London- Toronto-Winnipeg- Bed!

We got up at 5am to leave our hotel in London and grab a taxi to the train station to catch the Gatwick Express train to the Gatwick airport. Our plane didn't leave until 11:45am, but the airline wanted us there three hours prior to the gate opening.

The plane ride to Toronto took 7 hours, and I felt rather defeated when we arrived in Toronto to find it was only 1:30 in the afternoon! How is it possible that we've been up and moving for 10 hours and it's only early afternoon!

Our layover in Toronto was three hours, but it went by rather quickly. We slept for most of the plane ride to Winnipeg, and were relived to finally land at the Winnipeg airport. Luckily my dad was at the airport to give us a ride home, because we were exhausted, having just lived through a 20hr travel day.

When we arrived home we petted the cats, and marveled at how much fur two cats can shed in three weeks! We had to strip and remake the bed before we could get into, as the cats had clearly made themselves at home!
We crashed right away, and had a good six hours sleep before our UK internal clock woke us up. Taking advantage of the wakefulness, Liam and I were awake, unpacking and cleaning the house at 4am!

Thanks to everyone for watching the house, petting the cats and swimming in the pool while we were away. Special thanks to my Pops for scooping the litter boxes, and leaving us a few snacks in the fridge!

Look below at all the souvenirs we brought back! This is why we needed another suitcase. Look closely and you'll probably spot something we brought back for you!!

Day 18- Last full day in London

We had one more full day left to explore London, so we got up early to try to make the most of it. Our first stop was the half price tickets booth in Leicester Square. We were torn between seeing the musical Wicked, or We Will Rock You. I thought that We Will Rock You would be s better fit for both if us, as we both like the music of Queen.

Next, we went to see 221b Baker Street to see the fictional residence of Sherlock Holmes. Liam had what we calls a "Mona Lisa Moment" wherein he arrives at an attraction realizes that in his vision of visiting said attraction he forgets to factor in the hordes of other tourists. Needless to say we zipped up and down the three floored Victorian house quite quickly.

Next we popped in the Globe theatre. We had also visited the Globe the last time we were in London, but enjoyed in immensely, and decided to give it a revisit. Once again we throw ought enjoyed our tour, and I did some shopping damage in the gift shop, because really, there's nothing more stylish that a blood covered 'out damned spot t- shirt'!

Following our tour of the Globe, we wandered over the mile noun foot bridge and into the Tate Art Museum, where it didn't take long for Liam and I to realize that we aren't really art gallery people. So, we found a Starbucks near the St. Paul'a Cathedral, did some people watching and headed back to the room to up before going to the threaten that night.

That evening Liam and I thoroughly enjoyed watching ' We Will Rock You'. It'a not often you view a musical set in the future, and I enjoyed the surprise of watching various Queen songs being integrated into the plot line. Our half price tickets were great seats, and Liam and think we may have a London Theater trip in our future.

All in all a great two days in London, but I miss my cats and my bed. I don't look forward to the 20 hr travel day that tomorrow holds, but I know I have a soft bed, loving cats, a massage a and a pedicure appoint awaiting me a at home.

Day 16 & 17- London

Day 16- Saturday Evening

After a four hour train ride, we arrived in London's King's Cross Station. We collected our baggage from the last train in the cart, and dashed out into the rain to find a taxi. Our first stop in London was our hotel, to drop off our luggage.

It was around six in the evening, but given that we'd spent most of the day sitting in a train, we decided to stretch our legs and explore the city. First we located the nearest Starbucks and then with Chai Latte in hand we headed up to the Tower Bridge area.

The last time we were in London (6 years ago) we rode the London Eye. I wanted to ride it again, but at night so we could see the lights of London. We bought tickets for the 8:30 ride on the eye, and bought tickets to ride the water cruise in the mean time. It's always nice to see the city from the water perspective, especially given how important the river Thames was to the development of London. Once the river cruise was done, we grabbed a quick dinner and then headed to the eye. Seeing Lindon at night reminded me about the vastness of the city, it seemed that the lights stretched forever in all directions. Once our ride was over, we jumped in a taxi and headed back to the hotel for the evening.

Day 17- Sunday

Last night on our way up to our room, we noticed the hotel offering a bus tour to Stonehenge. Given that neither of us has seen Stonehenge, and Sunday was supposed to be a relatively sunny day, we booked two tickets.

The tour bus to Stonehenge pickup us up promptly at 11:45am Sunday morning and two hours later dropped us off in the parking lot at Stonehenge. We had an hour and a half to explore the stones, and return to the bus to head back to the city. The rocks at Stonehenge were amazing, but the visitor's centre and other facilities were undersized and poorly designed for a World Heritage site. We've seen a lot of attractions in the last three weeks and comparatively, the facilities at Stonehenge were inadequate to say the least. The lines for the restrooms were quite long, waiting to use three stalls, three sinks, one operational soap dispenser and a weak hand dryer. Not good for a site that pumped through 15-20 tour buses, and over a hundred cars in the hour and a half we were there! The good news is, that there are plans in the works for a new visitor's centre just a mile up the road, with land trains bringing the tourists into see the rocks themselves. A vast improvement over the run down facilities, and farm field parking they have now! Maybe we'll come back in a few years to see the changes?!

The bus dropped us off at Victoria Station in London, and we bought subway passes in preparation of the local sight seeing we will be doing tomorrow, before flying out if London on Tuesday morning.

Day 16-Last Day in Edinburgh

We were up around 7:30am to leave North Queensferry to travel over the bridge and into Edinburgh.  As a pleasant side note for all you Corrie fans out there, they show an episode at 7:00 am every morning, and then repeat it that evening at 7:00pm.  So when the schedual and TV reception permitted I tried to catch as many episodes as possible.  It seems that the CBC is doing a bang up job catching Canada up to the episodes being released here in the UK, and I was able to fall into the plot without too much difficulty (spoiler: poor Tyrone) But, I digress . . . We were up early to beat the traffic into Edinburgh to return Clyde.  After our navigation "issues" yesterday trying to find the local ASDA, we came armed with maps in both paper and Google form. While traffic was heavy, and we were headed into the tourist-y part of the city, we successfully found our way to the restaraunt we had to return Clyde to.  I must admit I was a little sad to see him go, but I was glad Liam didn't have to endure  the stress of driving with every limb and ounce of strength in his body.

For our last day (and night) in Edinburgh we splurged and stayed at a Mercure hotel, right on Princes Street.  From our hotel room we could see into Scott Monument, and up to Edinburgh Castle.  It was a lovely view, and we could actually see the people climbing the monument and we didn't have to do the climbing at all! I was done with climbing after the 246 steps of the Wallace Monument, especially when I found out that the Scott monument was about 40 steps more than the Wallace.

We spend the last day in Edinburgh visiting the things we couldn't squeeze in when we were here a couple weeks ago: the Camera Obscura, and Mary King's Close, and in the evening the Royal Military Tattoo.  Camera Obscura is an amazing, 360  degree set of mirrors, set on the roof of a building that somehow reflects a panoramic view of the city into a darkened room inside the building.  The Camera Obscura also features a bunch of optical illusion type of exhibitions, with things like a hall of mirrors and holographic photos. Mary King's Close is a medieval village, under the cobbles of High Street, that used to be street level.  Way back when,  the powers that be decided that they would kick out all of the people, and use their houses as the foundations for bigger houses, and better roads.  So now all these abandoned homes and streets are hiding beneath the ground.  It was an interesting tour, but Liam and I had a few questions about the authenticity of a few parts of the exhibition.

That evening we headed back up to High Street, to Edinburgh Castle to watch the Tattoo.  The show was fantastic, and Liam and I were particularly impressed with the drumline from Basil, Switzerland, and the James Bond finale of the show.

As I type this, I am sitting on a train, whizzing past the countryside of Scotland, headed for London for a last few days of touring before flying back home. Liam, in typical Liam fashion, is already planning out our next trips to Scotland, Europe, and DisneyWorld.  He hopes to follow in the footsteps of his Grandparents and take some of his beloved nephews and niece, on some future trips.  I on the other hand look forward to getting home to see my cats, and hope to catch a few last days of suntanning, before heading back into school to prepare for the upcoming school year.    

Day 15- Sharks and Suitcases

After spending a lovely two evenings in our campsite in Stirling, we decided it was time to head back to Edinburgh to hand back Cylde's keys.  We still had a few things left to do before the official hand over, one of which was to visit Deep Sea World in North Queensferry, just over the bridge before Edinburgh.  We toured around the aquarium and were surprised to note how quiet the attraction was, then we remembered that most Scottish school children had already gone back to school.  Apparently school started last week for most of Scotland's children.  Deep Sea World as an interesting place, that featured "one of Europe's longest underwater tunnels".  The tunnel had a moving side walk, designed to keep people moving along at a sufficient pace, but I think it also double as whale translator,because the moaning and screeching noises it made were horrendous!

Once done at the aquarium we thought the North Queensferry was a great placed to set up for the night before we journey back into Edinburgh. There were two reasons for this:

1) We had accumulated far more souvenirs that our suitcase had space for. If we were to get it all home, we were going to need to buy a second suitcase!
2) We had to be strategic about when we were going to drive into Edinburgh.  We wanted to avoid rush hours times.

So we checked into a local Inn at the foot of the bridge  and went out in search of an ASDA ( the UK branch of Walmart) to find a suitcase.  I won't scandalize you with the sordid details of that journey, but lets just say that a journey that was only a few miles long, turned into an epic maze of wrongly followed roundabouts!      

After all that, we were ready for a meal and bed, so that's exactly what we did!  We set the alarm for an early rise tomorrow into the city, and steeled ourselves for what driving in a major European city would entail.

Day 13 & 14 - Nessy, a Stone & Wallace

Day 13- Waking up to a sunny morning we headed out to visit Castle Urquhart from land. Unlike the other ruined castles you could climb up to different levels which was nice. Being scared off by the bus loads of French & German tourists, we headed to Inverness in search of the Ness handbag store. Honestly, I was hoping the store was as hard to find as the Ness monster because I didn't want to shop. But eagle eye Tara spotted the store and a Starbucks from a mile away. After picking out the perfect purse, we stopped at the Starbucks for tea.

Leaving Inverness we headed to Old Scone to visit the Stone of Destiny where the kings of Scotland would get crowned. Arriving at the Palace of Scone I saw a gentleman with some all terrain Segways and within minutes Tara and I were touring the Palace gardens upon Segways, it was great fun. The Palace was nice and interestingly still being lived as it was privately owned.
We arrived in Perth late. As it was raining, we looked for a hotel, having no luck we chose to head to Stirling. After 30mins in Stirling and never seeing a single hotel. We decided to we start following the "i" signs leading us to the information centre. We found our selves heading up a hill, towards Stirling Castle, with no first gear. That was a challenging drive! We got to the tourist info booth only to discover that it was closed. Stressed I spotted the golden M and headed in for some stress relieving food and free wifi. We found a campground on the net, and followed the directions provided. Again it had great views including Wallace Monument.
Day 14- Given the long and stressful driving day yesterday, Tara and I (mostly Tara) chose to make today a light no driving day. We took the bus to Wallace Monument, had breakfast and 246 steps later we were at the top. Heading into Stirling we visited the castle and walked around old town. We chose to try cooking in Clyde for the first time when we came along $1 frozen Pizzas. With groceries in hand we headed back to Clyde via Taxi which was cheaper than the bus fare. An afternoon filled with napping, scrap booking, Tv watching, great views equalled relaxation. That evening we cooked in Clyde, and all went well. $1 pizza were very good :) I (Liam) took up the blog as Tara was busy scrap booking, cleaning and general amazing wife stuff.

Day 12- Breakfast with Canadians

After spending a lovely evening in Oban, we awoke refreshed and ready to roll. We headed up to the Scottish SeaLife Sanctuary, and had the pleasure of having breakfast with two fellow Canadians. Named Lewis and Isla, they were Canadian River Otters who lived in the sanctuary! After watching those two scamper about for a while, we headed over to the aquarium and saw all sorts of creatures including Albino cave frogs, and a turtle/snake hybrid.

Next stop was Glencoe Visitors Centre, and the beautiful Craig vistas it offered. We stopped to have lunch and then started on the road for our final destination, Fort Augustus and the Loch Ness.

The plethora of people and tour buses, made it easy to identify that we had arrived in Fort Augustus. There was a hive of activity around a Kiosk that gave boat tours of the loch, so we headed over hoping to book a spot for the next day. As luck would have it, there were two spots available on the SPEEDBOAT tour!!! So we forked over some cash and then we were promptly directed to the boathouse to be attired for the ride. When our Captain handed us full on, one piece, winter snowsuits, Liam and I looked at each other and laughed! Total overkill right? We dressed and headed down to the boat, snagging two spots in the prime, front row location. As we putted down the canal leading to the loch Ness, we realized that it was going to be a wet ride in more than one way, as it started to rain! When we reached the Loch the captain opened up the motor and before long we were cruising along at 40 mph all the while being pelted by speeding raindrops. I soon recanted my original scoff at the snowsuits, and wished I had mittens and a toque. We travelled quite a ways down the loch, stopping at the Urquhart Castle before turning to return home. By the time we returned to the dock, I hand lost feelings in my hands and feet, and the rain had gotten worse! We regrettably had to return our snowsuits, and dashed to nearby pizzeria for some warmth and dinner.

After dinner we returned to our campsite, and planned for tomorrows trip up the loch to Inverness.

Day 11- The Road to Castle Lachlan. . .

We awoke early on Aaron, knowing we had two ferry rides and quite a bit of driving to do today. Two water crossings later we were on the road to castle Lachlan.

I don't know if the Lachlan clan was too cheap to pay it's taxes . . . But the road to castle Lachlan was NOT paved in gold, in fact it was barely paved at all! It was one lane, shared by both directions of traffic, with the occasional lay-by to sort out any "traffic jams" that came up.There we're a few white knuckle moments, but Liam'a superb driving skills assured that we arrived safe and sound.

The castle itself was located across the glen from the parking lot. Despite the fact we've seen virtually no rain, the path to the castle was damp and muddy. Like castle Fatlips, castle Lachlan was a ruin. It proved to have a unique layout though, featuring a exposed inner courtyard, with a covered walkway connecting the two wings of the castle. We explored the castle and took photos before heading back to the van and driving up to Oban.

Between the wet and skinny roads on the Isle of Arron, and the derelict road to castle Lachlan, it was a relief to get on the highway up to Oban. We arrived in Oban around five in the evening and wandered the main road popping I to hotels to check prices. Process of elimination left us with a historic looking hotel on the waterfront esplanade. We were unsure what type if room we would end upon, but we were pleasantly surprised by a modern room, located in the turret, with views of the water. We walked the main street before grabbing supper at a seafood restaurant (Liam's had fish and chips for dinner, every night for the last four days!) and heading to the room the go to bed.

Tomorrow we head up to the Loch Ness area, looking for Nessie the monster, and Nessie the company that designs great tweed purses. Hopefully we find both!

Day 8- Oops forgot to post!

Waking up in Gretna we decided to do the "tourist" thing and go visit the Anvil. We took the usual pics if us banging the anvil, and then we hit the road and headed up the coast stopping briefly in Kirkcudbright to visit MacLellan castle and have a late lunch.

Our camping spot for that evening was just up the way from Kirkcudbright, in a lovely campground attached to the Culzean Castle (the z is silent apparently) We toured the castle and it's grounds before heading back to Clyde and going to bed!

Tomorrow we head up to Ardrossen to catch the ferry to Arron.