This one is going to be short. It was a long day - more that 160 miles of driving and more that 8.5km walking - ready to call it a night. Today we started our trek back south. We made ourself a nice breakfast at our AirBnB, did a wee shop at the House of Fraser and hit the road. Our first stop was the Castle Urquart - the ruins of a 12 century castle on Loch Ness. We did a bit of a wander and learned more about the Highland’s history. From there, we kept trekking until Fort William. We had a chance to walk through the town before finding a bite for lunch. We Both tried new Scottish dishes - Don had the steak and ale pie and I had the Cullen skink. Look ... read more

We headed out first thing this morning to see Edinburgh castle. We were too late the day we arrived and wanted to make sure to get there. What an impressive structure! It was easy to see how it would intimidate enemies trying to take it. We found it hard to believe that anyone ever did despite the history. We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels and learned more about Mary Queen of Scots. The dog cemetery also caught our attention. While we were there, several military officials showed up for a special service to commemorate the war memorial anniversary. The war memorial honours the 200,000 Scots who died during WWI and WWII. From there we walked back to our hotel, got in the car and headed North to The Royal Borough of Dingwall. We only made a ... read more

We knew we had a long travel day (4 hours) today so slept in a bit in Liverpool. After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we hit the road. Most of our drive today was on motorways. Since today was about driving, here’s what we’ve learned about UK driving. 1. Lane markings are only suggestions. You can wander across the lanes if someone is parked in your lane or it just feels right. 2. Any type of intersection can be called a roundabout. 3. Local drivers have a rhythm as to when to take turns on narrow streets or congested intersections. 4. The left side of the road is closer than you expect. 5. Parking “just down the street” is always farther than expected. 6. The bigger the road number, the smaller the road. The A5414 ... read more

After our early night last night we got a pretty good sleep despite the stag and stagette parties roaming the streets. The church bells counting the quarter hour all night were both reassuring (it’s only 2:00 am - no need to get up) and distracting (why are the bells ringing at 2:00 am?). We learned that we have too much luggage so spent some time repack if so we only need to haul one bag in for the next couple of night. We wanted to hit the road early so we could get to our stop tonight to enjoy the facilities. We took a brief bypass down the coast to see saint govan’s chapel. It’s a 13th century chapel built in honour of a 6th century hermit who may have been a knight of the round ... read more

Wow. What a day. After dealing with our laundry delivery at 7:00, we were able to pack and head on our way. We got a car to take us to the hertz rental dealer at city airport where we picked up our car. What an adventure. As Don has never driven on the English side of the road, the drive out of London created some teeth clenching moments for me. He bounced off the left curb a few times but overall did pretty well. And I’m very glad not to be the one driving so I shouldn’t complain. We first stopped at Stonehenge. We were surprised that it is basically in the middle of a sheeps pasture. And there were sheep right there. It was smaller than we imagined but still quite impressive to think it ... read more