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We left Howden on Tuesday 13 March, to make our way up to Scotland. Our first stop was Goathland which is where Heartbeat was filmed. From there we went to Whitby, where Captain Cook sailed to Australia from. We finally made our way to Durham and spent our first night there.
The following morning we had a look around Durham, which is home to the 3rd largest university in England. We visited the Durham Cathedral before heading across to Hexham to see Hadrians wall. We may as well not have bothered as the part of the wall to see in Hexham was closed through the week. From Hexham we drove up along the coastline and found a little village called Alnmouth where we stayed the night at a B&B. Alnmouth is such a pretty spot with lovely beaches that reminded us of Straddie - but slightly colder!!
Thursday we went for a walk along the beach before heading up the coast further to Bamburgh. We spent a couple of hours exploring Bamburgh Castle, which belongs to the Armstrong Family. Parts of the castle are rented out for locals to live in. We stayed in Bamburgh for the night at another lovely B&B, had a few beers and wine at the local pub and a great curry for dinner. Friday we left Bamburgh to go head up to Edinburgh, but we had to make a bit of a detour on the way to pick up a new fan belt for the car - Loche noticed the fan belt was worn and needed to be replaced. As luck would have it the belt didn't arrive, so a second one was ordered which arrived around 4pm. So we arrived in Edinburgh about 6pm, a bit later than expected. On the way to Edinburgh we made a quick stop at Holy Island, which you can only drive to at low tide. The road floods at high tide. This island is apparently where Christianity was born.
Saturday we had a bit of a late start to our sight-seeing around Edinburgh as we discovered my mobile phone was missing. So the morning was spent pulling the car apart looking for it, deciding we have lost it or it has been stolen and then buying a new sim to call Optus to have our Australian sim cancelled. This took the better part of the morning and so we didn't get as much sightseeing done as hoped. Loche did a tour on the history of whiskey while Cara and I had a wander around the streets. Then we both did a tour (separately as Cara was too little to go) on the old underground streets of Edinburgh. These streets were built over a few houndred years ago but you can still take a tour through some sections of it and see how the people of Edinburgh used to live.
The following day we did a tour of Edinburgh castle then decided we'd go for a drive to find the sea and managed to get ourselves really lost ... but once we did find our way, we also found the Royal Yacht Britannia (the last of the Royal Yachts), which is permanently moored at Edinburgh for people to have a look through.
Monday morning was spent having a quick look at the Falkirk wheel - this is a famous wheel in Scotland and is used to take boats from one lock up to another. It wasn't open when we stopped in but we managed a few pics anyway. From there we headed to Stirling to look at the Willaim Wallace Monument, built in the late 1800's to celbrate William Wallace's victory over the English at Stirling Bridge. We decided we needed the walk up to the monument which stands high on a hill. Then once you get to the monument there are over 200 steps to climb, which wouldn't normally be a problem except that they were in a very narrow and steep winding staircase, which also wouldn't be a problem except when you add a two year old into the mix and then also add in people coming the other way.
Next on our itinerary was a tour of the Famous Grouse Whiskey distillery which all of us did (tho as I was driving I only had a little taste). We were quite dissapointed when the first words the tour guide said were 'the famous grouse isn't actually made here'. But we still managed to have fun.
From here we started our drive up to Inverness which was about a 3 hour trip. On this drive we spotted our first snow since we've been in the UK, though it was only in patches on the mountains.
The following day we took Cara to a play park in Inverness and she had quite a big fall off the top of one of the structures. She was a little stunned for a while but actually very lucky not to be hurt at all.
The following day we did a tour on Loch Ness (didn't see Nessie or Jess much to Loche's dissapointment) then drove over to the Isle of Skye. On the drive on the way we stopped at the Eilean Donan Castle...this is the castle that has been used in many films, including Highlander and Maid of Honour. This would have to be one of the best castles we've seen, with narrow hallways, stairwells and secret rooms. The walls are 8 foot thick. The family who own it still keep part of it for themselves to stay in when they visit and the rest you can take a tour through.
Our favourite part of Scotland would have to be the Isle of Skye - we had perfect weather when we were there and the scenery is just gorgeous. We drove around most of the island while we were there, took a tour through the Talisker distillery and went on a boat ride and saw some seals (the highlight for me). We spent 3 days on Skye and loved it.
From Skye we headed back down to Stirling (near Edinburgh) where there is a Safari Park. You can drive your car through the fields where the lions, deer, camels and rhinoceros are. As well as this they have a huge play are for the kids, a boat ride to go and see the gorillas and some little kids rides as well. Cara had such a wonderful day at the park and she fed some sheep, saw some seals, got her face painted and bought a ladybird balloon!! She was in heaven.
From Stirling we drove straight back down to Howden (after some slight detours) and arrived Monday afternoon (26 March).
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