Day 22 - New Year's Day

What a way to begin 2016! After a much needed sleep in we had a brilliant breakfast at our hotel and then hopped on the bus to Edinburgh Castle, and fell in love with this city. We spent the day exploring the castle, admiring the stunning vistas that it provides over the city, and learning about the Scottish monarchy and military history. The castle itself has never been breached since the 1300's, and it's easy to see why, the picturesque walk is up a very steep hill.

After our day at the castle, we wandered from shop to shop on the royal mile, then made our way to the huge Christmas market that is set up in the gardens. We had some dinner there, looked at the various stalls, and generally enjoyed the calm post-New Years atmosphere and the pretty lights.

This being the coldest we've been so far, around eight we decided to head back as we could no longer feel our extremities, so we were back on the bus to our hotel. With excellent timing, we were in time to watch the new Sherlock as it aired (it was brilliant) and now we find ourselves lamenting the fact that we leave tomorrow, though we are excited about our trip to Skye.

- Jess

Day 21 - New Years in Edinburgh

Today was awesome, though very, very long. We were up at five thirty to catch the ferry back to Scotland and, once on, it was a pretty good trip. This time we were in the front section of the ship, so we had a beautiful view of the dawn and the Scottish coast. Then we drove the stunning coastal route to Edinburgh.

Upon arriving at our hotel, we had a nap to ready ourselves for tonight, as we weren't going to make it to midnight otherwise. We woke up around five, and got ready to head into the city centre, which had already been shut down in preparation. A quick bus ride, then we were there in the midst of the thousands of people there to celebrate Hogmanay! We found a lovely little pub on Rose street, grabbed a table next to a lovely couple from Bristol, and whiled away a couple of hours getting to know our new friends, and enjoying tasty food a drinks. We made our way to the street party just before ten, in time for the ten o'clock fireworks (there's fireworks every hour from nine). It was freezing, but luckily there was no rain, so we squished along into the Christmas market for some hot drinks.

Nicely warmed up, we headed to the second stage where Craig Charles (Lister from Red Dwarf) was DJ-ing a set from eleven onwards. It was brilliant, we were able to get reasonably close to the stage, and we stayed for a good portion of the set before making our way slowly back towards the view of the castle, from which the fireworks take place. We were able to get a perfect spot that took in the whole view, and then it was a short wait until the midnight countdown. The castle was lit up, then it went dark, the countdown was over, and the best fireworks I've ever seen began. There was music, and of course we had to sing Auld Lang Syne, and it was time to escape the cold and get back to our hotel.

The city was running free busses, but we ended up waiting over forty minutes for one, as we were at the wrong stop, along with over forty other people. We had a mad dash to a bus in the distance, and finally got home around one thirty in the morning. I was so unbelievably cold, I couldn't feel my feet, but it was a brilliant way to ring in the new year. Time for a sleep, tomorrow we have some exploring to do. We hope everyone had a delightful New Years and best wishes to all of you!

- Jess

Day 20 - Belfast

Today was our last day in Belfast, and we're both feeling under the weather (just a minor cold) so we did some shopping, picking up some great bargains (Star Wars pj's and Harry Potter undies) at the post Christmas sales. We had a rest after lunch, then made our way to a very trendy restaurant called Made in Belfast, and we had perhaps the very best meal of the trip so far. The Adelaide equivalent is probably somewhere like Press, and the food was superb. Andrew had pork belly, I had salmon with hazelnut and potato croquettes, and dessert was an eggnog panacotta with ginger shortbread. What's even better, it was very reasonably priced, so it was a lovely way to spend our evening. With an extremely early start tomorrow, we're having an early night tonight. We hope everyone has a wonderful New Years, and we wish everyone a happy, healthy, and altogether delightful New Year!

Day 19 - The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors...

...So naturally we spent the day exploring the coast, including a visit to see the location of Dragonstone, as well as a bracing hike to the Giant's Causeway, a stunning basalt volcanic formation famous the world over for the stories of Finn McCool who continues to sleep beneath the rock to this day.

The drive through the countryside was lovely, and it took around an hour and a half to get to the first destination. the temple and castle ruins that served as the backdrop to the burning sequence in season one of Game of Thrones. From there, we made our way to the causeway via the coastal route, which isn't really as coastal as you'd expect, but a good drive nevertheless. The hike to see everything took around two and half hours, and by the end the weather had come in with wind gusts of over 100mph, which isn't brilliant when you're walking up a cliff. We've never felt anything like it. Right at the end, it began to rain, which is quite painful on bare skin when it's sideways at that speed.

We weren't in the ridiculous weather for that long, and we got back in the car for our journey home. After a quick trip up to our room, we realised that Tuesdays at the cinema here are ridiculously cheap (three pounds per ticket) so we walked to a local cinema to see Sisters (review is up). It was thoroughly enjoyable, and after a quick pub stop afterwards for a drink, we came back up to our room for much needed rest after a very big day.

- Jess

Day 18 - Belfast

Today we explored Belfast, and it would seem that aside from post Christmas shopping, everything here shuts down. We began by walking through the CBD to the botanic gardens and palm house and on to the Ulster Museum. The museum was deserted, so we took our time learning about 'The Troubles' in an excellent exhibition which was balanced, clear and surprisingly unbiased considering where it appears. This is a city clearly still grappling with its recent past, the graffiti we've seen alludes to the undercurrent of civil dissatisfaction that has been heightened by the fallout of the GFC here in Northern Ireland in particular. Being in an industrial city is also a change aesthetically speaking. There's an incongruity in the architecture from what we've seen elsewhere; brutalist industrial buildings abutting Victorian era pubs and homes, with new developments and 70's blocks in between. It's a fascinating city to explore.

After our wander in the museum we made our way past the university to the major shopping district, where we finally found where everyone was - sales. We shopped for a few hours, I bought a jumper, but it was mostly just a window shop. We had dinner at Five Guys, yes it's American, but it was very tasty.

Everything shuts at six, so we picked up some nibbles and went back to our hotel as the weather had turned, nothing was really open, and tomorrow is going to be a big day. Currently watching The Hogfather on tv and drinking cups of tea, and Guinness.

26th and 27th of December - We're on a boat...

Boxing day meant a very early start, as we had a 700km trip to the Lake District to drive. We made excellent time through the countryside until we hit Cumbria, where flood waters created huge traffic jams and cut off roads. As a result, we didn't arrive at our beautiful hotel until it was evening, and we had to fjord a road or two on the way.

Because of the conditions, we thought it best to eat at the hotel rather than risk going out again, and we had a fantastic dinner, one of the nicest so far. Andrew had steak, and I was thoroughly impressed with Rudolph (venison). We went back to our room in time to watch The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, and promptly fell asleep afterwards as we were exhausted.

This morning we woke up fairly early again so that we could get some daylight hours to explore before making our way to Scotland to catch a ferry to Ireland. And what a stunningly beautiful morning it was. There was no cloud, and in the sunny but freezing outdoors we could actually see the countryside in all its picture postcard glory. We wandered through the woods down to the ruins of Furness Abbey, and it was just beautiful. The scale of what would have once been a gargantuan building was clearly visible, and the red stone looked even more spectacular in its bed of lush grass that carpets the entire ruin. It was a lovely way to spend our morning before another long drive.

After yesterday, we needed to make sure we were going to be on time for the ferry, so we allowed five hours for what google told us would be a three and a half hour drive. We needn't have worried, we arrived with plenty of time to spare, and the sunny skies meant our day of winding through the Scottish countryside was brilliant, as we could actually see the scenery!

Then it was onto a very big, surprisingly luxurious boat. There's a cinema, a number of bars and restaurants and lounge areas, so our short two and a half hour cruise was spent in comfort. That being said, I still felt a little ill (boats and I do not mix) but a few laps of the deck helped. We arrived in Belfast around six, and after a short drive to our hotel, we settled into our lovely room and then went out for a very tasty pub meal where I discovered sloe gin. So good.

Now we're back, as everything is shut after nine on a Sunday night (feels a little like Adelaide in winter really) and we'll get to bed early so we're rested for a big day of exploring.

- Jess