Pitlochry Highland Games

The day after we returned the van the Highland Games were on in Pitlochry. It was one of the last of the season. This was my first Highland Games and I was mostly looking forward to the heavy weights – men in kilts throwing funny things. It was so hot it made me feel at home.

This was the first thing we saw as we came into the games. Just before the referendum it was absolutely everywhere.

Highland Dancing. Apparently this one is supposed to represent "the antics of a courting stag o a Scottish hillside"

Sailor's Hornpipe - apparently it's not a Scottish dance but it's been at the games for a long time. 

Putting the Stone

Throwing the Weight for a Distance

Throwing the Hammer

Tossing the Caber. Not many people could actually do this. You have to completely flip the caber over so it lands straight. It has nothing to do with distance.

The longest tug-o-war I've ever watched. It's best out of three and the first round went for about 20 minutes with literally  no-one moving. We gave up after the first round. 

And I included this one just because. The guy had just thrown a caber.

England - Part 3 (The Midlands and South)

Due to all the caravan parks in Bath being seemingly full we ended up spending a night in Glastonbury, a nice surprise. We didn’t spend much time there but it had an interesting vibe. I’m not sure how one town can support so many crystal shops, but I enjoyed the street art.

In the same day we did a loop past Stonehenge. This brought up different feelings. At the start you’re thinking “I just paid £15 to stare at some rocks with a bunch of other idiots”. But once you’ve read a bit about it and had time to explore the nearby exhibition you feel somewhat better about it as you’ve now learned something.

After Stonehenge we spent the next day exploring Bath. Bath is another great town, very beautiful. We saw all the sights: The Roman Baths, The Abbey, The Circus, The Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge. I think it’s a nice mix of old and new. The Roman Baths are definitely worth the visit, it made us both keen to try a Turkish Bath out.

 The baths were originally covered by a 20m high roof, but since the roof is no longer there the bath water is green. You can see the abbey in the background. 

A golden head of Minerva (the Roman Goddess of Wisdom) in the Roman Baths. She was the main Goddess of the baths.

Pulteney Bridge

The Abbey - I think it's my favourtie Abbey so far

The Circus - a circle of appartments

The Royal Crescent - A semi circle of appartments

There was always a hot air balloon hanging around

We now had to start making our way back up North. On the way up we decided to check out Oxford. It was a pretty interesting town. Lots of great architecture, some Harry Potter film sets (they filmed the dining hall in the Christ Church building), history (sooooo many people have been to university there, including Mr Bean) and home to the Oxford English Dictionary. I was expecting to see just one grand University but turns out Oxford University is made up of a few different colleges and buildings that are integrated into the town. There is no Oxford University Campus per say. This is pretty much the first thing they tell you when you get on the tour bus so I’m not the only one who thought it.

Some of the fun architecture around

Christ Church

We had a night in Rugby (yep, home of the sport) to visit more friends. I got to chase squirrels around a grave yard.

Then we had to travel further north to give the van back. Vanning it was fun but definitely ready to be sleeping in some real beds again. Somehow we managed to complete our trip with not a drop of rain. A very special thanks to everyone who hosted us during this mini trip. We’ll pay you back when you come to Australia. 

England - Part 2 (Carnies, The Beatles, Manchester United and Shakespeare)

Southport

After the Lake District we picked a random place to stop for the next night. This ended up being Southport because I thought it would be nice to see something on the coast. I had no idea what it was. I’ve never seen a town like Southport before, it’s a permanent carnival. There’s a pretty cool massive board walk that stretches from in town to out to sea (it is so big a tram runs from one end to the other). There’s also a permanent indoor carnival thing going on, with permanent fairy floss stands as you walk into town. There was also a mini theme park along the beach which we sadly didn’t get to check out. It all seemed pretty weird to me but Alex assured me it was a very British thing.

I maybe saw my first Banksy in Southport?

Liverpool

After visiting Southport we were so close to Liverpool we thought “Why not?” I didn’t have high hopes for Liverpool after having worked in Liverpool, Sydney for 3 months (don’t visit this Liverpool), but turns out Liverpool, UK is actually a pretty cool city (do visit this Liverpool). There was a temporary Zip Line going through the middle of the city centre, so we got to watch people in the business attire zooming through the air. We hung out in the Cavern Club (the most famous club in the world, home of The Beatles) and the modernised docks.

Manchester

After a morning in Liverpool we headed straight for Manchester, which left us only with enough time to visit Old Trafford, the Manchester United stadium. We had a drink, went to the museum and took a tour of the stadium. Alex is a big Manchester United fan so this was a dream come true for him.

Warwick, Royal Leamington Spa and Stratford-on-Avon

During a visit to one of Alex’s friends in Warwick we went to a Food Festival in Royal Leamington Spa (It’s pretty much joined with Warwick as is the case with many cities here and is possibly the poshest sounding town ever). I had the delight of trying Zebra for the first time (it just tasted like a normal beef burger).

After this quick visit we stopped in at Stratford-on-Avon, the home of Shakespeare. It is a nice little town. I was able to try butter beer there for the first time and I am happy to report it was tasty!

England – Part 1 (Hadrian’s Wall and the Lake District)

We decided to rent a van. A Wicked van. They’re everywhere in Australia but you don’t see that much of them in the UK. The van gets a lot of interest, from people slyly taking photos, to boldly take photos to people pointing and yelling “Wicked Camper!” in an English accent.

The Wicked Van

We have the van for 12 days, starting and finishing in Edinburgh and plan to do a loop in England, hopefully getting pretty close to the bottom of it.

Our first night’s destination was a little caravan park on a farm just outside Carlisle so we could start exploring Hadrian’s Wall first thing the next day.

A quick summary of Hadrian’s Wall: it was built by the Romans as a defence against the Scots. It stretched across the whole width of the country and lasted for about 300 years. Eventually the Roman Empire fell and so did the wall. It ended up being looted by local churches to build their cathedrals. Now it’s pretty much just Roman Ruins.

We started off checking out Lanercost Priory. A looooooong time ago it was the capital of England when the King Edward I fell ill there just before he died. It’s basically a nice old church. They still have services there. It doesn’t actually have anything to do with Hadrian’s Wall but was often attacked due to its close proximity.

Lanercost Priory

The Prayer Book inside

Off to Hadrian’s Wall. There are huge chunks of it missing so parts of the wall are just dotted across England. We visited Birdoswald Fort where about 1000 Romans once lived. Strangely there’s now a hostel there in an old farm house (as well as a museum, which isn't so strange).

The First part of the wall we found - an old turret along the side of the road

What Remains of Birdoswald Fort

Next we headed off to the Lake District for a couple of days. The Lake District is a national park in North England that, not surprisingly, is full of lakes, England’s biggest lakes. We soaked up the views from Ullswater and Windermere. Stayed at a caravan park that was infested with adorable rabbits (I’ve never seen so many rabbits!) and went on an awesome high ropes course. We had luckily missed the peak season with most school holidays the being over, but Windermere was still heaving with everyone who doesn’t have to go to school and their dogs.

Ullswater Lake

Ullswater Lake (This photo and the one above were actually taken within minutes of each other)

Waterfall near Ullswater

Bunnies!

Lake Windermere

Has a crazy amount of birds! Fun Fact I learnt - only the Queen is allowed to kill swans, because they're the royal bird.

In and Around Montrose

For the last week we've been hanging out in Montrose and visiting the local country side and townships.

First time either of us saw a charge area for electric cars was in Montrose

We visited the beach at Auchmithie 

Went for a walk along the St Cyrus beach, found a cool little cave and jelly fish.

There was a crazy amount of dead crabs along this beach, so I had to make a crab out of crabs.

There were little abandoned houses along the coast that fishermen used to stay in. This is the fireplace from inside one.

At the end of the walk we came across an old graveyard. There's a local poet buried here.  He had a crush on a girl who rejected him, he then pretty much instantly shot himself in the head. There was also a little house in the corner of the graveyard where a caretaker used to live. The graveyard needed constant watch due to body snatchers.

Found this bone just outside one of the graves. I think the rabbits are are working with Zombies.

This is the Montrose Steeple. You can pretty much see it from anywhere in town.

This is Fasque House, owned by the Glastone Family. (It was sold 5 years ago and it now used for weddings and things, but some of the estate is still owned by the Gladstone Family). William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister that Gladstone Queensland is named after, used to live here.

We saw a beautiful peacock in the car park

And they let us take some photos out the front even though they were preparing for a wedding. 

We went for a drive to Aberlemno and saw these stones that were worked by the Picts (local tribe of people) between the 7th and 9th Century. Harley Davidson is also from this area. We think we drove past his house but we couldn't see a plaque.