We just had a nice easy breakfast in our little apartment before heading off on our Lakes District touring day! Our first stop was Keswick at the Cumberland Derwent Pencil Museum. It wasn’t open yet when we arrived, so we parked the car and walked down to a market in the town. It was a good market with a wide variety of stalls. Back at the Pencil Museum… We learnt quite a bit about how Derwent Pencils are made and a few interesting historical facts about pencils. We saw the world’s largest pencil – it was pretty darn big! 

Did you know? 
Americans worked tirelessly to invent a pen that could write in space, the Russians just took a pencil!

Did you know?
Once upon a time, back in the seventeen hundreds, graphite was actually worth more than gold!

After the Pencil Museum, we went and had lunch at the market. From there we jumped back in the car and headed out to the Neolithic Stone Circles, called Castleriggs. It was a series of stones situated in such a way as to create a large circle. It was really quite amazing to think that they have been there for over 4500 years! Then we drove to Grasmere to try some of Sarah Nelson’s Celebrated Gingerbread. It was quite unlike any gingerbread I’ve ever tried before, but very nice! After that, we had a Kelly’s ice cream by lake Windermere in Ambelside. Afterwards, we went to Beatrix Potter’s house, Hilltop, which is now a National Trust property. The house and gardens were almost exactly as they were when Miss Potter lived there.

   Even Mum’s old set of pencils made it into the museum!

 There were so many pencils! 

 This the Neolithic stone circle.   

  Another stone fence!

Lake Windermere.

  
   Beatrix Potter’s Cottage.

Tara

Well, today we drove and we drove then we walked and walked. Finally we got to a wall, well it wasn’t just any wall it was Hadrian’s wall! This is a wall that the Romans built 2000 years ago to keep the Scottish out! This wall was not very successful. It was amazing to see such an old and historical wall! After we arrived at Lakes District and checked in we walked Down the street for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant which was very nice. After we went for what mum told us would be a stroll but ended up being a 2 hour walk! We went the long way down to Lake Windermere. It started raining on the way back but it was still worth it for the scenery.
  Here is an old gateway at the Lanercost Priory on the way to the the wall. The Prior dates back to the C13th.

  
A longer stretch of Hadrian’s Wall.
    

  Stone fences are everywhere.

Lake Windermere taken when we went on our evening walk.

Tess

After filling up at the hotel buffet breakfast, we jumped into the car and headed back towards the main land, waving goodbye to Skye. On the way to The b&b in Ayr, we stopped briefly in Fort William for coffee, and a walk around, and then very briefly in Glascow at a service station to get some M&S salads for lunch. But our most exciting stop was at Culzean Castle. It was very grand inside and out in the surrounding ground. We also saw some deer on the grounds!  

  
Eileen Donan Castle.

 Glengarry

Culzean Castle (pronounced Callane)

The Armoury Room at Calzean Castle

  Ayr Beach

  
Turas-Mara guesthouse in Ayr.

Tara

Today we went sight seeing. We drove around the island – literally! First, after a lovely breakfast we drove for a while until we reached Skye Museum of Island Life, a village of preserved thatched buildings and barns that show how the crofters lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was very interesting as it showed what life was like back then. After that we went to a whisky distillery  – Talisker, where we went on a tour that told us how they make it. That was not very interesting for Tara and I but Mum and Dad liked it. Although it was a cloudy, drizzly Scottish summers day the scenery was beautiful! For dinner we went across the road from our hotel to a small Spanish restaurant, that was very nice.
    Summer in Scotland.

 Oooooohhhhhhh! Spoooooooky!!!
  

A crofters cottage.

 
Broadford, Isle of Skye. 

Tess

After a nice breakfast at the Smeaton B&B, we headed off on our way to the Isle of Skye. Although we had no idea where we were going to stay the night! The drive through the Scottish Highlands was very spectacular! After a fair bit of driving we arrived at Mallaig where we boarded a ferry that took us over to the Isle of Skye even though we were planning on driving across the bridge to Skye, some how we ended up in Mallaig and it was too far to turn back to go to the bridge, but that was ok! We had to telephone lots of accomodation places before we found one that had a vacancy! But we found one in the end! It’s located in Broadford. 

 
  
We haven’t seen too much summer, but the scenery is great even when the sky is grey!
  

Blue sky!!!!  
   

  
Tara

We started the day with breakfast then set off on our 4 hour drive to Edinburgh. We finally made it to Scotland!!! We are staying at a b&b just out of Edinburgh in Dalkeith.  After we checked in we went into Edinburgh by train. Our first stop was Edinburgh castle which was very old and big. The oldest building in Edinburgh was at the castle. It was a small chapel built in the C12th. In the jewels tower there was a stone where traditionally the Kings sat on before they were crowned and still do! It’s called the Destiny Stone. The stone was stolen by England many centuries ago and was only returned in 1996 on the condition that England could use it for the next coronation! After the castle we went to have dinner. Most places were booked so we went to a small market and had dinner there. 

 Scotland!

 From the castle…edited obviously!!

They still say mind the gap here!

This is an original cannon from the C15th used to attack an enemies castle.

This is where we stayed in Dalkeith – Smeaton House Inn.

   Yum!
Tess 

We had a fairly cruisie day today. We started the day with a full English Breakfast in the Goathland Hotel dining room. Then we caught the train from the Goathland Train Station (the train station from Harry Potter and Heartbeat!!) to Whitby! We just wandered around Whitby for a few hours. We walked up the 199 steps to Whitby Abbey, had fish and chips for lunch, walked out onto the wharf, had an ice cream and strolled through the shops of Whitby.  

THE TRAIN RIDE

 WHITBY ABBEY

WHITBY SCENERY

Whitby rooftops (for you, Trish)

Tara
 

We had an included English breakfast to start the day. Mum and dad had black pudding and all! (Ewwwww). We had a look around York before heading to Goathland via a stop at Scarborough. We had a ride on a tram like thing from the beach to the top of a cliff. While we where there we saw a glass room without a roof near the beach with deck chairs to sit on without the wind! We also saw a marching/dancing band practicing. We got back and drove to Goathland – Heartbeat country!

  The tram!

 This is the glass room.   
 

The Goathland hotel (Aidensfield Arms)!!

Tess   

Another great day…. 

In the morning mum and dad went for a walk to pick up the hire car.  We then escaped the busy London traffic to  go to York via Cambridge.

 A great day for a punt ride down the Cam river. The punt took us down past the different collages of Cambridge University then into the town where we departed and had lunch before catching the bus back to our car at park and ride. Park and ride is a system they have to reduce cars in the city, you park away from town in a big park then catch a bus in. 

 One of the the many bridges along the Cam river was called the Cam-bridge!!! 

  
Another bridge they called the bridge of sighs after a bridge in Venice as a joke as they have the student bedrooms on one side and the exam halls on the other! 

 We finally reached York! This is the York Minster, the heart shaped stone work in the window is called the heart of York. 

 Classic York street!

We had a lovely dinner at a pub called “A hole in the wall”. After dinner we went back to our hotel room at the tippedy-top of the Burton Stone Inn!

 This is where we stayed.

Tess

Another big sightseeing day today! 

Dad and I ran along an offshoot of the River Thames and saw some really interesting barges!

 One of the many barges along the off shoot of the River Thames.

TOWER OF LONDON

First up today we caught the tube to The Tower of London.

  Just another of London’s many amazing buildings!

 Tess could be a guard?

 A very heavy helmet.

DIAGON ALLEY

We walked from the Tower of London to the alley where Diagon Alley in Harry Potter was filmed.

LUNCH AT OLD TOM’S.

In ‘Diagon Alley’ there was a cafe bar called ‘Old Tom’s’. We had lunch there and it was very scrumptious.

 Hot melted ogleshield over new potatoes served with bread and cornichons… The perfect feast!

SELFRIDGE’S DEPARTMENT STORE

We caught the tube again from lunch to go and have a look at SELFRIDGE’S department store. It was quite similar to Harrods.

  The sign!

BRITISH MUSEUM

  Out the front.

The Rossetta Stone: one of the greatest archialogical finds of the world. It enabled people to be able to understand ancient Egyptian hyrogliphics. 

THE EVENING MEAL

We left the British Museum right on closing time and wandered down the street and found ourselves in a very nice little English pub for a little drink before dinner.

 The interior of the pub.

From there we caught the tube back towards Islington where we were staying. On the way home we ended up having dinner at Jamie Oliver’s Restaurant, Fifteen. It was lovely!

   
Tara.