Legoland and Windsor Castle

Monday 6 May is a bank holiday in the UK which means no school - I don't know who was more excited about that - me or the kids.  Anyway - an extra day off means time to explore so off we went for a two night stay in the tiny village of Gerard's Cross in Buckinghamshire.  Gerard's Cross is gorgeous, is a commutable distance to London and is the home of very wealthy people living in million pound plus houses.  By contrast, the only reason we ended up there was because the village hotel happened to have a special on family rooms at the bargain price of £74 a night.  Yee har!

So, after school on Friday we hit the road.  We heard on the radio there was some "congestion" on the M25 going in a clockwise direction. PANIC - do we attempt a detour, do we go home, do we go to the pub and wait it out?  Hmmm - how long did it take us to work out we were actually travelling in an anti-clockwise direction.  Phew!

And apart from a massive traffic jam about 1 mile from the hotel and about 20 miles of roadworks on the anti-clockwise M25 our journey was fine.  (Good thing too as we have to do it again in about 2 weeks when we head to Brecon for a weekend).

Anyway - this is part of the reason we went to Gerard's Cross......... 

A little London

Yep - Gerard's Cross is close to Legoland, where there are rides, and Star Wars figures

Models galore...

Sacre Coeur bottom right

And the odd dinosaur or two.......

And that wasn't all, the next day we went to Windsor and of course Windsor Castle - the magnificent  place the Queen calls home.  After a working week at Buckingham Palace the Queen spends most weekends relaxing here at the Castle.  She was there when we visited, not that we saw her L

 We were lucky to catch these close-ups of the Beefeater guards.....

doing their change-over.....

Windsor itself is a lovely place.

And much to Emily's delight we saw a wedding, complete with horse drawn carriages and very formal dresses.  Only thing missing was the bride! I am assuming she was being fashionably late, but we had to go and Miss Emmy was NOT happy at missing out on seeing her.

Norsey Woods

Emmy recently went on a school excursion to nearby Norsey Woods.  The aim of the excursion was to search for "mini-beasts".  Accompanied by a ranger off they went.  Emily must have been pretty impressed with her adventures because she insisted we experience the delights of searching for mini-beasts for ourselves.  So off to Norsey Woods we went with Emmy up front and in command.  The instructions were to lift logs, examine underneath, catch any mini-beasts and place them carefully in a plastic container.  The range of mini-beasts included: worms, ants, lizards, wood lice, centipedes, slaters and snake worms.  

This was right up the boys alley and they did most of the log lifting.  Much of the wood was soft, rotten and as light as a feather, so those impressive displays of uber-strength below are in fact all an illusion J.

Underneath the lifted logs we found a worm, some wood lice, loads of slaters and a centipede.  Emily carefully collected the beasts and then screamed and dropped them all because something slimy crawled up the container and touched her hand.  Back to more log lifting.

On the way back the boys constructed a seat from sticks and gave Princess M a wee ride.

Once out of the woods we strolled along Norsey Road - one of the best streets in Billericay and lined on either side with million pound mansions.  One side of the road backs onto the woods and the blocks are massive - quite a few have pools, although I'm not sure the return on these would be worth the investment.  The middle right is my favourite and a I'm thinking a couple of million pounds ought to do the trick J

London perfection

How lucky am I that Margot lives in London?  Not only do I get quality friend time, but get to see more of this beautiful city at the same time.  And this latest trip saw London at its finest - clear blue skies, a warm 15 degrees, spring flowers and not a breath of wind.

We walked and rode all over - through St James's Park to Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Monument, past Big Ben and over Westminster Bridge, along the Thames to the Borough Markets, over the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's, back over the Millennium Bridge and further along to the Tower Bridge. And that was just day one.  Phew!

Here are some of the sights we saw along the way.....

St James's Park

Looking towards Big Ben from Trafalgar Square

The Tower of London and the Tower Bridge

Very red buses and very green grass near St Paul's Cathedral

Tall pointy things and bottom right - taken from bike whilst paused briefly at lights, Margot is up ahead
waiting for me to catch up.

More London sights

And then, after all that nipping around we stopped for a rest and a Pimms or two here - a gorgeous pub by the side of a gorgeous canal just near the Warwick Avenue station on the Bakerloo line.  

Lovely

And then there was day 2 - which was all about Buckingham Palace.  Margot had a job interview to go to so I hung around here.  Lucky me - there was a parade of Beefeaters, or as Emily likes to call them, Beef Heads. I've googled and according to one source the name Beefeater is most likely to have originated from the time when the Yeomen Warders at the Tower were paid part of their salary with chunks of beef!

What a glorious sight!  London at it's best J

Cambridge minus nippers

This warm weather is invigorating.  So much so that on Wednesday we sent the boys off to school, dropped Emily at Sunnymede and then headed to Cambridge.  The weather wasn't great last time we visited and the morning's blue sky was looking promising.  Only problem - as we drove high cloud appeared from nowhere and by the time we arrived an hour later the sun was well and truly hidden! Grrr.

Still we had a nice time wandering around minus kids.  We bought some indulgent homemade chocolates that didn't quite live up to our high expectations of deliciousness.  We had coffee without having to screech instructions to naughty nippers.  We wandered here and there without much of a plan.  It was peaceful and the city streets of Cambridge were surprisingly quiet.

Travelling with the kids is fun, but the occasional day without them is not bad either :)

Spring weekend

Here's what we got up to this weekend.  And how nice was it to see blue sky, feel the warmth of the sun and shed the thermals and coats.

Just hanging around Billericay........

 And then a little trip to Waltham Abbey

Silly billies

Guess who bought a wig?!?

And while we're on the topic of being silly, here's something really really silly that we did in Edinburgh.  It was so very silly that I've ummed and aahed about posting it, but anyway here goes, it all revolves around this......

Now - this had nothing to do with me, but I'm pretty sure that after disapproving, tutting and generally distancing myself from the caper I ended up finding it the funniest by far.  In fact by the time a castle staff member arrived to examine the item that was causing such a fuss I had lost it completely.  So of course I got noticed straight away, oozing guilt, tears streaming down my cheeks, barely able to stand.  I did manage an explanation of sorts - visit to joke shop, fake dog poo purchase, very sorry etc.

Luckily for us said castle staff member thought it was pretty funny too.

After a quick poo pick-up the wee prank was over as quickly as it had started.  We all had another good old snicker and snort and then carried on with our tour of the castle as though nothing had happened.  J

Very silly I know, and something not to be repeated! (except for when we might have tried it again on Princes Street the next day)

Scotland Day 10 - Peebles

Our last day in Scotland.  We left Culcreuch Castle and set off to Peebles to visit family friends Dave and Louise.  It had turned misty and the scenery had a typical Scottish look.....

Peebles

We had a quick look at Traquair House. Dating back to 1107, Traquair was originally a hunting lodge for the kings and queens of Scotland. Later a refuge for Catholic priests in times of terror the Stuarts of Traquair supported Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobite cause.

Traquair House

Moss covered tree

We had a lovely dinner with Dave and Louise and then off to the Premier Inn for our last night.   Back to Billericay tomorrow after 10 glorious days touring, exploring and experiencing marvellous Scotland.

Scotland Day 9 - Culcreuch Castle

We stayed 2 nights in the stables at Culcreuch Castle.  The room itself was literally a converted stable and wasn't terribly exciting.  The castle however was gorgeous, with an open fire in the sitting room, a restaurant in a dungeon and an elaborate dining room on the first floor.  

The castle was built in 1296 by Maurice Galbraith and was the clan seat of Clan Galbraigh from 1320 to 1624. It has changed clans and hands many times since the 1600's and has been operated as a hotel since the early 1984. Culreuch is a rectangular tower house (stone structure built for defence as well as accommodation), with three stories and an attic and topped by a parapet and slate roof

Culcreuch Castle

Steve sampling a kipper at breakfast.  He said he enjoyed it but wouldn't be having another tomorrow.

A very salty smelly kipper. 

Any place with grounds like these is a bonus for the kids (and by default the adults J).

Grounds of Castle Culcreuch

One of the wee roads leading to the castle

Our main plan for the day were hampered by a road closure.  Navigating around that was easier said than done and revealed one of the limitations of using a SatNav.  Interestingly I just recently spoke to friends Ben and Sharon who are on their way over here as I type.  They're spending 10 weeks driving around the UK and Europe and have opted for map reading over a SatNav.  Initially I thought they were crazy, but I reckon in the case of road closures, detours, diversions etc, maps would have the edge.  Plus you get a much better sense of context and distance with a map.  Still, having said that, I won't be trading ours in just yet J.

By the way - it's lambing time in Scotland.......

Little cuties

So, with detour, our 8 miles to Loch Lomond turned into about 30, and we didn't end up spending that long there.  Instead the highlight for the day was Glengoyne whisky distillery - and I don't even like the stuff!

Glengoyne Distillery

Thanks to our keen as mustard tour guide I now know the following about the production of whisky:

• whisky is made from three ingredients - yeast, water and barley
• the barley is soaked in water until it starts to germinate, at which point it is referred to as malt
• the peaty, smokey flavour of some whiskies is caused by burning peat (as opposed to coal) to dry the malted barley
• a single malt whisky contains whisky made at a single distillery, double malt whiskies are rare and contain whisky from two different distilleries.  
• Blended whiskies contain a mix of whisky from three or more different distilleries and can not take the name of any of the distilleries.
• To call a whisky a Scotch Whisky it must have been aged in an oak barrel in Scotland for a minimum of 3 years.
• The whisky at Glengoyne is aged for a minimum of 10 years in red oak barrels made in Spain.
• The barrels are used to make sherry before being used to store whisky.  This is to remove excess tannins that would taint the taste of the whisky.

Steve took the wee taster tour and had samples of 10 and 18 year old whisky at the start and end of the tour.  Needless to say he enjoyed his tour immensely!

Scotland Day 8 - Skye to Fintry

Leaving Skye we headed south towards Loch Lomond, passing through Fort William on the way.   This shot was taken near the hotel and shows the Outer Hebrides some 26 miles away across the North Atlantic Ocean

The scenery we passed through was lovely, although I had memories of Scotland, and Skye in particular, being brilliantly green. Apparently there hasn't been much rain over the last month or so, and the grass was decidedly golden.  Not that it detracted from the scenery in any way.

Back thorough Portree, no soup this time J.

And down though the Grampian mountains.......

to Culcreuch Castle!

Scotland Day 7 - Exploring Skye

The owner of the Duntulm Castle Hotel is called Kevin and he is a very, very accommodating person. Not only did he cook us all breakfast but went so far as to cut up Emily's toast into nice bite-sized pieces for her! He also very kindly provided us with an excellent itinerary for the day.

Starting off from the hotel (which, by the way, is next to the ruins of Duntulm Castle that was once home to the Jacobite-supporting MacDonald clan) we headed for the gravesite of Flora MacDonald.

Our hotel and the ruins of Duntulm Castle

Flora was instrumental in saving Jacobite leader Bonnie Prince Charlie after his disastrous defeat at the battle of Culloden. Disguised as Flora’s housemaid he managed to rejoin a French ship that had been sent to rescue him. Flora died in 1790 (probably from hypothermia) at the age of 68.  And how gorgeous is that photo of the lovely old lady trying to warm Daniel up because he said he was cold!

After Flora MacDonald it was on to more flora –  but this time of the mossy kind. Fairy Glen is a weird and wonderful collection of ridged hills and mini-cliffs and bluffs and this place kept us all entertained and active for a good hour. There was something very tantalizing about climbing these small moss-covered peaks. Each little mound looked more inviting than the next and so the roller coaster running began. We must have run up and down at least 10 of these little hobbit hills! Emily was a champion and was first to scale the rockiest and most challenging of the peaks.

What made this place even more interesting was the silence.  We all stopped running for a second and not a sound,  the moss absorbs all noise and was like a soft squishy blanket under our feet.

Running amok at Fairy Glen

Baaaaaa

The soft spongy moss that covered the hills

Continuing on with our loop, we headed to the West Coast town of Dunvegan for a bit of seal spotting.  We did see two things flopping and jumping about in the water, but whether they were seals or otters is still up for debate.

From a distance the beach looked like white sand, but on closer inspection it was full of interesting little bits of coral.  Have included a picture to show just how interesting J

By this time we were a bit hungry, so stopped at an interesting little cafe in the village of Portree.  It reminded me of a typical Sydney cafe and I had a yummy soup.  All was good as we headed back up north towards the hotel.  That is until I started feeling a bit ble, which got steadily worse until it culminated in an emergency stop with a massive soup vomit on the side of the road.  Hmmm - not good.

Managed to get back to the hotel, headed straight for bed and oh goody, had vomit number 2 at 11pm and probably should have had another one at 1am, but fought off the seedy feeling until I finally fell asleep.  Boo Hiss - I am beginning to re-think my tough "I don't get sick" stance, because when I think about it - I've been a bit sickly over here.  Plus I have a tickly little cough that just won't go away (sniff sniff).

But phew - felt ok in the morning. Good thing too as it was a big day of driving ahead.

Scotland Day 6 - Isle of Skye

Carrbridge to the Isle of Sky is 198 miles, which isn't really that far, but some of the roads are single lane, as in a single lane only, not a single lane each direction!  This can make progress a wee bit slow.

We broke up our journey with a visit to Culloden, the site of the 1745 Jacobite trouncing at the hands of the Government redcoats, and then lunch at the top of a hill overlooking one of the many lochs.  Daniel decided to test out his balance on the hand rail designed so people DON'T fall down the cliff.

And then it was on to the beautiful Eileen Donan.  We met tour guide Richard inside who went out of his way to make the kids visit special.  He was born and raised in the local village and was obviously proud of his heritage and the castle and his passion and enthusiasm were obvious.

It was all very atmospheric and moody and the only let down was than damn green scaffolding all over the castle.  Might have to see if our lovely neighbour Ian can help me photoshop it out!

A short drive later and we crossed the bridge onto the Isle of Skye and continued on to our hotel right up on the northern tip of the island.