DAY 42 - Isle of Skye

This morning we jumped in “The Dentist” – destination: Isle of Skye!

After some brief map reading we got there and lazily made our way around. Business on the isle is casual as. Arts and crafts are the main type of shops about. The artists go about their work (or sit in rocking chairs) as tourists/shoppers check out their works. There were paintings (lots of watercolours), pottery, home spun wool, jewellery, photography (which were all awesome) and unfortunately many hippy styled clothes as well. Egh.

Next we decided to find Armadale castle, after taking a wrong turn, and asking some locals for direction we found it and looked though its impressive gardens and around the buildings. Our main form of entertainment was taking silly photos pretending to be wallflowers, or in a ‘boy-band photo’ where you don’t smile and just look cool ie.

It was a beautiful day, so we caught some rays on the Armadale estates finely mown lawns, and most of us ended up with midge bites!

Annoyed from the midges and hungry we decided to get back to Inverness and have a classic feed of fish & chips. Later that night after a misunderstood order at the local chippy we had £28 of dinner! It was gross, way too many pale and undercooked chips & wedges along with some scampi (which Whitey assured me was fish, it turned out to be some kind of Shrimp! I strongly dislike shrimp (Kath)). Fair enough to say dinner was an expensive disaster and we spent way too much time joking about what to do with the soggy chips - the best idea was to throw them at someone’s windscreen, leaving them with a ‘chipped windscreen’ haha. Lame joke I know, and we didn’t even do it, chips went in the bin. This day was best remembered by the beautiful scenery and crafts in Isle of Skye.

DAY 41-43 Inverness

After a very scenic drive though the Scottish Highlands we arrived at Inverness... “the city of the Highlands.” We arrived at Stury Guest House and were slightly taken-back by the Indian manager with a strong Scottish accent. We took the evening to explore some of the streets of the town and moseyed around before returning to our cosy wee house.

After a sluggish start to the day and hearing through the grape vine that Inverness was well known for its shopping, we decided to see if this was true. It might have taken a day or so to decide on exact purchases but Inverness didn’t let us down and we left with some new items of apparel and slightly heavier suitcases.

On our middle day in Inverness our explorative sides came though and with the help of the Kia Magentis (which we nick-named the ‘dentist’ due to the fact we were tired and it was the first thing that we could think of that rhymed with Magentis ), we travelled to the Isle of Skye. The winding road took us passed rugged Lochs and rolling heather-covered landscape before leading us to the Eilean Donan Castle which is home to the Macrea Clan, the castle is one of Scotland’s most photographed castles and the picture shows why, at the right angle it looks as if it sits alone in the middle of a mountain surrounded lake, with only a narrow bridge connecting it with the rest of the world

New Discovery!

Hello all

We have just discovered that we can change the settings so that anyone can comment on our blogs without having to sign up for a Gmail account - Hooray!

So therefore please feel free to comment at large...hint, hint, nudge,nudge!

We look forward to hearing your insightful and thought provoking input on our travels thus far.

Hugs and awkward rib rubs...

Love,

The Pack xo

DAY 38-40 Edinburgh

After an epic occasion like the “greatest show on earth” you would think we had reached the end of the road but Edinburgh had more for us. On the Sunday we again searched online for a church, this time clearly putting “young adult” in Google. For those concerned we did initially consider the Church of Scotland, to return to our Presbyterian roots, or as we called it “return to the mothership”. However due to our blatant failure last week in finding a church with anybody within a generation of us the judgment was made. We wandered along the road to The Rock Elim church, located in the Hilton hotel!!!! Two hours plus a pub feed later we, in true Scottish fashion, were off in search of the free walking tour.

Free walking tours are not actually free however you pay at the end of the tour how much you think it is worth. So the tour guide is really working for his money and making sure you are enjoying yourselves. Enter Seth our tour guide for the afternoon, very talented in spinning a good yarn and full of yet more interesting facts. We started halfway along on the Royal Mile in the old city. It was a fascinating 3 hours. I will not bore you with the complete tour so here are a few highlights:

(Disclaimer: these are just stories feel free to skip as they rather longwinded but interesting)

The story of Maggie Dickson. Back in the 17^th century, when it was not a good time to be a woman, Maggie got married. Her husband joined the navy and headed overseas for adventure. Poor Maggie was left at home. Her husband decided that he much preferred another lady than Maggie, in those days only the man could initiated a divorce and he was too cheap to do this so Maggie was left in the lurch. She started working in pub and fell in love with the landlord’s son. Oh dear. Technically she was still married but eventually secretly they became “an item”. She became pregnant. Scared of being found out she hid the pregnancy for 7 months unfortunately the stress of this caused the baby to be born prematurely and died. Now she had another problem, a dead baby. So she sneaked down the river in the dead of the night unable to bring herself to throw the body away she decided to bury it in the bank. Here was her mistake, she was caught and sentenced to death. Now she was not charged for having an affair, nor for the dead baby or the fact she was trying to hide the body but for hiding a pregnancy!!! At this time in Scotland this was a crime punishable by death. So in due time she was hung on the gallows. What a terrible story you cry but Maggie’s story doesn’t end here. She was put in a coffin and carted away over the cobble stones to the other end of the city to the criminals’ graveyard. Now after awhile the driver heard a faint noise. He stopped the cart and investigated the thumping which turned out to be Maggie (it is widely thought the combination of bouncing over the cobbles and the small wooden coffin resuscitated her) she was alive. Yay. Not for long they took her back to the gallows to try again. However before they could hang her someone pointed out you couldn’t punish her for the same crime twice, double jeopardy and all that. So Maggie was allowed to go all charges dropped. Not only that but she was free to marry her sweetheart as her marriage was “till death do us part” and she had technically died. There is now a pub named after her.

We also saw the grave of John “auld Jock” Grey at the Greyfriars Church. Auld Jock was the night watchman he soon decided this was too bigger job for one man so got a dog, a big huge ferocious ....Skye terrier which he named Bobby. He and Bobby were well known and loved in the city and for two years they worked together; unfortunately Jock died and was buried next to the church. Bobby was taken to the funeral and he sat next to Jocks grave for 14 years! Until he too died in 1872. Bobby was not allowed to be buried in the church grounds but just outside the gate where there now stands another pub with his name. This seems to be how they commerate people (or in this case Dogs) in Scotland. The story of lassie is supposedly based on Bobby’s devotedness and loyalty.

J K Rowlings came up a few times and some of the inspiring buildings that helped her create the masterpiece that is Harry Potter.

He ended with the epic tale of THE STONE OF DESTINY. Now held in the Castle of Edinburgh (massive building in picture below) the stone is heavily guarded with the crown jewels. It is the rock that all the kings of Scotland are crowned and it is said that where the stone lies there the Scots will rule. It has a long history but the short of it is that it was captured by the English when they conquered Scotland and was placed in Westminster Abbey. When Scotland under Robert the Bruce regained control of Scotland they asked for two things, independence and the stone of destiny back. England said no. So Scotland wrote to the Pope and he said to England they had to do it. But England stalled; eventually it was returned in 1996 it took 700 years for them to comply!!! Only once did it return briefly to Scotland and that was in the 1950’s. Four young Scot nationalists uni students get it in their heads that if the returned the stone back to Scotland this would boost their political stand. So they drove down to London on Christmas Eve in two small cars. They broke in to the Abbey between the guards shifts. Sneaking through the Abbey using lit mates as light they reached the Coronation Throne where the stone was placed under. Here was problem one. The stone had been concreted in to the base of the throne. So they took to the throne’s legs with crowbars and eventually extracted the stone. Problem two. It was much larger and heavier than they anticipated but they carefully started carrying it out of the Abbey. Unfortunately one of them sneezed and dropped the rock. It fell to the ground with an almighty crash and broke into two. Two of the group decided that was it and grabbed the smaller piece making a run for it. The other two were left to man handle the bigger piece out. Using a jacket they dragged it out and got it in to the car only to find they had dropped the car keys somewhere in the vast Abbey. They searched using the matches giving up they discovered them on the steps of the church. Getting away in the nick of time they escaped to the south hiding it in a field and covering it cleverly with some nearby rocks. They returned to Scotland to discuss with a young mason what to do. The mason was horrified that not only they had broken it but that they had left a rock that had been kept inside for 700 years out in a field. So quickly they returned to the field in Kent only to discover Gypsies had made camp over top of the rock. With some whiskey and quick talking they managed to get away with the rock and hid it as a car seat to get past the police searches on the border. The mason fixed the stone and they started showing it around at small gatherings. But this was not enough to push their political agenda so they called the police and waited to be arrested to make a big statement. The stone was quickly returned to England and they were held but never charged. The initiator of this crazy plan Ian Hamilton was there when England returned the Stone officially in 1996. It was paraded up the royal mile with a band of bagpipes playing..... (Big moment in Scotland’s history boys!)..... the tune... to Mission Impossible. Awesome.

NB Sorry for my poor attempt to relay these stories to you. Seth had a much better way with words, and the jumping up and down and arm gestures make it much better. There were more but I think this will do!

A special shout out to our cheapest and most B grade accommodation...Belford Hostel - whoop! Lets put it in simple terms... cubicle partitions instead of rooms i.e. no ceilings, unfortunately loud Columbians teenagers and drunk Poms, no shower/scalding HOT shower, boy from Canterbury via Aussie with terrible Gore jokes on reception and 4 toilets for at least 100 people, eek! You get the picture, no Duncan (Abby's brother who thinks we are just being girls about average accommodation and we need to suck it up!) we are not just being girls about it, we paid 9.50 GBP for the experience... it was pretty bad.

Ahh Edinburgh it has been fun we shall be back (but in different accommodation!)!!!

DAY 39 - The Royal Highland Show

Today was SHOW-TASTIC! Once again due to our ‘amazing organisational skills’ we found ourselves in a town the very weekend a big event was on...this time we struck the Royal Highland show! “Seek out adventure, create magical memories and discover the fun at the...Greatest show on earth”. Wow-wee were we excited, this was like Gore A&P but in mammoth proportions, it was like Christmas come early, it was like a breath of fresh air for some country girls and the ever obliging Abby.

After being good little Kiwi’s and watching the All Blacks vs Wales game over breakfast we were off for a sunny day, strolling around the show and taking in all the sights it had to offer. The classes of sheep included every breed you could imagine and some of them definitely got the wrong end of the stick when it came to ‘pretty’ genetics.

The cattle were all housed in this gigantic building and encompassed breeds from exotic to commercial, dairy to beef. The British Blue breed gave us a good laugh with their unusual muscling in the rump and the size of the Shorthorn and Hereford Bulls was very impressive.

The Highland cattle were definitely a crowd favourite - who could resist their cuteness as well as the much revered Belted Galloway.

Our non-agricultural correspondent was quite surprised at just how big the bulls were. “They were like the size of a hippopotamus or rhinoceros. ..if only Hippo's were more useful we could be farming them”...was some of her wise commentary on the subject.

Then it was onto the food hall with everything from cheese to oil and of course plenty of sweet treats in between to sample. We saw a couple of demonstrations the first being The Forge where teams of 2 were racing against each other and the clock to make horseshoes for Clydesdales from scratch. There was also a Galloway Falconry and birds of prey display, which we caught the end of and Kath even got to have Aidan the Harrier Hawk, making his debut performance, land on and take off from her hand.

The grand parade was very over-whelming for our non-agricultural correspondent who spent the majority of it ‘just resting her eyes’ as she was lulled to sleep by the hypnotic movement of cattle around the ring and the smooth British accent of the commentator. The rest of us received a visual feast of champions from Horses, ponies and donkeys to Cattle. There was even entries in the Horse and Cattle sections from Her Majesty the Queen. Oh la la! It was very impressive the number of cattle they could parade around a ring in one go.

This Hereford Bull below was named the overall Champion.

The Harperring and Silversnipe Labrador Gun Dog display had Whitey and Jess walking away with their tails between their legs after realising how lacking their respective faithful hounds are. This couple had a pack of 3 dogs each that were the most obedient dogs ever seen. They sat on command and stayed there no matter what their owner was doing or what was happening around them. They fetched the dummy that their owner wanted them too, when there was a choice between 3 AND they even fetched a dummy that had gone over their heads. Apparently the key to a good gun dog begins back at the puppy stage...so it’s back to preschool for Josie and George!

A final display that caught our attention was pole climbing. This involved two guys racing each other to the top of a 30m pole where the first person to hit the buzzer wins. The world record is held by an Aussie with 9.2 seconds and the guys we saw were managing to get close to this but not beat it. At the end of each climb the commentator gave some background on the competitors, including relationship status which was well received!

We headed back towards the shuttle buses, strolling via the machinery section at a speed probably incomprehensible to man in such a situation but with the appropriate ooh’s and aah’s when passing large gleaming tractors.

A final stop at the fudge stall had us leaving with the promised magical memories but also sweet sugar headaches as we boarded the bus back to Edinburgh.

DAY 36-37 - Newcastle

We had great expectations of Newcastle - this may have been due to some remnants of “down underness” where we expect it to get hotter the further North we go and the fact that pigs only sleep on their left side...thanks Kath for the second fact!

Newcastle is located on the East coast of England, although in our time there we didn’t make it as far as the beach.

Our home for the next two days was in a former stately house that has been transformed into a maze of passages and rooms resembling a hostel.

The man at reception was exceptionally keen to show us where everything was and explain to us the rules of the hostel , this coupled with the fact we only saw 4 other people while we were there made us wonder if perhaps new guests were a bit of a novelty.

Upon setting out for the day we asked our ever helpful reception-man what was good to see in Newcastle to which he replied not a lot but the nightlife is great! However we managed to fill in our time with checking out the city centre, including the oldest arcade in Europe where there is a 3 storey music shop which had many pianos begging to be played, hunting out supermarkets as we had a kitchen to cook in finally-hooray! and watching the All Whites (without out having to get up at a ridiculous time of the morning...muhaha!)

We also discovered that Newcastle is in fact a fib as there is no new castle but instead an old one, so we had some fun poking around there for the afternoon after checking out St Nicholas church where there was a school choir practicing.

Day 34-35 - York

The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

Sad but true I abby kerr just sat through a rousing rendition of this nursery song. I think these ladies are pretty special...

How to get to York from Cambridge weeeeellllll after carefully researching it on the internet, we planned to backtrack to the Kings Cross Station and try for a cheap last minute ticket. Oh how we learnt a lesson. Let’s just say we got to know in intimate detail the transit lounge at Kings Cross.

York is a rambling picturesque city (it has a cathedral) with a small town feel.

After our small hiccup and late arrival the night before we set out to explore what York had to offer starting with breakfast horray for supermarkets and 2 for 1 deals! We ate our lunch on the medieval city wall that surrounds the city centre. According to our informative taxi driver from the night before it is 2.5 miles long and you could walk most the way around on it if you were so inclined. We were not inclined to do so instead we delved into small alleyways containing a myriad of shops. Big ones, small ones and some some big as our head? Lots of pretty and crafty things to buy and overload our bags with so they had to stay on the self. Ultimately the plan was to locate the Shambles, as we were advised by “lovely old couple” from St Pauls to find.

Eventually we found the area with very claustrophobic streets, the upper storeys on either side of the street closing and leaning in on each other leaving a small glimpse of the summer sky between them.

We left too soon I think but we were booked to head to Newcastle, so there we headed.