London Day 3 & 4

Tuesday the 20th of April dawned clear and bright if not a little chilly and we awoke late safe in the knowledge that after a leisurely breakfast we would be packing in preparation for our flight home. Oh the best laid plans………………………………..

Our flight was cancelled. We have been rebooked on NZ 1 through LA on the 27th of April (apparently this is the first available flight assuming the airspace remains open) and also waitlisted on NZ 38 through Hong Kong on Thursday the 22nd. At the moment the best case is that we will be home on Saturday and we will return to work on Monday the 26th as planned. The worst case is that we will return on the 29th (late in the afternoon) and we won't get back to work until Friday the 30th or Monday 3rd May.

The first priority was to organise accommodation, the hotel we were staying at the Avonmore didn’t have any vacancies but the hotel next door did so we moved our bags next door then went exploring London. Our next priority for the morning was to get tickets for Hair and Wicked which we did and along the way we learnt to use the Underground.

After lunch and the first good cup of coffee I have had since we arrived here 4 weeks ago it was off to Westminster and more exploring. The Tube is very easy to use although being stuck amongst the “seething masses” is somewhat wearying. We returned to our hotel for a “nana nap” then it was off to our first show.

Hair very much lived up to its reviews and the intimateness of the Gielgud Theatre, the set, the cats and musicians and some pretty good songs made it a most memorable night out. It is interesting that a musical that is 40 years old tells a story and has relevance to today’s world.

Day 4 in London continues the run of fine but cool mornings. The news is still full of travel disruptions and only some planes appear to be flying. It will takes several weeks to get things back to normal assuming there are no further eruptions and airspace closures.

Day 4 is laundry day and rather than turn our hotel room into a Chinese laundry we nipped round the corner to the Laundrette, £6 and 50 minutes later we had clean dry clothes. We decided to make today a little more relaxed but still we walked a fair way and saw quite a bit. Our first mission was the Camden Markets which we still haven’t found but we did find the Great Union Canal and walked along its banks.



We got back on the Tube at Angel Station and travelled to Barbican to visit the Hands and Shears pub (we had to have a drink), a wander down Middle Street to the Smithfield markets and stood on or near the spot where William Wallace was executed. Then it was a leisurely stroll to St Pauls Tube Station along Giltspur and Newgate and off back to our hotel (not for a nana nap but for rest and reading).

Did you know at one time if you didn't like your wife you could take her to Smithfield Market and sell her? Apparently it was easier than divorce.



Tonight we are off to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria Street on the other side of St James Park. Another Tube trip I think.

We brought a new camera yesterday so we have photos…………………………………..

London Day 2

We are absolutely worn out after a huge day traipsing around London. We left our Hotel at about 08:30 after a very good nights sleep and a nutritious breakfast armed with a map, Jeeves (for absolute emergencies) and our Big Bus ticket. Following on from the stunningly beautiful day yesterday the weather forecast was for fine and warm so we didn’t take coats and hats and scarves (the mistake of the day) so the first hour was a bit brisk to say the least.

We did almost all of the Blue route and visited Madam Tussaud’s , Fortnum and Mason and Harrods then walked from Notting Hill Gate through Hyde Park, Green Park, St James Park and on to our hotel. We have done central London once over very lightly and we have really enjoyed it, so many people and so much diversity. The highlight has been the walking and the exploring, definitely worth a return visit.

I particularly enjoyed our visit to the new NZ Memorial in Hyde Park it tells a story and is a little bit of us, New Zealanders, in London. I have worked with one of the Architects involved in the project, John Hardwick – Smith from Wellington, and I was impressed.

We had an early dinner in a pub just off Trafalgar Square on Charing Cross Road which just hit the spot, no Guinness tonight! Have I mention that the cider here is also pretty good?

News on the flight home front is slightly better; they have announced a graduated reopening of UK and European airspace tomorrow and are expecting that the first flight will leave Heathrow at 7:00pm. Air New Zealand do not know for sure if our flight will leave albeit late or not but it is looking hopeful. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Tomorrow should be a little more relaxed as we plan to sleep in then pack a go out to the airport. Hong Kong here we come!

London Day 1

Well we arrived at Kings Cross Station about 15 minutes late. The countryside, towns and cities passed by at incredible speed but despite the speed we got a good view and saw some pretty interesting things; rolling hills and farms, fishing ponds surrounded by weekend fisherman (each with their own fishing stand) and allotment after allotment. The trip was comfortable and relatively stress free except for a few problems with the internet trying to send an email to Mornington School and updating the blog. But then having Wi Fi on the train was pretty good! I can’t understand why you would fly when you have access to such a good and fast train service although I may be being slightly romantic.

Before arriving at Kings Cross the train rolls through suburbs and small stations for about 10 minutes so you do not get a sense that you are coming into a big city. However once off the train the station is all bustle and noise then you walk out onto Euston Road!

After wandering around looking for a tourist information centre and failing we decided to set off in the direction of our hotel and stop for food on the way. Once again Jeeves came to our rescue (he has a walking mode that we haven’t quite mastered yet) and we were pleasantly surprised that our Hotel in Cartwright Garden was 500m from Kings Cross Station and a 10 minute walk from Trafalgar Square. So we booked in and then went off eating, exploring, more eating, more exploring and then some drinking. Although we need to admit that we still haven’t found the tourist information Centre :-)

Tomorrow we are going to explore London from the Big Red Bus. London is a bit different from what we imagined it would be mainly because it is hard to see the whole city at once and the narrow street and 3 – 4 story building enclose you so you are only aware of your immediate surroundings.

Had a look on the net and have just found out that “flights are cancelled at all BAA airports until 19:00, Monday 19 April at the earliest. This is due to volcanic ash spreading across the UK from Iceland which has caused restrictions to be placed on the use of UK airspace by the air traffic control service (NATS). Passengers due to fly should not travel to BAA airports but should contact their airlines for re-ticketing information.” So a 16:30 Tuesday departure is looking more and more unlikely. On the upside BA, Lufthansa and Berlin Airlines have had test flights up today and the data is being assessed and then the EU Ministers will met (by video conference of course) to decide on next steps. The British Gov't are considering using the Navy to bring stranded Brits home.

I did ring the travel insurance people to check up on our insurance, what we are covered for and the process for claiming should the worst happen so we are now happy that we will be looked after.

Edinburgh, Newcastle and the trip to London

Edinburgh

Breakfast in our Georgian styled farmhouse B&B was a refined affair seated at an antique dining table with white linen, silver cutlery and fine bone china. The food wasn’t half bad either!
After breakfast we took a short drive to the Park n Ride and then zipped into to town on the bus. This was really good value, free parking and a day pass on the buses (anywhere in Edinburgh).

Our first stop was Edinburgh Castle (oh no not another castle) and I would have to say it was the highlight of our day. Neither of us expected the walled town that is the castle or the layer upon layer of history and then there was the Scottish Crown Jewels! The exhibition that houses these and tells their history is quite spectacular.

After the Castle we visited the Tartan Weaving place, the Camera Obscura, Holyrood Palace (oh no not another castle) and gardens, Newhaven and the Britannia. By the time we got back on the bus at the Britannia we were well and truly tired and after a less than memorable Chinese meal (We wanted to eat something different than a pub meal and we thought Chinese would do it.) we trundled back to our B&B and bed.

Edinburgh is a really interest and bustling city but like the other bits of Scotland and Ireland we have seen the signs of the economic downturn are everywhere. Entire buildings empty and for let, empty and boarded up shops, half finished housing estates and big queues at job centres. This was the first place we have been were the homeless and beggars were obvious and numerous. Despite this there were tourists everywhere.

Good news our camera seems to be working again so we may be able to post some photos soon (Oops spoke too soon camera on blink again).

Edinburgh to Newcastle

A fine day greeted us and following yet another sumptuous cooked breakfast we set out for Newcastle. Our nice black car was covered by a very fine coat of volcanic ash but more about that later. We decided to travel via Lauder to see where Grandad’s mother (Cockburn) came from. Lauder is a delightful little village, set in the midst of green rolling hills and obviously relatively affluent. The whole drive through the Borders was lovely and we kept off the motorway and travelled on A roads.

Our first stop in Newcastle was the railway station where we had a forgettable lunch and booked our train ticket to London. We got a cheap 1st class fare (cheaper than a standard seat, go figure) so we are off to London at 9:30am tomorrow (Sunday).

Once again Jeeves proved his worth by guiding us through Newcastle and out to our hotel at Gateshead Metrocentre. After checking in we dropped the rental car off at Newcastle Airport. The Airport carpark was all but empty, there were 30 – 40 planes parked up near the terminal and the terminal building was empty save a bookstore attendant and our Avis person. There is something really sad about an empty airport. We bought some books at the bookstore, we were their biggest sale of the day. The young shop assistant had been there for 10 hours and had taken a total of 80 pounds.

The ash cloud is having a huge impact on the UK and it dominates the news with half hourly updates. There are no planes flying in the UK and much of Europe and it is having a huge impact on the economy. At the moment we are booked to fly from London to Hong Kong on Tuesday the 20th and we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will happen. Based on what we are hearing on the news we may get out Tuesday but it is more likely we will be delayed. If we don’t get out Tuesday it could be 7 -10 days although some cheerful scientist was on the BBC this morning saying that it could take 4 – 6 weeks to get things back to normal and that the worst case scenario is that the volcano could keep on erupting for months – cheerful stuff. We are looking on the bright side and trying not to worry about things we have no control over.

Saturday night in Newcastle was interesting we went out for a meal at a very nice Chinese restaurant and then walked along the river to look at the bridges. The millennium bridge is particularly spectacular with its light show but the perfect scale model of the Sydney Harbour Bridge takes the prize.

Newcastle to London

I am writing this part of the blog on the train (it has wi fi). We left Newcastle on time at 9:30 am and should arrive in London at 12:40 pm, I think that is 400 miles in a little over 3 hours with only 4 stops.

We are looking forward to London and a stress free final few days to our holiday.

Inverness to Edinburgh

We awoke to the news that the airspace over the whole of the UK was closed because of a volcanic eruption in Iceland and that all airports were closed and all flights cancelled. Hope the wind changes direction before next week or we may not get home.

After an early breakfast, 8:00 is early in terms of our stays at B&B’s, it was off to Edinburgh via Loch Tay. The reason for the detour was to visit the Scottish Crannog Centre, we were really interested in seeing the reconstruction of the Iron Age dwelling out over the Loch and it didn’t look like too far out of our way. I mean 38 miles shouldn’t take too long should it? Well yes, but the drive over narrow undulating roads was interesting and took us to places that not many normal tourists get to. We passed through villages like Kinguisse and Tummel Bridge before reaching Kenmore on the shores of Loch Tay. These places the normal haunts of fishermen, hunters and walkers had a charm, stillness and clear beauty that we were privileged and lucky to see. How did we get to see these things? Well Deidre just entered Kenmore into Jeeves as our destination and he did the rest.

The Crannog was fascinating, Loch Tay was beautiful and the town of Kenmore charming, it was well with the detour.

The route from Inverness to Edinburgh (with the exception of our detour) was on the A90 and the M9 so done at comfortable cruising speeds of 60 to 70 mph. Our little car handled the motorway running as well as it handled the narrow windy roads of the Highlands. If and when we change cars we will look at a Peugeot and definitely consider a diesel.

Driving in Edinburgh even with Jeeves was a challenge and the atmosphere in the car and for a little while later was a strained to say the least (entirely my fault but don’t tell Deidre I admitted that). By the time we had found a parking building it was getting late so we took a taxi to the Visitor Information Centre. We booked tickets on the circuit buses (a Grand Tour package gets you a 24 hr ticket on 4 of the buses for 15 pounds) and because we had time we took a familiarization tour. We will go back tomorrow and do the things we want to do; Edinburgh Castle (even though I said we were “Castled Out”), Holyrood Palace, the Royal Botanic Garden, Leith Bank, Old Town and particularly the Dungeons. I wouldn’t have minded doing one of the night “Ghost Tours”.

After we got off the bus we had dinner at a pub on the Royal Mile. The food was good, the Guinness passable and the coffee rubbish. I have yet to have a decent cappuccino or flat white!

On our walk back to the carpark we passed Greyfrairs Church and took the opportunity to wander around the churchyard. To wander amongst the graves on a sunny spring evening may seem somewhat morbid but it was interesting and enlightening. The gravestones give a brief glimpse into times past, some sad, some touching and others inspiring. Some truly great people are buried here alongside "socially elite" and "very ordinary" people. The two best tended and cared for graves are not surprisingly those of John Gray and his dog Bobby (Greyfriars Bobby).

Our B&B is Highfield House in the village of Kirknewton some ten miles (14.7 kms) to the west of Edinburgh we are here for two nights. It is a very old Georgian styled farmhouse full of antiques and it has a very special ambiance.

It has been a long day and we are surprisingly weary. Tomorrow we are going to Park N Ride so as to avoid driving and more importantly not having to pay the exorbitant parking fees.

Beyond (Dornoch) to Inverness

Did you know Madonna got married at Dornoch and that one of her children was baptised in the Cathedral?

Well a day that started off a bit grey and overcast just kept getting better and by early afternoon we had blue cloudless skies, sunshine and just the faintest of breezes. Don’t be fooled this was shorts and jandals weather as the breeze came straight of the snow covered hills reminding us that it was early spring not high summer.

I forgot to mention in the last blog that we visited the Glenmorangie Distillery just outside of Tain. We didn’t do the tour but succumbed to a tasting session and I can safely say that my Scotch collection (extensive as it is) is not under threat. Deidre was not particularly taken with the whiskeys on offer, she definitely prefers the Irish variety.

Our first stop along the way was the town of Strathpeffer, a Victorian spa town full of hotels, restaurants, cafes and walks. It suffered a decline after World War I but is making a decided comeback. The hotels including one named MacKays are picturesque multi storied stone monuments to a time gone by each with an amazing number chimneys and chimney pots. The air was clean, crisp and bracing, prefect for relaxation and recharging the batteries. The only downside I could see was that Deidre and I were amongst the youngest people there.

The trip from Strathpeffer to Inverness was relatively straight forward and quick and we soon found ourselves wandering around the town centre. It is an interesting town with signs of the hard economic times everywhere (shops to let etc.), we visited the Information Centre and then had a look in several Highland outfitters. So far I have only bought a scarf and a pair of cufflinks.

Once we had finished with the shops we toddled of to Culloden only stopping for fuel and a bite to eat. The battlefield, despite blue cloudless skies, sunshine and just the faintest of breezes has an eeriness and silence about it. The muted browns and greens of heather and moss disguise the treacherously boggy and uneven terrain that was the Scots undoing, the ‘Bonnie Prince” and his advisors chose an absolutely prefect place for a defeat.

It is like all battlefields and stands as testament to man’s stupidity and his inability to learn from the mistakes of the past. Culloden is the start of the end of Scotland as it was and bore witness to indescribable atrocities that are hard to understand and even harder to justify. When Scotland was destroyed and the Highlanders spread to the four corners of the earth little did those responsible know the impact that the hardy, resourceful and stubborn Scots would have on the development the world as we know it today.

When we think of Culloden we tend to think of it as an English atrocity visited on the Scots but it is not that simple it was about power and religion with Scots, English, Irish and French fighting on both sides. Given that the Mackays made up over half of the Argyle Regiment it is highly likely that my ancestors were standing amongst the lines of red and then chased the vanquished off the battlefield and into the glens.

The tour of Culloden and the visitors centre took almost three hours and we were both a bit tired by the end of it so it was straight off to the B&B for a rest and nap before tea. Our rest and relaxation was aided by a wee dram of Bushmills.

Still no camera other than my phone so no photos sorry.

Ullapool to Bettyhill and Beyond

After two days of blue skies and sunshine we awoke to what we were assured was sea fog. The locals all said it would “burn off” but as we drove away around the coast and into the mountains of Northwest Sutherland the grey clouds and misty rain descended. This gave the landscape an altogether foreboding aura but at the same time magnificent appearance.



The high rocky peaks, lakes and tarns, boggy flats and wild rivers all in their muted brown and green colourings were once again familiar, alien and surprising. There was an emptiness only punctuated by the occasional village or farm, the sheep, the deer and other vehicles.












Our first stop was Durness which had a restaurant called “Mackays Rooms”, a craft village that was interesting but which had an air of struggle about it and the renowned Smoo Cave. We ate lunch at a lookout just to the West of Durness (bought from the supermarket in Ullapool in an attempt to save money and more importantly cut down on the amount of food we are eating) then pushed on to Bettyhill.






Bettyhill is an isolated little community with not much going for it really apart from farming fishing and tourists passing through. We stopped there because it is the heart of “MacKay Country” and the home of the Strathnaver Museum. The Museum is housed in the old Strathnaver Church and houses a room (not a very big room mind you) dedicated to MacKay Clan History. To get to the museum we walked through graveyard and almost every second grave belonged to a MacKay, quite uncanny really. The graveyard is also the home of the Farr Stone an ornately carved grave marker dating from 800 – 850AD, it is a beautiful piece of work an even more so when you consider the tools and technology available at the time it was carved.

The Museum was enlightening as it gave some history of the area covering the Pictish occupation, the Viking settlements, Clan influence and battles, the military contribution of the clans of the area, the clearances and the at the consequences. The curator at the Museum was incredibly interesting and gave us pointers on what to see and do as well as telling a delightful story about J R R Tolkien and the link between Bettyhill and the “Lord of the Rings”.

After we escaped we drove back east to the borgie Bridge and after finding a place to park walked out to the beach at Torrisdale Bay. We have been trying to see Otters but they are proving as elusive as the cheetahs did in South Africa.

Our walk was very pleasant both in terms of scenery and exercise however we did suffer a major catastrophe. While helping Deidre across a stream I dropped the camera and I can tell you that digital cameras do not like water. Despite attempts to dry it it is well and truly dead. I am taking picture with my phone now but can’t download them so until we buy a new camera photos may be patchy.

The Hotel at Bettyhill where we stayed was okay although the building itself has seen better days. The staff were friendly and the meal and the Guinness & cider were good. They have Guinness here too and it is almost as good as in Ireland.

Beyond Bettyhill.

We awake to a very thick fog and were assured that it would “burn off when the sun got up a bit” so after breakfast we headed off into an every improving day. Our drive took us west through Reay (the ancestral seat of Lord Reay the Head of the MacKay Clan) and onto Thurso. Thurso is a bustling town with a nuclear power plant right beside it and its claim to fame, at least this week is the O’Neill Cold Water Classic. Surfers from all over the world come here each year as part of the Cold Water Series to compete for a first prize of 50,000 pounds in water that is rarely warmer than 6 degrees C.

After Thurso we turned south, the landscape here is very different from that to the west of Thurso, well established farms more like something you would see in South Otago/Eastern Southland/Central Southland are the norm. We passed through Latheron, Dunbeath and Helmsdale before stopping at Dunrobin Castle for a look at the gardens (we are about castles out now) and then some lunch. After lunch it was off to the Black Isles before backtracking to our B&B at Dornoch.

The Black Isles are part of the old Clan MacKenzie/McKenzie territory and it was good to visit Cromaty, Rosmarkie and Fortrose. Fortrose was particularly lovely and the Isle itself is fertile, green and lush even this early in spring.

We have done a huge amount of driving and are very tired at the end of each day however it is worth it when we reflect on what we have seen and done each day.

Scenery in the mountains of Northwest Sutherland