Loch Ness and South

 

Best of all was getting to spend time with our Daughter and the Grand Kids. We are going to miss them when we leave, but luckily we still have a few weeks to visit them before then.

Glen Coe 

They headed south and we headed north to drive up along the Lochs and the Caledonian Canal which links the North Sea to the Irish Sea and cuts diagonally across Scotland from Fort William on the West coast to Inverness on the East coast.

This is the real Scottish Highlands and the road wound upwards thru the Trossack Mountains into the Ben Nevis Range, (Ben Nevis being the highest mountain in UK).

The Trossacks

We found some nice places to stay especially the pub stops! In case I didn’t already mention them, some pubs let you stay the night in the parking lot if you buy dinner and drinks in the pub. Seems like a no brainer to us!

The Lade Inn in Callander was really nice!

Lade Inn pub stop

We passed thru Glen Coe, a high pass that drops you down into Fort William on Loch Linnhe. The Caledonian Canal starts here and follows North East up thru Loch Lochy (No there really is a Loch Lochy!), Loch Oich and into Loch Ness before leading into the North Sea in the Moray Firth.

Glen Coe and a turf house.

Its all spectacular scenery spoiled only by the innumerable tourists (like us!).

The Ben Nevis range of mountains

Unfortunately once we reached the top of Loch Ness it was time to start heading south again. We have nights out planned back in Birkenhead and we have only 21/2 weeks to get back, get the rig into storage and find our way back to London for the flight back to Arizona, It seems impossible that we have been here 4 months already.

Nice stop along the Lochs

We took some backroads on the way South, not wanting to retrace our steps from the trip North. We travelled thru the Cairngorm Mountains, past Edinburgh and thru Moffat where we stopped at another outstanding pub stop The Old Stables Inn. Good food and excellent draft beer.

The Old Stables, another great pub stop.

The coming weekend is the August Bank Holiday in England and we ran into heavy traffic on the way south, when we attempted to take the side roads to avoid it we found everyone else had the same idea! After a few wrong turns we rediscovered the small towns and villages of Cheshire which we hadn’t seen since we were kids and came out this way on church and scout outings.

Arrowe Hall in Arrowe Park

Pretty soon we were back at Arrowe Brook Farm, which has become home from home lately, and working out dates for get togethers with friends and family. We got to have the grand kids over for a night and a day, wandering the Wirral looking for Pokemon places. Grandad is now playing Pokemon too!

Grand Kids enjoying making some artwork

Niall's Rainbow, he even mixed some colors for it too.

Then we looked up and it’s September already!

Scotland

Great meeting everyone, thanks Keith and Carol see you again soon we hope!

Suddenly it’s August!

We decided to head to Wales and specifically South Wales an area we haven’t been to before. North Wales, which is closer to Birkenhead, we have explored since we were kids.

Until you come to Britain you don't realize how many sheep there are there.

Our first stop was Cardiff at a public park in the center of the city. We didn’t explore at all just emptied the black and grey tanks and filled the fresh water up while we charged the house battery up and got showers. All very domestic!

We traveled thru some breathtaking scenery such as the Forest of Dean and on to the awesome Pembrokeshire Coast.

Nice little harbor in Fishguard Wales

After a few stops we stumbled on “Cardigan Island Farm” campground right on Cardigan Bay. It had great views, a cafe, Playground for kids and a Farm Animal area that you could walk around and see the animals in pens. At the end of that trail you were on the clifftop looking across the bay and if you were lucky you could see seals and dolphins. We weren’t lucky!

Nice views from Cardiff Farm Park Campground

All too soon we were back at Arrowebrook Farm on the Wirral, our “Home” near Birkenhead it seems. We a had night out with Ken, Angie, John and Daphne one night and Stuart, Linda, Hillary, Sally, Iain, Nial and Katlynd the next. It was a good job the Irby Mill pub was within walking distance!

While we were there we made reservations for the end of August and the first week in September plus reserved a rental car and a hotel in London because the trip home is approaching fast.

We found a storage facility for the RV nearby too because we have decided that we are coming back next year!

We are having so much fun and the RV is very comfortable, so why not?

Our reason for heading back thru Birkenhead was mainly to get up to date with Sally on our planned joint weeks vacation in Scotland.

She has found a camping resort with both static caravans (Mobile Homes) and sites for Motorhomes so we can all camp there. Its full of stuff for the grandkids to do too. Its in Ayr Scotland, so after a few days we headed North using the old roads that existed before the motorways took over.

These led us to the Lake District an area I think is similar to Lake George New York, and for the first time we were turned away from a couple of campgrounds that were full.

Abbey ruins

The first couple of weeks in August is peak season here, the roads are congested, parking lots full and everywhere has been booked up since the beginning of the year. So after a quick look around we set off North again and stayed in Carlisle right below the Scottish border.

Hadrian's Wall 1900 years old.

Along the border runs Hadrians Wall, built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago to keep the marauding Scots out. It still stands in places and we explored it and some Abbeys and Castles nearby.

The Abbey and Town of New Abbey

Once across the border we decided to head West along the coast of the Solway Firth and we were rewarded with some beautiful scenery, no traffic and some more ruins to explore.

Managed a distillery tour along the way also.

Finally we arrived at Sundrum Castle Holiday Park just outside Ayr and set up in our allotted spot.

Maybe it was fortuitous, maybe not, but the kids playground was “L” shaped and our camp site was in the elbow of the “L”. We got the benefit of all the hyper kids yelling and screaming (and some of those little girls really screamed loud!).

At the same time we got to watch the grandkids while they played and we sat in our lounge chairs!

The weather after being great for the whole summer virtually, now took a turn for the worse, but not a really bad turn and most days let the kids play in the playground or we all took a ride into Ayr for shopping therapy.

Grand Kids

I asked Niall to take 5 pictures for me

He did an amazing job with my phone.
These are unedited.

Wednesday was predicted to be the best day of the whole week and we took the opportunity to travel to Edinburg and explore the castle there.

Edinburg from the castle

Its a great place to visit but you need to buy tickets in advance. In addition the “Military Tattoo” was being held in the courtyard. This traditional exhibition of Military skills and traditions is held every year and it’s very difficult to get tickets.

"MY" grandstands! I designed the top bit the camera gantries and lighting towers.

We didn’t attempt to get tickets but I got to brag about the grandstand because way back in the 1970’s I drew all the structure for the Camera Platforms and Lighting towers when I worked as a contractor for BICC in Liverpool that designed and built this PORTABLE grandstand. Yes portable. Every year it is assembled and afterwards disassembled and stored away offsite. It takes about 2 weeks at each end to do that.

Sally and the kids

Gray Friars Bobby, remember the story??

Best of all was getting to spend time with our Daughter and the Grand Kids. We are going to miss them when we leave, but luckily we still have a few weeks to visit them before then.

Steam Rally Welland

There is both a Titanic Experience and a monument to the Titanic’s Engineers who perished that night.

We headed vaguely North and a little West from Southampton aiming for a little spot named Welland for a Steam Rally. By chance we passed a sign for Highclare House which for all you Downton Abbey fans is the actual place where the TV show was filmed. Unfortunately when we got there they told us to keep moving as all available tour spots were full and only advance reservations made on line would get us in.

Highclare Castle

In another of those chance happenings Barbara posted a picture of Highclare on Facebook and my Cousin John and his wife Claire asked where we were because they lived not far away! We found a really nice pub stop at the Two Watermills Inn, had a great evening in the bar and lunch with John and Claire the next day before we left. Another confirmation that NOT making plans can pay off in wonderful ways!

Some of our neighbors along the way

Welland was next.

Some explanations may be helpful.

For the Facebook haters we have to say “Sorry”. We love Facebook and we have got back in touch with people we have lost touch with otherwise. People we have known since we were teenagers or even before that.

When we posted that we were coming to UK and thinking about buying a Motor Home one of those old friends Keith Arthurs popped up and offered help and advice.

Thanks Kit!

Then he told us about a club he belongs to the “Motorcaravanners Club” who have great rallies. Being rally fans we were interested. When he told us that one of the rallies was at a Steam Rally and it would fit our timetable we were even more interested.

We have been looking forward to this.

Keith fixed us up with membership to the club, even putting up the cost of membership for us when there was a problem with our US debit card and the club website! Good man Kit!

We now got to meet up with him and Carol, Poppy and Daisy (the last 2 being their dogs).

Keith and Carol

The venue was a HUGE farm and took up I would estimate to be seven massive fields. It looked like every RV club in the country had a section for them to camp together. “Our” club, the Severn Valley chapter had over 100 RV’s on site and a wild guess had me thinking there were over 1000 total RV’s camped around the event.

Part of the Motorcaravanners club.

It was a 3 day affair although we arrived a day early and got set up ahead of most people, giving us a chance to explore the place before the big crowds arrived.

Large and busy beer tent

Vendors and fun fair

For the uninitiated a Steam Rally is an event where enthusiasts of antique steam powered farm and industrial equipment can get together and show it operating as it would have when it was new.

A steam powered truck

My favorites the Steam Traction Engines

There were Steam powered traction engines, saw mills, road rollers, trucks, stationary engines, operating scale models of them too and most fascinating of all a STEAM POWERED FUNFAIR!

Yes that's a steam powered carousel

The traction engines provide the electrical power for the rides too.

As if that wasn’t enough there were vintage cars, motorcycles, trucks, tractors, military vehicles, construction and earth moving equipment. Models of all those too including radio controlled construction equipment digging miniature holes and moving the dirt around in RC trucks.

Tanks!

Working steam models

Radio controlled earth moving equipment

Working model steam locomotives

Just in case you got bored there was a market area that sold everything under the sun, a food area and a massive beer tent selling micro brewery beer. Oh and tractor pulling in the evenings!

For the finale on Saturday night they had an ABBA tribute band and a fireworks display.

Antique Motorcycles

Gorgeous cars

What with “Happy Hours” with the club, dinners with Keith and Carol, a club raffle etc., the weekend just flew by and before we knew it it was time to pack up and head off again.

Great meeting everyone, thanks Keith and Carol see you again soon we hope!

Suddenly it’s August!

South from Liverpool

 

Further down the Pier Head is Liverpool’s Titanic Memorial dedicated to the ships Engine Room staff who were in the main from Liverpool.

Titanic Liverpool was moored at the marina

Titanic seems to have become a major part of this trip and I think I will have to dedicate a separate blog about our journey thru its story and our experiences.

Meanwhile we caught up with a few friends and relatives and spoiled the Grand Kids a little more, before heading southwards to spend a few days with Graham and Elaine near Lincoln.

Grand Daughter Kaitlynd shows off her photo skills with a portrait of her brother Niail

Lincoln was the center of the bomber campaign against Germany in WW2 and the whole area is dotted with airfields from that era and museums, pubs and monuments that celebrate the sacrifices made by airmen from all over the world.

Graham and Elaine's Pontiac Business Coupe

We attended a 1940’s weekend. Popular across England with people who like to reminisce about those times. Everyone was dressed in period costumes and several re-enactors groups had displays of both military and civilian goods.

The Dam Busters Pub

With a Lancaster Bomber tire as decor

Thanks Graham and Elaine for a great time.

Bomber Command "Operation Manna" memorial
Celebrating the food drops to the starving Dutch population in 1945

We have reverted to our “No plan plan”! Or maybe its a “Half plan plan” because we are going to a Steam Rally at the end of the month with another old friend Kit.

We ambled towards Cambridge and stopped at a pub for the night intending to visit the “Dad’s Army Museum”. Dad’s Army was a British TV comedy about the Home Guard in WW2.

"Desert Rats" 7th Armoured Division Memorial

Unfortunately it was only open on Saturdays and as we arrived on Tuesday we didn’t get to see it.

In another of those awesome moments when fate steps in we searched the area online for something else and a picture of a tank on a plinth popped up.

Eerily it was a monument to the famed Desert Rats that my Dad served with. We set out to find it.

The monument was deep in Thetford Forest about 5 miles from where we had spent the night. When we arrived and started exploring it turned out that the 7^th Armoured Division had been brought here from Italy in March 1944 to train and prepare for D Day. Dad’s unit, the 44^th Royal Tank Regiment was here!

From the unit history I knew that the short period they were here was the only time between 1941 and 1946 that they were in UK. Before that time they had been in the front line in Africa, Sicily and Italy. Afterwards they were in Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany. At wars end they were in Hamburg and in 1946 they were part of the Victory parade in Berlin.

The site of the original NAAFI buildings. Dad would have been right here in 1944

A sign said there was a museum and it was open but when we got there is said it was closed. A little ticked off about it I called the number of the manager shown on the information board to suggest he took down the sign saying it was open.

He immediately told us to wait there, and minutes later he opened the place up just for us!

Although there is very little to be seen of the original camp except the concrete roads they have recreated some of the buildings to form the museum. These stand on the bases of the NAAFI buildings. NAAFI stood for Navy, Army, Air Force Institute. This would roughly equate to the PX store in the US but provided entertainment for the enlisted men with things like pool tables, darts and music as well as having a canteen serving food and drinks.

So Dad drove these roads and stood in this very spot!

We decided that our next stop would be Cambridge, neither of us had ever been here or to the other famous college town of Oxford, We stayed at a nice but expensive Camping Club site that was just 150 yards from the bus stop for the town center.

We used the hop on hop off bus to see the city including the big American Cemetery.

The American Cemetery Cambridge

Our particular favorite naturally was Downing College! How nice that they named it after us.

The history of Downing College

An imposing building, quite suitable for our college

Actually it was named for George Downing who it appears was a pretty slick fellow, having been on BOTH sides of the English civil war and awarded honors for having been so. He was also instrumental in getting the Dutch to leave North America, which led to New Amsterdam being renamed New York! Good old George!

 Downing Street where the British Prime Minister lives is named after him.

The ENIGMA code machine

We saw on the map that we would be quite close to Bletchley Park. This was a Top Secret WW2 establishment that cracked the German military codes and developed the modern computer. History has recorded the US ENIAC as the first but this British one predated it and was too secret for it to be known.

The original country house at Bletchley

The code breakers used every inch inside

A sudden thought came to us while we were there.

We had planned that we would spend the best part of 5 months in UK and Ireland seeing all those things we missed when we lived here for 35 years. And now, suddenly we have been here 3 month already and we are feeling pinched for time!

There is no way we can do all the things we planned…

Where the heck has the time gone! We have to start trimming our ambitions and putting dates on calendars! We have to PLAN….

Meanwhile we headed South towards my Aunt Sheila's to see her and my several cousins around Portsmouth on the South Coast. We were here 5 years ago too but missed a lot of stuff.

Barb, Sheila, Helen and Liz

Several nice cozy pubs provided camping, beer and food along the way. We LOVE pub camping!

Some nice pubs we camped at.

Behind one of the pubs

A traditional British Canal Boat, like a house boat.

A side trip into Southampton provided another Titanic link as this was the port she sailed from. 790 of her crew were from here and only 175 survived. 

There is both a Titanic Experience and a monument to the Titanic’s Engineers who perished that night.

Titanic Engineers Memorial