Scotland the Brave

So our time away in Scotland, what a place to see!
Three nights in Edinburgh with so much to see, from the museums to the old buildings so many stories high, under ground tunnels and castles, then a five night tour around Scotland so, lets get started.

The first day and night we went to a pub highly recommended by a friend 'The barrel and Cask' a lovely horse shoe shaped bar with lots of good beer on. Great fun and met some good people!
Day 2, our first full day in Edinburgh, we spent the morning at the castle. There was so much to see and go through, one off the great things was the firing of the cannon at 1pm. Its a great tradition, started in 1861 to let nearby ships of the exact time.
We did  bit of geocaching in the afternoon and the History of Work Museum. The museum gave us so much insight into the buildings and the life style of those that lived there in it early days.
Day 3 we walked down the river and through a park, waiting for a National Trust house to open. We got to the Scottish Museum later that day and could recommend a full day or two to get around it all.

The Castle and City

The Castle dominates the landscape of Edinburgh. Built upon gigantic cliffs 80m high. It was built primarily as a fortress, it has been involved in plenty of battles and sieges, mostly between the Scottish and the English, changing hands time and time again.
Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner at the Castle when she gave birth to her only son. He grew up to be King James VI of Scotland and James I of England, finally uniting the two countries.

The Forth Rail Bridge

On the way out of Edinburgh we stopped to view the Forth Rail Bridge. This well known landmark has been part of the view here since 1890, when it was opened by the Prince of Wales (not the current one). The bridge carried 50,000 trains in its first year. The construction began in 1883, and was hard work, 58 people died, 106 were seriously injured and 518 other accidents occured in the 7 years it took to build the bridge.



the tour around the highland..... 5 Days of fun

• Loch Ness
• Whisky Distillery
• Corrieschalloch Gorge
• A FULL day on the Isle of Skye!
• Eilean Donan Castle
• Glen Coe (to see our land)
• West Coast Scotland
• National Wallace Monument

Our trip around Scotland started at Loch Ness in search of Nessy, leaving the lowlands and heading to the highlands (the Picts country) our tour guide told us some amazing stories about the Scots and the English, myths, legends and truths. Hopefully we can pass some on through this blog.





At Loch Ness, in search of Nessie

And we found her at the Caledonian Canal, in Fort Augustus at the other end of Loch Ness. The Caledonian Canal was designed by Thomas Telford, it has 29 locks, 4 aqueducts and 10 bridges along the course of the canal.



The locks at Fort Augustus were great to see. B2 would have really liked to hire a boat and see them in operation.

Freezing our Faces Young

On the Isle of Skye we found the 'River of Youth', the story goes that a Giant from Ireland came over to fight the Giant of Skye and if he defeated her he would become the greatest of all giants. While they were fighting, the mountains and valleys of Skye were formed. Neither of them won the fight but they were both hurt. The fairies told the Giant of Skye that if she bathed in this stream it would heal her and keep her young and beautiful for seven years. So we all had to have a go and dunked our faces in, they were then frozen for the next 20 minutes with a brain freeze, ha ha ha, what fun.

The location for the Castle and village of Glenfinnan in the movie Highlander was filmed at  Eilean Donan Castle in 1986. One of many movies filmed there including James Bond - The World is not enough.

We stopped at the Fairy Glen, what a place, a lot of small hills, trees, rocks and little lochs. We were told no swearing, no whistling and no hands in pockets as the fairies don't like it and will punish you with 7 years bad luck.

There is a story about a Scot playing his bag pipes, the fairies liked it so they asked him to play at a wedding for them in fairy land, he had the choice to get paid or stay with them in Fairyland. He played at the wedding for 20 minutes and chose to get paid a come back to our world, to his family. The fairies told him it would never be the same, but he went back anyway and realised that the town had changed, his house had changed and his family was gone. His 20 minutes in Fairyland had been 200 years in our world.

                                               

And that is why you never mess around with the Fairies!

The scenery all over the Isle of Skye was amazing we went hiking and the wind was so strong it nearly blew us of the mountain.

The bridle falls on the Isle of Skye is lovely set of falls, once again blessed (or cursed) by the fairies. The myth says that if you drink from the falls you will have seven years of the good life in bed, so to speak.
Ha ha, some people will believe anything!

We took time to stop off at Glen Coe, close to the land of Lord and Lady Arden. What a place to see, with the mountain peaks curtained  by the cloud and mist floating around it's summit. Another dark place in Scottish history, February 13th, 1692, the massacre of Glen Coe. Thirty-eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glen Coe were killed by the guests who had accepted their hospitality, on the grounds that the MacDonalds hadn't been quick enough pledging their allegiance to the new monarchs William and Mary. Another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned. Not a nice story at all.

Now that is one hairy coo!

There were so many cute little fishing villages, its hard to say which was our favourite. The pretty painted houses and boats moored in the harbour's.

A great bunch of people

We met an amazing bunch of people on our tour, it was great fun. We ate together and drank together with talks and laughter at the table. We can't wait to catch up with all of them soon.

Valentine to remember.

Well we know it's been months again since our last blog, it's been hard to keep it up with the packing to go to Aus and work so this will well be a short catch up.

The Lambs Inn

For Valentines Day this year we retreated away from the Lake District and ran off to the Cotswolds. We went to a pub, called the Lambs Inn for three nights. On arrival we had been up graded form the little room we had booked to one of their nicest rooms. I think B2 may have had something to do with it.




Blenheim Palace Maze was great fun! We ran around in the snow with dozens of children looking for the way out.





We relaxed a lot through the three days not doing as much running around as we normal do, but we did visit Blenheim Palace (Home to the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough). Blenheim Palace is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill and was one of the attractions we definately needed more time to visit. We spent three quarters of the day there, and only managed to get around the palace its self and some very close gardens.

The Palace was created to celebrate victory over the French during the Wars of the Spanish Succession. In particular it was a gift to the First Duke of Marlborough. He was the military commander who skilfully led the Allied forces into battle on 13th August 1704 at Blindheim (Blenheim). After the Battle Marlborough personally received the surrender of Marshall Talland, leader of the French forces.

The Duke also ensured that the Palace became a monument to Queen Anne. It was the Queen and a grateful nation who granted to the Marlboroughs, the Manor of Woodstock and the promise of the funds needed to build such a house.

This is a water way in the Palace Grounds designed by 'Capability' Brown, helped the Palace gain its World Heritage Status.
This is the Grand Bridge over the water way, half covered by ice and lit by the sun set.

What a beautiful view!

At Blenheim there was a lovely Butterfly house to wonder through and enjoy the warmth and Beautiful colours of the flowers and the rare butterflies. It was great to be out of the winters cold for a few minutes. 

Old Tudor market house in one of the villages.

The rest of our time in the Cotswolds we toured around taking in the views and visiting the gorgeous little villages.

Another market square in the Cotswold dating back hundreds of years.
What amazing workmanship put into all their buildings to have them still standing today in near pristine condition.

The whole area was full of these classic Cotswold sand stone buildings. The pubs, houses, shops even bridges, everything was made of sandstone. It gave the villages that chocolate box look that the area is so well known for.

We loved it!

So from B1 and  B2 please enjoy.