A wee note from Scotland

We're back in the motherland and loving it!

We took a comfy overnight ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle and overdid it a bit on the buffet, like we always do. We met Lindsay in Newcastle and drove to York via Hadrian's wall (much easier to visit with a car than by transit, as we had done in the fall). York is a great city to visit, with Roman, Saxon, Viking, and Medieval history everywhere. Arthur liked it so much, he decided to stay for an extra day and a half, and we were obliged to do likewise. When we managed to get free of York, we drove up to Scotland, and took the bonny new bridge over the sea to Skye for a dose of rain, castles, beautiful green hills, sheep, furry highland cows, and more eccentric hostel owners.

We made our way through the highlands, past Loch Ness (no sightings, unfortunately), and back to Glasgow, where we dropped off Lindsay for her train back to London, and have been enjoying the hospitality of our friend Vincent Lunny and his family for the past week. We visited Stirling, with its nice castle and monument to William Wallace, including a statue that looks eerily like Mel Gibson. We saw the Falkirk wheel, a Millennium project which lifts boats from one canal to another, saving all the tedious mucking about with locks and gates (Tim was quite impressed). We also did a bit of cycling on the island of Arran, relaxing and taking in the country scenery.

While in this part of the UK, we have been tracking down our family heritage. Tim visited a village and Golf Club bearing his family name in Yorkshire, while Kirsten visited Culzean Castle in the south of Scotland, where her grandmother's grandfather worked.

Arthur is hanging in there, but has been misbehaving again. He performed one of the most bizarre breakdowns yet - he spat up a sparkplug. One minute, driving along OK, the next, BANG, and the spark plug is sitting on top of the engine. It went back in OK, but I dread to ponder what he may come up with next.

We are looking forward to getting home soon - only another 3 weeks!

Tim and Kirsten

For Monty Python fans, the left is Castle Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! The right is the castle where you would find John Cleese telling you to "go away or I shall taunt you a second time".