Scotland Holiday Diary
3rd June
We reached our destination, Bowness on Windermere, about 7 in the evening, leaving home about 11 o'clock in the morning. There are 280 miles from home to Bowness. We stopped, having little breaks, many times during the trip. Once it was at lunch time, at "Little Chef", where we had something to eat, and in many other places, where we had something to drink, some tea. A big part of the journey is on the motorway, about 200 miles. Not so interesting, being on a motorway, but there were interesting bits though, especially when we got closer to our destination.
The weather was wonderful, sunny and warm, I can say almost hot, at a moment the thermometer in the car showing 23 degrees!
Here, in Bowness it is beautiful. We are in the South of the region called the Lake District. I understood that it is called like that because there are a lot of lakes, big and small. There is a lake here that it is called Windermere and it is one of the biggest.
Tomorrow we will cross the border into Scotland.
The region is a hilly one, with acid soil. So here you can see a lot of rhododendrons, like in Wales, making the vegetation look very colorful. The road was, of course, very windy, through the hills! But very nice.
This place, Bowness on Windermere is like a kind of resort, with very nice houses, very much character. A lot of nice gardens, with colorful rhododendrons!
Lake Windermere
After we arrived, we rested a little bit, had a nice cup of tea and ate the sandwiches I prepared at home, before we left. We went for walk later to see the lake and the surroundings. There are a lot of boats and little ships for little cruses on the lake. And lots of swans and wild ducks. And some kind of seagulls, nicer in my opinion, anyhow different from the seagulls I know.
It is so beautiful! The air is so clean and fresh! Even now, at 9 o'clock in the evening it is still quite warm. I hope it will be like this all the week.
Being a hilly area the houses are built on terraces, there are a lot of steps! When we returned, because of a few steps we had to climb I was out of breath! Such a good physical condition I have!!!
We can see a bit of the lake even from our room. The door takes you onto a big terrace and from here we have a beautiful view! Actually the name of the guest house is "Above the Bay".
We tried to see if we have internet and we didn't manage to find any. At least Simon forgot to ask the hosts about it and now it's too late to disturb them. Anyhow Simon did do some work on the computer, I looked at the pictures I took during the day, selected them and deleted some of them .. I went to bed quite soon, feeling very tired.
I forgot to mention that I forgot the camera at home. I realised this soon after we left but because Simon didn't want to turn back (not a good sign to do that!) we bought a cheap one in the first town we passed by. I am pleased with the pictures I took, so it's not bad! I made some small movies, very nice! So everything is alright, from taking pictures point of view!!!!!
Good night!
4th June
We had our breakfast about 8.30. It was quite a lot. The idea is to eat well in the morning, little bits during the day and have another good meal later, around 4-5 o'clock in the afternoon.
We packed and then again off we went! Around 10 o'clock we were already in the car! Till Glencoe we have 235 miles. It was easy, because after a few miles we reached the motorway and after that Brenda (our sat-nav, Simon called it like that!) told us to "follow the road until further directions", about 100 miles!
After a while we saw the sign "Welcome to Scotland"!!! Just that and we were in Scotland!
At the end of these 100 miles were Glasgow and Edinburgh. We didn't reach Edinburgh, but we crossed Glasgow. We shouldn't have done that, but at a moment Simon made a mistake, Brenda adjusted to that and took us through the city. I was glad actually because was nice, interesting, it was the first time when I saw the city and above all the road wasn't very busy.
After Glasgow started a hilly area, or mountains, I am not sure about that. Anyhow they call these peaks or pikes because they are quite high, higher than a hill. The lochs start from here!!!
We drove a while along Loch Lomand. It seemed enormous to me! It is the biggest loch in surface, area, but Loch Ness is the biggest in volume because it is very deep!
Bonnie Braes
We stopped, of course, many times to take pictures (you can see lots of boats that take you on cruises on these lakes, and a cruise can take hours, so big are these lochs!). At the end of this loch we found a nice place where we stopped to have something to eat. The place is called "Bonnie Braes". The building is not impressive, is very modest, very close to a pub from our countryside. But I liked it very much. The people there were very friendly and the food was very good. And the prices too!!! It was very busy, a lot of foreigners. The meals we had were delicious: grilled steak, lamb and Scottish salmon prepared in something a little spicy (enough to make it great) and garlic! Very, very good! They say that the Scottish are famous for their beef as the Welsh are famous for their sheep!
Shortly after we left "Bonnie Braes" we reached an area with a very strange relief. It was the famous Scottish Highlands!!! With mountains, not so high, snow still on some peaks but very strange shape of them. Strange for me, I am used to our Carpathian Mountains in Romania!
Simon explained to me that the shape of these mountains is like that because of the ice in the ice age. It is granite most of their content and they look like somebody grabbed the top and pulled it out of something. The form is very smooth, it seems like velvet where some vegetation, like a kind of grass, is but big parts of the mountains have nothing growing, you can see just the rock!
I took a lot of pictures, of course! Even if you can find granite also in Carpathians, there is nothing like we know about mountains! At the base of these mountains: lakes, so called lochs. Most of them have the shape of a river then a lake.
One can see that the land is not so friendly. Nothing is growing, or almost nothing. Just some moss or grass and from time to time some little areas with trees, small ones.
You can see more cows than sheep around here.
We saw big areas of some kind of bluebell blankets. It was beautiful! The flower of these bluebells is bigger then the normal ones. We could see some where we stopped for the meal but it is much more impressive, more beautiful to see big areas on a mountain covered with these flowers. All in bloom! I took a lot of pictures of course!
I can say I am very impressed up till now about the Highlands!
But I am very curios about tomorrow: it will be the famous Loch Ness!
Lios Mhiore, Glencoe
We arrived at our destination "Lios Mhoire", Glencoe about 6.30. All of us feeling very tired! We decided not to go anywhere tonight, just rest and explore tomorrow.
Our host, Kareene, was very nice and kind and friendly. She offered us some tea, coffee. You can find these in your own room, but she offered to prepare herself!
Her Scottish accent is very strong. I have difficulties to understand her. I find it funny, nice!
The weather was again beautiful, sunshine and warm, over 20 degrees!
Great!
Good night!
Scotland Holiday Diary Continued >>
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