Monday 25 May 2015

Edinburgh, we missed you!

York was a wonderful experience. We were able to drop Springy (the campervan) at the mechanics and have one of the mechanics drop us off in town and pick us up again. The Jorvik Centre was great. I had a bit of a chat with one of the re-enactors that works there about re-enactor fighting vs HEMA and the normal political things that re-enactors get up to.

I did buy a fabulous purple top hat that will go wonderfully with both my Regency and modern purple suits.
J

I walked the walls of York whilst Dee and Gene did some visual shopping. We met up, picked up Springy and set off for the next leg of our adventure.

Our next leg of our adventure was trying to fill the original gas bottles of Springy. The issue being that one bottle didn’t have the normal valve and the other backup bottle wasn’t of the ‘swap and go’ brand. We were able to ditch those 2 and get 2 that we could.

After only a little searching we found our next stop that had closed down a month previously. That wasn’t so bad as we were fairly self-sufficient. The answering machine on the number for the pub we rang was quite funny as the manger of the pub for 7 years basically told the company to get fucked.

We drove to Lindisfarne (http://www.lindisfarne.mobi/) the following day but as the tide was turning I had to race to the site, get pictures, go ‘Ohh!Ahh!’ and get back to the girls to cross the causeway before it was flooded. A beautiful place.

We drove to Edinburgh the following morning and made great time. I refueled and I don’t know whether if it was because I was tired, annoyed that Dee had told me to get her a coffee or a bit of both but I put half a tank of diesel in our unleaded Springy. About 160m down the road I realised my error and spent the rest of the day getting Springy towed, drained and refueled. We decide to push on and just go to our stay for the night which was at the Falkirk Wheel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel). Dee and I had been through Edinburgh back in 99, so it wasn’t totally devastating.

The following day we were able to meet up with one of our Australian friends in Dundee who was doing her Masters in forensic anthropology (I hope I got that right). It was great to see her again and Ash was able to walk us around Dundee.

The next day was a big day of driving through the beautiful country up to Loch Ness. Dee and Gene were patient enough to let me visit the Culloden Battlesite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden). I wasn’t prepared for the level of detail given in the site’s centre. It was an amazing experience. Dee and Gene had the opportunity to have a kip and read books.

At the Betrix Potter Garden cafĂ© (http://www.birnamarts.com/index.asp?lm=3&cookies=True), we bought a few more books, one being ‘Twilight’. I’m an unjustified critic of the series as I’ve only watch the first movie under duress. To become a justified critic, we bought the book. Gene has already read it and is disgusted in the whole thing. Please wait out for her critique on the book.

Loch Ness was wonderful. This is our 3rd trip to Scotland and we have finally reached Nessie! In the morning walked around the local area and to Castle Urquhart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urquhart_Castle). One of the locals said it was only a 20 minute walk……. I’m sure I walked 10km that morning. We didn’t go into the castle as it would have cost half our spending money for the day, so we went ‘Ohh! Ahh!’ from the road and drove south.


We’re now just 20 minutes away from the ferry terminal at Cairnryan that will take us to Northern Ireland tomorrow at 7.30am. *Insert evil laughter here about the early start for the girls* 

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