Twickenham

Sam and I met Andy and Sophie at the train station and went and watched the Crusaders beat the Sharks at Twickenham stadium, a special super 15 game due to the earthquake in Christchurch.

London

On the way back from the Olympic Park we visited Mudchute Farm, a very cute farm in the middle of London. Sam thought it was very amusing. We also stopped off at Greenwich which has beautiful parks (with squirrels) and the royal observatory which is where the east and west time zone meets. We had a lovely dinner with Pat and Dave and back to their house for some Beetles Rock Band.

Olympic Park

We did a really good 2 hour walking tour of the 2012 Olympic Park London. Really neat to see the buildings being constructed. They have a massive attempt to clean up that area of London. They had to clean 1million tonne of soil so it was free from polution.

Pat and Dave's

We had a lovely visit to Pat and Daves house in Hextable. Pat spoilt us with a massive pavlova for pudding!! The bottom photos are the amazing views from Paul's (Pat and Daves son) appartment in Lewisham.

Segway

For Christmas I brought Sam a segway rally voucher. We went to a course near stratford and had great fun racing around the rally track. Sam won the race out of 6 people!!

Stratford upon Avon

On the way back down from Scotland, we visited Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeares town. It is a lovely town with neat canals and buildings. The spring blossum is out too. We stayed at camping grounds near town.

Stirling

Our last stop in Scotland was Stirling, home to the Stirling Castle. We stayed at a good hostel in town and had a look around the city. The castle is perched on a rock face. We had a great tour around the castle. The highlight was seeing the tapestry being made as part of a 40 year restoration project which is due to finish in June this year. Saw the Wallace Monument from a distance

Murray Castle

We carried on our journey to the Blair Atholl village, home to the Blair Castle. The castle sits upon 108 sq miles of land and is the seat of the Duke of Atholl who is head of the Murray Clan. The Castle is open to the public but only on certain days so we couldn't go inside. The castle has has extensive remodelling since it was first built in 1269.

Aberdeen

Aberdeen was an intersting city as all the buildings are built out of a grey Granite. The quarry the granite came from used to be the largest man made hole in the world. We also visited the maritime museum.

Leslie Castle

Today we visited the Leslie Castle which is located in the Leslie Village. The castle has been restored byDavid and leslie leslie (in 3rd picture) from ruins. It took them 8 years and they even attended classes to learn how everything would have been. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside because it has now been sold to a German couple who only spend 7 weeks a year there.

Aberlour on Speyside

This is the walkers shortbread factory and the famous shop full of yummy shortbread. We drove through the Whisky capital which is home to 6 distillarys and found some lovely cows too!!

Loch Ness

Today we went to Loch Ness in search for the Nessie, the very famous Loch Ness monster. We didn't see her today, however we did visit the Exibition centre. For lunch went to Inverness. A lovely city with a massive river running through the centre. For the evening we stayed at Aberlour on Spey and enjoyed a lovely pub meal for dinner. This town is well known for the walkers shortbread factory.

Isle Of Skye

Big day of travelling today. From Glasgow we headed to Oban, a small seaside village where Sam enjoyed some huge pancakes. Drove through some massive mountains with snow on, neat waterfalls and lakes. Our next stop was Glencoe and then Fort William. We made our way towards the Isle of Sky, past the Eilean Duich Castle. We crossed the bridge which connects the mainland to the island. It did become quite stormy and wet. Stayed at Portree for the night.

Glasgow

We took our car on the ferry from Belfast to Stranraer in southern Scotland. We began our Scotland journey driving along the west coast. Had a nice hostel close to the Glasgow city centre. We had a good wander around the city. Was very impressed with Glasgow, lovely buildings and shopping. We did get really lost that evening trying to find way back to the hostel.

Belfast

Northern Ireland

We visited the Giant Causeway this morning, a very impressive formation of rocks due to volcanic eruptions 1000'2 of years ago. Just along the coast was the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge which is situated 30m above the water and crosses to a small Island. It was built by fishermen so they could catch migrating salmon.

Skerries Mills

We left Dublin this morning and headed up the east coast to Skerries, well known for its Mills. Here we had a really good guided tour and even went up inside one of the mills. We then drove to Northern Ireland passing through Drogheda and Dundalk. Next we passed through the county of Londonderry with awesome scenery and then along the northern coast to Coleraine.