Scotland!

4/4/2011 

Today we drove from Castleton to York, a town with a Medieval wall around it. After  we went to the Caravan site we drove to a Park-and-Ride place and caught the Bus to the City center. We walked around for a bit then we had lunch a the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK), I had a chicken and salad burger with chips, it was good. 

When we finished lunch we went to the National Train Museum (NTM) and saw lots of old trains and a couple of new ones.

Then we went for a walk along the wall, it was really quite high! We walked till we got to Clifford’s Castle, then went to the Castle Museum. In the Castle Museum we didn’t really see much about the Castle (if any at all), but we saw lots about the history all the things we use in life like, houses, clothes, baths, toys, streets, shops, music and prisons. 

Then we went for a walk along the Shambles, a shopping road just for people to walk down, and had dinner at a pub at around 6:00 so we could take the bus back to the campervan.  

5/4/2011 

We spent most of our time today in the campervan, driving between York and Kielder Water, near the border of Scotland. On the way we saw Hadrian’s Wall in the town of Wall. Hadrian’s Wall was built around 2000 years ago by the Romans to stop the Scottish from invading their land and taking their food and stock. 

When we got to the Kielder Water campsite it was raining and Mum wanted to go for a walk, we walked a little around the lake that the campsite is overlooking. Along the way both mine and mums umbrellas were turned inside-out lots. Sam fell over once and got really muddy. Sam also found lots of worms and made dad pick them up because he didn’t want to hold them.  

6/4/2011 

Today we went to Alnwick Castle (the Castle used in the first two Harry Potter Movies). Some of the outside of the Castle was very familiar, the inside was not. We went inside first and saw the home of the Duke and his family, it was a really big house, a Castle, and the rooms were full of things like crystal chandeliers, big wood tables, huge mirrors and books. The Library was huge, it was full from top to bottom with books, any books you can imagine! 

Then we had a tour of the grounds, the tour guide was from Northumbria and was really hard to understand, but the tour was really good. He talked about some of the scenes from the Harry Potter movies, showed us the places they were filmed, told us some of the Warner Brothers secrets to making the movies good then finally told us some of the history of the Castle. 

After Alnwick Castle we drove to Edinburgh (the Capital City of Scotland!) and caught the bus to the City centre. We walked around the city (it looked kinda like London with  a little of Scotland in the surrounding mountains) and went into a Music and Game shop to look at music and games (funnily enough). Dad went straight to the music, Sam went straight to the games, Mum went with Sam and I went with Dad. Sam bought two DS games, Harry Potter LEGO (years 1-4) and a Doctor Who game. We looked in some more shops, walked for a bit, then we went looking for something to eat. We ended up eating in a Pizza Express place, and it was packed but good. 

7/4/2011

Today we spent in Edinburgh. First we climbed up Arthur’s Seat (a small mountain or a big hill), when we got to the top it was really windy, the view was really good though. The walk up wasn’t a hard as it looked and the walk down was easy. 

Then we went to Edinburgh Castle, the Castle where no one lives, like the Tower of London. This was the first castle we had been to where we didn’t have an audio tour or a normal tour, it was nice to not have to be rushed with a tour and just look around. We saw lots of cannons, St Margaret’s Chapel, the Prisoners Of War (Pow’s) Dungeons, that was the set up of a dungeon with speakers with the type of conversations that would have been going on, the War Memorial, the Great Hall and the Scottish Crown Jewels, they were not as good as the Tower of London Crown Jewels but the lead up was better. 

After the Castle we went shopping again but this time we went to look for wet weather coats and stuff. We went to two shops before we found anything, the in the second shop I got a rain jacket with a normal jacket in side (you can take the inside jacket out). 

We then had dinner at a Italian Restaurant, I had carbonara, it was very creamy but it was good.  

8/4/2011 

Today we drove from Edinburgh to Banchory, a little scottish town. On the way we saw quite a bit of snow on the mountains, then we saw some  right near the road and couldn’t resist the urge to go touch it. We ended up having a snowball fight of the hottest day we’v had yet (Sam was in thongs).  

We got to Banchory at about 2:30 then we went for a walk along the river. The river took us into town, where we got a ice-cream, then we went on a 2.5km forest walk, the forest was really pretty but we didn’t get to see any Deer or Red Squirrels. The walk took us till around 5:00 and we decided to go find something to eat. 

We went to a Bar/Restaurant and ordered some drinks, then Dad got Haggis Balls for an entree (we all tried some), we all ate our Mains then Sam and I got another ice-cream. 

We were walking home and Sam, who had clearly had to much sugar for one day, went rolling down the hills at a play ground, and just being crazy. We had to walk through the bush, along the river, with a crazy 8 year old, it wasn’t that bad.   

9/4/2011 

Today when we were driving to Colloden we stopped at a Whisky Factory. We got there 15mins before the next tour started so we went to the Cafe and had a drink. Mum and Dad had a Coffee and Sam and I had a Hot Chocolate, with cream and lots of Marsh-mellows. On the tour we went around the factory and warehouse and it was only us on the tour, no one else was there at that point. Our tour guide also told us how to make Whisky on the way.  

In the first room out guide told us what ingredients are used to make Whisky, Barley, Spring Water and Yeast, then she let us taste the Barley when it hadn’t been crushed and showed us how it was crushed. Then we went into the actual production area and our guide showed us the first stage of the making, all the crushed barley goes into a big metal mixer and three sets of the spring water go in all at different temperatures. Then, the second stage, all the barley, some of the water and the yeast go into a big wooden mixer and (somehow) after a while it turns into alcohol. Next, the liquid goes into two, big , copper tanks where it is boiled and then separated into three parts, the Head, the Heart and the Tail, only the Heart is turned in to Whisky, the rest go back into the wooden mixers. 

When the Heart is separated it goes into the warehouse, put into big barrels and left undisturbed for at least 12 years. 

Then we went on driving until we got to Colloden (where we were staying), got set up then walked to the Colloden Battle Fields. The Battle of Colloden was a battle against the Government (all the supporters of the King at the time) and the Jacobites (all the supporters of Prince Charles who was the actual heir to the throne but didn’t get there quick enough to get the crown). There had been many battles between the two armies before and the Jacobites always won. But, the night before this battle the Jacobites tried to sneaking up on the Government army, they failed and had to march all the way back to their camp therefore being very tired for the battle the next day. The Government army was clearly bigger than the Jacobite army and they were rested and well fed they had and advantage. The Jacobites were beaten that day, they had to retreat so that at least some of the army would survive. Prince Charles then went into hiding, he dressed up as a girl and made his way to France. The visitors centre was really interesting and we got an audio tour of the Battle Field. 

Then we had dinner at a diner near the Field, it was really full but the meal was good. 

10/4/2011

Today we drove from Colloden to Loch Ness, the biggest Loch in Britain and home to the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie). We got to the Loch between 10:00 and 11:15am and bought our tickets for a Boat ride along the Loch and 1hr at Urquhart Castle. When we got on the boat we sat on the top deck (it was cold) and had our cameras ready to take that million dollar picture of the Loch Ness Monster. The boat ride to the Castle was 30mins long and we unfortunately did not see Nessie. 

At Urquhart Castle we saw a 8 and a half minute movie about the history of the castle, it was really good and at the end the curtains behind the screen were drawn and there was a view of the castle. Then we went to the castle, there wasn’t much left as it was blown up from the inside, and saw some of the old rooms and dungeons and went up a tower. 

At 12:30 the boat came back and this time we sat down the bottom so we could watch the depth radar thing. The lowest depth we saw was 750 meters down and still going. 

After, we went to the Loch Ness Visitors Centre Cafe and had lunch, Mum and I had Ham and Cheese toasted sandwiches, Sam had Chicken Teddies and Dad had a BLT. 

Then we went into the actual Visitors Centre, it was made up of 6 movies all about the Loch Ness Monster and if it is actually there. 

The first movie was about the history of the Loch and all the animals that have lived in there and some of the animals that Nessie is thought to be, the Second movie was about all the myths and Legends involving the Loch. The third movie was about all the photos that people have sent in and haw what they saw was something very different from the Loch Ness Monster like a floating log moving down the Loch, boat waves still lasting long after the boat had gone and swimming deer. The fourth movie was about the underwater cameras,   small submarines and underwater capsules  that have gone to look for the Loch Ness Monster or what people think is a Monster. The fifth movie  was about the radars that have picked up traces of something big in the Loch, and what they possibly were, if it wasn’t the monster. Finally, the sixth movie was about all the reasons why the Loch Ness Monster couldn’t exist like how there wasn’t enough food in the Loch for a Monster of the explained size to eat and then it explained the reasons for the difference in rock colour up the sides of the Loch. They were really interesting presentations and they suited everyone by not saying that the Loch Ness Monster doesn’t exist but saying that it was up to you to believe or not. 

When we got to the Campsite we walked along the river and up , Sam, Dad and I, played Touch Rugby, badly, then had our emergency tinned food, Scotch Broth followed by Baked Beans and Vegetable ravioli. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Mum then made Sam and I introduce ourselves to some of the kids that were riding around. We met some people (little kids) that came from Denmark and we also met a brother and sister from Perth (in Scotland) it was quite funny. We ended up playing Touch Rugby with the Scottish kids, Katlin and Scot ( Scot from Scotland), it was kinda fun.  

11/4/2011 

Today we went from the campsite to the island of skye and drove for a bit on the island. Then it got a bit to cloudy to see the sights so we decided to keep driving toward the campsite in Onich. 

At about 12:45pm we stopped at the Little Chef Cafe to have lunch, Mum and Dad had burgers, Sam had spaghetti and meatballs and I had Fish and Chips, Dad didn’t like his meal but I thought mine was alright. 

We then drove on to the Harry Potter Train Bridge and it started to rain and then it hailed! We were trying to take a picture of the bridge but every time it stopped raining it started to hail. 

When we got to the Campsite it was sunny! This campsite is right on a Loch and it is really pretty.