Some Sunday News

Another glorious day here with cloudless skies and temps in the low 20's. Overnight is cool so a lie in bed is always on the cards.

I have added a couple of posts below on our UK Ireland trip so read there if you are following our adventures.

Trish has a nasty sore throat and feels a heavy cold is coming on.

We have new neighbours either side of us since we have returned. Both are younger families or a couple and both have a bl...dy dog. Thankfully you would hardly ever know there is a dog there. We really haven't seen them to say hello as they seem to keep to themselves. We were both recovering from jetlag or hosting Kim earlier on so the chance to introduce ourselves did not arise.

The three or four posts directly below this one are all posts about our recent trip.

Bath

The Roman conquest of Britain back in the days before Christ has had quite an impact on the country. The Romans were truly 'before their time'. They believed strongly in the healing effects of spring water and a hot water spring was discovered where the city of Bath now stands. The Romans developed the spring to create what today is known as the 'Roman Baths'. It was a two hour drive from Cardiff to Bath where we would spend a couple of hours exploring the Roman baths. Two hours was not really long enough.

Though merely a shadow of their former glory, historians have created a magnificent display using remnants of the ancient baths, reconstructions (via diorama) and displays of artifacts and ruins uncovered during the restoration of the buildings. This photo to the left gives but a hint of the former glory of these buildings. Below is a photo taken from the top of the baths looking towards a cathedral just outside the surrounds of the Roman Baths. The green water indicates the amount of minerals there are in the water.


The ancient baths was a building with several large pool areas, a freezing plunge pool, sauna areas for relaxation and an intricate arrangement of aqueducts and drains to channel the hot spring water into and out of the various pools. The photo to the right shows the underfloor supports which were pumped full of heated air to create a sauna in the room above. Below is a photo of one of the drains taking water from the baths to the river outside. This drain still works perfectly today!


The two hours spent in Bath just flew! Trish took this photo of a bridge over the river. There are shops on either side of this bridge built over the water. Bath was a highlight of our visit to UK and Europe! Bath is a stop you would really need to spend two full days at rather than a couple of hours.

Our next stop was Stonehenge before we were due to arrive back in London later that afternoon.

Blarney Castle and Waterford

We had a wonderful meal on the final night at Killarney, I especially recall the salmon and a duck dishes I discovered at the hotel buffet. The meal was 'included' with the tour. The next morning we awoke to this scene (see left) from our hotel window. We seemed to be in for a wet day. We set off for Blarney Castle and a chance to kiss the famous Blarney Stone. We kept fingers crossed for an improvement in the weather and it seemed our wishes had been granted. The rain eased as we arrived at Blarney Castle.

However there was still some slight drizzle so wet weather gear was still required. Blarney Castle is a Norman Castle, built like a tall square block seen here to the left. We climbed the damp stairs to the top where we would see the famous Blarney Stone. I am not at all keen on heights so I had already opted out of kissing the stone. Just as the line of Blarney Stone kissers hit the open air at the top of the castle, the heavens opened up with steady cold rain! There was nothing to do but follow the queue and there was no escaping the wet weather. To kiss the stone you actually needed to lay down and partially slide outside of the castle walls. There are two guys there to ensure you come to no harm! You get an idea of what happens from this picture below. The lady in white is about to 'kiss' the stone. She will lie on her back on the 'yellow' sheet and then be slid out via the gap in the wall where she will kiss the stone. The two guys either side of her will slide her out and ensure she gets back safely.

I left Blarney Castle as quickly as possible and told Trish, "You will find me in the pub!" We still had another hour or so at Blarney so I reckoned by the fire in the pub was a great spot for the rest of my visit to the Blarney Castle! I was just starting to get over my severe head cold and I considered fireside at the pub a medical imperative! I even ordered a hot cup of coffee when I got there!

Eventually we were back on the bus, drying out and heading to Waterford, the home of Waterford Crystal. We visited the Waterford Crystal display rooms and shop. There was some fine glassware to see and purchase if you wanted. People purchased some small pieces. From there we went to our hotel and settled in for the night. We were only staying at Waterford for one night before boarding a ferry to return across the Irish Sea to Cardiff in the south of Wales the next day. The hotel room we had at Waterford was quite comfortable for us as you can see below.


At 4 am the phone rang to inform us the ferry we wanted to take had been taken out of service for repairs! We all had to be up, on the bus and on our way by 5 am. We had to drive all the way north again to Dublin (about 200klms) where we could cross back to northern Wales. We would then need to drive all the way down to Cardiff where we were due to stay that night. The driving distance was over 600k's and in the middle of that was a three hour ferry trip! We eventually arrived in Cardiff at about 6 pm thoroughly exhausted. The picture to the left is Millennium Stadium, we got this snap from the bus as we drove past! So much for our tour of Cardiff. The tour company provided our meal that night as compensation for our troubles. It was the worst meal of the tour!

We collapsed into bed ready for the next day's tour which would take us to Bath, Stonehenge and back to London! Bath would turn out to be a highlight of the tour!

ABC (Another Bloody Castle!)

After having our own walk around Dublin we were soon on the bus again for another look at the city. Molly Malone selling her seafood was enshrined in this sculpture in a Dublin street. There were not a lot of tall buildings in Dublin and also very few shops with protective verandas keeping off any rain. Luckily for us the weather was fine but cool.

Then another bloody castle, this time it was Dublin Castle. The guide was great and filled us in on some of the history of the Republic Of Ireland. The Brits had sure given the Irish a hard time! Some of the afternoon was then free to look around more shopping areas of the city. Trish had a cider while I enjoyed a Guinness at the pub near our hotel. That night we attended a show with plenty of Irish Dancing and a wonderful Irish comedian. The photo appears below.


We were up early next morning for our trip to Killarney and around The Ring Of Kerry. We stopped at the Irish National Horse Stud and saw the Vintage Crop grazing peacefully. The horse had won the Melbourne Cup back in the '90's. From there we pushed on to spend the night at Killarney on the south west corner of Ireland. An evening meal in the Pub there completed a long day. I had developed quite a head cold too. Today Killarney is a tourist town and reminded us of any touristy spot, souvenir shops and plenty of eateries with 'specials' for the visitors. It was a bit disappointing really.

The weather for trip around the Ring Of Kerry was cold and windy! This can be a pretty stark part of the world with cold rocky mountains, pebbly beaches, beautiful lakes and many picturesque small Irish villages. The beach seen here is one of Ireland's most popular summer holiday spots. The scenery can be beautiful and this spot was one favored by Charlie Chaplin as a wonderful spot for him to get away from it all. It was not my 'ideal' though!


The photo above is view from a mountain pass back down towards the coast. The wind blew so hard here it was nearly impossible to stand still to take a photo! Below is a photo of one of the beautiful lakes found near Killarney.


Tomorrow we were off to visit Blarney Castle and eventually stay at Waterford the night and to see the glassworks there. Hopefully the weather will improve a little!

On To Ireland

That night we enjoyed a few drinks with David and Lorraine at the Bowness hotel. Next morning was a bit showery (the first rain we had seen on our trip) as we headed for Chester for the customary mid morning stop. Chester is the sort of place you imagine an English medieval city to be. It once had a city wall (as most old English towns had) and to the left you can see a city gate. Below is a street scene from Chester. Old Tudor style buildings can be seen here.


We walked all the way around on the city wall. Most old English cities were built next to a river to provide water and a natural barrier from possible invaders. The feeling of building things to stop invaders is a new concept for those of us from Australia. As I mentioned in an earlier post, people in England and Europe have been killing each other over the last 3 thousand years! These were the times in which these cities were built. Below is another castle which was built to protect the north coast of Wales. There was a castle built every 15 kilometres or so right along the northern Wales coastline.


Next stop in Wales was this town. I will let the photo give you its name. Another Souvenir shop was here to tempt the endless line of tourists travelling to this part of the UK! I was able to stamp both our passports with the town's name stamp as a little memento of our visit. Remember to click on any photo for a larger view. To return to this page just click on the Back icon in the top left hand corner.

It is over 100kms across the Irish Sea to Ireland and we crossed by ferry. We changed our English pounds to Euros and I bought my first Guinness as we crossed the water. I am not a huge fan of Guinness myself but this stuff tasted OK, quite different to the Guinness we buy here at home. The final of the FA Cup was live on TV so this helped to fill the time! The crossing was smooth and after arriving in Ireland we booked into our hotel which was a about 15 minutes walk from the city itself. We found a pub and enjoyed our first meal in Ireland.

The next morning (Sunday) we opted out of an "Optional Tour" and walked into Dublin for a look around. This street was Dublin's premiere shopping strip but being Sunday, many shops would not open until midday!

The Lakeland District

England's Lakeland district is described as probably the prettiest part of the country and we were heading there from the Highlands of Scotland. First stop was Fort William on the Scottish West Coast. There was time enough to wander the main street and have a good look around.

Next stop was a cruise on Loch Lomond. We enjoyed a 30 minute cruise, however it was not comparable to the cruise we had through the Whitsundays in October of last year. The weather was cool and you needed subtitles to translate the broad Scottish accent of the guy giving the commentary!

The bus continued on for quite some time until we arrived at Bowness at a quaint older style hotel in the middle of the lake district. The hotel room floorboards squeaked and the bathroom was almost as big as the sleeping area. It was used by several of the tour companies as an overnight stopover.

We were on a bus tour of the area fairly early next morning. Trish and I popped down through the town to see Lake Windermere. We followed narrow roads on our tour and wound our way through picturesque countryside. Eventually we landed at the town of Grasmere, the home of the English Poet William Wordsworth. His house is shown below!


From there it was across the lake on another cruise to catch a steam train. These two activities were optional extras for those who wanted to have a go.

Into The Scottish Highlands

We had a great room in Edinburgh. The photo above gives an idea of the size of everything! There was space to burn!

We left Edinburgh and made our way to St Andrews the home of Golf. It is a pretty stark sort of a place, especially when there was a gusty cold wind blowing. Just beside the golf course was the beach on which they filmed the opening scenes from "Chariots Of Fire". This turned out to be be the best beach we would see during our 6 weeks away! This was a good spot to grab some souvenir gifts for friends back home.

We moved on to have lunch in a small town called Dunkeld. It was a truly pretty spot and soup and roll at the local Pub did us nicely. Then we walked around the town and found this pretty river. This sort of travel was hugely different to what we were to experience in Europe on our later tour. This tour had plenty of worthwhile stops, the Europe Tour was more to cover plenty of kilometres!

A small fully hand operated distillery was our next stop, the best part was the 'free sample'! From here we moved down to the Central Scotland town of Pitlochry where we were 'left' to explore while the others went onto visit Blair Castle. Blair Castle was an 'extra' which required extra payment. We thought it ABC (Another Bloody Castle) so opted not to go.

Our walk around this gorgeous town was exquisite, to a beautiful river (photo on the left) and finally a pleasant cool beer in the front beer garden of McKay's Pub seen below. It was extremely pleasant in the afternoon sunshine. Trish Joined me for a cider!


The bus collected us, we rejoined the group and headed into the Scottish Highlands. Though the weather had improved a little, these chilling looking mountains did not warm us up at all, especially seeing snow on the peaks in the distance. There was not a tree to be seen. Nor did we see a town for most of the rest of the day's travel. It was quite eerie really.

After a great meal and entertainment overnight we were on our way south again heading for England's Lakeland district. This was a travelling day but with a few stops along the way. The first stop was beside a huge loch to photograph this majestic Scottish Castle. It was very impressive.

UK Ireland Tour Underway

We were on the road reasonably early for the first day of our UK Ireland tour along with 35 others. 50% of the group were from Australia, while 25% were from USA and the final 25% were from Canada. The bus had been converted down to only have 40 seats for passengers. Therefore it was quite roomy and comfortable in bus for everyone. After a couple of hours on the road the first port of call was Stratford on Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This is a photo of his birthplace and the current Shakespeare museum there.

The first night was spent at York. This photo shows a street called "The Shambles" and is a great example of how buildings jutted further out into the street as the grew taller, so much so that 'neighbours' on the top floors could reach out through their window and shake hands. It was this design of building which ensured the Great Fire Of London in 1666 was so devastating. This design also made walking down the street dangerous prior to the days of underground sewerage. It was very easy to get a bucketful as it was emptied from upstairs windows.

The weather took a turn for the worse at our first stop on the next day in Durham. Durham has become a town famous now for its University, seen here to the left. Below is a photo of Durham Castle. We spent an hour or so exploring Durham on foot. Lots of cobblestone streets were probably my lasting impression of this place.

That evening was spent in Edinburgh Scotland. Edinburgh Castle is a foreboding place as it stands out against the Edinburgh skyline. The view below is via one of the gun emplacements on the castle walls. It seems the greatest pastime for these people many years ago was killing each other, a theme which continued over the next 5 weeks of our stay in UK and Europe.


We had a great hotel room in Edinburgh with plasma TV etc. Behind the hotel was a hill overlooking the city. Here is a view from the top of that hill. A nearby Edinburgh Pub had a fish and chip as well as a bowl of soup meal for 7 pounds (about $14 in Aussie money). It was very enjoyable. The cold Edinburgh weather and icy wind were not so enjoyable though!

Sunday Back At Home

We are beginning to overcome jet lag and getting back to a semblance of normality! Kim has just been taken to the Sunshine Coast Airport to fly back to Melbourne by Trish. We had a great meal at a local Thai Restaurant last night which included a few drinks as well. The red wine was sensational, much better than any we had in Italy or France!

A lovely sunny day with temps in the low 20's.

My next UK Europe trip episode post is below!

Two Free Days in London

After a great night's sleep at the Thistle Marble Arch we took a full day tour of London. The first port of call was St Paul's Cathedral. It was a wonderful building, full of history and magnificent architecture. Our tourist guide kept us informed on all the things we needed to know about this building. There always seemed to be a reference to happenings from World War Two to everywhere we visited over the next couple of weeks. St Paul's was spared during the WWII bombing of London.

Our next stop was the traditional Changing Of The Guards at Buckingham Palace. Our experienced guide ensured we were there early enough to get several views of all the happenings. This photo shows the replacement guards marching down to the palace.

From there it was to the Tower Of London. This was just about the highlight of the 6 weeks we had away for me. I found the whole Tower of London experiencing thoroughly enthralling! Finally we had a Thames River Cruise back to London's Parliament buildings before we were returned to the 'Thistle'. The photo below is of The Tower Bridge with the Thames flowing underneath. We found a Pub and had an evening meal. I paid for the Pub meal and drinks with my credit card!


The next day we went to have a tour of Lord's Cricket Ground. Lord's is the world home of cricket and steeped in history of the game. I enjoyed this tour very much. The afternoon was spent looking through the shops in Oxford St. That night it was to a Noodle Shop for an inexpensive but filling meal. Our Bus Tour of UK and Ireland was getting underway the next morning so we were in bed fairly early.