Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond

Well the Bank Holiday weekend in at the end of May, took us up to Scotland. As it was just before Dan's birthday, Susanna did most of the planning so some bits were a surprise! We went up to Glasgow overnight on Friday where we picked up the hire car.

We drove up in to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National park. Loch Lomond is one of the southern most lochs and it is also the largest inland waterway in Scotland (and we think the UK). We actually stayed in a small town, Rhu, just north of Helensburgh, on the Firth of Clyde, to the west of Loch Lomond.

During the weekend, we drove around the pretty loch side village of Luss, around the little coastal hamlets on the Cowal Peninsula and on the peninsula across Gare Loch from Rhu, and visited the small town of Dunoon, which reminded us of Devonport in good ol' Auckland, New Zealand.

The highlight of the trip though was cruising on Loch Lomond from Tarbet on the Eastern side to Rowardennan on the Western side, where we walked north for 9 miles on the West Highland Way, to Inversnaid. We then cruised back to Tarbert. We had lovely weather and there was a lovely variety of landscape and terrain from thick forest, to light woodland and beaches.

On our last day, we drove back to Glasgow via Aberfoyle and Callander, which is in the Trossachs, north of Sterling. We hired bicycles and rode a few miles around the national cycle network. Very pretty. Here are some of the pics.

London Town

In one of our last posts, we mentioned the "dazzling" spring flowers. Here are just a couple more pics from life in general. In the space of a month we saw London changing from being covered in snow to covered in flowers. Last weekend we went to Kew gardens and saw some more.... enjoy.

Ram - Baaaa - Ling in North Wales

May Day Bank Holiday weekend saw us visiting North Wales with a friend that we made on the Rally, Mabon. He hails from Denbigh and he showed us the sites around mid-Wales and the Snowdonia National Park. On Saturday we visited the old slate mines and went to the coastal town of Harlech, which is dominated by an impressive old castle. We went down to the beach and couldn't believe our eyes - beautiful long golden sand beach. Just like those on the east coast of good ol' NZ.

We found that one of the main contrasts between North and South Wales was that the North had a LOT more sheep. The Welsh language was also a lot more predominant and we felt a little left out although Susanna made valiant attempts at learning bits of the language. She can now order a pint of beer and tell people that she is only learning Welsh. This came in handy when we got to experience one of the Bank Holiday traditions....

.... On the Sunday we met up with another of our friends from the Rally, Guto, who lives near Bangor, on the Menai strait, which separates mainland Wales from the Isle of Anglesey. Guto showed us all round Anglesey and we visited the old Brick works and the copper mines, which had a very other-worldy landscape. In the evening, he introduced us to Canerfron. The village, famous for its castle, where every bank holiday, the local pubs all spill on to the street and EVERYONE (or so it seems) comes out for a good time.

Monday brought better weather so we climbed Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales and the second highest in the UK. Great times although a little stiff the next day! Check out some of the pics....

Welsh ANZACS???

On the weekend of ANZAC day, we, together with an Aussie couple and a friend who is married to a Kiwi/Aussie went to Wales to stay with a Welsh friend of ours and her parents. Phew. I think Hannah earned the title of honorary ANZAC.... She is from Swansea, in central South Wales. While we were there, Hannah's mum and her dog, Louey, took us up Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. Its a popular climb but still really enjoyable. We also went walking around Gower Peninsula, and seeing the sights in the different parts of Swansea.

It was beautiful. Rhossili beach on the Gower peninsula is a great surfing location apparently, and it really reminded us of the northern west coast beaches of New Zealand (thinking Piha). On the way there, we drove through this wooded road where the ground is covered with wild garlic. It was an incredible smell. We were lucky to have fantastic weather. Here are some of the pics. One of these was taken in these gardens in Swansea where there is this hillside just covered in gorgeous spring bluebells. The spring flowers in this part of the world are really noticeable and dazzling.