Back in Bath

After getting back safe and sound from Liverpool, we settled down for a day of chilaxing in Cambridge. Unfortunatley for me, I chilaxed too much, and didn't quite keep an eye on my purse, which got taken out of my bag. Luckily enough for me they didn't take my whole bag otherwise I would have had literally nothing! But after a few tears and a mini tantrum I was fine and wasn't going to let it ruin the night of Pimm's cocktails that May, Mum and I were having.



The next day we packed up the wee hire car (again!) and May, Mum, Matt and I headed down to Cornwall. Temperatures hit 31 degrees outside while we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. So the drive was taking much longer than we had anticipated. We reached Bath and decided to call it a day. Neither May nor Mum had been to Bath and Matt and I had loved it the first time, so we decided to cancel Cornwall. The weather was beautiful and we were lucky enough to find accommodation (but not after making about 10 phone calls, each one getting more and more desperate!). Totally lucky in the end.



On our first night we decided to head out to a Nepalese restaurant and were greeted by a young Australian guy from Albion. North side vs. south side jabs commenced, but it was great to hear another Australian voice in a place where we weren't expecting it. The meal was fantastic and we were able to sit in a cul de sac of an outdoor garden and make as much noise as we wanted!



The next morning we headed out to Avebury (Matt and I had visited Avebury on our last trip, but again, it was so lovely we just had to do it again with May and Mum). Avebury is a much larger and more magnificent Stonehenge and you can actually walk amongst the stones and touch them without having to pay an entry fee (unliked Stonehenge). The drive to and from Avebury was lovely and we saw two of the white horses painted into the hills. Cool. We decided to be tourists in the arvo and hit the open top bus for a tour. And that evening we shouted ourselves to some fine french cuisine - by far the most expensive dinner to date (well apart from the fine french cuisine we had in France) and it was delish!



Such a great weekend away and the weather was magnificent which made it all the more better. And the Monty sisters were in fine form all weekend!

Loving Liverpool

After arriving back in Cambridge from our Scotland road trip, we picked up Mum and May from the bus stop and had a night to catch up. Early-ish the next morning we were back in the car and on our way to Liverpool (well, minus Matt who, unfortunately, had to work). So it was Ross, Jennie, Mum, May and Storm in the tiny hire car. And 3 and a half hours and many many games of 20 questions and "I went to a fruit shop" later, we arrived safe and sound to our apartment in Liverpool.

Mum, May and I hit the tourist shop and pub straight away. With Ross and Jennie meeting us there later. That night we had a lovely meal in Albert Dock and my friends Jesski and Richard joined us for some drinks. Was lots of fun.



The next morning we had two plans - one, do the Beatles tour and two, go to Anfield. Oh and we had to do it by 4pm. This sounds quite easy, but given the massive hang overs from the night before we realised that it may not be achievable. In the end we were only 1 hour late, so not so bad in the end.



All up a nice overnight trip to Liverpool, the 2008 European City of Culture.

Good times in Glasgow

Unfortunately we under estimated how long it would take us to get from Inverness to Glasgow. Instead of taking 3 hours it ended up taking 5, but the best part of the trip was that we had fantastic weather and awesome scenery.

When we arrived we checked into our hotel and Ross, Matt and I headed to Cumbernauld to see Tisha, Harry and the rest of the family. Again, we had estimated a 20 min journey and it ended up taking an hour! Our Navman, sat-Matt at his finest ;) It was great to see everyone and for Ross to meet cousins and second cousins that he hadn't met before. And for Matt to meet *more* Parker family members!

We managed to see a few pubs in Glasgow that night, however unfortunately we had only allocated one night so couldn't see too much. Matt and I got up bright and early and headed off to George Square to at least be semi-tourists. It was quiet lovely. Wouldn't have minded another night or two to see more, but unfortunately we didn't have much time.



We headed back to Cambridge to meet Mum and May who were to arrive that afternoon.

Inverness Highland Games

We arrived in the tiny wee town of Inverness and were looking forward to our highland games experience the next day. We decided to have a night out in the town on our first night and managed to find a karaoke bar (which we loved!) but were also bitterly disappointed when every pub/club shut at midnight. Midnight!! Not what we were expecting.



The next morning we were up bright and early and headed off to the highland games location. And as soon as we got there, unfortunately it started pouring. But that didn't stop the awesome atmosphere. There were two groups of strong men - juniors (under 25) and masters (over 40). Each group had to go through and compete various stages. The stages we saw were throwing 42lbs for distance and for height and the tossing of the caber. Awesome awesome strength! There was also traditional scottish dancing and a marching band that was also quite impressive. A great day out!



From Inverness we headed back down south to Glasgow, however we did manage to stop off and get some pictures of Loch Ness, which was pretty fantastic as well!

Climbing 250 steps in Stirling

From Edinburgh we travelled to Stirling via the Forth Road Bridge (which, interestingly enough spans the Firth of Forth - try saying that 10 times after 10 pints!). We had arranged one night in Stirling so we could visit the William Wallace Monument.

The day we arrived was pretty dreary, so after a couple of pints in the only Irish pub (?!) in town we headed over to play a bit of ten pin bowling. Quite a nice way to spend the miserable afternoon. The competitiveness didn't end there though - we decided to have a quiet night in over an intense game of monopoly.





We woke the next morning to a lovely day and headed over to the William Wallace Monument. Here's us thinking it might have been a bit of a museum layout - instead we had to climb over 250 steps to reach the top of the Monument! There were six levels along the way that had lots of interesting information on the story of William Wallace, which also helped us to catch our breaths! The views were magnificent though, so it wasn't all bad.



From Stirling we drove further north to Inverness.

Shoving yer granny off a bus in Edinburgh

A day after we arrived back from Dublin, Ross and Jennie arrived in Cambridge for a wee visit before Ross, Matt and I set off on our road trip around Scotland. Unfortunately Jennie couldn't make it because she was busy with two 21st parties back in Hereford!

First stop: Edinburgh. And our friend Kimmi joined us there for the rest of the trip. Our hostel neighboured the Edinburgh Castle which helped a lot when we tried to find our way home a few times after beers a plus. "Just look for the Castle" - easy!



On our first night we were lucky enough to catch a live one man show. He was dressed in the awful tartan pants and played a banjo and a harmonica (sometimes at the same time!) and sang old time scottish tunes (some of which Ross and I recognised thanks to Ed's attempts!) and some more contemporary tunes. It was quite a sight and we had a great time - and came close to spending 15 quid on one of his CDs, as you do!



The city is beautiful, even on a dreary day - the cobble-stoned streets that were paved with Georgian style houses that don't look at all out of place. With statues commemorating all sorts of figure heads including the Duke of Wellington and David Livingstone, we felt we were constantly walking through a museum. Fantastic!


We took in an open top bus tour of Edinburgh and a walk around the castle. We attempted a pub crawl down Rose Street and added a few more of our own.

I also managed to spend a good 2 hours in the Scotland Registers Office tracking down copies of births, deaths, and marriage certificates to take back to Ed for addition to the Parker family history. It was uber interesting and I can appreciate how people can get really enthralled in tracing back family trees. I myself was happy to meet Ross and Matt at the pub afterwards for a well earned pint!

We fell in love with Edinburgh and highly recommend it to anyone visiting Scotland - not to be missed!

Having a craic of a time in Dublin

We discovered that Ryan Air had a sale on flights to Dublin, so we hopped on the net and picked up free flights (but obviously had to pay airport tax) so we were happy. We then tried to book accommodation and that was when we discovered that Dublin is the second most expensive city in the world (after New York)!! Oh well, at least we got cheap flights hey.

Unfortunately the start to our trip didn't go too well - we were delayed for 3 hours! We arrived at about 2am in Dublin so needless to say we couldn't really see too much of the city!



But that was probably the worst of our trip, because we had a fantastic time! We fell back into being tourists quiet easily and managed an open top bus tour of the city, a visit to the Guiness Storehouse, a walk around famous St Stephen's Green, a trip to Dublin Castle, and a couple of nights out in Temple Bar. And we went and saw a movie as well.





We were also lucky enough to meet real, proper Irish people - everywhere we went there were loads and loads of Americans all tracing their family history, we thought we were never gonna meet a real, proper Irishman - who took us round a few pubs, which was awesome!

A long weekend was long enough for us in Dublin, mostly cause we would never have been able to afford to spend any more time there!! Would have been nice to see more of Ireland but time just didn't permit, as we were off to Scotland a day after we arrived back in Cambridge!

Love being back on the road again!!