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Since we last blogged, we have adventured our way down from Scotland through England to the town of Diss. We are visting Brenda's cousin Mark and his lovely new wife Iwona, who are kindly letting us stay with them.
So starting back with Sunday 21st of August, we caught the train to Glasgow and found our accomodation. Monday morning Brenda headed up to Loch Lommond while Sam remained in Glasgow. While Brenda caught lamphrey and tiny frogs, Sam wandered around Glasgow, passing the time. Glasgow is a very industrial city with lots of shops but really doesn't need two days to explore the city centre. Once Brenda came back, we headed to Edinburgh which was a vibrant and pretty city with the castle on a hill overlooking the rest of the city. It was packed with people as the Fringe festival, biggest art festival in the world, was on. We found accomodation half an hour bus ride out of town and then wandered the streets. We visited a really good art museum and saw a couple of street shows - a contortionist/gymnast and a tightrope walker. We had a beer at a good local pub and then headed out to the suburbs where our accomodation was (another pub!).
Next was a place called Newton Stewart which meant a bus to Glasgow followed by a train to Dumfries and a hotel for the night. We caught the bus to Newton Stewart and Brenda met some fishery girls and went fishing with them while Sam did some exploring. Then it was back on the bus to Dumfries to catch the train to Newcastle where we had booked to stay the night!
Saturday morning we jumped on the train to Durham, we wanted to go to York but there was no accomodation available as it was a bank holiday weekend. There was a small festival on with some good acts and we also visited the cathedral which was amazing (also they shot part of Harry Potter there).
Sunday morning was a train trip to York which is a really amazing city. The YHA was a fair way out of the centre but was a good excuse to explore. We had a look at Yorkminster which was amazing, the Shambles (famous street), walked the city wall and of course, visited the local brewery!
Monday was Sam's UK birthday and ironically the National Train Museum was in York. We spent a good portion of the morning there - Brenda even it found it a bit interesting! Then off on a train to Buxton via Manchester. Mexican for dinner and a night in a B&B.
Sam really wanted to visit the Buxton Brewery on his birthday but settled for Tuesday instead. After a series of adventures including missing the bus stop, navigating a non-existant public footpath, and getting lost in an industrial estate, we found the brewery! JK the brewer was a really nice guy (friend of a friend) and kindly let us try a bunch of his fantastic beers. Then we stumbled through some paddocks on a shortcut back to town.
We got a bus to a YHA in the middle of nowhere which was awesome. Brenda fell in love with the place pretty much straight away. It was limestone country, kind of like Waitomo, with rocks and cliffs everywhere, as well as lots of trees. We walked along the river to a couple of old mills. Expecting ruins we could explore, we were surprised that the mills had been converted in to luxury apartments! Crossing the river, we met up with a walking/cycleway that follows an old railway line for 8.5 miles. We didn't have time to walk much of it but the part we did do was great, with gigantic long tunnels that were fully lit.
Wednesday was another of those awful travel days. We caught a bus from the YHA at 8am back to Buxton, followed by a bus to Nottingham, coach to Peterborough and coach to Norwich. We really should have checked with Mark where he lived - turns out he lives near Diss, half an hours drive from Norich! So some lucky wifi and a Facebook chat in Maccas led to a train to Diss and Mark kindly picked us up! Chatted for a few hours with some drinks and then was time for bed!
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