Finally, Iz and I have managed to find some time on this crazy tour to get our blog site back up and running. We have actually been writing blogs every day since the site crashed, but haven't had a chance to post them...thank goodness mum was able to recover all our old blogs...but thanks to everyone else for helping out too!! We REALLY appreciate it. This site has become our journal, as well as yours, for all our travels, and I'm so glad we still have everything we wrote over the past month and a half. Sorry for the influx about [View Full Entry]

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We experienced our first day in Bangor today...and it was nice to chill out and slow the pace down. Mum and dad have been living the good life here...quiet days, yummy food and the odd game of bridge - yes, they signed up here too! Are they addicted or what?? Iz and I both had a good night's sleep in our cute attic room, then a yummy breakie with the family, including Grandad Stan, who was bunking down here too. There are lots of yummy breads to try here, and KB is totally hooked on wheaten bread, but there are loads [View Full Entry]

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After a very quiet night in Moffat, a tiny city on the way to Stranraer, we decided to make the most of the day we had left, and drive through Dumfries and on to Stranraer...it was on the way to Dumfries, at around 11am that I realised, instead of staying the night in Stranraer, we could get a ferry over to Ireland that afternoon, and not only save a night's accommodation, but also catch up with mum, dad, KB and Ryan, plus all the relies, SOONER!! EXCELLENT! Iz thought I had been scheming this up for days, but it had only [View Full Entry]

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We woke up this morning with an air of quiet excitement. Today we are planning on exploring the Edinburgh Castle and then heading... somewhere in Scotland. The day was kicked off with the stock standard English continental breaky followed by a quick pack of our stuff. Once again the Tom Tom (satellite navigation system) came through with the goods and we easily found our way to a car park area near the Castle. We walked through a little market and 'climbed' up the road to the Castle car park. The castle car park was closed to the public due to the [View Full Entry]

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Today we are visiting the Great Wall, travelling up the east coast, dotted with Castles, crossing the boarder and ending up at Edinburgh. Our day started full of sunshine and after a quick breakfast we headed to the Great Wall. You could be forgiven for thinking I was talking about the Great Wall of China - that is coming in a couple of months. I am talking about Hadrian's Wall. It is huge! Spanning across Northern England, it was originally built as a northern frontier for the Romans. We visited Vindolanda, the ruins of a Roman fort village that supported the [View Full Entry]

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We've done New York, so today we thought we'd visit Old York...another of England's picturesque towns. This one has Viking links, but the Roman presence is still very strong. We immediately noticed that York is another walled city, and although we didn't have as much time here as we did in Chester, we were still able to walk along a section of this wael preserved structure (for your information dad, the lady at the York tourist info centre reckons this is the BEST example of a Roman Wall in the whole of Europe - who do you believe?? I give up!) [View Full Entry]

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And Iz and I are merely players...or is that tourists?? If you haven't guessed - we hit Stratford Upon Avon today, and I could have stayed for a week. This place is awesome, especially if you're into the Bard! I love Shakespeare and found our 3 hours in this charming city, wonderful. There were a few scary moments on the way to Stratford from Bath, including going around a round-a-bout the wrong way (thanks Iz!! Lucky there was only one on-coming car!) but we eventually made it in one piece. I would have been very annoyed to not see this place, [View Full Entry]

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After a very quick exit out of Heathrow, Iz and I collected our wheels, and also made a speedy exit out of the airport - thanks to our trusty SATNAV. People had warned us that we would be lost in the airport for days, so it was great to get out on the road. The drive to Stonehenge didn't take long, and before we knew it, we were walking around the huge monoliths with tonnes of other tourists. It is amazing to see them in real life - as you don't reliase the true size of each stone until you are [View Full Entry]

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I guess it had to happen sooner or later...we have been blessed with such beautiful weather on this trip, that on our last morning in NY, we woke up to miserable conditions. It was cold, wet and grey outside - Top of the Rock - I think NOT! What a shame...Iz and I were both really looking forward to farewelling NY from the Rock - a much better place to see the city I'm told (not only is it cheaper than the Empire State Building, you get views of the Empire State to boot). We made the best of our morning, [View Full Entry]

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Today was another late start with a lot to do in only little amount time. We finally got our stuff together, grabbed some brunch and headed to the sight seeing bus (double decker with an open top). Our plan for today was to tour the city on the bus, dropping off at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Central Park and the Frick Collection, finishing up the day with a Night Tour of New York on the sight seeing bus. The sight seeing bus is an excellent way to check out the city. The only issues are the long [View Full Entry]

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