Geo: 54.6896, 25.2799Today was a day of travelling. Our first full day on the bus!! We left Warsaw at 8am and headed north to Lithuania. It was a beautiful sunny day, too good to waste on a bus trip however, these things must be done. Our travel took us through rural Poland and Lithuania. Both are very flat countries and also very green. We listened to our tour guide explain about optional excursions and then she got on to history and politics of Poland. A litle is fine but she managed to talk for nearly one and a half hours!! And you think I can talk!! We stopped for lunch at Augustow where we had 75 minutes to get some lunch ad have a look at the town. This was a pretty town with a very ... read more

Geo: 55.8656, -4.25722Today we set out to explore Glasgow. We drove into the city centre and found a car park at the Buchanan Galleries. This is a large shopping complex in the middle of Glasgow. There are two streets that have been turned into malls here, Sauchiehall St and Buchanan Street. The latter is the more attractive as it is lined with elegant 19th century buildings which have been largely occupied by modern stores like Borders. We wandered along, browsing through the shops. We were still looking for a McEwen scarf which had proved elusive. We found one in a kiltmaker's shop, Hector Russell's. I was pleased.We had lunch just off George Square in a Cafe Uno which is a chain restaurant but inexpensive and good food. In George Square they were holding the Glasgow Piping ... read more

Geo: 58.0265, -4.40151... read more

Geo: 56.4245, -3.46242We awoke to sunshine in Bamber Bridge. I was deceived so wore a T shirt and shorts. After breakfast and packing up we bade farewell to Cath and Chris after they had steered us to a petrol station and the entrance to the Freeway. We had had a fantastic time with them. Thanks, Cath and Chris for your wonderful hospitality!!!We drove on the M6 towards Edinburgh. the clouds gathered and the rain bucketed down. The scenery was great, what we could see, green fields, hills, stone fences and sheep. After Carlisle we headed up the A7, the historic tourist route to Edinburgh. It continued to rain, we listened to the England/South Africa 4th Test match and we finally stopped for some lunch about 1-50pm in Stow at the Cloud Cafe.After an half hour break ... read more

Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236This morning we headed to Buckingham Palace to visit the State Rooms which are only open to the public during August and September. We had bought our tickets yesterday which saved hours in the queue and arrived there just before 10am, our scheduled time. Fletcher had done this once before but I had not had the opportunity of being here as usually school demanded me to be present there.The State Rooms were designed by John Nash and are very elegant and sumptuous. There is an abundance of gold and white in the elaborate ceilings and the various drawing rooms are named for their different colours, green, red, blue white, etc. The magnificent ballroom was set up as it would be for a State Dinner with the full table settings and glassware displayed. I did ... read more