Day 30 - Snowdon and Caernarfon

A delightful day today, helped hugely by the brilliant weather. We had two plans for the day, as we were unable to check if one would be open. We drove through Snowdonia national park, passing little hamlets, waterfalls and riverine route. There had been snow in the mountains overnight, and as we emerged from the trees, we were greeted by the most stunning scenery; snow capped peaks, forest, and sunlight gleaming through the clouds. We wanted to catch the mountain train up Snowden mountain, but it was closed. Having anticipated this possibility, we made our way to Caernarfon castle, a spectacular ruin on the Welsh coast. We had an excellent tour, and stayed for a couple of hours.

Our guide suggested a local pub for lunch, and as it was getting a bit late, we made our way there and had a delicious lunch of Welsh stew and pie. It was quite a drive back to Bala, so we made our way back via a different route, still very pretty, and as usual it was dark by the time we arrived back. Being a Sunday, everything was also closed, so we went back to our room and rested before having a very light dinner in our hotel pub. We went and picked up some snacks from the deli, and with little else to do, finished up watching television and having tea. A lovely way to spend a rare sunny day here.

- Jess

Day 29 - York

What a beautiful day to explore York! The sun actually came out today, there was no rain, and it wasn't freezing so, after breakfast, we walked through the city walls to be met by the magnificent cathedral. It's the biggest medieval cathedral in Northern Europe, and it is stunning. Before we explored it, though, we decided to wander the delightful streets of the city, some of which have remained almost unchanged for nearly a thousand years.

We also saw the devastation wrought by the floods, the river is still inundating some homes and businesses in the city. The floods also ruined the Viking museum we planned to visit, though we stopped by it anyway to buy a ring I liked for the gift shop. We also were lucky to find a Whisky Shop next door which stocked a whisky we'd tried in Edinburgh castle and then hadn't been able to find anywhere, so we snapped one up immediately.

Then we went to church. We decided to break the tour up a little, so we did the tower first, 247 steps to the top of the cathedral tower, and we were rewarded with brilliant views over York and the surrounding countryside. It was a tough climb, so when we got back down we nipped out for afternoon tea at Cafe Concerto on Tina's recommendation, and it was brilliant. I had possibly the best cheesecake of my life, and Andrew had a delicious pork belly and apricot baguette.

Full of tasty food, we went back to the cathedral for a tour. It was a great way to learn about the history of the building, as well as details on how the windows and architecture changed over the period of construction. It really is a stunning building, and we continued to wander around well after the tour finished. Eventually we made our way back the street, and it was time to explore the shambles, a medieval street which is widely believed to be where Diagon Alley was filmed, though that's not confirmed. We shopped and wandered about until it was properly dark, then it was time to find a pub.

We settled on the House of the Trembling Madness, which is apparently haunted, and wins awards for their pork pies. It's situated above the specialty ale store that serves as the shop front, and it was delightful. It's very small, owing to the Tudor building it inhabits, and has over 600 types of ale to try. I actually had a cider, Andrew had a smoked porter, and we enjoyed our cosy evening in the traditional surroundings.

Like every other small town, by the time we finished dinner, everything was shut, the streets were empty, and the temperature was beginning to drop, so we stopped at a Sainsbury's for some milk and drinks, and walked back to our hotel. A brilliant way to spend our second to last day in England.

Day 28 - Driving and beers

Today was the long drive from Aberdeen to York, by way of Masham to meet up with friends. And a hell of a drive it was. We did have to fjord a number of roads, though surprisingly it didn't make much of a difference to the travel time. What it did make a difference to was our heart health, which had already taken a beating the evening prior. Just out of Aberdeenshire we had our first, and hopefully last, moment of terror when a truck went through floodwaters at high speed, which no one could see because it was 7.30am so still pitch dark, sending a huge wave over our car, causing momentary panic by us and the car next to us. We were absolutely fine, as was everyone else, it was just a shock, we've never been in driving conditions like it before.

The rest of the journey was sedate, with some minor flooding on the way into the delightful village of Masham. It was here we met up with Tina and Isaac for an excellent lunch in The King's Head. On Tina's recommendation, Andrew sampled the locally brewed Old Peculiar, which traditionally is only to be enjoyed on tap within a six mile radius of the town, where the brewery resides. I'm told it's an excellent beer, which was thoroughly enjoyable. We had some tasty food, I ordered a game pie that was as big as my head, and Andrew kept up the tradition with sausages with mash and gravy. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, good food, excellent beer and brilliant company.

It was only a short hour drive to York, we found our B and B without too much trouble, and decided to have a quiet night in watching telly and sleeping, since we were up very very early.

Day 27 - Darkness

And then there was light...at 5pm...thus afternoon. Yes, today was one of waking up in the dark (at 9.30am) and cold, to pull on some clothes and meet the day without a shower, light, or food as the blackout lasted far longer than expected.

We decided to drive into the city centre for some shopping, because Dunnotar castle (the reason for being in Aberdeen) was closed for the second day due to the high winds making it too dangerous to visit. We had some breakfast and spent the majority of the day just wandering around, so nothing very interesting today. We decided to come back to the hotel before dinner to see how things were going, and were told on arrival that the power had been on for about an hour, but if we wanted a shower, to wait for at least another half and hour or so because the boilers needed to warm up properly.

As a result, we're just pottering about, writing this up, before heading out for dinner on our last night in Scotland.

- Jess

We drove half an hour south to Stonehaven to the place that invented the deep fried Mars bar. We first went to another fish and chip shop and I ate deep fried pizza with a side of chips (!) with Irn Bru and Jess had fish & chips. After this we went to the aforementioned, infamous chipper to get a deep fried Mars bar. It was amazing. You'd struggle to eat one yourself as it's so rich (especially after a deep fried pizza and chips), luckily we shared one. We then returned to our hotel, which today decided to have power, and retired for the evening. Tomorrow it's an early start as we're driving to sunny, dry York (hopefully), via Masham (pronounced Massam) to meet one of Jess' colleagues for a pint. It's about 600kms...

- Andrew

Day 26 - Glenfiddich

Day 26

Today was all about experiencing some quintessential Scottish culture - whiskey! We couldn't visit Scotland without seeing at least one distillery, and Glenfiddich distillery was just over an hours drive away, so we set off for a drive into the mountains. The winding roads were beautiful. The distillery itself is in the township of Dufftown, set in the hills, for reasons made clear in the tour.

It's a family owned company, and when the founders built the distillery, they also purchased 1200 acres around the source of the spring which provides the water. This means it's apparently the purest water used for whiskey anywhere in the world.

The geography of the town itself was historically important, as the locals could see inspectors coming and hide their stills, aided by local women who would hang out red washing to warn they were coming. The tour was fascinating, we saw the whole process, smelled forty year old whiskey, and I now understand why some bottles are $47000. Sort of.

There was a tasting at the end, I was ambivalent really, but because I was the driver I got to take a little bottle home. By the end, it was very dark outside, so we drove back to town for food and shopping. We had some excellent burgers made with Jimmy's rare breed cows, and I bought some gloves and a beanie. We also bought some wrapping paper, so we could wrap presents upon our return to the hotel.

Everything was fine, we were happily wrapping things up, when there was a blackout. At the time of writing it's been nearly two hours without power. We went down to reception to see what the issue is, and it's the whole area that's out. They had the fire going, so we stayed for a chat, and took a candle back with us. Luckily our room was toasty, so we should be fine for the night.

*Power went off at 9.45pm yesterday, came back at 4.10pm today, around 19 hours without power.

Days 24 and 25 - Skye and Aberdeen

Apologies for not posting yesterday, the internet connection on Skye was intermittent and weak at best. That aside, it is one of the most stunningly beautiful places we've ever visited. We began our day with a 'ramble' through the fields and moors surrounding the cottage, and learned a number of interesting things. One, sheep are far more agile than I previously gave them credit for. Two, whilst the moors may appear to be gently undulating expanses of wild grasses and heather, they are actually treacherous granite boulders interspersed with prickly bushes, grass and heather that is over half a metre high, and the ground is utterly sodden, to the point that I nearly lost my rain boots to mud that went halfway up my shin on a number of occasions. Three, the wind on Skye is like nothing I've felt before. Four, hills are much bigger up close. And finally, I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Our 'walk' took longer than expected, mainly because we decided that going off track seemed like a good plan, and we wanted to see the view from atop a small hill we were circling. It was safe, just very difficult terrain, deceptively so. The view was spectacular, however, and well worth the extra effort. Walking is the number one activity to do on Skye, and it's completely understandable given the stunning terrain and astonishing views. We were also particularly lucky with the weather. Whilst it was windy, there was no rain at all and it was beautifully clear for the entire duration of our visit.

After our bracing ramble we decided to drive the length of the peninsula to soak up more of the scenery, so we drove around the coast, stopping occasionally to hop out and enjoy the views. At one point, we were delighted to find a house featured on Grand Designs a few seasons ago (we just drove past) and really, by the time were were finished, the light was fading and it was time to head back to the cottage. We had dinner at the cottage, as there is a tiny restaurant run by the owners, and it was a lovely quiet meal. Afterwards, I finally got a chance to have a play of the Steinway in the sitting room, then we were ready for a night of British television and cider.

We had a relatively early start this morning as we knew that our drive from Skye to Aberdeen was one of the most likely to be affected by the flooding. However, we actually had an excellent run, in spite of the single lane A roads (as is one lane for both directions!), so we had time to stop in Inverness for a lovely lunch at a recommended restaurant overlooking the river. Following lunch, the traffic increased a little, slowing our progress somewhat, and as we neared Aberdeen-shire the rain became heavier, meaning that it was well and truly dark by the time we arrived at our beautiful hotel, a grand house that was converted to a hotel. In the end, we only encountered one road closure, so we got in around five.

For some reason, they upgraded us to a premium room, which is excellent, and since everything is shut after six, we just had a light meal in the bar before coming back to the room to type up our post and chill out with our leftover drinks from yesterday. Bottoms up!

Day 23 - Through the Highlands to Skye

What a magnificent day! We left Edinburgh for a very long drive to Greshornish on the Isle of Skye, and what a drive it was. There are very few roads I've ever seen that rival the splendour of the drive through the Scottish highlands. It seemed that every bend gave rise to yet another stunning vista of snow topped mountains, waterfalls down craggy cliff faces, forest and woodlands, and lochs still enough to reflect the panoramas back at us. I'll admit to a moment of panic when the gps had me turn onto a sheep track (which had actual sheep, and bunnies) for a couple of miles past dilapidated farm houses, before revealing our gorgeous cottage on the edge of a lake.

We settled into our temporary home after buying supplies at a local deli, and the cheeky cottage cat, a little ginger tabby, tried to sneak in with us. Andrew said she wasn't allowed to stay inside (she belongs to the owner) but I got a few cuddles in first. The sitting room has a Steinway in it, so I'll give that a try at a more considerate hour.

It's quite cold here, though not as bad as we thought, so we're toasty warm and watching Outlander to end our day, entirely appropriate given our wonderful setting. It's just so beautiful here, we'll post more photos as soon as we can.