Belfast to Sligo

On Wednesday we drove along the Antrim Coast towards Sligo our stop for the night. We had a cloudy day for the first time - as suspected Ireland's weather is going to live up to its reputation (that will teach them for moaning about how hot its been)!






The scenery is lovely ~ very lush and green. We stopped at the Giants Causeway - its a lot of formations of rock made centuries ago in a volcanic eruption however the Irish have their own story about what they are and how they were formed (did u just see the leprechaun??).







We stopped off in Derry for lunch. There was a market in the middle of town with an amazing array of food. We enjoyed looking around and sampling although we are finding the accent difficult to understand at times - as they are ours!

Next stop Belleek pottery - we had a tour of the factory which was very interesting. Now I can appreciate why its so expensive - its all done by hand with traditional tools. Not my cup of tea but they did have exquisite stuff.

We then stopped at Drumcliffe to see WB Yeats grave - very exciting for some (yawn yawn).

We stayed in Sligo for the night - a nice place with many pubs! Ironically a group of us ended up at one which we found out when talking to the Ozzie bartender was called Swagman - not an authentic Irish pub afterall LOL. He pointed us in the direction of another pub playing traditional music - it was packed! But we had some craic (Irish word)!!!

Belfast

We arrived late avo in Belfast on Tuesday. After a visit to the chemist for anti cold tabs (bloody sick old ladys on the bus coughing their lungs up) we went and found a lovely Irish pub. We had traditional Irish food which was delicious, and of course Mal had his guiness.

We got talking to a friendly annebriated local (8 pints of guiness under his belt and still going). He was a laugh tho and the spunky young bartenders with that gorgeous accent!
We chatted to a guy and his son from Holland too - the son lives in Dublin and plays poker for a living ripping off the asian visitors! Makes around 2000 pounds on a good night.

We caught up with the others off the bus and had a laugh with the locals - the Irish are so friendly and interested in where we are from and where we are going.

Belfast itself feels like a nice city - not as bland and concrete feeling as Scottish cities. The countryside is slightly different too and very pretty.

Glasgow

We arrived in Glasgow yesterday after a long bus ride through the western highlands of Scotland through to the Isle of Skye. Again we had beautiful weather - I am not sure I would want to be in this part of the world in the middle of winter!



To get back to the scottish mainland we caught the ferry from Skye to Mallaig. We drove beneath Ben Nevis past Glen Coe and along the banks of Loch Lomond (some of you might recognize that name from the song).



We didn't see much of Glasgow itself until this morning. Like Edinburgh it has a lot of old stone and brick buildings so not the prettiest city. There is a lot of building being done around the city and cleaning up of buildings. Again I don't think it would be a pleasant place to live in the middle of winter.






We are currently on the ferry crossing the Irish sea to Belfast. This ferry makes the NZ interislander look like a dinghy - it has a couple of restaurants, shops, cinema, gaming lounge and even a spa on board! The crossing takes nearly 3 hours and we are lucky to have another lovely day to do it.

Loch Ness

We went for a Sunday drive literally today taking in the beautiful sights of the highlands with its many lochs, hills, valleys etc. I know I keep harping on how beautiful it is here - but it really is!













We had another stunning day and the locals told us 3 days in a row hasn't happened in 9 years! We stopped for lunch in Ullapool a remote fishing village. The pub there is voted the best in Scotland for its seafood though we didn't indulge as we were out for dinner tonight.




We went on the extra excursion this avo to go Nessie hunting on Loch Ness - unfortunately we didn't spot her but we had a good time out on the boat in the sun.





The group of us that went out last night mow have a reputation as the party animals - us girls are all looking forward to Ireland and hitting the pubs to listen to the sexy irish accent much to the guys amusement!

Strathpeffer

Have to let you know that haggis ain't that bad! We had a really good night at the scottish dinner show, I love the dancing and the bagpipes are just fantastic.

We travelled from Edinburgh up to the southern highlands on Saturday. The scenery along the way has been beautiful.






We have had fabulous weather which is amazing as it was snowing up here only last week. It is very much like NZ scenery here which is probably why so many scots ended up down the south island.

We had a few stops along the way - St Andrews where Kate and William met at Uni plus its famous for golfing, went past Balmoral, went to the Culloden Moor battlefield then through Inverness before arriving



.

Strathpeffer is a lovely small town once renowned for its spas. We are staying in a beautiful old hotel. Last night a group of us walked in to town and watched the highland dancing and band then went to the local pub and danced with the locals till midnight - we had so much fun! I don't think the locals are used to so much action LOL

Edinburgh

We arrived in Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon with a couple of stops along the way from Newcastle.


First stop was at part of Hadrian's wall which is now only a few piles of rocks but was once the Roman coast to coast defence. We then drove through Northumberland national park to the Scottish border. A national park here is very different to our part of the world as its basically inhabited farmland which has been designated to be kept 'original' so has a lot of restrictions for use and building - certainly not forest and bushland!












We stopped at the official Scottish border for a piccie. When the bus pulled up we almost got rundown getting off by a wild Scotsman in a kilt who obviously saw us coming and came to play the bagpipes and pose for photos!





We then stopped at Jedburgh and Melrose, two small quaint Scottish towns for a quick look and bite to eat.

After taking the opportunity to do some clothes washing as we are here for two nights and our room has the most amazingly large towel rail to dry it all on, we ventured in to Edinburgh city on our own on public transport. The city seems very bland, lots of stone and concrete. It was a beautiful afternoon so that helped lift the drab. We had dinner at a lovely little pub - Mal had asked the barman for his recommendation on a pie and thought he had said 'steak and eel' which Mal declined - after a bit of discussion turned out he said 'steak and ale'!!









We had a bit of a walk round the city after tea then caught the bus back to the hotel. It's a bit weird as it doesn't get dark till around 11pm even though its only the start of summer and its light again around 4am!

This morning (Friday) we had a guided tour round the city and castle with the most hilarious Scottish guide. He was very quick with his puns and one liners and you really had to listen hard as his accent was thick. He wore a kilt and all the garb too. He got caught out though - he was apologizing for smelling like a wet dog as his woollen coat was damp as there was a heavy misty fog this morning. One of the older woman in the group (an ozzie) said 'you'll smell like sheep' to him - he went bright red and it took a few moments for him to realise she said 'sheep' not 'shit'! The look on his face was priceless.














Mal is currently checking out the beach round the road which is apparently gorgeous. After such a foggy start the day has turned out lovely - he was sposed to be back awhile ago - I suspect he's been having a dip or two.
We are off to a scottish show and dinner tonight - am going to give haggis a go!

York

We had another beautiful day and spent most of it in lovely York. It has lovely old buildings, part of the old city wall and a huge old church.











We broke away from the tour again and walked around on our own. Lots of shops, mix of old and new.

We took a ride on the wheel which gave lovely views of the city and beyond.

We then drove through to Newcastle our stop for the night.

London to Coventry

We started our bus tour today, a bit apprehensive about a new group of fellow travellers. There are mostly ozzies on the tour with only a handful of yanks and fellow kiwis so we are pleased about that.

Our first stop was Hampton Court palace - lovely gardens, the palace was very large but not as ornate as the palaces in Europe.




Next stop was Oxford, a city best known for its university. It has a population of 250,000 with quite a bit of industry as well. It's a very pretty town with a lot of beautiful old uni buildings. There were a lot of young people around of course - they had graduation ceremonies today as well.






We had spare time in Oxford so we sat down to a nice pub meal and beer.


Back in to the bus and off to Stratford on Avon with a short stop at the house of Anne Hathaways first - she was William Shakespeares wife. Stratford was another nice town, very quaint and the river area of the Avon was lovely with all the house boats there.











We have stopped outside of Coventry for the night. Coventry is an industrial city mostly known for being destroyed in WW2, not part of the tourist trail.

Tomorrow we spend a bit of time in York which is supposed to be lovely.

The weather was fantastic today and supposed to be the same all week!