Glasgow hop-on hop-off allowed us to maximise our city exploring so we spent the best part of the day looking around, including the impressive Glasgow university building that was used in part for Hogwarts, a National Trust tenement house and a general wander through the streets.
As the trip draws to a close we have decided to spend two nights in the Lakes district and two nights in Yorkshire before driving down to Manchester to catch the first flight heading back to home.
The drive down to Windermere in the Lakes was spectacular, particularly the dry stone walls that were going up hills that were seemingly impossible and stretched for miles. You had to admire the effort that had gone into their construction and I really doubt that the photos can do it justice. We have a nice little bnb for a couple of nights and there is another Tasmanian staying here! The first Tasmanian we have met in three months and we didn’t know her. She was however a retired teacher who lives in Austin’s Ferry and travelling alone so it was nice to talk about home.
We spent the day driving around the lake and took in a bit of Beatrix Potter by looking through her home and one of the properties she owned that was in original condition.
Our drive over to Pocklington was leisurely thanks to some tips from the BnB owner meaning we stayed off the motorway. The first town we stopped at was Harrogate for a wander and coffee. There were some lovely Roman Baths but not this time. Next stop Knaresborough a lovely medieval town that we stumbled across including Mother Shiptons Cave. Apparently she was a prophetess who lived in the cave and predicted the great fire of London and the end of the world when the “town bridge falls thrice” it has fallen twice already so particular attention is now paid to the current bridge that has been strengthened and is closely monitored. Adjacent to the cave was a limestone spring that has the highest mineral content in the water for all of Europe. Tradition was to hang objects under the dripping water and they were turned to stone in just three months. Hanging there today was rows of teddy bears and other interesting objects including shoes and hats. The museum next door has stone artefacts from celebrities including John Wayne’s hat that have been turned to stone.
Lunch beside the river was entertaining thanks to the small row boats you can hire. Of particular mention were the Asians who had absolutely no idea and managed to get to the other side but kept rowing forward despite the bow being up against the bank. Other honerable mention goes to the attempts made to swap seats for photos. We climbed the hill to the ruins of yet another castle to get a good photo of a nice viaduct over the river and then wandered through the town and back to the car. Would recommend this little place to anyone in the region.
Our AirBnB is 20 minutes out of York in a little town called Pocklington but a really lovely little cottage with fire, washing machine and cooking facilities - right up there with the best of them. A day in York was easily filled including a walk around the city walls, a stroll through the old alley ways of Shambles, poking your head into York Minster cathedral and a climb to Cliffords Tower. Exhausted would be a fair description of how we are feeling!
Our last day and we wake up to snow! Definitely must be time to go home..... en route to Manchester we stopped for a couple of hours at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. A lovely find and despite the weather we walked around the lake in awe of the sculptures and could easily have spent more time but it was time to get rid of the car and repack our bags ready for the early morning flight to Abu Dhabi. Bonus for us was the end of Daylight Savings so an extra hour in bed but still up at 5.30.
7 hours flight time and all went well until we were heading for the taxi....... yep we got scammed and ended up in a private taxi/limo and paid four times more than we should have but we were tired and hadn’t really done enough research or understood the conversion rate from Dirham to Aus dollars so it wasn’t until we were seated that we did the maths and realised we didn’t have enough local currency and credit card was not an option. Plan B was some Aussie dollars and then put it down to experience.
Alcohol in the United Arab Emirates is up there with Norwegian prices so we immediately regretted not buying a couple of wines on our way through the terminal.
We are both pretty tired and therefore keen for an early night 9 30 pm local time but 5.30 UK time. Slept in as we are in a resort after all. Then a leisurely breakfast and a stroll to the beach for a dip in the ocean. Having left Manchester at 6 degrees it was nice to open the door to a balmy 30 degrees. And I believe the water temperature was also 30. Back to the pool at the hotel and then off on our desert safari for some 4 wheel driving , BBQ dinner and some entertainment. The pickup was in a Toyota Landcruiser and Robyn and I were initially put over the back with some snotty nosed arrogant Hungarian 14 Year old sitting in the front seat.... At the first stop the driver was pretty keen to swap us around as my knees were up around my ears and the bloody kid had slept most of the way! He cracked the shits and wouldn’t go over the back to let Robyn in the middle but at least I was able to sit in the front for the main game- a thrilling 45 minutes playing around in the sand dunes with another 30 odd Landcruisers. Quite an adrenaline rush and heaps of fun. The dinner and show were good value and we were back in the hotel 5 hours after we left around 8.30.
A reasonably early start to day 2 just so we could fit in as much of the hop-on hop-off bus tour. The full circuit is close to 5 hours and the 24 hour pass comes in just under $100 each so we were keen to get as much in as possible. First stop was the Grand Mosque, simply stunning with the biggest dome on a Mosque in the world, one of the biggest Chandeliers in the world. 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide and over 4 million Swarovski crystal’s used in the 4 chandeliers. In keeping with the theme of bigger is better we were also treated to the worlds largest carpet (made by over 100 Iranian women and weighing 45 tons) and later in the day some rather impressive buildings including the largest building with the greatest lean (purposely constructed)
All in all it was a good tour but we would have benefited from a second day but in reality we are too buggered to even consider another 5 hours doing the circuit again. Nice dinner but at $120 for a bottle of Wolf Blass RED label we passed on the wine....
Our last day was simply a sleep in followed by a trip to the beach and then lazing around the pool.
Well that’s it 100 days of adventure. Loved our first few couple of weeks in Ireland and the great little pubs with traditional and contemporary Irish folk music, gorgeous little towns, windy roads and a few castles.
Wales was beautiful and we could have easily spent some more time in the Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and explored more of the coastline. And a few castles.
England was great to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in a long time (29 Years since I taught with Martin Allen and Mark Burks. A great week with Mike and Eilis in London. A bit of London sightseeing and a few castles.
Stunning scenery in Norway and the most incredible waterfalls, fiords, tunnels. The Hurtigruten was definitely worth the money and a bonus Aurora Borealis and wild Reindeer were two very special moments. Did I mention some castles?
Denmark will be remembered for it’s bridges, the Viking experiences. And more castles!
Sweden where we got to blow glass take in some Viking experiences including the Standing Stone Viking ship, a moose. And a castle or two!
Scotland was “Norway in widescreen “ stunning scenery, tourist drives and island experiences. The Isle of Lewis for the Standing Stones, Isle of Harris for Harris Tweed and the Isle of Sky. And yes a couple of castles including a personal favourite Doune castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Outlander were filmed.
So much in such a short time but now it is time to go home. Just a short 14 hour flight!!!! To Melbourne. Up at 6am Thursday in Abu Dhabi - 14 hours later land in Melbourne at 4:30am Friday. Then just a short wait for our flight to Hobart at 8:25am. Think there will be a little catch up sleep required at some point.
A fabulous adventure seeing so many amazing things but looking forward to getting home and seeing friends and family and of course sleeping in our own bed.
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