Before meeting up with Helen, Nic & Ben for our trip around Scotland, Fiona and I spent 3 days in Edinburgh mainly to sight-see and enjoy the city. Personally, I hate crowds and picking the Fringe festival as a time to go wasn’t exactly the best time to go. Still, we walked around, avoided crowds where possible and took in the sights – Edinburgh Castle, Calton Hill, Scott monument and all the parks in between. While Fiona was off doing walking tours, I went around photographing things, stopping by a somewhat overpriced whiskey store where temptation overtook me and I lashed out £100 on a 30 year old 1978 Islay whiskey, which I’ll keep in the cupboard for a long time :).

Highlights from the time there:

• The Irish (?!?) guide taking my group around Edinburgh Castle. Very funny guy (could be the accent though )
• Discovering Haggis Pizza!
• Watching the final nights fireworks of the Tattoo, even if Fiona got the times wrong and we stayed up the top of a cold hill for 2 hours longer than expected.

Photos below. Next, St Andrews!

Haggis pizza!?!

Edinburgh, viewed from Calton Hill

Tattoo fireworks

Thursday the 12th saw me drive up north passed my old stomping ground of Leeds, further than my previously ventured point of York and onwards to a little village called Seahouses. Fiona had left the day previously up to Edinburgh to catch up with Deanna and Brooke and watch a little event called the Military Tattoo and view Adam Hills at the Edinburgh fringe festival, which left me a little 500 mile drive up to the Scottish border. The drive in itself was unspectacular, looking like motorways the country over, though surprisingly without a traffic jam in sight – despite the roadworks. At a point just south of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a small sculpture made from steel sprung out from above the horizon, looking a lot like this.

Made from 208 tonnes of steel/copper alloy and 600 tonnes of concrete foundation, the Angel stands 70 feet (that’s 21m in real measurements) tall and has become an icon of the North. While it looks impressive, there really wasn’t much to see so off I moved on.

Further north, by about 50 miles was the town of Bamburgh. This was truly a surprise and I hadn’t researched the area at all and it was pleasant to see a grand castle perched on top a hill overlooking an emaculate cricket field on one side and the North Sea on the other. Having the sun pop out also made things a lot grander.

Beach near Seahouses

Bamburgh castle

Heading south down to Seahouses, I passed massive sand dunes with the Farne Islands off the coast, flitting in and out of vision between the dunes. Stopping in for a bite to eat (fish and chips of course), I then settled off to find a place to camp for the night, which proved more difficult than I planned. Cumbria police insists that all “campers” use official camping sites which made my plan of sleeping in the car more difficult. Eventually I found a place just as the sun went down, next to a small creek and under the trees, where I spent the night listening to the wind in the rain on the windscreen of Hotel Volvo.

Seahouses harbour

Friday was supposed to be a visit out to sea to visit the Farne Islands, which houses a large seal and puffin colony. Friday morning though was heavy rain and strong winds, scuppering my chances for a photo trip out to sea.     Instead, I got in the car and headed north to Edinburgh, where, at the Scottish/English border, the weather cleared and the rest of the drive was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Not what I was expecting from Scottish weather.  The drive through Edinburgh wasn’t taxing, despite Fringe traffic and our satnav trying to direct me left off a bridge onto the road 15 metres below  where I met up with wifey for our weekend in Edinburgh.

Right, back from Scotland for 4 days before jetting off to the Ukraine and my POTN tour of Chernobyl. The distillery tour was brilliant, with 11 distilleries visited over seven days of travel and 1700 miles of driving. Pick of the tour was probably the Edradour distillery (smallest distillery in Scotland, near Pitlochry) and the Isle of Skye with its stunning scenery. Some photos to whet your appetite:

“15 scotch bottles, sitting on the wall…”

Edinburgh, from Calton Hill

Heather (B976, about 3 miles north of Balmoral Castle)

Drive-by of heather filled hills along the B976. Really like the cool patterns

Handheld @ ISO1600. Rainbow over Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness

Full rainbow, Urquhart Castle. I haven’t seen a full rainbow like this since I was still living on the farm in Oz.

Have been away a LOT over the last few weeks, which is why there is a lack of updates recently. Over the last 6 weeks, 3 of them have been located in the continent with work travel. Spent 2 weeks in Nuremberg (2 x 1 week stays) and a week in Spa, Belgium, which also included a drive to Freiberg in Germany and then back to Blighty.

That said, we’re off again soon for a week around Scotland with Helen, Nic and Ben, which should be a hoot. Have walkie talkies at the ready and will sample the fine whiskies and cuisines of Scotland (deep fried pizzas  may well be avoided though!)

In other news, Fiona’s been unwell and has been resting for a few weeks. Hopefully the whiskey from our trip will cure her of her illness And I brought my cappuccino machine into church last week when I was on coffee duties and it went down a treat. Apparently cappuccinos and lattes are much preferred to the usual filter coffee we have on offer.

As part of the Cat & Mick world tour (or honeymoon to be more accurate) they had a UK reception for the relatives over here that couldn’t make it to the Australian wedding. Venue was Kilworth House in Leicestershire, an old stately home that has been converted to a hotel and function venue. Photos are up in the photo gallery here: password is required though so contact me if you need one.

Some shots:

And to lower the tone, there were genuine “crappers” in the gents loos!