Scottish Adventure - Part 3

Drumnadrochit

We reached Ullapool early evening and drove to one of our favourite places - Drumnadrochit on the banks of Loch Ness - where we spent the night.

Esmerelda and Jim at Loch Ness

Breakfast overlooking Loch Ness

Unfortunately no sign of the monster!

We then drove onto Blair Atholl and the House of Bruer outlet shopping.

Falkirk

We then visited the Helix Water Park and the Kelpies near Falkirk.  These are absolutely amazing sculptures.

We even went inside one of them:

Esmerelda with the Kelpies

Edinburgh

Our next stop was Edinburgh where we stopped on a lovely campsite just outside - it was only a 30 minute bus ride into the centre.  Firstly we visited the National Museum of Scotland and saw some of the original Lewis Chessmen.

As we were passing the National Library we saw there was an exhibition on for The 39 Steps so in we went - this is a favourite book of mine and it was interesting to see some letters from John Buchan and to read how some of the film adaptations came about.

Of course, no holiday would be complete without an Agatha Christie connection and we visited St. Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh where Agatha married her second husband Max Mallowan on 11th September 1930 - the same day I got married which is a complete coincidence!

A couple of views of Edinburgh Castle.

The next day we caught the bus to the Ocean Terminal and visited the Royal Yacht Britannia which is berthed there

The Queen used to take her Bentley with her and this is it in the garage on the yacht.

The Bloodhound - Prince Charles and Princess Anne learnt to sail on this.

The sun deck.

The Queen's bedroom.

Prince Philip's bedroom.

The only double bed on the yacht - bought by Prince Charles when he honeymooned with Diana

We visited the tearoom on the Royal Deck!

The dining room where the crew would eat.

The dining room where the Royal Family would eat and host banquets and dinners.

The Queen's office.

Prince Philip's office

The Royal sitting room.

The crew's sitting room

No visit to Edinburgh would be complete without a visit to see the statue of Sherlock Holmes and a visit to the Conan Doyle pub

Bamburgh Head

We left Edinbugh early next morning and over the border in England we stopped off at Bamburgh Head - famous for its castle and also where Grace Darling lived.

Angel of the North

On our way back down south we stopped off at the Angel of the North.

South Shields

While watching an episode of Vera last year we saw a chase scene involving some statues - we found out they were in South Shields so took the opportunity to visit these as well.

We had a lunch stopover and had soup and a stottie.  I had to ask what a stottie was!  Its actually soft white bread in a triangle.

Our overnight stop was at Whitby.

The following morning we drove on through Scarborough and then cut across to York.  

York

Of course no visit to York would be complete without a visit to Betty's tea rooms.  As it was raining we needed no other excuse to have our lunch there - I had bacon rosti followed by a chocolate and raspberry bomb.

Overnight we stayed near Wigan by the canal side - this was our lovely view

We then drove home.

The weekend saw us cleaning Esmerelda and getting her ready for our next adventure.