Kirkwall, Orkney Isles

Caught car ferry over this morning (i had totally forgotten i get seasick .... groan) Very happy to get here and the weather was very kind so not looking fwd to return journey if it is rough!

Did about a billion things this arvo but all prehistoric (no castles in sight yay!). Saw inside a Cairn from about 3000BC which had Viking graffiti which was kinda funny cos it said stuff like “i carved these runes up very high” on a high bit of stone LMAO Some vikings took shelter here for 3 days (way after it was created) and got rather bored :D

Also saw rings of standing stones older than stone henge and 2 prehistoric villages – one of which still had all the stone furniture inside (untouched)! Absolutely amazing stuff!! Totally makes you want to be an archaeologist! Not to mention driving around the beautiful country side of green grass and continuous lochs and ocean and causeways and cliffs and cows :) We have had beautiful sunny weather – tho the wind was been pretty constant but i guess you get that when you are on a little island in the north sea :)

Loch Ness, Scotland

On way up we dropped into Dunkeld and saw the hermitage and Ossian’s Hall (pic above) and a heritage centre of local life in the 1930s. Fascinating (though long) day and we were more than happy to finally pull into the hostel on the banks of Loch Ness. Next day the crazy Scottish weather was bucketing down rain when we got to Urquart Castle (which i can’t spell right at the moment) but by the time we had gone inside to get tickets then come out at the castle it was sunny and clear! Lovely view of the Loch (no monster in sight) and a quick wizz through the castle (did i mention we are a bit over castles?), then onto the Loch Ness Centre for the low down on Nessie. Vaguely interesting walk through with video displays then about a billion souvenirs for sale :P

On way from Loch Ness up the coast we found a farm shop where we went to get eggs and came out with everything from roasted smoked salmon (soooo good!) to shortbread (and the eggs of course). Not quite the plan but had a seriously good feast that night at the hostel in Canisbay. Should mention that Ve has been navigating unaided the whole time we have been driving and has been doing a brilliant job!

Dundee, Scotland

On way up we saw Tantallon Castle (my fav castle to date!) and Edinburgh Castle before hitting Dundee (now rechristened the “City of Roundabouts” ;)

We stayed with Beth who I haven’t seen since we were about Ve’s age, and had a really crazy fun time :D The local tour of Tesco complete with commentary being particularly memorable lol Also managed to squeeze in some shopping (my cargos kinda died after being warn every single day for 3 months! – just shoddy workmanship i reckon – don’t they take into account sliding down snow etc in them???) and also saw St Andrews Cathedral and Castle. Interesting but i think we’ve now seen enough cathedrals (and possibly castles) to last us for a goodly long while!

pics here are the view from Tantallon – how can you not love this country! Also us with Beth – with all three of us looking slightly feral ;)

Melrose, Scotland

Aunty Les and Uncle Bill kindly lent us one of their cars and we drove up to Melrose in the Borders (Scotland). Very strange to be in a car again but after a few false starts to find first (not a big fan or having reverse in the usual first position i must say!) we had no probs. The Borders is just beautiful – lushly green with gorse and heather on the hills and cute little towns and ruins everywhere, not to mention the patchworked farms and forests. Falling in love with scotland all over again :) Went to Melrose Abbey and Jedburgh Abbey as well as doing the Eilden Hills walk which was lovely but strangely enough kind of hilly! Should note the gorse was above our heads in some parts of the path!

London, England

Well we saw a looooot of embassies! Finally got our visas for the trans-Siberian all sorted, after a lot of waiting in line. In between times we chilled out with Katie, went to the Diana Memorial Playground which had a cool giant ship (vera the pirate was pretty happy), went to the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Kensington Palace Gardens, Madame Toussauds, the markets, Trafalgar Square, a whole lot of the underground and visited Gordon and Mary and Romala and Rebecca (both of which we forgot to get pics of :P ) Anyway here is us with Buffy and the Incredible Hulk instead :D

Harpenden, England

Another easyjet flight over to Luton where Aunty Les kindly picked us up from the airport at some ungodly hour. Took a good few days to remember we are in an english speaking country again – very strange feeling!

Had a lovely relaxing couple of days with Aunty Les and Uncle Bill. They took us to Hampton Court Palace and Gardens which was brilliant and we also did a lovely “ramble” through the countryside. Hampton Court had a maze which Ve was very impressed with and also re-enactments in the Tudor kitchen which was not only interesting but great fun! Very amusing blokes who were the “cooks”, and after watching them roast meat on a proper spit we were also very hungry!

Warsaw, Poland

Managed to be here for only one day which happened to be a major public holiday for Poland. Wandered through a park in the city centre and saw soldiers on horses on display and even heard the president of Poland speaking! (Too many people to actually see him though). Wandered through old town etc and had some more dastardly Polish food of dripping on bread with fried onions – good thing we are walking a lot a the moment i reckon ;)

Zakopane, Poland

OMG totally can’t rave enough about this place! There is a reason every second Polish person was here while we were (and no it wasn’t just cos they knew we would be there lol). Very touristy but somehow not tacky. Lots of stalls etc round the place but they have locally hand made things out of wood and wool etc.

Caught the funicular up to the top of a peak next to the town and even had a gravity toboggan ride at the top (very fun!) Pic here is view from top.

Had the healthiest dinner ever of potato fried in butter and locally made smoked sheeps cheese – also fried in butter! Mmmmmmm – and can’t even blame the locals cos i cooked it!

Went up to proper Tatra Mountains next day and cheated by getting a horse and carriage ride to the top of the mountain ;) Walked around the lake at the top (Morsky Oske) which was still mostly iced over and very beautiful. Climbed up to a saddle which was the closest we were getting to a summit (and frankly was quite enough!) One of the pics here is the slope we went up – VERY steep – we mostly just climbed on all fours like a crazy mountain monkey (if there is such a thing?)

Krakow, Poland

We had an awesome time staying with Dave in his flat in Krakow! Most importantly i got to talk about Buffy!!! :D Saw Wawel Hill, the Jewish quarter and various other bits and pieces. Krakow is a very pretty city (providing you can navigate your way out of the bus terminal!)
Pic is kindly stolen from Dave's blog ;D

Kłodzko, Poland

Great fort (one of two that protected the city) with a massive maze of tunnels which are part of the defenses. Lots of crawling through tunnels which Ve of course loved! Forgot our camera that day though :P

Kletno, Poland

Absolutely beautiful area! Unfortunately no useful buses but got a lift off someone on the way there and walked 4km with all our gear the next day :P Saw Cave Bear’s Cave, uranium and flourite mine (no radiation where we though luckily!) and a geological museum with an absolutely amazing collection of different rocks and fossils – even included a fossilized nest of dinosaur eggs (see pic)!!! The mine was surprisingly fun as well, especially cos the tour guide spoke no english and only a couple of german words and our polish is very dodgy. Made for lots of charades etc cos we were the only ones on the tour :)

ok i am clearly aaaaaagggges behind so am gonna do a super quick catchup...

Wrocław, Poland

A beautiful city filled with dwarfs and sweaty fit people ... lol the marathon was on while we were there – hence the fit people. The dwarfs on the other hand, we first noticed when we were wandering around and saw a little brass dwarf sitting in chains behind a metal security grill on a random window. After noticing another couple we asked at the tourist info and ended up searching all through the city for them which was a lot of fun :)

Also saw an unbelievable panorama painting that was hundreds of metres long and set up in a round building with 3D objects like trees etc placed in such a way that you could only tell what was real and what was painting if you really searched! Combine that with the clever lighting and it really felt like you were there with the soldiers! It was pretty old but had been carefully preserved even during WWII and the communist era and depicted the Polish fighters defeating the invading Russians – based on an actual battle.

Pic here is of artwork on the street of people dissappearing into the ground - a reflection of life under soviet rule.

Šwiecie farm stay, Poland

Stayed for 3 nights at an “Agroturistyka” accomodation which is basically a farm stay. Lovely family and Ve got to play with the little girl Julia, not to mention their pet dog. Amazing homecooked Polish food, which we’ll definitely have to try to recreate back in Oz.

Also met another great couple who were staying a the same place while renovating their house near by. Amazing houses round here (in what used to be called the Sudetenland i think) which are all massive, old, german things with arches in the barn and cool stonework. They took us to visit some friends who had also renovated their house into this amazing, cozy little house furnished and decorated with all sorts of recycled bits and pieces and lots of art since the owner is an artist!

They also kindly gave us a lift back to Jelenia Gora the following day so we only had one bus to catch which was such a relief :)

This pic is from a beautiful walk we did around the river near Swiecie

Jelenia Gora, Poland

Had a fun day of about 9 hours travel to get less than 100km! Turns out the town we were going to in Poland is close to current town in Czech Republic but the border crossing isn’t open so we had to go via Germany! We do get to say we “walked to Poland” though, since we opted to walk across the border rather than train :)

Visited local ruined castle (Chojnik) which had a pretty (though steep) hike up to it. Awesome castle with great view and Ve even got to have a go using a crossbow! Pic here is one of the courtyards in the castle.