We left Windermere and headed to Glasgow via Grasmere, Rydalmere and Thirlmere, this time with Michael in tow. We'd had a very pleasant dinner the night before at one of the local pubs and had followed this up with another great breakfast at our B&B, which Michael definitely enjoyed. The weather had again turned grey, but it wasn't raining so we did get one last good look at this really wonderful part of the world.
From there is was pretty much a solid drive of a few hours before we found ourselves in Glasgow, grabbing a quick pint at the local before we picked up Tim. The barmaid at the pub was the first person we'd spoken to in Scotland, and she had such a broad accent that a translator would have been helpful. In the end we smiled a lot, laughed at jokes she made we couldn't understand before downing the pints and finding Tim.
Now the family was back together, for the first time in around ten months, which was great. Our first night was on the west coast in a village called Connel, just out of the town of Oban. The weather had continued to be a bit on the damp side, though we'd had a good view of Loch Lomond on the way. Oban was a very picturesque coastal town, but when we got there for dinner the wind was blowing hard and cold. Nonetheless we wandered around and found a great little pub for dinner before heading back to our digs.
A word on the place we stayed at. Great food, fine rooms, interesting owner. She could really cook, had a sense of humour, but somewhere along life's journey she'd picked up a little bit of Basil Fawlty. She was clearly a stickler for the rule and heaven help the poor lady who accidentally poured out too much cereal and then used her hand (which she shouldn't have of course) to put some of it back. She might as well have farted in front of the queen. The same poor lady got in trouble for asking for access to a different toilet and trying to sort our an earlier breakfast. The curious thing was the owner was quite within her rights, it's just that the way she dealt with the person was straight out of The Basil Fawlty guide to customer service.
Now to a cock-up. We knew Oban was worth a visit in its own right, but we'd also planned to catch a ferry from there to the Isle of Mull. What we hadn't done was actually book the car on the damn ferry so, long story short, we'd missed out. In truth missing the ferry really wasn't a bad thing - actually it probably worked in our favour. We really didn't have the time for much of a tour of Mull, and though the day had dawned sunny the wind was still up, which meant the boat trip would have been rough (we noticed, for example, that the boat trip to the seal colony had been cancelled due to the winds, and rough sea).
In the end we had a very pleasant morning in Oban, which really was worth the visit, before heading to Loch Ness. Along the way we dropped into a Scottish wildlife sanctuary, which turned out to be a real winner. Awesome aquarium, great views of the coast, and pine forests perfect for the red squirrels which we looked for in vain.
That night we stayed in the awesomely named village of Drumnadrochit. We had a wander through the woods, down to Loch Ness, before having another great pub meal. The rooms at the B&B were really spacious and we wound up the evening drinking whiskey and eating local cheese in our room.
For the record we saw as many Loch Ness Monsters as we had red squirrels.
Next day took us to Grantown-on-Spey, in the Cairngorm Mountains, via Inverness. Inverness is a pretty cool place, at least the old town is, and worth a good wander through, checking out local ales along the way. Grantown was a bit of a gamble as it hadn't been on our radar until the day before, but it proved a great decision. It was right in the middle of a forest and we stayed at a quirky old pub. There was plenty of woodland walking, followed, by an evening of good food, a sampling of many fine whiskeys, card playing and a heckofalot of laughter.
The staff at the hotel were wonderful and just about as quirky as the establishment itself. We really liked them both, and they clearly got on well. The barman was very friendly, but deeply focused on doing his job right. The woman who was also working the bar with him, was garrulous and friendly but not necessarily as organised as the barman. They more of less did a Laurel and Hardy routine, the highlight being when we ordered a bottle of wine. The bar women went off to find the right wine glasses. Then the barman turned up with the bottle of red, and a set of smaller white wine glasses. We were just pouring ourselves a glass when the bar woman turned up with the red wine glasses and another opened bottle of red. There we were with two bottles of red and eight wine glasses. She rolled her eyes, and we all had a good laugh. In fact, that summed up the entire mood of the night - a damn good laugh.
Next stop Edinburgh.

.So Many Rings

Just to get things straight - this part of Ireland is so beautiful that no words can adequately capture it so I'm going to start using abbreviations - outrageously beautiful (OB), just plain stunning (JPS) - though mostly we'd just say things like "Oh, come on now" when we'd turn a corner and see something even more beautiful than the best view we'd ever seen just at the last corner.

We left Blarney (going via the woollen mills - I think there is more wool in Ireland than can possibly be found on all the sheep in the world -bizarre but true) and took the back roads to a place called Kenmare. The advice on the route came from our very friendly hotel manager. To be honest, the advice turned out to be more than a little confusing, made all the more surprising that she gave us info from Google and Google itself seemed to confused. You know you're in for a driving challenge when Google throws it's hands up in despair. Things weren't helped by the odometer in the car being in miles, even though the speedo was in ism, as were all the signs. Makes for some interesting calculations. But that was all right because the one thing we have learned is that the roads do their own thing over here. And don't expect any help from road signs. It's generally best to just feel comfortably lost, stop worrying and just take in the scenery - oh, and do explore side roads.

One of the highlights - a real moment of OB - came when we took a side road on a whim and found ourselves at Gougane Barra. Indescribably beautiful. Ancient church on magic lake - honestly one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen - google it. Photos don't even come close. Oh, and the toilet there won the best toilet award in Ireland in 2002. It was pretty impressive. Gotta love the Irish.

From there we wove down to Bantry, where we got our first taste of this amazing stretch of coastline. OB and JPS. Then we headed up to the b&b we'd booked at Kenmare. If you're ever in this part of the world Kenmare is a must - stay overnight if you can. Main Street is charming. Also saw our first seal there. We also took an evening trip down the Ring of Beara. 

Down this part of the world everything is in Rings, which basically just means driving around in a big scenic circle. After overnighting in Kenmare we took the Ring of Kerry, which has to be one of the most beautiful drives on the planet. The constantly amazing views made all the more impressive because they kept changing. Also found our first international geocache!

We attached to the Ring of Kerry a side trip to the Skellig Ring - which, despite sounding like something out of The Lord of the Rings, is actually another beautiful stretch of road, which took in Valentia Island, amazing cliff views, dinosaur footprints and walking around a derelict castle on a beach.

We then worked our way up to Glenbeigh for the night, only getting lost a few times, thanks to Google totally indicating the wrong location.

I do have to tell you about driving the Ring of Kerry - because this is part of the experience. The roads are ludicrously narrow and winding. Honestly, you can't believe how challenging it can be. To make it even more interesting throw in oncoming tractors and buses. Still want more to sharpen the driving experience. Imagine the roads are so narrow that if you meet a car coming the other way you have to back up to find a point where you can pass. Still no problem? Ok so now imagine that people can park just about anywhere and there's every chance you'll meet a pedestrian sharing the road because not only are there no footpaths - there's no damn side to the road at all - usually stone wall fences or holes cut through bushes (this is what the road often feels like - tunnels through trees). The hairiest example we saw of pedestrian/vehicle sharing was a woman pushing a stroller down a narrow road towards an oncoming tourist bus, whilst on our side there was a parked car and traffic trying to get around it. The craziest thing is, it all seems to manage to just not-quite end up in a multi-car pileup with civilian casualties.

We had a very pleasant evening eating tapas as a converted church and then taking in a geocache at the Torc Waterfall near Killarney. We got home and began to look into accommodation in Dublin ... And that was when the wheels fell off ... And they just kept on falling.

Sydney to London

Yes, we flew Malaysia Airlines, and yes, that contributed to the pre-flight tension in its own magical way. As did all those people who expressed horror or deep sympathy when we told them of this fact. Special thanks to them.  In the end we found ourselves turning to fairly tasteless humour to ease this tension. We found ourselves telling people we'd brought the booking upgrade where we didn't get shot at by rebel forces. Told you it was tasteless but it helped.

What certainly didn't help was our online check-in experience. We were staying at Michelle's place the night before the flight and we decided to check-in online. We got out the mobile phone and the tablet but we got a rude shock. The online booking system told us that no flight existed the next day to book in on. Now, just a day or do earlier the Malaysian government had to financially bail out Malaysian Airlines so it was quite feasible that they'd cancelled flights. Here we were at 11pm facing the prospect of having tickets on a flight that didn't exist. Boy did we chuckle about that. Michelle decided she'd ring the help line and with persistence got through. It turns out, amusingly, that if you're using smart devices you have yo use their special app and can only making one booking per device. It would have made the booking experience a little less bowel-loosening if they'd had a simple message saying this as opposed to denying your flight existed.

Only two other observations on the flight over. First, travelling with a small child is probably hell - getting to share that experience is not much better. Especially when there seemed to be 4 or 5 in our section of the plane - all happy to cry their damp bums off. One in particular must have gone to the Nursery of Demonic Possession and passed with honours in aggravating crying. Try that for 14 hours and see how hard it is not to give in to inappropriate idle thoughts in relation to child survival.

And the other observation is more of a question - if it's not right to allow smoking on planes (fair enough) how is it right to allow people with malodorous flatulence to get away with it. Surely, at least they should wear some kind of warning badge.

Anyway, we landed safe and sound - and the real adventure began.

It was bright and early and we were in London meeting our son, Michael, by 7 am that morning. Needless to say it was fantastic. We were booked in a hotel close to the city centre and after we dropped our bags off we began a long and wonderful day. We breakfasted at the Tower of London, walked up to St Paul's, caught a bus to Trafalgar Square, checked out Westminster Abbey, walked down to Big Ben and The a Houses of Parliament and finally staggered home some hours later. Then it was out for some pints at the local where we met up with our other son, Tim, and nephews Tom and a Jake and Michael's friend, Becky. Then off for dinner on the South Bank. A huge day all round - and the location of our hotel was just perfect. Right in the heart, surrounded by amazing old buildings. Who says you need to relax on holidays? (Kate seems to think we do - weird hey?)