The next thing was a bit of a hit or miss risk. Once a year just across the Scottish border the local horse owners go on a ride (the Common Ridings) to commemorate the galloping ride warning of the arrival of eh British as in “the British are coming”. Just when we thought we had missed it, a man on a quad bike came down the road and told us – in a thick as thick Scotts accent – to stop and wait. And there they were, at least 50 riders all out in the poring rain (as they had been for the last 4 hours).
Oh and again, Elizabeth Wooten-Basset has taken us on an incomprehensible route that passed by a particularly stunning Abbey in ruins. The ruins of Kelso Abby, so so so stunning.
And Oh. Once again, for the fifth day in a row we were caught in yet another incident of traffic congestion. Sigh
Edinburgh! No one told me it was this beautiful. I was coming mostly just for my love of Trainspotting. But damn this city is magnificent. And old, it is home to the worlds first skyscrapers. In fact we stayed in one on the world’s first seven story buildings, the Scotsman, the old newspaper offices (the newspaper is even still called the Scotsman).
The hotel was STUNNING! Absolutely gorgeous and super high class. This lovely concierge guy (not just a bell boy) helped us to our room and then spent more then ten minutes chatting to us and gave me some advice about the pubs where I could avoid tourists traps. He also let slip that Ewen McGregor was in town and Bill Nighy was staying in the very hotel we were. Oh gods.
We headed straight out for some dinner and a pub. We wandered around the High Street which is a pedestrian street beginning at Edinburg Castle and stretching through the old town (old as in the old medieval part, not the modern expansion areas) and ends at the Palace, The Royal Mile. This walk is amazing, the mix between medieval buildings, modern shops, souvenir shops packed with kilts and sporrens (each one the same as the others), tourists, locals, buskers, men in kilts and homeless people and their dogs. But none of the negative things can detract from the overwhelming beauty of the place. And the atmosphere is pure brilliant. 
So we went to a pub in Grassmarket (the old hay market street from medieval days and a location mentioned in Trainspotting – much to my excitement). We ate haggis and drank Whisky. I was terrified of the haggis (knowing what it is made of) and was prepared to choke it down for the tourist cliché. To my shock it was absolutely delicious. Truly, really really good food.
While eating we overheard a particularly Okka accent teasing about sharks and spiders so butted in and got into a bit of a conversation with two Aussie guys and two Scottish guys. Raina ended up going back to the hotel and Sarah stayed on with my new besties. Then a German guy and another Aussie woman showed up too, the woman had lived in Edinburg before so knew what the go was and led us on a pub crawl. We lost the Scotts after a while and made our way around some of Edinburg’s best pubs. The music was sensational, there was an Irish two-man band playing with electric guitars and fiddles and stuff, traditional music with a wicked modern twist, I loved it. The beer was flowing, you may be aware I am a bit of a lightweight but this night I downed four pints of beer, two wiskys and a jager bomb. So, fun times.
They went to Dropkick Murphy’s, a very famous Irish pub and the inspiration for the name of the band featured in the film the Departed. Nice place. 
She decided on a cab home instead of trying to navigate the medieval streets and to my delight the cabbies here are super friendly and helpful. Had no problem taking me the ridiculously short 3pound fare back to my hotel. The ever so gentlemanly German guy rode with me to make sure I was safe (thank you) and I staggered into my room and bed.
What a day! What a night! Did we mention we love Edinburgh?
Day 6. 20th June. Edinburg, Stirling, Inverness, Loch Ness
The day began very shortly after I made it back to my bed, we were up and at it early to squeeze in a loop on the hop-on hop-off bus. We packed up and went to check out. As we entered the lobby I was vaguely aware of a tall, well dressed older man right by me. Then Raina tapped me and pointed him out and said “Hello. Do you mind if we chat to you?”
Holy Shit! That’s right, Bill Nighy is staying in this hotel. And that is him! I went up to him and said, “Bill, excuse me but I am a fan and I would never forgive myself if I didn’t say anything to you.” He was so nice. He was super friendly and stunningly warm and pleasant. He even asked our names. That floored me nearly, that he would care what my name was. I was so amazed that I managed to keep my head and not be an idiot in front of him. I think when it comes down to it, he just was very down to earth and is just a guy and after all it is pretty easy to talk to just a guy. We asked if we could take a photos and he was very happy to pose with me.
I cannot believe I got to meet him, and it was a truly great experience, one I will treasure for the rest of my life. What an actor, what a nice man.
From there I was nearly peeing myself with excitement and must have looked a right idiot with the stupid grin on my face. I got to see Nick who gave me the info about Grassmarket and thank him for allowing my awesome night. He was lovely.
So we left the hotel and went to get on the HoHo Bus (HopOn HopOff) and toured Edinburg, it is a remarkable city and one I know I will be back to again, maybe even to live for a while.
Grey Friars Kirkyard – home of Bobbie of Greay Friars. The dog who sat on a grave for many years. 
Leaving there we passed through Leith (the area of Edinburg that Trainspotting is set) and then headed off for Stirling.
At Stirling we visited the William Wallace monument which was great because one, I love and admire Wallace and two, I got to see his sword.
Like the actual man’s sword. Wow. The spiral staircase hosting both up and down traffic wasn’t much fun, but well worth it. William Wallace was a pretty amazing guy and one of my favorite historical figures.
A few things on crossing into the Scottish Highlands.
BAM have a mountain
BAM have a rocky cliff
BAM have some Highland Cattle
BAM have some Highland Ponies
It is incredible. BAM.
About the ponies, they are everywhere, are of the best quality I have ever seen and appear to be the only breed of horse legal in the highlands. We drove past a random paddock and saw what I really think was not only the nicest Highland Pony I have ever seen but one of the nicest horses I have ever seen. A little stallion that was honestly as good as anything I have ever seen. And a paddock full of his mares and foals.
Turns out they are owned by a riding school, for like ‘saddle club’ kids. Lucky shits. So Sarah had a ride. It was cool because the little pony really wasn’t expecting someone to know what they was doing and it took a bit to make it realise I was the boss and I expected more. Then she was lovely.
As we were leaving, Raina, in an off hand tone said, “you need to be shipping more over to Australia.” So I chatted to the owner, a slightly crazy old man with no real concept of personal space, for a while longer then we jumped in the car and zoomed off, desperately in need of petrol. Turns out he seems to have thought we meant we were interested and he had wanted to talk to us more. He jumped in his car too and followed us all the way to the petrol station in town. BAHAHAH, so after a slightly awkward conversation explaining that we did not actually want to have any shipped over but just meant it in a general way, we headed off again. So much for our plan to get to the hotel early and get a good rest. A plan we have made every day, a plan that has failed, every day.
Elizabeth Wooten-Basset has suffered a very concerning neurological condition. It appears that in her old age of six days we may be seeing the end of her life. It is a great shame that we did not immediately recognize a cause for concern when she did some particularly eccentric things today, even by Elizabeth’s standards. We will be seeking medical treatment by the means of Dr. Google-Search as soon as we reach civilization. We have been performing some wilderness first aid techniques in an attempt to save her. But it does not look too good. I will keep you posted on how her condition progresses.
Tonight is a lovely B&B with friendly people, a nice room, great food and an indescribable view, a view of Loch Ness.
Day 7. 21st June. Loch Ness
Today we had our first somewhat slow day, we decided to stay on Loch Ness for another night. It is so beautiful here and we could do with a rest.
This morning we went on a cruise of Loch Ness, it is so interesting that the legend of the monster has been around since the 1400s. It has not always been the tourist trap, cash cow it is today. In fact it was something rumoured and even believed in a far earlier time.
The Loch is beautiful, and it seems a cliché but it is incredible mysterious. Raina keeps saying she feels hypnotised by it. I have told her she is not allowed to go walking alone, in case she is mesmerised by the loch (or the monster) and walks into the water or something.
The cruise took us over to Urquart Castle. This is my favourite castle so far because it is in ruins. I read an excellent quote about this, “The castle was raided, ransacked, ruined and rebuilt with depressing regularity.”
Salty air!
Our exhaustion seems to be showing since Raina said she “might have two en-suites instead of a main for dinner tonight”. And Sarah said, “haha, look at that Tamb’s Wail Lagging.” [Lamb’s tail wagging].
After the cruise we went to the Culloden Moor Battlefield. This is where the Jacobites (Scottish independence fighters) were finally beaten by the English. A very sad place because the Scottish were so badly massacred, with no quarter given and the aftermath was even worse, with the rebels hunted down and the civilians of the area starved and persecuted. This site marks the end of the clans and a way of life. It is a lovely museum and well kept site but it just makes me so sad.
We came home for a rest and had a nap then got back up for dinner and sat around chatting to the B&B owners and guests. And marvelling at their massive and gorgeous Great Dane Lenny. He loves Sarah as she scratched him the night before and he bee lined towards her tonight. He was pretty sweet.
It was a lovely day and it is so amazing to be here at Loch Ness.
Day 8. 22nd June. Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Snowdonia, Wales
Today was a travel day, so there isn’t really much to tell because all we did was drive from Scotland through England to Wales.
“They” say…..”in England 100 miles is a long way. In Australia 100 years is a long time”.
So a 450 mile drive was just a lovely day out looking at stunning country!
The Scottish Highlands were phenomenal, some of the most glorious scenery in the world. Each bend in the road brings a new sigh or gasp of awe. We stopped at several particularly great spots and got photos or just looked. It was amazing. The weather was fairly savage and teh wind made for fun taking photos.
Timer photos……..over a distance…..Almost.
Loch Lomond, which is far more beautiful then Loch Ness. We did take a hight road…and a low road.
It was terribly sad crossing the Scottish/English border, because of said love for Scotland but it had to be done. Because poor us, had to go to Ireland tomorrow.
We did find more pokie machines at the petrol stations.
England then Wales, and passed and through Snowdonia National Park in Wales some scenery coming close to that in the Scottish highlands was seen. We also saw some really really wild welsh mountain ponies, on the side of a mountain no less.
Also, this owned Welshie that seems to be a bit confused about the proper direction of travel.
The hotel was lovely, the best food we have had on the entire trip (excepting the Jamie Oliver restaurant in Nottingham) and beautifully furnished and decorated rooms. Let me ask you though, have you ever slept on the floor of a hotel (that you have paid for) because it is more comfortable then the bed?
Well, Sarah has. That’s right, the floor with a few cushions was far far more comfortable then the bed supplied. The bed was soft enough though a little bit squishy. But the problem was that it had these springs that you could feel with every body part that touched the mattress. Desperately in need of a mattress topper or any kind of padding built into the mattress. She could feel the ends of the springs hooking under her ribs. Eventually she could bear it no more, through down the pillows and flopped on the floor. Sleep at last.
Day 9. 23rd June. Wales to Ireland
Today again was mostly a transit day, but this time by Ferry. We caught the ferry from Holyhead in Wales to Dublin Ireland. But first we made a stop off in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Yes, that is right the town is called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. There was absolutely no reason to go here except that the town is called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. ANd yes I did ask a guy in the car park to say the name!
Wicked.
Then a drive across the top of Wales, past Mt Snowdon to Holyhead for the ferry to Ireland.
An update on Elizabeth Wooten Basset – the SatNav. Yesterday she suffered a major neurological episode. After a course of severe starvation and solitary isolation and an extensive course of electro shock treatment she appears to be recovered. A partial lobotomy was also required but she does seem to be doing better for it.
We dropped out car – that had taken us to some amazing places and headed off to Ireland!
Next tab – Ireland.