Last stop before London and Europe

Headed off to Portsmouth where our first stop was the historic dockyards. We toured the ship Victory which was involved in the battle of Trafalgar, and in which Nelson actually died It had been fully restored and was pretty spectacular.

On then to Brighton, to see the sea. Unfortunately, thousands of other had the same idea, and we gave up after getting caught in a one way street system that defied comprehension, and traffic for Africa. This town was poor in respect of parking areas which most places provide on the fringes to encourage cars out of town.

Hopefully might fare better at Eastbourne or Hastings tomorrow.

Buskers, Baths and Blocks of Stone

On the recommendation of our landlady, we used the local park and ride and took a double decker bus from the outskirts of Bath. Parking is really expensive ( the worst was 7 pounds when we went to the Railway Museum in York) and difficult to find close to where you are going, so it was a great option.

We were diverted by a couple of buskers - two fairly scantily clad Welshmen with a comedy / acrobat routine that was hilarious (if not quite a family show!) - they drew a huge crowd and were very funny. I have to say that the buskers in the UK are excellent - they would leave the Cuba Mall lot for dead. We saw some great ones in London, especially in the subways.

Anyway, we eventually made it to the Roman Bath House that Bath is famous for. They had excavated a lot of the remains of the original - it made me see how archaeology could be interesting. The waters were not as remarkable to we Kiwis who are used to seeing hot water come up out of the ground, and if we had paid the 10.50 pounds that it cost to get in, plus the 50p to taste the waters, I think we might have felt a little ripped off.



We are travelling with British Heritage passes which get us into a lot of the places we have been - we have more than got our money’s worth on it, which we only just did with our equivalent London Pass.

Discovered the original home of Sally Lunn (who made the bun) so had to sample - yum!

After that, we drove down to Stonehenge, it was quite surreal. Who knows why people put such time and effort into building such a structure? The crowds there were huge - it is obviously a big drawcard for tourists.

The Pits

This morning we went hundreds of metres underground at a coal mine. Our tour guide told tales of rats and all sorts as he kitted us out in hard hats and helmet lights. What a job it must be to be a miner. Often had to bend down to walk without banging our heads - not too bad for me, but a challenge for the taller people. We had to surrender everything we had on us that had dry cell batteries, so watches, cameras, phones as well as lighters had to be handed over before we could go down. I forgot all about my pedometer, which has a battery, but fortunately I didn’t blow up the mine! It was really interesting, and a completely new experience.


One more Castle in the afternoon (for Allan) while I poked around the local streets, then an aborted trip into Cardiff. We’d been planning a tour around the Millennium Stadium, but the traffic was diabolical, and there was a game on so we ditched that plan and carried on to Wells (near Bath), our home for the next two nights.


Our GPS gave us a bit of grief as we got into a monster traffic jam in Bristol, when we should have bypassed the town. Added an hour to our journey. Although the GPS has sometimes led us on ‘short cuts’ that have been somewhat remote and often tortuously narrow roads, it has been a great help getting from town to town, and finding what we’ve been looking for, and we’d have struggled without it, especially since I am navigationally challenged at the best of times!

But wait, there’s more … (Castles!)

Welsh ones this time! We visited Conwy and Caernafon. Both are in ruins and both in pretty coastal settings. From what I can gather they were built on a whim of King Edward 1 who wanted to secure his empire - even though it wasn’t under threat, at a cost in today’s currency of something like $NZ115 million each! He built seven of them around teh Welsh coast!

The Welsh Coast was lovely - we could see a North Sea oil rig in the distance, and the roads, to this point were great six lane motorways. However, once we left the coast, we were on very narrow and windy hills with lots of blind corners and crests. British drivers do not pull over and let faster traffic pass! The roads often have solid stone walls, up to 1.5 metres high on both sides, so there is nowhere to go if you meet someone coming the other way. Still, we made it safely, even though it was a slow trip. Stopped somewhere halfway down the middle of Wales for the night.


We actually started our day in Chester with a tour on an open topped vintage bus. Once again, the guide was a real character and added to the experience.

A day without Castles, Cathedrals or Palaces!

Believe it or not! There were some ruins though. We visited the ruins of Hadrian’s Wall, which was built in the second (?) century and was 4.5 metres high and 3 metres wide and spanned from coast to coast near the Scottish border. Still some left, but apparently many of the stones were nicked to build the Norman castles and churches!

We left there to have a look around the Lake District, Windermere and Grasmere in particular, which was pretty (but grey again!). The townships are lovely - lots of trees and greenery.



We also visited a town called Kendal, in the same area. One claim to fame there was the 1657 Chocolate House that we read about in the Lonely Planet Guide. It sold chocolate cakes, drinks and chocolates, as well as having a chocolate museum. It was pretty special and my Aztec Hot Chocolate was superb. Allan had an almond one which he rated highly. The building was built in the 17th century and the staff were in period costume too, so it was the total package!



On to a farm near Chester, and a super dinner at another country pub. One of the notable thinks about food here is that it is always piping hot and served on very hot plates. It will be hard to come home and think about cooking!

Off to Wales tomorrow.

A quick pub meal

We had an interesting experience with dinner last night (Monday). After our long day yesterday, we thought we would have a quick pub meal before checking in to our accommodation. Stopped at Blairgowrie and, after checking the menu on display, asked for a table. Once we sat down, we realised we were in the more pretentious formal dining room and the menu was a 3 course set menu for 20 pounds each! We weren’t that hungry, and certainly didn’t have time to linger, so asked to be served as quickly as possible. Well, we had a drink, ate our three courses, had a cuppa, and we were out the door in 45 minutes, and so was everyone else in the restaurant, so it wasn’t quite as grand as we thought!

Stayed at a lovely farm B&B, one of the nicest we’ve had and a quite bucolic rural setting.

Today we have visited Loch Ness and Loch Lomond, both pretty but a little diminished by the grey weather. Saw an exquisite Loch on the way, called Ludhair, which was crystal clear and still so there was a gorgeous mirror image of the surrounding hills reflected in the lake. Loch Tay, near Fortingall was very pretty too.

This morning we visited Glamis castle, where the Queen Mother spent a lot of time. It was more my thing than Allan’s - I would love to throw a dinner party in one of these stately dining rooms! It was a long, long journey to Carlisle (Cumbria, England) for the night. Sad to leave Scotland, as we loved it. We skirted Glasgow, and saw an electrical storm like none I have ever seen. Huge forks of lightening streaked the sky for ½ an hour, and torrential rain caused some flooding. It took us 30 minutes to travel a couple of miles as the storm coincided with rush hour traffic.

Anyway, we are here now, and settled into a restored barn, which is beautiful. Our first ground floor accommodation, for which my bag boy is very grateful!

McPherson Territory

Finally got to the Clan McPherson Museum in Newtonmore - we were greeted like…family! We knew quite a bit of the history from Allan’s dad’s book and one written by a more distant relative, but seeing all the artefacts and historical items dating back centuries was fascinating. The curator even asked us to mind the shop while she popped out to post a letter, then came back and made us a cuppa. She had a harp there which she got Allan playing (not sure what the McP significance was with that) but also played us a piano piece with lyrics referring to Scots who have left for foreign shores and gave us a copy of the music. It is very haunting.

We’ve also now visited Kingussie, Fortingall, and Blairgowrie, all of which have McPherson links. Would have been good to have more time exploring the heritage.

We were told that a large portion of tourists to Scotland are on ancestry tours, so we are not alone. My Dad’s family has a Scottish heritage also, but I have not seen the name listed in any of the indexes I have looked at.