Three busy days of touring the First World War battlefields. Tuesday morning I had a mildly thrilling ride on the Eurostar from London to Lille in France. Boy does that thing fly! My tour operator are a Belgian couple who also run a B&B on the outskirts of Ypres. That building had been partly blown up by the Germans in WW1, but is of course in better conditon now. Travelling around in Mercedes 8 seaters we have covered many of the important sites around...

A dreary drive today through overcast and drizzly conditions from Yorkshire to Warwickshire. I drove through Groathland this morning, which is 'Heartbeat's' Aidensfield. I easily spotted the pub and the garage from the show and the seat and monument in the park that feature in the opening credits! It was drizzling and people were flocking in taking photos, I suppose it is Sunday. I stayed in the car. Yesterday I was in Whitby, a picturesque fishing centre an...

The weather has improved a bit the last couple of days, so that it's only fairly miserable. I was glad to get out of Edinburgh and back into the country, traveling south through coastal Northumbria. I stopped off for a few hours at Holy Island to wander over to Lindisfarne Castle and then check out the old abbey ruins. It's referred to as an island because tidal flows regularly cover the access causeway, which is something tourists have to keep an eye on. Th...

Today was a great day for me, wandering about downtown Edinburgh and then up to Edinburgh Castle. The day started nicely. I stumbled upon an Australian pub showing State of Origin live - Queenslander!! There were a lot of cockroaches there, which I realized when the Blues scored their first try. Bad luck boys and girls! There are a lot of spectacular historic buildings but they look like they need a good clean. Lots of people of all countries and languages...

Today has been a quiet day for me in Edinburgh. Yesterday's high winds across the UK caused a fair bit of damage and power outages which are in the news today. The Forth River Bridge was closed to all traffic yesterday due to the high wind hazard. There's more volcanic ash circulating over Scotland at the moment and a few hundred people spent the night at Edinburgh Airport. The Scottish accent is great to listen to but a bit wild to come to grips with. A...