Scotland ... a looonnngg time coming - UPDATED!

Well, way back in October in the last week, I went to Scotland with Alex.

How our trip went, well great! Cold, lots of driving and sight seeing.

It started by us both travelling from Clapham Junction on the train, and then the bus to Heathrow to the airport to pick up our car. Well, that was interesting, as first I was bummed that I was going to the airport just to go in a car, but then again, I was getting in a car for the first time in almost 10 months in England. (Yes I did drive in Canada, but that was on the opposite side of the road [not allowed to call it wrong side - sheesh])

So we hop off at Avis, where the bus driver told us that that was the closest place to our car company. Turned out we were ages away and ended up walking to the Holiday Inn - note to all travellers don't stay at the airport rooms were £250 a night ... thats about $700 AUD and about $500 Canadian - NOT WORTH IT!!!!! At the Holiday Inn despite their room prices, were very nice and called us a Cab, and off to get our car we went. We ended up having a nicer car than I thought, here I thought that they would stick us with a Ford KA and we would have no room and never get past any traffic, but we got stuck (cough cough) with a Brand New Peugeot 207 - Black. Very nice car - and off we went.

England roads are all numbered and motorways, once you are on one, you are pretty stuck, so it took us a little bit of time to get out of Heathrow - I had downloaded instructions from the net which were useless, so we had to go by the road map - off which was for all of UK (which does include Scotland - dug myself a hole there with car company), so we finally found our way. The downloaded instructions said that it would take 7 hours to drive to Glasgow. No chance, we ran into so much traffic, especially getting around Liverpool and Manchester (all on motorways) that at one stage took over 2 hours to go less than 80 miles. So we made it to a town called Hamilton about 20 miles out of Glasgow after 10 hours of driving we were done. Found our hotel, settled in came out and went to Dinner at an American dinner (I know all the way to Scotland and I eat in an american dinner), it was the closest to the hotel and it was great food.

Day 2 - Alex's main reason for going to Scotland was to go to John O'Groats - the northen most tip of Scotland, mine was just see what I could see and to stand in Loch Ness (but more about that soon). So today, day 2, we decided to see how far we could get, we drove all the way up to Wick about 15 miles south of our destination - we decided to stop here, thinking that their would be no accomodation further north. We stayed in a small quaint (dodgy), but still nice hotel called the Queens Arms - we drove around for a bit trying to find a place to eat, but no where tickled our fancy (look later on for what did tickle us ... lol) so we found a take away chinese place - now that was dodgy - what we ordered was not was we were expecting to get, but let alone you live and learn and pass the message on to others to tell them not to eat at the Hong Kong takeaway in Wick Scotland!!!

Day 3 - John O'Groats - along our drive up to here we saw lovely castles, winding roads and beautiful scenery - just amazing to follow the coast line along and to see rolling hills, and cliff faces were amazing. Then we roll into John O'Groats, passing about 10 B & B's on our way in, but you never know before, so it was best we stayed where we were. At John O'Groats, we stayed for about an hour, looking across to the islands, trying to take a good Facebook photo for Alex and just enjoying being as far north as we could. Now when we left, we took a side road up to a lookout, just for the sake of it, the lookout wasn't much, but as we were about to leave, I followed a sheep track (actual sheep track, as the sheep were walking around - reminded me of the Ag Plot) and just over the ridge, were these beautiful stacks (Scotlands version of the 12 Apostles in Victoria) and they were amazing - glad I followed the sheep.

Then we were to make a decision, to travel back the way we came, or to take a different route. The different route we took, we drove all the way along the northern coast of Scotland, on a single lane (doing at the most 30 mph) Alex, was a champ driving here and didn't tire of the endless winding or relentless slowing down speeding up, then we changed at Durness, which was about half way. Only to find the roads open up into two way most of the way - this was a recurring theme throughout our journey. So off we went down the west coast through Ullapool and then onto Inverness for the Evening - where we stayed in the best hotel of the trip. The Royal Highland, right next to the rail station. Lovely room - despite it being overheated all night (think we were right under the boiler) massive shower and great breakfast in the morning (all pluses on our trip).

Day 4 - today we drove the Loch Ness, here we left Inverness after a bit of walking around in the morning and sight seeing - we saw the Inverness Castle, which is now used as the local court house (I was very impressed) and we saw a Kilt making factory and sent postcards. We left Inverness being told that it was a 2 hour drive along the Loch - we thought is that all, and it was. The Loch is amazing and I would recommend the drive along it to anyone, and also to stand in it, but to stand in it during the warmer months, as though it was only October, my feet were still very very cold afterward. We drove all the way along and then back up to and around to Aberdeen (famous for their beef). Along the way I had seen a postcard with an beautiful arc on it, and it turned out that in the end we went their for a driver change, so we went to see the Carrbridge Arc - an amazing bridge which looks good in all seasons, but at it peak in Winter (covered in snow). Then off we go to Aberdeen, being warned along the way that their would be no accomodation on a Tuesday night in Aberdeen - we didn't heed the warning and go their about 6pm at night to find, that indeed their was no accomodation, so off we went to the next town 60 miles away - Dundee. Along the way we decided that it would be good to eat, as we hadn't eaten since Breakfast - too preoccupied with the scenary. Now every where else in the world there is fast food resuatrants along the highways. Not in Scotland we looked everywhere, and only 1 we found at 7pm at night in Forfar about 20 miles out of Dundee. We ate Maccas with glee, and here coerced my way into getting my sought after Chocolate Sundae - Alex tells a different story, but I stick to mine.

We got to Dundee and found the same story, no accomodation ... right, so we drove to the Best Western and asked them for a room. They were booked and said the only place to stay was the Hilton, so they called and booked us a room. So we paid the pounds and spent the night in a older hilton, still very nice, with a great breakfast but a lousy bathroom. If I haven't mentioned it, the Bathroom's of this trip were a standing point which made our accomodation - Alex and I both agree that the best Bathroom and Shower was in Inverness at the Royal Highland - despite the room being 40 degrees all night, we slept with the window wide open there.

Day 5 - And we awoke to Fog, not just a thing that lasts until 7am when the Sun rises, but kilometres and kilometres of it, so apart from wanting to see a bit of Dundee, we had no chance as we couldn't even see a metre infront of us, despite having the lights on high beam. So off we drove down to Edinbrugh, through the most amazing fog! I for some reason love fog, it hides the world and when it lifts the sky and air seem so crisp and everything looks awesome in the clearing fog. But I am distracted, right. Driving to Edinbrugh we were enveloped in fog so think that, even with the fog lights on we couldn't see and were taking it very easy. The temperature on the car's thermometer got to 3 degrees and started calling out warnings of ICE on the road, we were very excited about the car's ability to warn us. We have some awesome photos of the fog from the car and of trees surrounded in it.

Edinbrugh, we got there mid morning and found a hotel after much driving around of the never connecting streets of the city. But its an amazing city centralised around the castle and has kept its originality by still having many of the period buildings. We walked around, went up to the castle and the line was too long and I didn't really have any urge to go into the castle - some may say I was silly, but too bad. So we walked along the Royal Mile - the lead up to the castle and then down to Princes Street (shopping heaven for the shopaholic). Then Alex and I split up for the afternoon, I went to a street just off the Royal Mile which Trudy recommended me to which had alot of the original houses from the era when the Black Plauge was happening. It was called the Real Mary Kings Close.

This is a very narrow street, which has been built over years ago and they only re-discovered in the past 50 odd years. Here, they cut off the roofs of these houses and built a building over them, sealing them off from the daylight. And a host "from the era" takes you on a tour through the close, explaining the houses and the history that surrounded them. Two things that stick in my head, is the explanation of Day Light robbery - they used to charge you for having a window, by the amount of glass panels you had in that window - something I evidenced in Ireland afterward, where the parliament had all the windows were removed and bricked as it was turning into a bank and the accountants wanted to save money. Second - the scots were one of the first recyclers - to make their wall plaster, they used to use the silt from the river, combined with horse hair and the ash of the burnt bodies from the people who died of the plauge. Pretty gross, but you can still see the plaster, horse hair and all on the walls in these period houses.

We ended our night in Edinbrugh eating at TGIF's - Thank God its Friday - an american based resturant - great steak!

Day 6 - We shopped along Princes Street - With myself investing in a New Coat and Thigh High boots, at this point in time I can't remember what Alex bought, but I am sure she did - I think she was just impressed that I actually bought something - being the scrooge I am.

We drove on from about Lunch, heading to the Lakes District, in North West England. We got there about 4pm and same story, no accomodation - sheesh! So onward we drove out of the district, shame, but tomorrow was going to be our last day and well time was now ticking. We drove on, and originally saw a sign for accomodation - it was a truck stop, so we got some fuel and much needed food, but got that just wrong feeling from the place so pushed on and found a place in Preston - the Tickled Trout, now this might sound like one of those places that the Grizwalds had to stay in, in one of their "Vacations" but it was an amazing place, of good value, excellent Bathroom quality and good beds, so we were set.

Day 7 - We set off early, and didn't know what we were wanting to do, might stay over in Oxford or drive out to Cardiff - the Cardiff drive would of meant a big drive the next day as the car was due back. We decided on Oxford, but stopped off at a shopping village just outside. We shopped for a little while, and then kept driving - then in the car we were humming and harring about whether we stop in at Oxford and it just felt like we were so close to London so we came back. It was only an extra 60 miles and we were both pleased with our decision, as it saved an extra day of paying for the car and we were both ready to stop driving.

So we travelled back to Heathrow, stopping to fill the car up for the last time, drove around to the car place, and came in the guy, had this machine which he checked out the car, refunded the insurance back onto the credit card and we were done in 5 mins. It was great. And we found out they had a shuttle service back to the main terminal, so we caught that, and hopped a bus back to the train. We got to Clapham Junction, and took my bags back to my house, went to dinner and just wound down over a nice relaxing meal, knowing that tomorrow we didn't have to drive anywhere.

An all around awesome trip, which I would do again.