London 8/6 - 12/6

London was lots of fun, particularly because we spent a lot of time catching up with friends from home. The first night we arrived we met up with Janet (a friend from uni) for dinner and then she took us to her favourite club for drinks. The next day we went on a tour of Lords Cricket Stadium as Janet and Andy are both big cricket fans. 

Janet and I at Lords

Entering the Mall in London

The gate at Buckingham Palace. We tried to watch the changing of the guard but it didn't work out too well. We (mainly me) couldn't see anything so after about 20 minutes we gave up and started to leave. We made it across the road to a park and then it started to rain quite heavily. We sheltered under a tree and met a couple who are from Viewbank in Melbourne.  20 minutes later we decided to run to the next station but we still got really wet. I found out later that it was Prince Phillips Birthday so perhaps that was why there seemed to be more people around than last time I went to the changing of the guard.

We saw Chicago in the West End.

Westminster Abbey

London Eye

We stayed with Andy's friend Gavin and his girlfriend Jen for two nights. They lived  a couple of stations from the Camden Markets so Andy and I spent a morning having a look around.

Lunch at the Market

Tower Bridge

St Pauls Cathedral

View of London from Primrose Hill

Liverpool 5/6 - 7/6

We had a long day of travel to get to Liverpool from Kirkwall in the Orkneys. First a flight from Kirkwall to Glasgow followed by two trains - about 10 hours door to door, although we had a long train delay so it should have been a bit quicker. We arrived at 10:30pm on a Sunday evening, and given that it was a Sunday we were a bit surprised to find the streets filled with very drunk 45-70 year olds all wearing very little clothing. I still have no idea if this is normal for a Sunday evening or not. 

The main reason we picked Liverpool to visit was for the Beatles related stuff so that filled in most of our time but we also managed to see some of the non Beatles sights.

The Docks at Liverpool

A big building. I don't remember what it is but apparently people believe that if the birds at the top ever  fall down the city will be destroyed. They are not taking any chances because each bird has multiple cables holding it in place.

World Peace Monument dedicated to John Lennon.

Penny Lane

Gates to Strawberry Field

Beatles cover band playing at the Cavern Club. These two were really good and also happened to look  quite similar to  Lennon and McCartney.

Wallace and Gromit exhibition

Taking a Ferry across the Mersey

Orkney Islands

After three great days in Skye our next main stop was the Orkney Islands. This is the furthest north that we will go on this trip and it was a long journey to get there so we had an overnight stop in Inverness on the way. The drive from Skye to Inverness was fairly uneventful. We stopped at Loch Ness on the way but both agreed that it was no better than any of the other beautiful lochs we have seen so we didn't spend money on the cruises with sonar on board (for people going monster-hunting). We returned our hire car in Inverness so the next morning we were p early to catch a bus to Thurso. The bus was running slightly late but we made it just in time to catch the ferry to Stromness on the largest of the Orkney Islands (The mainland).

Stromness

The man who ran our hostel, George, was always up for a chat and seemed to know everyone in Stromness. The next day we hired bikes from one of his mates and cycled to some of the places on the island that the buses don't go to. I was amazed at how much there was to do. We had four nights, but we could have easily stayed for two or three weeks without getting bored.

It was very very windy. Not a problem until the last 5 miles where we were riding uphill into a 20km/hr headwind.

Skara Brae, a neolithic village from about 3000 BC  which makes it older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids in Egypt.  It was amazing how well-preserved the site was.

The Ring of Brodgar - a stone circle in a henge, again older than Stonehenge. Thanks to our bikes we managed to miss the tour groups so we had the place to ourselves for a while. 

Ring of Brodgar.

Standing stones of Stenness. This is another stone circle but much smaller. There are only 5 stones left but there  used to be about twelve.

 On our second day we took Georges advice again and took a ferry to the next island, Hoy. We took a minibus to the other side of the island where we could walk to the Old Man of Hoy. The bus driver was a great character - he told lots of stories and jokes along the way. The best one was about a rock we passed that had windows and a door painted on it so that from the road (maybe 200m away) it looked exactly like a house. A few years ago some of the locals put up a B&B sign on the road and laughed at all the people who walked 200m through the heather to get to the house, only to find that it was actually a slab of rock.

View of Stromness from the Ferry.

View of Hoy from the Ferry. 

Cliffs of Hoy.

The Old Man of Hoy. The only way to get there was to walk for about an hour and a half . There were some climbers on top of the old man when we arrived.

Beach on Hoy

 Our next stop was Kirkwall, the largest town in the Orkneys.

Maeshowe, a neolithic tomb. Inside there are lots of viking carvings from when they found it. 

The Kirkwall City Pipe Band.

Scottish Highlands Part 3

This is going to be my last "Scottish Highlands" post. We spent 3 nights on the Isle of Skye and experienced almost all weather conditions from storms, mist, and light rain to sunshine and clear skies. Despite having grand plans for long hikes and mountain climbing we soon discovered that we were woefully unprepared without waterproof clothes and shoes so we settled for a few shorter walks instead.

Hills with mist

Glenbrittle beach.

View from a parking spot about 10 minutes drive from our hostel.

We stayed in a fantastic hostel called Skyewalkers. There was a bit of a starwars theme but not too over the top. Mainly it was just a really friendly hostel. The owners used to play folk music professionally and they gave a great mini concert one night. They were really good - I would have paid to see them. 

Giant chess set at the hostel

example of star wars theme

Driving in Scotland. The sheep were staring us down and weren't too keen on  letting us through.

The start of one of our walks.

River crossing. The first creek we spent about 20 minutes finding a way across without getting our feet wet. At the second one we gave up and just walked through.

Driving.

Talisker Bay.

Next stop is the Orkney Islands!

Scottish Highlands Part 2

Dunvegan Castle

When we arrived at the Isle of Skye is was too rainy to do any walks so we decided to drive to the other side of the island and check out Dunvegan Castle, which is the castle the Chiefs of the MacLeod Clan have lived in since the 13th century. Since my Mum's family are McLeods I was keen to have a look.

On the way we saw our first highland cow that was close enough to take photos of. We also saw lots of sheep, often in the middle of the road.

Nice views on the way

Dunvegan Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens

This is the image that is on all the Dunvegan Castle postcards.

and this one.

Driving back to our hostel.

There were lots of one-way roads with little passing areas like this one. If  cars are coming towards each other one has to duck in to the passing spot. Some cars seem to assume the other car will stop and just keep driving!

Another good view.

And another.