Edinburgh 15 September

Our last full day in Edinburgh. We caught the tram from Ratho near the airport where we are staying into the city centre for a final look & a bit of shopping before heading back to the hotel. Our bags need to be packed ready for the flight tomorrow. We will have to do a bit of a re-shuffle with the packing in London as we have a few things to put away for the flight to Singapore. Looking forward to arriving back on home turf.

Edinburgh 14 September

Today dawned bright & sunny with no wind blowing - a pity we were leaving. However by the time we were ready to leave at 9:00 the fog & clouds had started to roll in. David had decided to drive through to Edinburgh today & it was foggy and wet all the way. Not one bit of sunshine to be had so consequently no photos taken.
We arrived at the Travelodge near the airport at 3:00. We have 2 nights booked here so it will be easy to catch a tram straight into Edinburgh for some last minute shopping tomorrow before heading back to London Heathrow on Wednesday.

Nairn 13 September

Today was fine with a few clouds and a rather chilly wind. We had a lovely breakfast then went for a walk down to the harbour.

We didn’t stay out long as David didn’t take his jacket. We got back to the room & thawed out as the heater was on. We went out again about 10:15 & met up with the local Historian who is another relative. We chatted to him for a while then walked down by the River Nairn. We walked for quite a while back up to the town centre & got back to the B&B at 12:45.

We went for a drive later to find the family church & graveyard. The mausoleum had collapsed & was under scaffolding to be repaired. From there we went for a drive to Fort George to have a look the headed back to Nairn.

For dinner we went to the Havelock Restaurant again. I had lasagne & David had crumbed Scampi.

Nairn 12 September

We woke to an overcast & foggy day. After breakfast we packed the car & started our drive to Nairn. After the beautiful sunshine yesterday, the scenery was less than spectacular through the fog.

We did strike a few sunny patches as we travelled down the inland road to Latheron where we rejoined the coastal route retracing our route from yesterday. We turned off after Inverness to make our way into Nairn, arriving just before noon. As no-one was home at the B&B we drove around a bit & found a tea house out of the rain.

Nairn - The Links & Beach

We explored a bit more once the rain stopped & got back to the B&B.Our room overlooks the beach. David had a chat with the MIL who turned out to be a possible relative. We went out & had a look at some of the old addresses of his family but headed back as it was bitterly cold out.

We went to the Bandstand Restaurant for dinner but couldn’t get a table so walked around to the Havelock Restaurant. I had slow cooked pork belly, with chorizo mash & blood pudding on creamed cabbage. David had Sea bass with sweet potato mash. A very nice meal indeed.
 

Thurso 11 September

We drove from Inverness up the Coast today. We saw some beautiful scenery along the way including the North Sea.

North Sea

Old buildings left to ruin

We stopped in Wick for lunch then proceeded on to John O’ Groats.

We continued on to Dunnet Bay where we could view the northerly most point of the British Isles and then on to Thurso where we stopped for the day about 2:30.


Dunnet Bay

We found a nice little Hotel – Weigh Inn – overlooking the Sea.

View from our room

Inverness 10 September

Spent the day on the road today driving through the beautiful Highlands again retracing some of our journey covered by the coach.

Glencoe in the Highlands

We went to Fort William then on to Glenfinnan to see the viaduct used in the Harry Potter movies. We were a bit disappointed because the brochures show a much clearer picture of the curved structure.

What we saw was mostly hidden by trees. We missed seeing the Jacobite Express too. We did see the Glenfinnan Monument at the site of the final Jacobite rising.

Glenfinnan Monument & Viaduct; Laggan Dam

We then headed up to Culloden Battlefields to revisit with a bit more time than when on the tour. David found the 3 family stones & laid Heather sprigs on each of them.

Culloden Battlefields

From there it was a 5 minute drive to Inverness where we stopped for the night. We walked down the road to KFC for dinner. Can you believe they don’t have potato & gravy or coleslaw! We finished up having chicken & corn on the cob.

Dumbarton 9 September

An early start today as we had to get to Heathrow Airport. Had breakfast at 6:30 then headed off to the bus station to catch a bus to Kings Cross Station to board the train to Heathrow. The trains were jam-packed but we managed to get a seat. We arrived at Heathrow at 9:00 and had to check in at one of the Kiosks only to find we were to be sitting 2 rows apart! We got it sorted but then had to pay for excess weight on David’s bag – highway robbery 65 pounds for an excess 4 kg. Finally got through security & to the gate and before we knew it we were on our way to Edinburgh. We arrived at 1:05, collected our bags which had luckily arrived (some IT problem & they couldn’t guarantee the bags would arrive) then off to Hertz to get the car.

Falkirk Wheel

Falkirk Wheel in action

Some of the wildlife

Safely on our way we headed to Falkirk to see the Falkirk Wheel – a gravity driven Lock on the Forth & Clyde Canals. An absolutely amazing structure.

We continued on past Glasgow to Dumbarton where we had seen a Premier Inn and luckily got a room. We had a lovely dinner at Brewers Fayre Restaurant before returning to the room for the night.

London 8 September

Our last day in London today before flying off to Edinburgh tomorrow. We had pretty much exhausted all the places we wanted to see so caught the train to Charing Cross Station to look for some souvenirs. We had a bit of a look before catching another train to Oxford Circus. Here we walked more of the Monopoly Board. We walked down Oxford Street past the famous Selfridges to Bond Street & back again before we headed off down Regent Street to Leicester Square and back to Trafalgar Square.

After buying what we wanted we caught the train back to Euston getting back to the hotel about 2:30. Time to rest our weary legs and look at packing our bags ready for the flight tomorrow. We decided to go further afield to find some dinner so we caught a double decker London bus to Trafalgar Square. We found a dine-in Pizza Hut so had delicious Pizza & salad for a change then caught the bus back to the hotel.

London 7 September

Once again a beautiful sunny but cool day. Another big day today on the Tube. Even though we left at 9:00 we got caught in major rush hour. We went to Westminster Abbey and did the walking tour through. What a magnificent place! No photos allowed though. We did get special permission to photograph the tombs of Lord & Lady Baden-Powell as that had special significance as we have been involved in guides & scouts most of our lives.

Westminster Abbey

Then back on the Tube to visit Kew Gardens. It was a bit disappointing as the plants were looking very unkempt & needed pruning.

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens

We got back to catch the train only to find they had been cancelled due to a signal failure so had to get a jam-packed bus back to Hammersmith to rejoin the Tube. We finally made it back to the hotel around 3:30.

London 6 September

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning, a little chilly but fine. We had a leisurely breakfast before heading out on the Tube. Unfortunately we had to make a change to our plans as some of the trains weren’t running today. We caught the train to London Bridge and walked through the City of London (Londinium)

City of London

down to the Thames South Bank to the Millennium Pier where we went on a City Cruise down the river to Greenwich.

Old wharves converted to Apartments

We made the long steep walk up to the Royal Observatory to see the 0 Meridian and the standards clock & measures. We looked through the displays before heading down the path to the Cutty Sark.

We got our tickets & went aboard. It was all very interesting.

We caught the light rail back & swapped to the Tube to Knightsbridge to Harrods. We had a look around Harrods before heading back to the hotel.

Harrods

My knees & feet had definitely had enough today. We rested a couple of hours before going out to get a light meal for dinner.

London 5 September

We woke to a wet & cold London morning. Our plan today was to use the Hop-on-Hop-off buses and take a cruise on the Thames. We started on the Red line & visited the Tower of London.

Tower of London

We decided not to do the boat cruise as the weather wasn’t the best. We got back on the bus & travelled around the whole red route.

We got the Tube back to Euston, got some lunch & regrouped before heading out again, this time on the Blue line.

We did the whole round again then headed back to the hotel. The sun had finally decided to come out at 6:00pm.

London 4 September

We had breakfast in the restaurant then met up with the tour director for our half day sightseeing tour of London. We set off at 8:20 and drove around in the peak hour traffic for an hour & a half before stopping for photos of the Tower Bridge & Tower of London.

Back onto the bus and headed toward Westminster for the Changing of the Guards. We just saw the Guards marching in not the actual changing as people line up for 2 hours beforehand to get a spot. We left the tour there & went to get our London Pass for the next few days.

We walked around for a bit before we caught the Tube from Leicester Square to Euston. We got some lunch and had that in the room. We headed out again & caught a bus to Kings Cross Station to try to find a new suitcase to replace David’s wrecked one then caught the train back to work out our plan of attack for tomorrow. We headed off again on the Tube to Oxford Street & managed to pick up a couple of things including a new bag. Almost sounds like we are playing Monopoly.

London 3 September

We left the hotel at 7:45 on the last leg of our tour. We stopped for a coffee break about 10:15 before continuing on to Stonehenge. We got our tickets & audio guides before getting on the shuttle bus to take us 2km from the visitor centre to the Stones. We followed the self-guided audio tour around before heading back on the shuttle bus.

We left Stonehenge for the short drive to Salisbury to see the Cathedral & one of the remaining pages of the Magna Carta which is celebrating its 800^th birthday.

Salisbury Cathedral

Magna Carta

We had lunch at the café before leaving at 2:30 on the last stretch to London. We arrived at the Cumberland Hotel and disembarked. We got our bags & headed to a Hackney Cab to take us to the Thistle Hotel Euston where we are to spend the next 5 days.

Plymouth 2 September

We left the hotel at 8:00 and headed to the Barbican area. We saw the memorial to the Mayflower.

Mayflower Memorial

Those on the ferry ride boarded the ferry & the rest of us were driven to Saltash to wait for the ferry to arrive. We had time to take some photos before heading to our next destination.

Saltash

Tamar Bridge

A long 2 hour stint to Mont St Michael near Penzance where we had a photo stop before moving on to St Ives for our lunch break.

This trip only took half an hour. We had 2 ½ hours to fill in here. We had to walk down a very steep incline & stairs to get to the town. We had a real Cornish Pastie for lunch in Cornwall while sitting on the dock wall. We then wandered around for a bit before catching the local bus back up to the Leisure Centre where the coach was parked.

St Ives

We had coffee there before leaving at 3:00. It took 2 hours to get back to the hotel giving us an hour to get ready to leave for dinner at the Barbican Kitchen Brasserie for our Farewell Dinner. We got back to the hotel about 9:00pm ready to pack our bags for the final leg of the tour.