Home Sweet Home

After a 1 day stop in Singapore I flew home this morning. It was 4 Celsius at 9 am when I landed! It might be freezing but it's good to be home. There really is no place like home. Graeme has another 2 days in Singapore.

This is the last post - thanks to all those who commented and voted in the poll. Hope the rest of you enjoyed the blog too.

Edinburgh

I am doing this blog post from the train to London - free WiFi with a power point as well.
We left Edinburgh yesterday (could easily spend several days there) and went to Darlington (to return rental car), visiting Rosslyn Chapel (of "The Da Vinci Code" fame) and dropping Liz near Newcastle for her 2 week archaeological dig. We reach London in an hour and have a mere 3 hours sight-seeing before getting the plane to Singapore. We'll be home soon! Here are some Edinburgh photos - the one of the dining room is on the (decommissioned) royal yacht Britannia.

Stirling to Edinburgh via the canals

First stop out of Stirling on Thursday was Falkirk, home of the Falkirk Wheel - the only rotating boat lift in the world. Completed in 2002 it replaces a series of locks. It lifts boats 35m. Each gondola holds water and optionally a boat with a combined weight of 300 tonnes.It reconnects the historic Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union Canal, providing a "corridor of regenerative activity through central Scotland" - it is hoped that the canals will be used for freight transportation in coming years. For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel.

The Falkirk Wheel ready to load boats top and bottom

The Falkirk Wheel half way round - only takes 4 minutes per full revolution and uses power equal to 6 electric kettles

We then drove on to Edinburgh but stopped at the Avon aquaduct to see an impressive section of canal close up.

Inverary to Stirling via Killin, the Trossachs, Loch Katrine

The Falls of Dochart at Killin

In the MacNabb cemetery looking for forebears (G's mother was a MacNabb)

Lunch at a loch

Loch Katrine (as in Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake")


Doune Castle

an old inn at Stirling

Stirling Castle

reproduction tapestry in the Chapel Royal at Stirling castle

old Stirling bridge where Wallace defeated the British in 1297

at the MacRobert centre in modern Stirling Uni

Senior moments still abound. I had read about the cinema at the macrobert centre (all lower case) at Stirling Uni. Sue and I walked there and I asked someone to direct me to the macro-bert centre. The person I asked must have thought I was an idiot, as it is of course the MacRobert centre!

Ayr – Glasgow – Loch Lomond - Inverary

Troon beach

Royal Troon golf course - 200 GBP a round

Kelvingrove museum Glasgow

A procession in Glasgow

Inside Kelvingrove museum Glasgow

Cathedral Glasgow

The oldest house in Glasgow

Loch Lomond 930 pm

YHA Loch Lomond

Liz paddling in the loch

Inverary castle

Inside Inverary castle

Inverary jail

Kitty as a jail inmate - managed to NOT fall out of the hammock this time

View over Inverary

Graeme has lost interest in the blog, leaving it to me. I will keep the text short and fill in the gaps with photos. We are heading slowly north – too slowly for Graeme's liking, but he is outvoted by the 3 females in the car! Since Liz and Sue don't have such good views from the back seat they prefer less driving and more doing. Today we only drove about 40 miles but we did a Loch Lomond cruise and a 90 minute return walk up to a highpoint to get a good view of Inverary and Loch Fyne.

We are picking up the local lingo, but the accent is harder. At breakfast we had placemats with an explanation of useful Scottish terms such as “scunner” - an aversion or a person causing aversion, as in “git outa me face ye wee scunner”. This should come in very handy for our remaining few days in Scotland!

Travelling North (to Scotland)

Durham

Durham cathedral and graduands

Hexham abbey

Gooseberries and strawberries at the Hexham Farmers' market

Sue at Hadrian's Wall

Caerlaverock Castle

Kitty at Caerlaverock Castle

Alison is now on the way home to Melbourne, Judy and John are sweltering in 35 degree heat in Madrid, and Stephen is in York but soon going to Norway. That leaves Kitty, Graeme and Sue, plus Liz (who joined us in Robin Hood's Bay) travelling up to Scotland for about a week.

Half of Friday was taken up with returning one rental car and collecting another much larger one, and driving about 5 times around the same section of Middlesborough in the process of trying to find the rental car place, getting petrol, and finding the rental car place again! Finally we were off in our roomy but economical diesel car.

First stop was Durham and a visit to its magnificent cathedral. It was one of 3 days per year when graduation ceremonies occur at the cathedral so we could only have a quick look at the main cathedral, although other sections such as the cloisters, treasury, library were open for free due to the graduation. Then we drove on to spend the night in Corbridge.

Saturday we started with Hexham which has an interesting abbey, and today had a farmers' market. After a stop at Hadrian's Wall and Chester's Walled (Herb) garden we finally entered Scotland at Gretna Green. We stopped at Caerlaverock Castle and ended up another 100 km away at Ayr – south west of Glasgow.

C2C day 14 - Grosmont to Robin Hood's Bay via Whitby

Whitby - abbey in background

Walking the Cleveland way from Whitby to Robin Hood's bay

dipping my boot (shoe) into the Irish Sea

Opening a birthday present at the bay Hotel Robin Hood's bay

Rather than do 25 km with quite a few hills we took the train/car to Whitby which we all wanted to see and then walked the Cleveland Way (10 km) into Robin Hood's Bay to finish our walk. Whitby was interesting and needed more than the few hours we could afford to spend there. We did find time to visit the Captain Cook museum, try the fish and chips (supposedly the best in Britain), and have a quick look at the abbey.

Halfway to RHB the rain came down and we arrived a bit damp with very muddy boots. We had dinner at the Bay Hotel where we added our names to the C2C visitor book. We also walked down to the beach and ceremoniously threw our pebbles (picked up from the Irish Sea at St Bees and carried across England) into the North Sea. Then it was time to farewell Judy and John who went to Leeds tonight as they are catching an early plane to Madrid tomorrow.