fairly quickly that we have more things we want to do than the time required to do them, The conclusion we came to was that in all likelihood, given the opportunity for some more travel, the things we want to take a second bite at will be on the second bite, health and wealth allocation dependant. So it will be Newcastle, York and Billy Wagglestick’s birthplace, and then to return the car to London on Saturday, train it to Victoria Station, adjacent to our hotel, and start the Eu tour. The days fly by and the kalaedoscopic blur of wonderful countryside scenes and those fabulously retained and restored buildings which speak so eloquently of the Australian cultural history brought here by a spectrum fro. convict to aristocrat, may eventually become unscrambled through the sorting out of our many photo’s when we get home again.

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Friday

We decided yesterday to visit the island of Iona. It involved ferry/bus/ferry. Many years ago Jonathon vdB told me about this place – a place of peace and for spiritual retreat. We needed ro walk down the street and along the waterfront promenade to get to the ferry, misty rain and the promise of more to come. Managed to get a few look-ins to the shops (what else?)

The large RORO ferry was comfortable and Rick Steve’s book handy as he advised us where to sit for the best views, both on the ferry and the bus. The morning was drizzly and the forecast less than ideal for a tour like this but interestingly enough RS advised to go regardless of the weather. The ferry trip of 45mns was followed by bus trip of 1.5hrs across the island of Mull, and then another fery trip of about 10mins to land on Iona.Th e views of islands and other boats was  dimmed somewhat by the seamist. Arrived on Iona and walked to the old nunnery ruins and then onto the abbey. This place has certainly had a turbulent history with invaders and plunderers over the centuries from the time of the Normans and finishing with the Saxons, who by the time had plundered the place many times thought it time to call it quits, as a lot of their own people had settled there. Not much point in plundering your own folk is there?

We had landed on Iona at about 12.30 andso had about 2 hours to look over the place. The weather then turned from misty and atmospheric to brilliant sunshine which lasted the rest of the day including the whole trip home. Return journey ok, snoozed a bit, Pauline a bit more. Arrived at Oban with beautiful weather at 6.30PM sun shining brightly. An icecream was on the cards and we sat on the stone wall of the waterfront hoeing into an excellent double scooper each. Meandered back to the B&B and our pleasant day finished not long after we got there.