Nothern England & Scotland

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Hey guys,

thanks for the bday messages and cards made my day 😊 especially the one with Blake holding a card saying happy birthday aunty eggie, that was awsome!. So last week we decided to take a ride up country on a train from Kings cross station to have a look round northern england and a bit of scotland. We loved the lush green country side and the clean air, it was so good compared to cigerate smelling smoggy London. So we caught the train to Edinborough and stayed in a hostel for the night then the next day we went and hired a car. They gave us a 7 seater so we thought, awsome! we can sleep in the back of it, except it wasn't made for tall people, we tried sleeping in theback and the front, most uncomfortable! So the next day we set off and headed towards Newcastle, stopped at an old prison which was like an old castle and ended up in Darlington so visit old Uncle Norm, he was a laugh, we had a few hours there then went to the castle next door for tea (advised by uncle Norm) and yes it was yummy, they even gave us the lunch special prices which we thought was cool!.

That night we droveto York and stayed the night there. The next morning we got up and headed towards Leeds and manchester. On the waywe stopped at a nice cafe and had some lunch and learnt about the douglas clan and tartan etc, it was so great having so many things with our family name on them. We also had a look at Brents family history and his grandmas maiden name etc it was very interesting. After manchester we went to Liverpool and had a look round (we went to the bettles shop, but not the museumdidn't really apeal) after that we went to Blackpool where theyhave all the carnivals it was great they had an illumination fair on and there was millions of lights it was really pretty. That night we decided to stay by the sea side and a random storm came from no where and the waves were hitting the car with great force, we watched for a bit along with all the locals, then i thought we better move before we got watched out to sea or stuck (Brent was keen to keep watching but theres no way we would get sleep).

In the morning we headed up to Kendal and had every intention of going to see the district lakes as milly said they wer really pretty but when we stopped for coffee I picked up a brochure about caving so i thought ive give them a ring just to see what the price was and it was cheap. So we went caving ( well walking into a cave that was already dug out, not like climbing caving) they had old Stelic tytes that only grown a CM every 85 years and these ones were masive. The tytes glow in the dark, so when they turned the bi flood lights off, tey had UV lights on them it loked really cool. Then we went and stayed in Glasgow in a hostel, we were over the car. On the way there we stopped for lunch in the little town called Douglas and had lunch at the Douglas arms, best mushroom soup ive ever had. They had pictures on the wall of the oldDouglas castle it was huge but they busted it down as he couldn't pay his debt after he dies and they left once little bit (the half circle stone thing in the photos) so we went and had a look anyway and there was a memorial and a statue of him so that was cool.

After having a look round glasgow we headed up north towards Kinlochleven and watched along with all the locals the huge river that was running scariliy fast and aparently only happens when there is a full moon, so we wathed with some locals who told us about another cool castle to go see. So off we went to see this castle (the one in the pics) and there were heaps of freedom campers around the castle (I guess thats a cool thing to do, where else would you wanna sleep in a tent around scotland, may as well be by a castle and fish in the lock) so that was great to see and learn the histor of it. Then off we went back to Edinborough to drop the car off, we saw heaps of castles on the way but didn't really have time to stop. We stayed in an old Victorian house for such a good price, it was such a good way to finish the trip, the scots are so friendly!. The next day looked around Edinborough went and saw the mounments but didnt do the castle as it was nearly 20 pound each and we already saw the fre eones 😊. then caught the train back to London. First week of work.

cya

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