Sheffield - 28 - 29 June

As I have had a bit of time to kill this afternoon due to rain, I have spent some time editing and posting photos on previous posts - so have another look if you are interested.

We arrived in Sheffield after 12 midday, and it was pissing down.  We are here to see Matt's play, Wake in Fright, tonight.  I'll take some pics etc and hopefully will get a review that I can post on here as well.  It will be interesting to see what they say about a very antipodian themed play, as Matt says that he is not that impressed with the standard of the British efforts he has seen so far.

Not seen much of Sheffield as yet.  Our hotel (much better than the last effort) is right in the theatre district and shops etc, which is handy when seeing a play.

The cast - Friday night's performance of Wakke in Fright - Sheffield University Theatre Festival

The performance was great (that's Matt in the large check shirt on the right).

Wimbledon - 27 June

Today we went to Wimbledon.  We had centre court tickets and saw Federer win in 3 sets, Woszniaki get beaten in first round in 3 sets by an unknown (at least we hadn't heard of her), Cliasters won in 2 sets and it looked like Jokavic was going to beat Harrison, but we had to leave as it was getting late and if we didn't leave then we may have missed the train home. 

federer on the left and fontini on the right - getting ready to play

I also saw Mauresmo walking around in the grounds, decidely smaller than she was when she was playing tennis.  She was tiny!

We also saw Charles & Camilla (sitting with a very attractive lady in an electric blue dress who we later found out was Heather Watson, the next great hope for British ladies tennis).  They were there to watch Federer play.

Whilst we were there Stosur was playing on Court No 1, and getting soundly beaten.  No more Australians in the tennis after round 2.  First time in how many years?
Had the strawberries and cream, as you do, but not the Pimms (the strawberries were nice but no better tasting than our own lovely organic strawberries from our farm garden).  Also got a little burnt in the sun watching a match on an outside court.  All the cliches really.


We then went back to a pub close to our hotel room in Earl's Court, tried to stay out as long as possible and this is the reason why, see picture below (suffice to say, we kept the curtains drawn the whole time we were there).  Serves us right for taking too long to book affordable accom.  It was supposed to be a 3 star hotel (go figure).  The toilet bowl was not bolted to the floor, the toilet seat was loose, the water drained from the shower really slowly (but at least it did drain) and the shower spray holder was broken so you couldn't fix it to shower 'hands free', so to speak.

View from hotel room in Earls Court (37 Collingham Place).

Kensington, London – 24 – 26 June

This is a really nice part of London.  Great high street shops (the clothes are so cheap – EOFY sales), great restaurants etc.   On Monday Matt came down from Sheffield to celebrate Chris’ 60^th birthday, so we had a gourmet picnic in Kensington Gardens on a beautifully sunny London summer’s day.  The Prosecco & Cider went down well, as did all the organic bread, cheeses, salads & meats.  We didn’t bother to have any dinner that night we were so full.

Windermere – The Lakes District - 21 – 24 June

We got to Windermere, one of the largest towns in the Lake District, in mid afternoon.  It was a really lovely sunny day (or so we thought).  We found out that the Olympic torch was coming through that afternoon and there was also going to be a concert and a 3 day swim meet on the lake.   Suffice to say, there were a hell of a lot of people around.  We couldn’t believe our luck, the hotel we were in (really an upmarket B&B), was a really beautiful old building, had gotten some tripadvisor award for excellence etc.  They had the best breakfasts too, and the single malt on offer was as smooth as….

the entrance to our room

it looked so 'opulent' I had to add a picture so you would be jealous

The first night we went to a restaurant called 'Hooked' run by a guy from Brighton in Melbourne.  He based the restaurant on Claypot in St Kilda.  It was great seafood and he had plenty of Australian and NZ wines on offer.

However, our luck with good weather ran out.  It rained for 3 days.  Back in Australia you may have heard of the floods in the north of England, well, it was not a rumour.  Anyway, we went to the best restaurants whilst we were there and managed to see some of the countryside via a bus trip.  It started a bit late as supposedly the bus got stuck behind 2 cars stuck in water (one on each side of a flooded road).  The roads are so tiny around here.  If 2 buses meet on a country road one of the buses usually has to back up to find a wider part of the road so that they can pass.

Anyway, we got to see some of the countryside, patchwork fields, dry stone walls everywhere, cute cottages, skinny little winding roads, waterfalls, belted galloway cows (oreo cows as someone called them), a couple of Beatrix Potter’s 13 houses, William Worthsworth's house and lots of rain.

Yew Tree farm - one of beatrix potter's 13 properties - this one was used for filming the movie about her life and stood in for Hilltop (even though it is not Hilltop)

Hilltop. One of beatrix potter's 13 properties

Hilltop garden

the church and graveyard where Wordsworth is buried

Bowness - on- Windermere

Bowness

Skelwith force (waterfall)

Skelwith force (waterfall)

St Martin's church in Grasemere - dates back to 1600's I think

St Martin's church interior

gondolos on lake windermere

tarn something

a cottage in grasmere



Dove Cottage - the house where Wordsworth lived

 We also had a  bit of rain coming under the door of our room in the B&B and were offered another night for free, but unfortunately we had already booked our London accom.  We left Windermere somewhat reluctantly (despite the rain).  The train was pretty busy, it was a Sunday, school hols and the end of the swim meet, so everyone was going back to London, but we managed to get a seat.

Glasgow – 20 - 21 June

The train trip to Glasgow was almost as scenic as the steam train. We passed Loch Lomond for one, and lots of rolling hills, which are a bit hard to capture on the camera when travelling at speed.

We are now in Glasgow (just overnight as well).  Not quite as beautiful as Edinburgh (we were warned by a Scottish local that Glasgow was awful) but we think it has a certain down market charm.

I didn't take many pictures as it was raining and we didn't have any time to see much.  We had a train to catch to Windermere in the Lake District at 12.40pm (hopefully the next place will have internet so I can add the photos).

Late check-out is our friend today, so we hope to get to either the Art School or The Lighthouse building, however, we only had time for the lighthouse before we had to get the train, which was OK.



Edinburgh as seen from The Lighthouse (note rain in window)

Edinburgh as seen from The Lighthouse (note camera flash in window)

Jacobite Steam Train – 19th June (Mallaig to Fort William).

This train trip is supposed to be one of the most scenic in the world (AKA Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express). 

And it was very beautiful, lots of lochs etc, but as it was very overcast, train windows were dirty & train was moving, so it was very difficult to take good photos.   However, I managed to capture a little video of the train going over the viaduct, which is the best video I got.

We stayed in Fort William overnight out of necessity, as there are only a couple of trains going to Glasgow from there each day. 

Skye 17 – 19 June

We arrived in Kyle of Localsh in the early afternoon, sun was shining, which was a bonus and got our car.  We went to a long drive along coast of Skye, very eery as it was drizzly, cloudy and the mountains were high and bearing down on us (or that’s how it felt to me).  We stopped in the town of Portree, very pretty with an old graveyard, fishing harbour etc.  Unfortunately i can't find  the photos of Portree.



Harbour in Portree, Isle of Skye

church graveyard, Portree, Isle of Skye

Portree, Isle of Skye

Portree, Isle of Skye

Portree, Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye



Isle of Skye



Isle of Skye



Isle of Skye



Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

The next day we took the car around the island, saw a Crofter’s hut museum and took a few pics on the way. It is a very beautiful island. Weather has been kind, about 15 degrees, sun shining most of the time. 



crofter's cottage museum

crofter's cottage museum

crofter's cottage museum

crofter's cottage museum

We went to a great restaurant last night and had our first taste of haggis.  Pork with stuffed haggis for me and Scottish steak on a bed of haggis for Chris.  It was quite nice, like a meat loaf taste we thought.

We are staying at a nice little B&B, The White Heather hotel (AKA, the Anal Retentive Hotel) run by a very nice lady, but somewhat of a control freak.  One gets the idea that one is a bit of an inconvenience to the smooth running of said hotel.  The info book provided in each room is a big as  James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, and just about as readable. It has some interesting ‘rules’ etc, which I will elaborate on at a later date (that is when we are safely out of here). 

view from the front our b&b - on the harbour

view from the front our b&b - on the harbour

view from the front our b&b - on the harbour

We have now left Skye so I will fill you in on the ‘hotel’, so here goes. Firstly, one must complete a menu card and put it on room doorhandle by 10pm. Using a texta on the reusable plastic menu card, one must select from continental selection, croissant OR plain bagel OR cinnamon bagel. From full Scottish menu, one has choice of fried egg OR poached egg OR scrambled egg OR sausage + beans + tomato. One must select a time for breakfast sitting, 7.30, 7.45, 8.00, 8.15. The when one gets to the dining room for breakfast, one must sit at the table which has one’s room number on it. A computer is provided, but the room is locked, so we just connected our own computer to the hotel’s internet. Most of the hotels have their own internet connection, which has been great. We bought an internet prepay toggle, but haven’t needed to use it much, although it has been good for looking up restaurants/accom whilst on the train.

Inverness to Skye - 17 June 2012

I am now writing this whilst on the train from Inverness to Kyle of Localsh, Isle of Skye where we will spend 2 nights and a hire car to see it properly (looking forward to lots of great fish restaurants) then get the Hogwarts Express (otherwise known as the Jacobite Steam Train) on the most scenic rail trip in the world.

You can see from this little video thatvthere were a few stops between Inverness and Kyle of  Localsh (train station just over the bridge from Skye).  If I ever have a few hours to spare I may just get around to loading the other 2 videos of the train journey.

The trip is very scenic (but the train windows were very dirty, so apologies for the poor quality videos/photos.

coming into Kyle of Localsh

Inverness - 16th June 2012

 On Saturday we took the train to Inverness and stayed at a lovely little B&B.  A bit of a hike from the station but we eventually found it, but not without a bit of a mishap in the street.  Note to self: do not stand with suitcase on angle as Chris does not look at feet when walking across road, hence, with a bit of momentum behind him he ended up in middle of road with scun leg.   I laughed anyway as it was very funny (but of cause it was all my fault).  After finally getting to the B&B, we ingraciated ourselves to the owner by promptly knocking over a lamp and vase of flowers in the hallway (Chris isn’t used to carrying a backpack).  We dumped our bags and went on a trip to Loch Ness and a ruined castle.  It was a bit drizzly so the pictures don’t do it justice, but the loch is beautiful. 

inverness



our boat

chris enjoying the boat trip on loch ness

a little cottage on loch ness

urqhart castle

We went out for dinner that night having seen a really great pub not far from the b&b.  No we hadn't booked, and no we didn't feel like waiting an hour for a table.

Lesson No 4, even in the middle of Scotland you have to book a good restaurant for a Saturday night, so we ended up eating at the only one we could get into, and there was a reason it wasn’t booked out, it was pretty ordinary.  It wasn't even worth reviewing on trip adviser.