Scotland to Brighton

We left Scotland on Saturday to fly back to London. We had a lovely farewell dinner in Glasgow as all the group members prepared to go their separate ways.

Once we arrived at Heathrow we found the shuttle service that took us to the Thrifty car rental place. It was at the Sheraton Hotel of all places! The people there were lovely, they looked after us and organised our car quickly and with lots of care. We have a very nice BMW 1 series hatchback, an upgrade from a Ford Fiesta. Very nice, but the indicators and windscreen wipers controls are on the reverse sides. Confusing! Picture of the car to come later.
We drove down to Brighton and found our hotel. It is in the process of being restored so the rooms are large but a lot of work is being done in the place.

Saturday night in Brighton is lively to say the least. The town is full of young folk, all dressed up for a big night out. Most wore very little even tho it was quite cold and windy. Our hotel has views of the famous pier and the sea so we were quite near the action. A noisy night!

Yesterday we explored Brighton. We went to the Royal Pavilion! Amazing, but again no photos allowed inside.

After the Pavilion we went to look at the pier. It's very long and very tacky, but fun to see.

Today we leave brighton and head off to Canterbury via Hartfield and the Ashdown Forest (Pooh Bear country). The weather seems to be much better today, lets hope it lasts.

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Ballachulish to Glasgow

Today is our last day in Scotland. We fly back to England tomorrow. Scotland has been gorgeous! Yesterday we left beautiful Ballachulish where we stayed in a magnificent hotel on the shores of Loch Linnhe. Stunning!

We stopped at Loch Lomond for a boat trip up the loch, through 'Rob Roy' country. Very peaceful and serene. There is a very classy hotel on the Loch that ferries it's guests in by boat as there are no roads.

When we got off our boat we drove to a sheep farm for lunch. We were entertained by the family that has run the farm for 400 years. They sang and piped and told us about the history of their little part of Scotland. There was also a cat and dog patting opportunity. Very good.

We arrived in Glasgow and went to our hotel. A very classy one this time - the Radisson Blu. Very nice indeed. We went to our rooms and then out again for a visit to Stirling Castle and a view of the William Wallace Monument. Dinner was at a nearby restaurant. After our meal some of the local youth decided to entertain us on some of the castle ruins.

We went back to the hotel. A lovely day but tiring. On Friday, which is also the solstice, we set off for Robbie Burns birth place in Alloway. We visited the Brig O'Doon which he wrote about and is also the idea that the film is based on. There is a museum, monument, memorial gardens, his cottage, the bridge and the church where his father is buried! It's just all in an ordinary Scots village which fils with tourists, fans and devotees every day. Poor villagers!

We then went to Culzean Castle right on the water. It had a deer park so we finally saw some red deer close up. They are a bit elusive you know. The castle was lovely, but we've seen a few now! It's setting was to die for. After lunch it was back on the bus to have a look at Glasgow's cathedral. We even saw a Tardis before we came back to the hotel for a rest before our goodbye dinner.

Glasgow is not a pretty city! Very industrial and utilitarian. The rest of Scotland has been stunningly beautiful. We will miss it.

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Skye, Mull and Iona

We have sent the last 2 days on the west coast of Scotland on the islands of Skye, Mull and Iona. Three very different islands. On Tuesday we visited Skye for the day. We went to Staffin, an area where Scottish dinosaur fossils had been discovered.

Skye is an island where the land is apparently desperately trying to get back to the sea, so there are lots of land slips and roads and houses are constantly moving and needing repair. One road needs to be rebuilt every year. This house has is only 6 years old but it has had to have this huge crack right down the outside wall repaired.

We then went to the Crofters museum. Some of the houses people used to live in before they emigrated to Canada, America, New Zealand or Australia. Times were tough!

We then left skye on the ferry and went to the town of Mallaig, on the mainland, where we caught The Jacobite Express to Fort William. We had a 2 hour train ride and went over the viaduct used in the Harry Potter movie.

After the train ride we drove to our hotel on the shores of Loch Linhe. Absolutely beautiful.

On Wednesday we went to the islands of Mull and Iona. Iona is where British Christianity began, where St Colomba set up an abbey when he arrived from Ireland.

The roads on the islands are very narrow, only single lane, and there are sheep everywhere so it can be quite tricky driving around.

We left Iona and took the ferry to Oban, a very pretty town with its own Colosseum!! A mad Scottish folly! Oban is a very pretty little town.

Back to the hotel, tomorrow we are off to Glasgow.

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