Catch up

20/08/08
Our B&B host Greg, told us of a car ferry that goes across the lake which cuts of the journey to Beatrix Potter's cottage. However the ferry had been cancelled so we had to drive around anyway. We arrived 30 minutes before opening time and the car park was full already. We drove for about 5 miles looking for a place to park and gave up in the end. There were a lot of people prepared to walk the 5 miles but we knew that only about 15 people could go through at a time and you could end up waiting for hours. Obviously the movie has sparked a lot of interest.

We took the second best option and drove to Hawkeshead and visited her husband's (William Heelis) office instead. This proved to be a wise move as we were very impressed with information and displays which were of her original drawings, her art work and letters to friends and children which included stories about her pets which predated her books and were really very sweet.
Hawkeshead is lovely village - very quaint and not as many tourists.
We drove around the top of the lake back to our B&B. Our room has Beatrix Potter prints on the walls and a few of her books beside the bed. We lay back and mulled over the information we had collected and then read some of her stories which brought back memories of reading Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck to Anna and Brendan when they were children. They used to love them.

We walked to the wharf and caught a ferry to do a cruise of the lake. We got off as Ambleside and strolled around the village and then caught a launch back. This was more interesting because at least we got a commentary as we were sitting behind the skipper. Half way back he received a phone call and then told us he had just been told he had to go to hospital for a brain scan.... not good news.
We walked to Windemere which was a lot quieter than Bowness.


21/08/08
We drove to Lanark today as we didn't particularly want to stay in Glasgow. This seemed a good option as there was a heritage village marked on the map. We were not disappointed.
The TI officer was really helpful and got us sorted with accomodation and gave us lots of information about what to see in the area and especially New Lanark the heritage village.
Got ourselves settled at the B&B then headed out to New Lanark. As soon as we saw it we were sure we had seen it on one of the holiday TV shows.
The village was set up in the 1800 (by Robert Owen) to provide accomodation for his woollen mill workers and to educate their children. The workers were very happy with the arrangement apparently and some stayed there for generations. It eventually was closed in the early 1900's then restored as a tourist attraction in recent years. It is quite a place!
We climbed to the Corra Linn waterfall behind the village which is quite spectacular and worth a look.

22/08/2008
Finding our way through Glasgow was made much easier by following the TI directions otherwise we would have ended up in the centre of Glasgow. We drove up the "Rest and Be Thankful" which reminded us of 30 years agow when we were on a bus in the middle of winter going TO Glasgow, when the road was so icey the bus slid off the road, then when we got to the summit of the "Rest and Be Thankful" the wind was so strong the door blew open. Luckily today the weather was not so severe and we could stop and take photos.

Bob climbed to the top of a church tower at Inverary and we did a quick stroll around the streets. Then drove through Lochgilpead and on to West Loch Tarbert Hotel where we once worked. The fireplace is still there although there has been a lot of changes with a big dining room added which is not really in keeping with the old pub it is. We had a drink at the bar and a chat to the barmaid.
We drove past Loch Melfort Hotel where we worked for 2 summers which brought back a lot of memories, and on to Oban to meet Janet.
We arrived at "Julie's Coffee Shop" and Janet ran out to meet us. What a happy reunion - hard to believe it is so long. We sat down to have a coffee then "wee Ann" arrived. So there we all were, laughing and marvelling at how long it has been and so much to catch up on. It was absolutely lovely!!
We left Oban and made our way to Inverfolla where Janet lives... and we didn't get lost. What a lot lovely comfortable cottage Janet has overlooking Loch Creran, with her home grown vegies and 3 pet hens providing a generous supply of eggs. We sat down to a very enjoyable meal of her home grown vegies and chicken breast (not one of the pets) stuffed with haggis. Ahhh.. couldn't let us get away without the scottish fair!

23/08/2008
It is great to be back in Argyll! Today we drove to Kilmartin and went through the museum that is there now. We called into Loch Melfort Hotel and had a coffee in the Chartroom bar but it did look the same. All the great timber and raked ceiling - where Colin used to hold competitions to see who could swing over the rafters - has been covered over. So it did not have the same atmosphere - such a pity.
From Ford we drove around Loch Awe, looking out for a ruined castle where a group of us rowed across to in a rubber duckie, but didn't manage to find it. We had forgotten how long and windy the road is around Loch Awe and there were lots of people camping and fishing from the banks. We stopped at St Conan's - Campbell's clan, last resting place of the lord of the isles.
We took Janet out to dinner and had a nice bar meal at Port Appin overlooking the Isle of Lismore and watching the boats pulling into the port.

24/08/2008
We drive to Glen Coe and did a bit of a hike through the forest. Then drove to Crinan stopping off at Arduaine to take some photos looking back to Loch Melfort. Called in to Ardfern, Melfort, Croabh Haven, also the standing stones at Temple Wood near Kilmartin. The standing stones and old sites have been made into tourist attraction now and not just a sign on the map anymore.
We drove down to the mouth of the Crinan Canal and were in time to see a yacht manouvering through the canal. Crinan has not lost any of its charm.
Janet had cooked us a fantastic roast dinner. Bob lost a filling from a tooth.

25/08/2008
Today was the gathering of the LMH clan for lunch at Janet's. Colin and Jane Tindal (our boss), Angela, Louise, Alistair, Ann and Donald. What a great afternoon we had. Old photos were dragged out and new ones taken. We had so much to catch up on and remember when..... and what happened to.... and do you see anythin of..... and so it went on. The time just flew and it seemed that we had only begun and we were bidding fond farewells exchanging email addresses with promises to keep in touch. It was a joyful time and sad to say goodbye once again.

26/08/2008
Time to say goodbye to Janet. We really appreciated her hospitality and she had done for us. We made our way to Stirling. We booked our accomodation through TI then walked to the castle, had a coffee and sandwich before viewing the castle which was very busy with tourists. We "discovered the fascinating history of Stirling Castle" (as it was described) of the Kings and Queens of Scotland - and a lot were called King James. I was more interested in the tapestry studio where weavers are reproducing a series of 7 ancient tapestries - which was most impressive.
Our B&B was very nice - once again. Our landlady recommended a pub for dinner called the "Birds and Bees" which was was a converted old stables. The table and chairs were set in horse stalls but the food was better than the charf the horses got.

27/08/2008
Had an interesting chat with our fellow B&Bers this morning as they all had ties with Australia with children living there or been over for a visit.
Before we left Stirling we walked to the Wallace monument. We had good intentions to climb the spiral staircase to the top of the monument but it was so wet and windy we only made it part of the way before turning back.









We stopped at the Falkirk wheel on our way to Edinburgh. It is the only rotating boat lift in the universe. The Union Canal meets the Forth and Clyde and the wheel has replaced a series of locks. Seeing we were there we hopped on a barge and went up the wheel into the canal. A bit like going on a very slow ferris wheel half way motor down the canal for a bit turn around and come back onto the wheel the a very slow ferris wheel ride back down again. Exciting if you are into engineering I suppose.
Our arrival into Edinburgh was a bit hair raising as there were so many roadworks and detours we got hopelessly lost. Then amazingly we ended up where we were aiming for.... due to the wonderful navigator of course!
We were told at TI if we had been a day earlier we would not have got a room as everything was booked out because of the Edinburgh Tattoo. So that was good timing!!

28/08/2008

We left our guest house early and caught a bus into Edinburgh. We bought tickets for the city tour where we could hop on hop off all day. The tour was very good and gave us some clues on what we wanted to do. We walked the Royal Mile and up to the castle. We booked into a tour of Mary King's Close.
The Close was discovered in 2001 and dates back to 1500's and it feels like you are travelling back in time seeing how people lived and survived (or didn't) in those times. Our guide took on the role of Mary King's daughter and the tour group were visitors from the future.... which made it a little light hearted and more interesting.

29/08/2008
I made the mistake of asking Bob "how's your tooth" and it went crunch.... a whole lot more broke away. He said it was okay and wanted to move on. We had planned to stop in Jedborough and by then.... no the tooth was not going to be okay. Checked out the dentists in Jedborough but could not fit him in, so we drove on to Newcastle.
We went to TI and the girl there suggested the local dental hospital, so we high tailed it up there and he got the last appointment for the day. What luck!! Got the tooth fixed so that was alright... and a relief as it was Friday and flying out to Prague on Monday so did not really want to have to experience a Prague dentist.
Got hopelessly lost trying to find our accomodation - the map was all but useless and Newcastle streets are a nightmare! Finally, we found it but oh what a sinking feeling I got when we realised which house it was...... well it was supposed to be a B&B but it was named a hotel but it was very run down on the outside.
Decided to put a brave face on it and hoped it may be better on the inside... no, afraid not. Well at least it will get us prepared for hostel living in Eastern Europe. We had been so lucky with all our accomodation up to date. We had some funny ones but they had all been clean..... this one took the cake! Anyway we had a nice view of the Northumberland cricket ground and had box office seats to watch a match. Had a laugh at the brochure which showed our room looking very classy.... must have been in more profitable times.
The staff was not interested in giving us any information or answer our enquiries and only recommended some pretty dodgie looking take aways.... knew nothing about Hadrian's wall. Another woman who was there recommended Francesca's.
So we had dinner at Francesca's an italian restaurant which had a recommendation from Jamie Oliver in the window. Food was excellent and by the time we left there was a queue out the door.

30/08/2008
Our orientation of Newcastle has not improved. Hopelessly lost once again getting out of Newcastle this time..... Not fun!! Finally made it out and headed to Hadrian's wall. We stopped off at Corbridge as we were driving through and it was such a pretty village we thought it deserved a closer inspection.
We looked over Chester Fort where Hadrians wall crosses the river and forms part of the fort. There is a museum of artifacts that have been found at the fort and you can also walk around the ruins of the commandant quarters, roman bath house etc.
We drove to Steel Rigg - an escarpment of rocky cliff that Hadrian's wall crosses. Lots of people hiking along the wall. We walked to the wall and took pictures. We went to a few other sites along the wall but all wanted to charge and we felt they were not going to be that different to what we had seen. We learnt later if you walk along the wall a bit you can often get in for free.
We returned to Newcastle via Hexham. Got lost again, but finally found a park not too far from the city centre. Bob bought new shoes as his were leaking badly.
We went to Francesca's again and queued with everyone else for a table - good food once again.

31/08/08
We did the hop on hop off bus tour of Newcastle this morning. It wasn't as interesting as others we have been on and they used one of the same stories we had heard in Bath so we can't see the same event happening twice in different parts of the country. We guess they were short on events to amuse the tourists.
Got terribly lost trying to find Lukes place at Gateshead.... this time we will blame google maps. I had to ring him to get directions, but as we didn't know where we were, we ended up meeting him at the train station.
Parking proved to be a bit tricky and we were quite relieved to find a multi carpark - drove up the spiral ramp only to find it had heavy gates across it, so Bob had to negotiate reversing back down... quite an experience and he deserves a pat on the back.... and a drink! There were no signs to say it was closed. We got some funny looks from the pedestrians when we reversed onto the street. Later we learned from Bec (Luke's girlfriend) that it is due for demolition.
Finally found a park in the street and met Luke and Bec. Bob drove with Luke as navigator this time, and Bec and I chatted in the back. We had lunch at Northshields, a pretty seaside town where the Tyne river meets the sea. There was a heavy sea mist and boats were sounding their fog horns. When we arrived there were families on the beach but by the time we had eaten the fog was heavier and what we could see of the beach was clear. We had our guide of the area as Bec is well informed on the history of the area and in fact all British history.
It was good to see Luke and he seems happy with his overseas trip. We managed to get them back without getting lost.
Went back to our abode and packed as we are leaving for Prague tomorrow!!