Sunday, October 21, 2007

Scotlanding and it still haunts !!

(Writing after a long gap..don't know the reason behind this gap. Now recalling few trips made. Also planning to reduce blogs about travel and shift to topics of interests)

I do not remember it in order, after coming here, for me the travel time started with a weekend in London, then with friends to Cambridge, Stonehenge's at Salisbury, oxford, Scotland etc.. the long one was Scotland as it is another country and we are quiet far from there too..

There was lot of planning happening before we started..as it is going to e a three day program we had to plan our trip along with travel and accommodation facilities, we were six, myself, sunil,sharath, rahul, abishek and ansar. Boarding from Bedford on a night such a way to land glasgow station at early morning were we have booked the accommodation as well the car for rent.

I remember, abishek had started the camera work from Bedford itself, he had came here sometime in advance from MK, reaching at the station in Glasgow, after getting fresh (not all :-)) we contacted the car rental team and they came to pick us...we took a vauxhal six seater..hmm Zafira i believe..directly to the globetrotters hostel where we just got fresh and had the breakfast..and meanwhile some mischief from Sunil as well ;-). The plan was like this - first day for Glasgow, and one nearby place 'a Lake Loch Lomund..

There we had some time in a toy train ride and then crazy mad time of shouting on a green grass area where it actually came out to be a good photography time..see this. myself and sharath were sitting on the bench near the water body while others where busy capturing the place in sepia.

Next day to the hight lands..through Pitlochry, Inverness and all..and the last planned day to Edinburgh..actually it was festival time at Edinburgh..Che had said this to us prior to our travel.
We started after dinner to the Milton Keynes bus station, there was lot of fun happening there, one guy in complete booz was kind of threatening us, telling that glasgow is very dangerous, people there will do this that etc..Our first stop was at a castle and then at Pitlochry
The bridge made for the Salmons returning from the Atlantic is just awesome, its equipped in such a way that the fish can easily climb and move back to the water bodies in the country. Pitlochry is a very beautiful place. The small village with lot of bridges, small as well and nice pathways and people. We did relaxed over there for some time and then left off to Inverness.

The drive was just awesome, nice beautiful landscape around and curly beautiful road (resembles the hilly roads in India). we had stops here and there to relax and to treat the eyes.
Inverness is nice, that ruined castle was looking too beautiful when we saw it from the top. I believe we reached there by eve 4 and little time to spend over there left with us. At first thought not to go for the boat ride in Lochness, at that time somebody went to the museum and some at memoir shopping. After sometime, don't know who exactly asked for it, but the team decided to go for a ride in the big water mass, which stretches around 27 km in length and huge depth as well. The name Lochness came from the Monster 'Ness', which appeared in fact said that somebody plotted in the Loch..nice story and nice looking monster it is :-). There started the wonderful time, Sunil meanwhile got in company with person who was steering the boat and then after sometime the steering is in his hands. Meanwhile the rest enjoying the beautiful wind, water and the nice scenary around from the deck. Abhi cannot stop asking for snaps..and ya those all were nice moments too. The Italian couple and the boat driver joined us in the fun and had lots of jokes from them which made the boat with laughter..and a snap at the end. The Inverness experience was quiet very good as we really enjoyed the place and at the same time the nice highland roads. Juz see this video.


Back from Inverness we were in Edinburgh, on exactly the last day of Edinburgh festival and thats worth it. The streets were full of various acts and shows. My self Abi and Sunil went to the Edinburgh castle which is worth seeing and the first castle I saw in detail. After long time roaming around inside the castle hearing the tales and stories of the kings and queens, our stomach gave a bad call which made all of us get down and run to the nearest pizza hut.
Running on the road to find the next spots, seeing around by walk and lots of fun happening all the time. Went back to the Globetrotters, got fresh ready and went for the dinner at an India Restaurant. We got back to Glasgow in the evening and from there boarded the bus to Bedford.
At the bus station, though we had the booked ticket s with us, we got to know that that there is no space for us. The bus folks arranged a separate transport for our team till Luton and from there again on a national express to Bedford. All the way in the end, it was a superb trip, which still haunting us as a over speed penalty which we received after a week,(we never knew about it). We are still trying to pay the fine but the reason that we don't have a British license is not allowing us to do so. Hmm what to do..!! :-)

Just after uploading the video to Youtube, though of completing this blog which actually was in a half written state and its done now. Thank god for this wonderful trip

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