UK Highlights

We finally found an internet cafe in the UK!! Yay for us.

We got into London on Sunday afternoon and after jumping through hoops to pick up the car we headed for Stratford Upon Avon, home of Shakespeare. Halfway there we had an initiation into English traffic congestion and were literally at a standstill on the motorway for about an hour. An accident up ahead stopped traffic in both directions, brought air ambulances and generally caused mayhem for all.

We eventually arrived in Stratford and found a B&B that would accept two slightly dodgy looking Australian travellers. Stratford itself was quite beautiful as we discovered when we took a short stroll into the centre of town for dinner. Of course, our first meal in the UK was in a pub. The pub was great, the food was great and dessert -- even greater.

We spent the next morning exploring everything Shakespeare. This included visiting the house where he was born, Anne Hathaway's cottage (pictured) and the dwellings of various other family members. (As it turned out, the house where his granddaughter's husband's brother's best friend -- or whoever it was -- lived, was very interesting. In all fairness, the tickets enabled you entry into all of them so we figured we may as well.)

After lunch it was off to Nottingham and Robin Hood country. After driving for hours, we reached Nottingham (and I have to say we were both a little disappointed). We then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find the castle by following the insanely inadequate British road signs (is now the time to go on a tangent about the abismal state of the British road signs in general?). Eventually we found it, parked illegally (didn't realize until after -- it's OK we escaped a visit from the parking inspector) and paid to go through the castle gates. That's when we discovered that the castle hasn't existed since the English civil war. Fabulous. Needless to say we didn't stay long.

We then hit the road again in search of a B&B in one of the smaller surrounding towns so we would be closer to Sherwood Forrest which we were exploring the following day. And we drove and we searched and we drove and we searched and we drove and we searched. Not only could we not find a B&B, there seemed to be no evidence of this famed forrest -- no signs, no men in green tights, no arrows whistling through the air. Nothing. We were beginning to dispair. Eventually we found one of the only B&Bs in Mansfield (a not very attractive industrial town). It wasn't the best appointed B&B but it was cheap and the old couple who ran it were very helpful and gave us directions to the forrest the next morning.

And so it was that Tuesday morning found us following a mud-map to Sherwood Forrest. Once there we followed a short circuit trail to the Major Oak. The tree is fenced off and many of the branches are now supported by posts and cables, but it was still very impressive. Scott was most excited to see his first squirrel on this little jaunt into the wilds of England.

Next stop, York. And after looking everywhere, we came to the conclusion that the Grand Old Duke had misplaced his 10 000 men somewhere else. Easy enough to do I'd imagine.

York was very nice. The accomodation was the best so far, and the most expensive. We went for a nice walk along the river, climbed the many stairs that led to Clifford's tower -- that once formed part of York Castle -- and explored the quaint streets in the centre of town.

Today, we finally made it to Edinburgh. We took the scenic coast road, passing through the town where Heartbeat (c'mon, you know, that tradgic English cop-soap show. Been around for years) was filmed. Very exciting. From there we drove through the Yorkshire moors which were beautiful. Miles and miles of rolling hills covered in heather and bracken (which Kelly was very excited to see. It was like all those Enid Blyton stories had come to life). Next stop en route to Edinburgh was the small coastal town of Whitby. We ended up stopping for lunch just outside of town because it was so packed with tourists that it was impossible to find a car park anywhere. The traffic was hideous and on the whole, we were glad to leave Whitby behind. After more scenic dirving, this time through the Northumberland moors, we eventually made it to the Scottish border, and then to Edinburgh.