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Published: June 18th 2006
Dal - Scotland. Land where my father (and subsequent family) lives. Sun. Green. Friendly. Will that do for an entry? Suppose not.
We travelled on the Caledonian Sleeper to Fort William, in a 6' x 4' cabin (cell), bunk beds and a sink. Just about room for ourselves and our baggage. I'm sure Japanese prisoners of war got more room in solitary confinement... Still, once installed in our bunks, the soothing rocking motion soon sent us to the land of nod. This must be the way forward for travel. Shut the curtains on London, wake up to hot coffee and pastries at the door, and the Lochs and Highlands of Scotland whizzing past the window. Once in Fort William, (which we stayed in for a whole 20 minutes!), it was on to the Jacobite Express (see, I told you we were trainspotting Nerds), or for those not in the know, the Hogwarts Express! There was something unique about travelling by steam. Was it the harking back to the romance of a bygone age? Or was is the covering 42 miles in 2 hours, or the clouds of steam and ash that entered the cabin through the window in every tunnel?
Overcast and grey, my first impressions of Scotland. At Mallaig, our final rail destination, and jumping off point for the Isle of Skye, we awaited the ferry. This was a smooth sailing - a bit of an odd feeling came over me during the crossing. No, not the seasickness or the dodgy fish and chips for lunch, but the thought that this is a one way trip. At no time will we be going back on ourselves, unlike a normal holiday. Bit of an eyeopener that one.
On Skye we were driven (Mad) by a crazy bus driver who took us to Portree to pick up our hire car. Yep, a Ford Ka - you can imagine me folded up into that, can't you...
Our final destination for the day (is that really only one day?), was to our B & B in Dunvegan, while the sun came out and stayed out, before having dinner at the much anticipated Three Chimneys restaurant, our last blowout meal before bread and cheese for the next 5 months (Joke!). Wonderful food, great, chatty staff, and a location to die for (check out the photo's !?!). A very tired and full
Jacobite Express
The steam train from Fort William to Mallaigpair rolled back down the road for a good nights sleep.
The next day we zipped around the island. First, down to the Cuillins, a range of hills (Munro's, as per the locals), with over 20 peaks over 3,000ft high, but none over 1,000 metres (I think that's the classification of a mountain?). Massively impressive, the east side are red and smooth (the type of rock) and the west side are almost black and jagged. Popped past (not into) the Talisker brewery, then beetled (that's what you do in a Ford Ka, not speed, or cruise, or even drive), up to Uig, for our ferry to the Outer Hebridies.
What can I say about the Outer Hebrides? 72 miles long, Harris and Lewis are one island. There are no trees. It looks like the moon on the Eastern (sheltered) side, yet on the western (Atlantic Coast) side there are the most beautiful, indigo seas and white sandy beaches. With the temperature hitting the high 20's, you could easily think you were in the caribbean...
We spent the best part of two days haring around the island, seeing amazing scenery, 5,000 year old stone circles and the most
friendly & accomodating people I've met. Also, it never got dark. Twilight, yes, but not night.
Saturday evening and it was then the ferry back to Skye (almost 2 hours), and our second backpackers. Both nights we were the only people in the dorms. Still not feeling like a holiday, but a pleasant change of pace and scene. Sunday was spent catching up with ourselves and getting to know Portree, the capital of Skye, before our bus to Inverness on Monday morning (12 June). An hour in Inverness (yep, not really fair, but our route covers a lot of distance), before the train to Aberdeen and an enjoyable two days catching up and saying goodbye to the family (whanau, to all you Kiwi's). Thank you all for making us feel loved, and now missed!!!
An overnight excursion followed with Abbie's friend Domhnall & his wife Jackie, who made us feel very welcome in Livingstone.
Thursday saw us on the Intercity from Edinburgh to Newcastle, for our ferry to Amsterdam. Odd getting on a train bound for Kings Cross, London, yet knowing I won't be there for a few years...
Got on the Ferry in time for
the England game (like I'd miss that), then had the best night's sleep I'd had in years. Onwards to the continent and perhaps a slightly slower pace that this last week seemed to have gone at. Love to you all (except the boys - strong handshakes all round!) x
Ab - Just a quick note from me on Scotland. I did not expect the Caribbean in the Outer Hebrides. Nothing I have ever read or seen about Harris & Lewis (and I'll admit I haven't read much) led me to expect turquoise water and white sandy beaches. It really was quite stunning! And this the place they make Harris tweed? I'm cursing about the lack of photos because they really would give you an idea of how amazing a place it was.
The ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuden was most excellent. Not quite the Loveboat, but the cheesy piano playing on arrival and the very seventies water feature (glass tube with bubbles up through about five decks) made it a serious contender. The whole overnight ferry trip was a complete novelty for me, so we made the most of it and explored most of it (while Dal wasn't
watching the football).
We arrived the next morning to the serious industrial landscape of a port - all belching chimneys and grey industrial buildings. It wasn't looking good. But we were quickly whisked away to the pretty streets of Amsterdam.
We are staying in a basement hovel miles from the centre of the city sharing with nine others. Hardly a salubrious start to our continental explorations, but a necessary lesson in downgrading our spending habits. We have a budget, and we have to stick to it or we'll never make it all the way to NZ. The gauntlet has been thrown.
Thankfully the weather has been great (as I sit typing this I watch the red between my freckles develop to the kind of shade that suggests that sleeping will be uncomfortable tonight). This has meant that we've spent the bare minimum of time at our Hotel (Max - for anyone wishing to avoid basement hovels on future trips to Amsterdam).
We started our touristing with the standard canal boat cruise. Which was really very good. Even if I did keep falling asleep. There's no accounting for the amount of sleep I seem to need now
Luskentyre
South Harris, Outer Hebrides, NOT the Caribbean that I'm not working. The oddest site was the boat shaped building that has a beach on it's roof. The Dutch can do amazing things architecturally. But you'll just have to wait for the photos for this to make any sense. We also went to the Sex Museum on the recommendation of my little brother Ed. It was all a bit Benny Hill. We also had plenty of beer and sat around in the sunshine.
Yesterday, we got a train deal that let us travel anywhere in the Netherlands for 35 Euros. As we'd left our start a bit late, we went to Rotterdam which couldn't be more different from Amsterdam. Rotterdam is high rise and modern, Amsterdam feels low rise and intimate. Rotterdam is all about cutting edge architecture and Amsterdam is cute, quaint ye olde worlde. I'm not making Rotterdam sound that appealing, but we really liked it. We spent a cultural couple of hours in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. What a treat. I think we were almost the only people there which meant we could get up close and personal with loads of Van Gogh's, Mondrian, Cezanne, Rubens etc etc. But the modern stuff was
the best and the place was huge. It was only eyeball fatigue that forced us to leave.
Then onto the architectural tour of the city. Once again, our failure to find a way of getting the photos on-line lets this rave down. Put simply, three amazing bridges and the four storey Unilever building mounted on a couple of tripods above a 19th century building. It really was excellent. Promise.
We stopped in Leiden on our way back to Amsterdam. It's a small university town and birthplace of Rembrandt. Very picturesque, and a good place to stop off for dinner. I'd summarise the features of it as canals and windmills - the quintessential Dutch town.
Today has pretty much consisted of gardens. We blagged our way into a back yard of one of the canal side houses that was open to paying tours. We've found central Amsterdam pretty short on green spaces, and had wondered what was hidden by the huge houses along the canals. It was a complete surprise, with huge mature trees and an intricate garden not visible from the street.
Then the rest of the day was spent finding and then mooching around in
Leverburgh, Harris
The view from behind our hostel at 11pm the Vondelpark. We drank beers while listening to Roos Beef (pronounced Roast Beef) play in the band area, we sat by ponds drinking wine, sleeping and playing cards. We both needed a day of not doing too much - we're taking our time finding our feet with this travelling lark. All the things we took for granted having our own flat, such as shutting ourselves away from the world, and having our own private space, have gone. We've managed to have several arguments, both resolved reasonably successfully, but I swear I will cut out Daren's tongue if the cheesey humour doesn't stop soon!!
Our next destination, Luxembourg. We originally thought this was a really cunning way of avoiding paying supplements on our Interrail train passes, but it turns out that we end up backtracking all over the show as a result. But it's booked, so we're going. Then France - Paris first then Alsace Lorraine region - we love Alsatian wine... Not sure about the next bit but possibly Brittany. But the bit described above should be our next five days.
Not wanting to lose an opportunity to be green in everyone's general direction, we ran our flights
The Golden Road, Harris
Not the first house on the moon versus our trains through the carbonneutral company's carbon calculator. Apparently we would generate 4 tonnes of CO2 both flying to NZ. But travelling by trains for 18,000 miles generates about half of that for both of us. So we'll still need to do some tree planting at some stage...
Many big thanks to everyone who has sent us e mails and messages to the blog that we haven't had time to respond to.
Hugs, smiles and lots of red between the freckles.
Abs
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Leah
non-member comment
So where are you now....!
Hi guys, Hope you're both ok (and Daren's still able to speak - Abbie, hope you haven't had to dispose of Darens tongue yet!). It's soo cool to be able to read about where you are and what you've been up to. Daren - silly thing to say but hope you're keeping up with the World Cup, oh and West Hams first game of next season is at home to Charlton!! And ta for the CD, I can't believe you put so much music on there...Genesis and Yes are accompianing me into work now! Anyway, take care and don't get too sunburnt! Look forward to reading the next installment! Lots of Love Leahxx