Back to colder and wetter climes following our North American adventure the next box to tick is the Castle Trail which centres around the Grampian area of Scotland, which is, brilliantly, all about 30 minutes away from our house in Aberdeen. There are obviosuly, hundreds of castles dotted around Scotland, all in varying states of repair and some that you can visit round and others that you can't. The book itself says there are hundred but lists specifically a few must-sees and so, for consistency, we've visited these ones which all focus around Grampian and could, be linked in with the [View Full Entry]

---

---

This photo is taken at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California The final part of our tour, we'd originally added LA to our itinerary as we couldn't stand a diret flight to London from Hawaii with only a brief stop over at LAX so we added a few extra days in Hollywood. My views on LA possibly for this reason are a little bias in that we only really had time to do the touristy things rather than explore a little further off the beaten track but in any case, outwith Santa Monica, Venice Beach and maybe the Getty Center, I'm not [View Full Entry]

---

---

This photo is taken on Waikiki Beach, Oahu. We took a day trip from Maui to Honolulu on Oahu. Famous for Pearl Harbour and Waikiki Beach and the most populated of all the islands, it's far more commercial than Maui where we stayed. First stop from Honolulu airport is Pearl Harbour to beat the rush. Arriving at the museum there's already a bit of a queue but the ticket we get telling us the time we need to line up to take the boat accross to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial gives us plenty of time to take the audio tour through [View Full Entry]

---

---

This photo is taken at the top of the Haleakala Crater This was the main part of our honeymoon and what a brilliant island it is. When we first booked our trip of San Francisco-Hawaii- Los Angeles I thought Hawaii would be purely sitting by the pool with the other cities being the activities and sightseeing. Hawaii obviously is beautiful with idylic white sands, clear blue seas and glorious sunshine but there is also so much to do. Yes we spent a lot of time, sitting by the pool, drinking cocktails and swimming but some of the sightseeing is brilliant. Snokelling [View Full Entry]

---

---

We actually hadn't even heard of this until we looked at the book but we're glad we did. One problem with Napa is that it is a bit of a pain to get to if you're staying in downtown San Francisco. Taking the fairly self-explanatory name of 'Wine Train' - we weren't that keen on hiring a car and driving there and we were also quite keen on Champagne Vista Dome upgrade which had to be booked through the Train company only and therefore we couldn't book on one of those third-party tours which pick you up at your hotel. So [View Full Entry]

---

---

Possibly one of the nicest cities I've ever been too, there's loads of typically touristy things to do and lots of sights that are instantly recognisable - Alcatraz, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, any of the typically steep ascending and descending streets - and so it's perhaps a little surprising that only one, the cable cars are listed. This photo is taken at the end of the Powell Street line which is an end point of two of the three lines - Powell/Market and Powell/Hyde. Keeping the tradition, the cars can only move forward and so when they reach the end of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Loch Ness, taken at Urquhart Castle Up to the bonny Highlands for number three on our list and we'll take a bit of time out of wedding planning to see Loch Ness. This photo is taken on top of Urquhart Castle with Loch Ness in the background. 997 still to see [View Full Entry]

---

---

Decided we may as well start close to home. Edinburgh Castle was our first stop on a fairly dreich day in Edinburgh at the beginning of March 2008. Edinburgh has to be one of the nicest capital cities in the world, and that's without the bias that it's my hometown. It's absolutely full of history but it's also one of Europe's trendiest cities. Nowhere is that any clearer than the city centre where you can go shopping on in Jenners on Princes Street or Harvey Nichols just along the road for the latest designer clothes or sit out in the gardens [View Full Entry]

---

---

Still the 7th of March 2008, still a freezing day, lucky there's somewhere else still to see in Auld Reekie that we can tick off today, the Balmoral Hotel at one end of Prince's Street. The Balmoral is an old railway hotel which sits right on top of Waverley Train Station. It's one of two seriously high-end hotels in Edinburgh with the Caledonian being at the other end of Princes Street. Still, The Balmoral is in the book and therefore we must 'see' it, hence a trip into the Palm Court Tea Room for a black coffee and a 'gingerbread latte' [View Full Entry]

---

---