Day 20 - Cardiff - SalisburyjawaproTue 10/02/2009 02:26 AM
Today the sun came up (seems to happen fairly often) and we had a rather meager breakfast that was included with the room - just do it yourself toast and marmalade. Not a huge fan of marmalade - but that was the only option - and it’s better than nothing.
We left the room, and headed back into town the way we’d gone last night. Apparently it’s easier in the dark, as I led us up the wrong street for a while. After backtracking a bit (with our bags) and finding the right street, we headed for the information centre.
We left our bags at the info centre as they did the cheapest and best Left Luggage service in town (according to them) and we didn’t want to lug the bags around.
We caught the bus to Cardiff Bay, home of the Red Dragon Centre - which in turn is home to a Dr Who museum.
Meet the new doctor.
The museum isn’t terribly large, but they have a lot of actual props - not just replicas etc.
The Dalek display was pretty impressive. When you pressed a button, they sprang to life and did a little performance including firing lasers.
K-9, a Doctor’s best friend.
Sadly - the shop attached to the museum was a little below par - and I didn’t spend anywhere near as much as I thought I might have. They were down to the dregs of the collectible figures. Still - I didn’t come away with nothing... Wonder how much they'll charge for extra baggage at the airport...
As well as being where Dr Who is filmed, Cardiff is also the setting for Torchwood. I’m standing on the ‘invisible lift’ down to the Torchwood Hub. Couldn’t work out how to activate it though.
The Water Tower. As well as being home to the Torchwood Lift, it’s quite interesting in it’s own right. Water is constantly falling down the face of the tower, like a small waterfall.
Totally unrelated to Dr Who - this guy happened to be walking around a ‘Game’ shop - which is the local version of EB. I reckon he was looking for a copy of Fallout 3, but I could be mistaken.
After collecting some more souvenirs and our suitcases, we headed back to the train station. 2 hours later we were in Salisbury.
This nice little English town is the pitstop for this leg of the race... umm - sorry, got carried away there.
Salisbury is quite pretty with old building and things. Its also fairly small and flat - which is great news when you’re lugging suitcases right across town. The hostel does happen to be up about the only hill in Salisbury, but it’s still not too bad - and far better than Glasgow had been (way too many hills).
Tonight we took a walk and checked out the Salisbury Cathedral, and had some good old English Fish and Chips for tea.
According to the Visitor Centre, Stonehenge was open for visitors today for the first time during the week (lots of snow). Hopefully it’s open tomorrow when we want to see it.
We also heard in the news today about dreadfull bushfires back home in Aus (couldn’t quite make out where) - and Mum emailed us to say it would be 45 in Melbourne! We’re going back in a few days time - but if it’s that warm, I don’t think I’ll cope. If only I could bring some of the cold weather with me….
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Day 19 - Glasgow to CardiffjawaproSat 07/02/2009 06:26 PM
Well - we made it. All the way from Glasgow in Scotland to Cardiff in southern Wales.
Today was mostly spent travelling. We didn’t really get to see much of Glasgow this morning, as we marched straight back to the train station. Turns out it was the wrong train station - but there was a free shuttle bus to the right one (different stations deal with the Northern and Southern lines).
Our First Class tickets got us from Glasgow down to a place called Crewe. It was a nice trip through typical English countryside. There was even baggage space for Emma’s bag - which now includes a semi-permantly extended handle (see previous blog).
The middle sections of England have apparently coped the worst of the snow - but it didn’t seem too bad to us as we cruised through.
At Crewe, we had to change trains, as the one we were on was bound for Birmingham.
The second train was another smaller one - and didn’t have any first class at all. Thanfully it wasn’t too crowded, and there was room for both of us and Emma’s bag to sit together.
As we got into Wales, it was interesting to see all the place names and other signs in English, with a ?Welsh? translation. Far too many odd letters in Welsh words - how are you supposed to try and say them?
We did eventually arrive in Cardiff. I hadn’t been sure what to expect from Cardiff. There were signs of a rough side to the city (the cops and ambos were helping a guy who’d been beaten up) but on the other hand, it was a very friendly place.
We couldn’t make the pay phones work to ring the hostel we wanted to stay at - so we ended up going to the Tourist Info place to ask for some help. The old guy there was extremely friendly and rang for us, and then gave us a map and some legendary directions on how to find the place.
As we walked along the road with our bags and map, a few people stopped to ask if they could help or if we were lost. It’s the first time anyone’s done that on the trip where it hasn’t been a cover to try and con us out of money (gypsies in Italy - didn’t get us, but we saw them con other people).
We made it to the hostel and checked in. The folk here are really nice and friendly too. Cardiff actually feels like a very welcoming place - with just a few undesirable elements - but I guess everywhere has them. Emma was more put out by them than me - as I didn’t notice the negative elements until she pointed them out.
Being as close to Ireland as we’re likely to come for a while, and as we didn’t know of any famous Welsh dishes, we went to an Irish pub for tea. Emma had some sausages with potato thing, and I had a good old Irish stew. Very nice, and not too dear either.
The hostel has free wi-fi (I love that about the UK) so we made the most of it tonight by checking email, posting overdue blog entries, and booking a hotel for our last night in London. Originally we’d only been going as far as Liverpool today, so we’d be in Cardiff the following night, and our last night would have been in Salisbury. We’d decided we wanted to be closer to London for the last night - and have managed to get a day in advance now - and have now booked the final day’s accommodation. So Salisbury tomorrow night, and London for the final night.
Tomorrow we’re going to experience what makes Cardiff really famous - and the main reason we came here - the Dr Who museum!
In other news - Emma finally broke my umbrella. It was a chickenfeed umbrella that Dad modified so it could fit in my suitcase. I’ve had it the entire trip, except for our day in Rome, which was the day it rained.
Sadly - the umbrella is no more. Emma’s probably quite glad - as she was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that I carried it around when it wasn’t raining.
On Emma's request - I will point out that the umbrella was almost broken for a few days now, it just happened to give up while she was holding it for me.
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Day 18 - Inverness to GlasgowjawaproSat 07/02/2009 07:39 AM
A day in which a bus gets bogged, trains run late, a bus ignores us, a bag causes trouble, and Emma has a bad day.
It was not always thus, however - and the story begins at the beginning.
We woke up to find Inverness covered in a lightish dusting of snow. Not enough to cause us any trouble - just enough to make everything look pretty.
After leaving the hotel and leaving the master key in the security box thing (there was a 2nd one there now - so they must have found another somewhere), we headed down the street towards town.
Descending ‘Rainings Stairs’ with bags was a lot easier than going up had been.
The Castle from the Stairs again (in the snow this time).
We stopped at Maccas for some breakfast, and then headed to the train station to make use of the Left Luggage facility. Much better this time - instead of paying 5.50 pounds per bag, this time we paid 5 pound for a locker, which was large enough to hold all 4 bags (2 suitcases and 2 carry-on bags).
After ditching our bags, we rushed down the road to the bus station, and caught a local bus up the road to... LOCH NESS!
I’d had my doubts that we’d be able to make it - in fact, I’d fully expected we wouldn’t be able to - but Emma had done the research on the bus routes before we’d left (and we did some more on the net a few days ago). Turns out we could still make the train to Glasgow (just) if we went up to see the Loch on the bus.
We caught the 9:15 bus (the first one) to Urquhart Castle. Emma had identified this as probably the best place to go to see Loch Ness.
First thing we noticed when getting off the bus (apart from the great view of the loch) was that the ground was a lot further away than it looked.
Not a great photo - but my shoes are well and truly below the level of the snow. Quite deep in other words.
This is my first real experience with ‘real’ snow. The soft powdery stuff - not the hard icy stuff I’ve encountered back home on the mountains. This stuff is so fine there’s hardly any resistance. You can’t even kick it at anyone - as it just turns to mist in the air.
Unfortunately for them, the bus that dropped us off in the carpark of Urquhart Castle didn’t make it much further. As it tried to rejoin the main road - it got bogged on some ice, and had to wait for a snow plow to come and pull it out.
Urquhart Castle is ruins - and the visitor centre wasn’t open yet - so we spent a while taking photos of the castle and the Loch itself.
Look out - it’s the Loch Ness Monster!
Actually - it’s a Chickenfeed dinosaur I bought with me from Tassie - but I had you going there for a minute, didn’t I?
Still no sign of the real monster - but we did talk to some people driving an electric buggy with a snow plow who were clearing the tracks for the castle. Apparently this is the most snow here in years. They purchased the snow plow years ago - but this was the first time it’s ever been used. Probably too cold for Nessie to make an appearance.
The visitor centre for the castle eventually opened and we went in. What looked pretty small from the carpark was actually just the staircase down to the real centre. Down here was a small museum, a gift shop, a café, and a movie theatre.
We got a discount because they weren’t sure when the castle would be safe to open (they had to clear away the snow from the paths for OH&S reasons).
The theatre showed a short movie on the history of the castle - and ended with the screen retracting, and the curtains opening to show the ruins of the castle in a great panoramic view through the window. It was a great moment and completely unexpected (by me at any rate). I thought it was a great finale to the movie - one of the best of that sort of effects I’ve witnessed.
^ The movie theatre after the screen and curtains had retracted.
Finally the snow was cleared enough for us to be allowed down to the castle itself. We didn’t have time for a proper look, just grab a couple of photos of it and the Loch before we had to head back to the road to catch the bus.
Loch Ness.
We climbed back up to the bus stop in the carpark with a few minutes to spare. Unfortunately, being early didn’t matter, because when the bus did arrive, it just sailed past without stopping. This was where Emma’s day started going wrong - and she was quite upset that we’d missed the bus, and thought we would then miss the train. Strangely - I wasn’t too worried, and I’m normally the one who panics.
The next bus was only 15 minutes away (the following one was over an hour after that) so we camped out on the road, and waved like mad when it arrived to convince it to stop and pick us up. The driver gave the impression that he was always going to stop, and thought it was strange that the first one (which we had tickets for) didn’t.
The bus got us back into town, and he rushed for the train station - but the train had been delayed, so it wasn’t a problem.
We collected our bags and got some lunch. When the train eventually did leave, it was another small one. There was no room in first class - so we ended up in the general area in apparently reserved seats. This also worried Emma (who was still having a bad day), as we could in theory be thrown out of our seats if the people who reserved them turned up - but they didn’t, so it wasn’t a problem.
The scenery through this trip was gorgeous. I’d been expecting to see the typical Scottish Highlands, but I hadn’t expected it to be covered in snow. It would have been nice either way - but the snow made it look pretty darn impressive.
The train was bound for Edinburgh, but we weren’t, so we had to change trains at Perth. This was another close thing, as our train had been delayed. The 2nd one had been held for us, but we still had to run. This is where Emma’s day got even worse.
Emma’s suitcase (like mine) has a retractable handle for pulling. We’ve used these heaps over the trip. Emma’s bag somehow jammed, and we weren’t able to retract the handle. By this stage, the day’s mishaps had taken their toll on Emma, and she was pretty upset - and declared that the bag wasn’t broken, it just didn’t work anymore. We managed to get it into the baggage rack anyway, and found 2 seats together for the trip (not too easy in such a small train).
After another hour or there abouts, we arrived in Glasgow. Emma rang the B&B from her research, and we organized to head over there. It was about a 10 minute walk, but was slightly more than double that as we were dragging our suitcases with us - and part of it was uphill.
At the B&B I let Emma head upstairs with the key to check out the room to see if we wanted to stay there (I’d done it the last time) and waited for her to come back. She took a while, and the landlord wondered if she’d got lost, but eventually she returned and sheepishly asked me to come up with her. I thought that the rooms must be dreadful but she didn’t want to say in front of the landlord. Turns out she’d gotten the room number wrong, and tried the key in the wrong door. It had actually worked, and when it had opened, she’d seen other people’s bags on the floor. She’d tried to lock the door and try the correct one - but the key had gotten stuck in the wrong door, and she couldn’t get it out.
With a little bit of force and logic (probably more force than logic), I managed to get the key out, and we checked out the correct room - which was ok, so we booked in for the night.
We left our gear in the room, and went out into town for tea and had a nice lasagna at a little restaurant place. I was keeping my eye out for shops that sold luggage in case we couldn’t fix Emma’s bag. There were a couple of possibilities.
I was forbidden to take photos of the suitcase repairs (thanks Em) - so here’s one of the Glasgow nightscape instead.
After emptying the bag, she was able to retract the handle - but that was going to be pretty inconvenient, so we tried to fix it properly. This just made things worse - and for a while it looked like she’d have no handle, or half a handle - but after over and hours work, we eventually got back to where we’d started. The handle can only be retracted by emptying the bag and getting at the workings inside. As long as we can fit it onboard the trains like this - it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll retract it on the last day so it can go on the planes.
We’ve also had a discussion about our plans for tomorrow. We’d originally been planning to go to Liverpool, but didn’t have any real reasons for stopping there other than breaking the trip south. So we’ve changed our minds and are planning to go all the way to Cardiff instead if we can manage it - as that will give us an extra night at the end of the trip, and make things work better. Well - that’s the plan at this stage.
Stay tuned...
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Day 17 - Edinburgh to InvernessjawaproSat 07/02/2009 07:38 AM
Today we woke up in our lovely little Bed and Breakfast and went down for the included breakfast. It was described as a full Scottish Breakfast - and included sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, grilled tomato, and if we’d wanted it, black pudding.
After breakfast, and a nice chat with the landlord, we caught a bus into town and hit a souvenir shop briefly and then boarded a train to Aberdeen.
This section of the trip was quite enjoyable - running along the Scottish coast for a fair bit of the time.
And then suddenly - snow happened.
We were back in snow-covered land. It was pretty sudden. We stopped at one station where it was raining slightly, and almost as soon as we left the town, we were in the snow.
Emma didn’t see too much of the scenery - as she was busy fighting with the laptop and free wi-fi to get her blog updated. Apparently they weren’t co-operating.
Aberdeen - our lunch stop. We didn’t really have a reason to go to Aberdeen - but we figured it would be a good route to see as much of Scotland as we could - even if it was just from a train window. Otherwise we’ be backtracking over the same line that took us up - so this was a good way to see as much as we could manage - and our Britrail passes meant it didn’t cost anything.
The most famous thing about Aberdeen (that I know of) is that it is where the 4th Doctor dropped off Sarah Jane Smith (he thought he was in London) before going back to Gallifrey.
From here, we took the much smaller train (only 2 carriages) to Inverness - The Capital of the Highlands.
This leg eventually left the snow, and the land became green once again.
We rocked up to Inverness and lugged our suitcases into the middle of town, looking for the Highlander Hostel and Bed and Breakfast (another result of Emma’s pre-trip research).
The Hostel was cheap - but Emma decided she’d prefer a room to ourselves, so we took the Bed and Breakfast - but that was an ordeal in itself. The guy at the hostel was taking the booking for the Bed and Breakfast (which didn’t include breakfast) but was also ringing the police at the same time to report that someone the police were after had just booked in. I think the girl in question was a run-away, but I’m not sure. The police arrived, and though that Emma (who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with the bags) was the girl they were looking for. We managed to convince them that she wasn’t.
As the landlord was dealing with the cops - he asked another girl who lives in the hostel and covers when he goes on holiday to take us up to the Bed and Breakfast (which was up the street).
The way to the Bed and Breakfast was up "Raining’s Stairs" which is a small alley-way with a lot of steps. Lots of fun with suitcases.
^ Raining’s Stairs - taken on the following day (when there was snow again).
When we arrived at the Bed and Breakfast (a two story building), the girl from the hostel had to work out how to unlock the door of the B&B (new system apparently) - as there appeared only to be the one key - which we now have. Although we have only booked the one room - I’m not sure if anyone else would be able to get in - as we seem to have the master key.
The room itself is quite nice - but more importantly, it’s right in the middle of town, so we were able to drop our stuff off and head back for tea and a wander around. The stairs aren’t an issue when we don’t have our bags.
^ Inverness Castle
The downside to winter in Scotland is that things seem to shut early. By 5, half the town was shut, and by 6, almost everything that hadn’t shut before now was. You’d expect most things to shut - but things don’t get this dead back home. We did manage to find a Tesco’s where we bought some stuff for tea. Must say - looking forward to having an oven and microwave again when I get home. Not being able to cook limits your options when shopping.
Inverness is the Capital of the Highlands area of Scotland - and is on the banks of the River Ness (as in the famous Loch). Tomorrow we’re hoping to catch a bus up to the Loch and see if we can spot Nessie. Can’t wait!
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Day 16 - Newcastle to EdinburghjawaproSat 07/02/2009 07:37 AM
This morning we left Roselodge House, and discovered that the snow has mostly disappeared.
On the news we discovered that the snow yesterday was not normal - in fact it was so unexpected that half of London shut down. Worst snowfall in 16 years or something.
Anyway - this morning we caught a bus into town. We called into the train station - and checked our bags into ‘Left Luggage’ - which is a baggage storage place. Quite expensive when you convert it to Australian - but worth it not to have to drag the bags around. We wouldn’t have been able to check out the castle without it.
We’d always said that we really wanted to check out at least one castle in the UK, but weren’t sure what ones we’d be able to get to (no car). The castle in Newcastle was close to the train station - and pretty cheap to get into. It also looked pretty impressive - so it ticked all the right boxes for us.
The castle - called the Castle Keep is the ‘new’ castle for which Newcastle was named.
Originally a Roman Fort - the current castle was built during Medieval times, and modified in the time since. For a while it was basically hidden by other buildings (the slums of the area) but they have since been knocked down and removed, so the castle is once again impressive in the surrounding area.
I won’t spend too long describing it - but there are some photos below if you’re interested. It was very cool - but if you’re not into castles, you wouldn’t find it very exciting. Personally - I loved it.
The roof of the castle.
View of Newcastle from the roof of the castle.
Typical staircase. Would not have worked well with suitcases.
King for a day. This is actually a staircase in the Great Hall - but it looked enough like a throne that we had to pose.
Em and I at the gate to the castle.
I want to live in a castle!
After the castle - we collected our bags and hit the trains again.
The trip this time was only a bit over an hour - and ran along the east coast.
We crossed the border with no fan-fare at all - and arrived in Scotland. Our over-night stop tonight was in Edinburgh.
Emma had researched some cheap places to stay - but this time we didn’t have wireless on the train, so we couldn’t book ahead. So instead we chose one that looked ok and we could find on the bus map - and caught a bus (double decker) to the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary - a hospital (which was about the only bus stop we could identify from our Google Maps), and from there lugged our bags up the road to the Arden Guest House (which happens to be right besides another bus route). Unfortunately the B&B wasn’t as cheap as it had been when Emma had done the research - but it was a great place, and we didn’t really want to lug our bags elsewhere in case it was no better. We checked in - and then headed back into town (we had a bus day pass) to check the town out and find some tea.
Edinburgh Castle by night. We’d considered doing this castle instead of the Castle Keep - but decided to do the earlier one. Glad too - this one is more expensive, and seems to be more of a palace than a military castle, which the other one was.
Emma was quite excited to find vegetarian Haggis in some of the shop windows as we walked around. Apparently she thinks she could probably stomach the fake stuff. Not that we tried any.
So that’s our short tour of Edinburgh. If the lines are open tomorrow, we’re planning to head further north into the Scottish Highlands.
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