We’ve made it as far as Glasgow. On our way to get the ferry to Ireland this morning.
The laptop has died and as a result we are lazy in getting updates. Trying to get someone from Asus to look at it in Dublin.
Until next time…
Jen and Pixie collected a jacket each from a sale store in Manchester. Both are now happy in their new toasty warm jackets that were going at crazy prices! (Pix paid 40 quid and Jen rocked it with 25 quid!).
After the morning shopping, we hit up the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). We moseyed (haha pun!) through the five buildings. It seemed to be the only things to do in windy Manchester! We killed a lot of time and there was a metric shitload (opps, that’s equal to an imperial fuck tonne here!!) to see. Manchester has stacks of history, we saw the whole span of it. From underground sewerage systems, complete with urine smelling piping and slop chambers alllll the way through to the space age and flying aircraft. There is a huge past based on massive industries. The main one was cotton and textiles factories and all of the mechanical engines that come with them plus gas and electricity services. They had kids as young as five working in some of the equipment and the injuries were pretty horrific!! No OH & S back then!!
The next day we started our castle hunting and Hansen had a blast on the open speed limited highways. We passed Lancaster Castle and decided to drop in. This ended up being a tight road experience as we got a bit lost and ended up out in the countryside which was really cute (according to Jen) with newborn baby lambs and stone walls. We made our way back and found out that Lancaster castle was (and still is) used as a prison and courthouse.
On to Carlisle for lunch in Cumberland. We checked out Carlisle castle and had a tasty British lunch of potatoes, curly “dog turd” sausage and cod at a local pub. Then we hit the country roads and checked out the region around Hadrian’s wall. Not much of a wall at this point, but the ruins including the forts and mileposts were pretty impressive. Those Romans knew how to build. The wall spans over 100kms on the narrowest part of the country from Carlisle to Newcastle coast-to-coast. What’s left since the wall was plundered by local villagers to build other houses and paddock walls leaves a lot to your imagination but the concept is awesome. Build a wall to keep the Scottish out and make the English bend to your will. Something the Wallabies should take notes on.
The local villages around the wall were really quaint and looked like the sets of movies. Perfect stone walkways and stunning garden cottages. Really traditional stuff that Jen enjoyed more than the boys. Is anyone surprised at that?
We hit Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The hostel was brilliant in comparison to the last one. The building used to be a bank but our bets were on an orphanage or a school as there were stairs all over the place. Overall we just passed through Newcastle, there were a lot of suburbs that rang home to Al and Jen. Jesmond… is a high styling night life area according to the guidebooks but it was too far out to be worth checking out.
Today we hit Castle hunt again around Northumberland. We saw four more castles. Wakworth (too small), Dunstanburgh (too far to walk), Bamburgh (too expensive) and out to Holy Head Island (too many people) for lunch. There were loads of people out and about which turned us off lining up or joining the masses for the walks. A few quick snaps and we were on our way.
We hit Edinburgh this evening. Apparently they don’t like you turning right. Ever. The hostel is massive but it’s really central. A walking tour and some serious time spent in Edinburgh castle tomorrow and then we’re on our way to Kirkcaldy to visit some friends of Jen and Al’s before we hit the scotch trail. It might be some time until next update…
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Well, we made it to Manchester, spent whole night here and Hansen hasn’t killed anyone (Damn Man U supporters). Picked up the car yesterday which turned out to be an adventure in itself (we ended up having to hand over more than 1200 in cash because they couldn’t use the travel cards for a security deposit) but at least we got the car we wanted, a sweet little VW Passat wagon. Within 10 minutes of getting the keys we’d managed to not be able to find the hand break, stall and perform our first U-turn. That’s German-like efficiency!
Once we got moving (in the right direction) we had a nice drive through the countryside up to Leicester for lunch and a view of the Leicester City FC home ground. Hansen certainly enjoyed the de-restricted speed limits (at least when there wasn’t a nice traffic jam due to road work/accidents). After Leicester we had a bit more of a leisurely trip along some smaller roads, which was totally not due to us missing a turnoff (stupid GPS).
The hostel is a bit of a step down from the Sheraton, but at least we weren’t reduced to eating Macca’s last night. Did a bit of a tour of the local area and ended up in a pub for ale and food (surprised? Didn’t think so). Haven’t got internet access at the hostel so we’re actually uploading this from a food court while out shopping for a new jacket for Jen.
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From start to finish pretty much took us 24 hours. Set down this morning in London. Really simple and painless trek through the airport. Hansen did mention at the border check-in that he was a public servant and on further prompting said he was a chemical engineer… which then dragged out copies of our itinerary. Where exactly we are going in the UK and the rest of Europe and another five minutes of questioning.
Got an easy bus to the hotel. Couldn’t be happier with pre booking a room for the night. Quiet rooms and nice plush surroundings are going down well. Just about to hit up the concierge for the best options to head to Windsor castle. It’s also see your breath cold and Jen forgot her warm jacket so some serious layering is happening before we set foot outside again.
Here in one piece, safe and sound. All mums should relax 😉
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All our bags are packed
We’re ready to go
We’re standing here outside the door
We hate to wake you up to say good-bye
But the dawn is breaking, it’s early morn…
We’re leaving on a jet plane
Ya’ll know when we’ll be back again!!
Catch you when we hit the northern hemisphere!
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