Thursday 19th August - York

I'm not sure which hill the Grand Old Duke marched his troops up, but he wouldn't have got too many on top of this one

The Castle on the Mound

As we drove through the city you could see a lot of the castle ruins and town wall still remaining. We stopped once again and walked down by the riverside and also up along the top of the castle walls. It was funny seeing these old ruins surrounded by newer homes and shops.


Inside the castle wall where we walked


Some of the outside of the castle wall

We decided to take the motorway across country to Blackpool. About half way along we passed a very 'bent up' push bike in the middle lane which had obviously fallen off the back of a car. The motorway was very busy so it was impossible to stop and move it. Almost immediately a police car entered the motorway from a junction, put on his lights and a sign saying 'Do Not Pass' and slowed down the three lanes of traffic to about 30 MPH. Geoff figured he must have been looking for the bike so he tried to pull up beside this fine member of the constabulary to tell him that we'd already passed it. The policeman thought he was trying to pass him, was not impressed and pulled us over. After a quick explanation the policeman decided that possibly not all Australians are criminals and quickly headed back to find the bike.

Blackpool
Blackpool is the home of the famous Blackpool Illuminations and of course Blackpool Rock. As usual, we drove into the town not knowing where we were going to be staying that night but knew we wanted to be near the beach (what beach?) so we drove along the promenade looking for a decent place to stay. Amazingly Geoff recognised the place where he had stayed 36 years ago (Norbreck Castle) so we thought we'd call in and see if they had a room available. The guy at the counter thought it was funny when Geoff asked for a 15% discount as per their return discount policy! Unfortunately they didn't honour it, but we still managed to get a free upgrade to a jacuzzi room. Norbreck Castle is a huge place and it reminded us of a large cruise ship with buffet meals, movie theatre, games and entertainment.

The next morning we caught a tram along the promenade looking at the amazing displays of lights. This place must really chew up some power, no wonder they had a big windfarm out in the middle of the Irish Sea. We got off at the 'tower' and did the usual Blackpool thing of playing the amusements, going on some themepark rides and walking the pier. The ride on the Ferris Wheel seemed extra special because we were on Blackpool Pier and had great views of the tower and the promenade.


The Beach!


The lights on the Promenade


Geoff wins on the camels

Friday 20th August - Liverpool.

This place was a pleasant surprise, we really only wanted to come here to get a feel for some of the British musical history of the place such as Merseyside and of course 'The Cavern' - the place where the Beatles first played together. The Cavern itself was amazing, it was hidden well underground in the basement of an old warehouse and it resembled a small dark subway station.

But there was also so much more to Liverpool. The Albert Dock and the old buildings around the maritime museum together with the mix of the old and new buildings throughout the city really did work ok in this place. It was definately a lot nicer than we expected.


The Cavern


The Mersey

Saturday 14th August - South to England
After a great time in Scotland, we headed south to Birmingham to catch up with some of Geoff's long lost relies. A couple of them (Jaime and David) he'd only met in Sydney a few years earlier, some (George, Viv, Pauline and Marion) he hadn't seen for 36 years, and there were others who he'd never met at all. They all were great fun and it's a pity we couldn't spend a bit more time with them.

I was amazed at how much George (his cousin) looked like Geoff and his brothers.


Geoff, Pauline and George

Jaime and David live in a fantastic little spot called Chadwicke End (near Knowle) - this village is only about 19 miles from Birmingham but it is incredibly picturesque and we spent a couple of days here visiting some of the local pubs, walking country lanes, and visiting some of the nearby sights such as Warwick Castle and Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace).
We also got to see a Jousting Tournament (jousting sticks - tell him he's dreamin'...!)


Jousting Tournament


Warwick Castle (View from Guy's Tower)


Shakespeare's House

It was also great to catch up with Neil and Grethe (who actually live in Sydney) on the opposite side of the world. They took us on a beautiful walk along some of the canals and we actually got to help a couple of the barges go through some of the locks.



Locks & a Barge

Tuesday 17th - Birmingham
Both of Geoff's parents were 'Brummies', so we wanted to spend a bit of time in the city visiting the Bullring, checking out the markets and just getting a feel for the place. We walked along some canals right in the middle of the city and even had breakfast on one of the barges.

Our breakfast barge

We then drove around to some of the streets where Geoff's parents grew up, played, worked and got married etc.

But before we could leave Birmingham, we had to make a stop at CADBURY WORLD - yes WORLD! It was a great thing to see and incredibly busy, and of course we got some freebies! We even got to draw with some of the melted chocolate we didn't get to eat!

Our creative talents combined

Wednesday 18th - Our Adventures with Robin Hood!

Nottingham Castle

We couldn't go past Nottinghamshire without following the Robin Hood trail. We visited Nottingham Castle (home of the Sherriff and many other dignatories including Richard I) and then we discovered this amazing pub called 'Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem', which is claimed to be England's oldest pub and which is cut into the rock that the castle is built on. Truly amazing...

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

Also in the middle of Nottingham City, amongst all these beautiful old buildings, we came across a game of beach volleyball.

Beach Volleyball

From here we travelled to Sherwood Forestf in search of Robin Hood. The forest was amazing with beautiful walks which included amazing old oak trees, one of them, 'The Major Oak', was huge and it was around this area that Robin and his Merrie Men are reported to have made their camp. The quaint little town of Edwinstowe was nearby so we wandered the streets and found the beautiful old church (Circa 1197) where Robin and Marian supposedly got married.

The Major Oak

Wednesday 18th - Our Adventures with Robin Hood!

St Mary's where Robin and Marian married

The next morning Geoff decided to go for a run through Sherwood Forest for an hour or so. He said this would probably be the nicest run he's ever done. (This is especially good as he hurt his back several days ago and hasn't been able to do very much at all).


Sherwood Forest

Is this a decendant of Robin Hood?

Thursday 12th Aug – Scotland The Brave!

We touched down at Glasgow airport just after 12.00 and immediately asked the lady at the passport counter for the ‘directions to James’s house’. Strangely enough she hadn’t heard of him and neither had the next person we asked (I thought everyone in Scotland knew James – after all most people in Australia know him). In hindsight we realised that they probably did know him, but due to the fierce rivalry between the Scots of the East & West Coasts, they weren’t going to make things easy for us! Nevermind, after a full couple of days exploring the Highlands we managed to find our way back to the East Coast and finally arrived at the Dunbar Inn.

James and Val have the most amazing home, right on the shore of the North Sea. Dunbar is a popular little town of around 7,000 people and it is full of history. We wandered up to the local pub for tea with James, Val and some of his relies, and after sampling some of the local seafood and a couple of pints of ‘Bellhaven Best’ James took us for a tour of the Village. After growing up here James really knew the history of the place and it was great getting this insight into the town. One of the sites was an old 13th Century castles (now ruins) which was built to protect the locals from retribution from the English after they would go down and steal their livestock. The castle was also used to imprison Mary Queen of Scots for a while (and they say Australia’s full of criminals!).


The view from the back of James and Val's house

Friday 13th August – The Scottish Highlands.
After picking up our hire car from Glasgow, we just simply started driving... We weren’t really sure which direction to head but I knew that Loch Ness was in the North West so that was the way we went. Along the way we came to some very pretty little towns such as Luss. This place is full of quaint little stone cottages with beautiful gardens and we spent quite a while here just wandering around. We then drove along the side of Loch Lomond before turning West and crossing some spectacular mountainous country to get to Fort William where we stayed for the night. The actual place we stayed was at the base of ‘Ben Nevis’, Scotland’s highest mountain.


After a Scottish Pie for breakfast we drove to Glenfinnan to see the Glenfinnan viaduct. Cathy is a bit of a Harry Potter fan and this is bridge that the train crosses in the movie. Typically us, we got there just as the Train was about to cross the viaduct and we managed to get a couple of nice photos.



Glenfinnan Bridge (Harry Potter)

Back on the road we were off to Loch Ness in search of Nessie! We arrived at Fort Augustus and found this place to be a real tourist hub – full of other people also trying to catch a glimpse of the fabled monster. We figured Nessie would never come down to this part of the Loch with so many people around so we travelled a bit further to where it was a bit quieter. Still no monster... so since I had my snorkeling gear in the car I thought I’d put it on and took a closer look. Well... you wouldn’t believe it, while I was out there straining my eyes in the murky waters Cathy spotted the monster and she reckons she’s got some photos to prove it!!!


Is this the real LochNess monster?????

Once again the scenery around here was just beautiful and the drive up alongside the Lochs has to be one of world’s best road trips. It was definitely one of my favorites and it shouldn’t be missed if you ever come to Scotland. We could have probably spent much more time up here in the highlands, but we wanted to get back to catch up with our friends James & Val back in Dunbar.

Hopefully will get photos for Dubai up today as well

Dubai... What a place

Tuesday 10th Aug - Dubai... What a place

We arrived at Dubai airport around 5.00am local time, got our gear and headed straight to the motel. It's already 35 degrees so after a cool drink we dropped off our bags, changed into summer gear and headed out for a walk around the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall (our accommodation is only about 500m from both of these and the room is fantastic!). The shops don't open till 10am and most people don't start arriving until after midday. This mall is 'big' and we spent a long time just wondering around checking things out. There is a huge indoor aquarium, a really 'ritzy' fashion avenue, and for the kids, there is the biggest 'candy' shop I've ever seen - it took up 4 shop spaces! The people in Dubai are the most amazingly friendly and helpful people. We bought our tickets to go the top of the Burj Khalifa tomorrow night as it will be the first night of Ramadan and they are expecting it to be busy (and they are a 1/4 of the price if you pre-buy!).

We caught a taxi (very cheap with our conversion rate) out to the Atlantis Resort on the tip of the Jumeirah Palm Island. We had a good look around the resort before catching the monorail back across the palm. The monorail is up in the air so we got a great view of everything. It's amazing how they built this place out of the sand they dredged from the sea. Another taxi ride and we're off to the ‘Mall of Emirates’ to check out the Indoor Snow Skiing. The ski slopes are fantastic and it looked like great fun, but Geoff knows his limits and decided that a 'leg in plaster' might be too big a handicap for his upcoming races. This activity will have to wait till next time.

We then caught the metro rail back to the hotel. Again the tracks are high up so it's an enjoyable ride. The metro has the cleanest trains I've ever seen, they looked brand new. In fact Dubai is an incredibly clean place with people cleaning constantly. We then had a refreshing shower as it was now in the 40's and we had to get ready for our desert safari...

Saf (our driver) picked us up at the motel and we drove out to a place where the 4WD's meet and let some air out of the tyres ready for the sand dunes. We could tell he was going to give us a good dune experience just by his driving out there and we weren't wrong - it was amazing. Several of the 4WD’s had ‘dings’ and damage on them from previous trips, but we survived and ended up at a camp where we had a camel ride and dined on local foods which were beautiful (looked and tasted a lot like Indian food). No bellydancers as it was Ramadan but that was OK. Also no alcohol - and yes Jen I managed to survive that - but would you??? We got back to the motel at about 10.00pm – stuffed!


The Atlantis on Jumeirah Palm Island


Dune bashing on the safari


Dinner and entertainment at the safari camp


Wednesday 12th Aug - What heat???

Another day in Dubai. We enjoyed a sleep in before heading out to Dubai Creek and the older part of town to check out the Gold and Spice Souks. It is very (very) hot. We caught a taxi to the area and then walked along the creek for a couple of K's looking at the different boats before arriving at the markets. The Spice Souks are in really narrow and cluttered laneways. They sell an amazing range of spices, incense, dried fruits and nuts straight out of open sacks and the aromas were really strong. Did I mention that it was hot...!

I'm not sure which we enjoyed more at the Gold Souks, the gold or the really well air conditioned stores! It took a long time for us to decide not to buy something!!! I’ve never seen so much gold in one place. We then walked back to the water and caught an Abra (small wooden boats) one for 1 dirham (less than 30cents) back across the creek. Rather than pass out, we headed back to the motel for some R&R. When we mentioned to the taxi driver it was hot, he said it was currently 50 degrees outside!

The hotel pool was a perfect place to recover before wandering back to the Burj Khalifa to take the superfast lift up to the observation deck to watch the sunset over the Arabian Gulf. It was amazing looking out over the City, the Desert and the Sand Islands. Part of the observation deck is outside and it really feels strange with the building swaying in the breeze. As the sun sets they bring out water (yep when you’re fasting during daylight hours they don’t eat or drink anything) and dates which were coated in chocolate and stuffed with an almond. Sounds strange but they tasted great!

Once back on the ground we had tea sitting on the waterside watching the amazing Dubai Fountains water show. These were definitely one of the highlights, they are spectacular to say the least. This video of them goes for about 4 minutes or so but it’s worth a look... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-jgoqC4FQ . We then enjoyed our last wander around the waterfront before heading back to the hotel for another night of luxury. We fly on to Scotland tomorrow.


View from our hotel


The Abra - boat for crossing the creek


We're on top of the world (View from the top of the Burj Khalifa)


The Ramada (our hotel) is situated in the bottom right corner

Sunday 8th Aug - City to Surf... the first event

So far, so good. It's another beautiful day in Sydney and Geoff pounded the pavement to Bondi in approximately 53:10 (not bad for 14 km's, although I did it quicker on the bus). After a refreshing dip in the ocean (fools!) we went across the road to catch up with some of the others and share some stories at the Bondi Hotel. It seemed like most of Road Runners had a great day out and were happy with their times. A couple of quick beers later we bid farewell to the rest of the Wagga crew and enjoyed a nice leisurely stroll along the coastline to Bronte Beach, stopping in at Bondi Icebergs for refreshments along the way.


Made it to Bondi!


Cathy at the Icebergs


A well earned rest

Well, we're on our way!

Saturday 7th Aug - We're on our way! It was a fresh and frosty winters morning when we fronted up at Fitzies place at 7.00am to catch the bus with about 40 other Road Runners on their way to compete in the City to Surf. You'd think that after being up untill about 2.30am packing bags that it would be easy to catch a nap on the bus... think again. Never mind, Mrs Fitz and the other ladies kept us well fed with cakes and sando's and we arrived in Sydney with enough time to have a drive over part of the course and enjoy some sight seeing at The Gap.


We celebrated Bill's birthday on the bus.


Plenty of 'Carbs' loading along the way!


Enjoying the walk to The Gap (South Head)


The view back up the harbour.

The Breese’s are off on another one of their great adventures…

After spending the past six years reflecting on their previous world trip where they used an Atlas as a road map, the Breeses of Wagga Wagga are at it again, and this time they are in search of a bog. Not just any bog mind you, this bog is special. It’s located just outside of a little town in Wales known as LLanwrtyd Wells, and it’s the home of the Bog Snorkelling World Championships.

The Story begins…