It's not often we get a holiday but when we do, it's time to get away from stuff!
I'd been planning a trip to Scotland for a while as Maz had never been. Original plans were to fly to Glasgow then hire a car then onwards and upwards to the Highlands and Western Isles. However, I knew Maz had wanted to go to Whitby, so plans changed and we took the long route. Nottingham - Whitby - Edinburgh - Oban. - Whitby is a beatiful old town of which I have fond memories as a child, traveling there on one of my first school trips, I think I was about 10 years old? Will always remeber the empty stone coffin (at least I think that's what it is?) in the Abbey ruins. Although nowadays a charge of £4.50 to visit the Abbey and also a visitor centre has been built, which partially takes away the overall ambience of the site. We stayed in an amazing old hotel, The Ravencourt Country Club Hotel, which is just the other side of Robin Hood's Bay. Situated right on top of the cliffs, built at the turn of the century. Anyone who has see Stanley Kubrik's 'The Shining' would love this place. Wondering the corridors you would expect to see the ghost of the twin girls, or Danny trundling around on his tricycle... - Needless to say our stay was very pleasant and unlike Jack Torrance I didn't end up going insane and tried to murder my family in cold blood...
Early next morning we headed north towards Edinburgh, what we didn't expect was about 10 metre visibility due to thick fog! This lasted for a good 20 miles so progress was slow to say the least. I was last in Edinburgh for Gareth's stag night 2 years ago and the less said about that the better! Maz wanted to check it out, so we went. Arriving at our guest house to the traditional Polish welcome, hmmm, but hey it seemed OK and we were only about 20 minute walk from all the usual tourist stuff, castle, etc. - Chris Neary, legendary sound tech, had recommended a great Mexican restaurant in the centre, next to a venue his has frequented with many bands over the years. Now Maz being from L.A. and a Mexican food freak, this was more important than seeing any tourist attraction in Edinburgh! - So we checked it out and proceeded to eat our fill on great Mexican food and drink quite a few Marguarita's! - All helped along by the queue of emo kids outside the restaurant waiting to see the emo flavour of the minute, 'Billy Talent', whoever the hell they are! We only had 1 night here, so after eating and drinking our fill, we staggered back to the 'Mayville' guest house. Now, after staying the previous night in a fantastic hotel, this place was something which was unexpected. Trying to sleep in a bed with a matress where the springs are tring to perform keyhole surgery to you upper and lower abdomen at the same time is not that high on my list of 'favourite thing's to do whilst in a Polish run guest house in Edinburgh on a Wednesday night', call me old fashioned. This place was pretty crap as far as guest houses go and at £35 each a night a total rip off, but hey, it's Edinburgh and I guess tourists pay these prices, which I would imagine double when the Fringe festival is happening, whatever. - After a breakfast of stale toast and tea, needless to say, we got the fuck out! - One thing I did take some pictures of was the great artwork in the Mexican place. Maybe some inspiration for another tattoo here???
Today was the drive over to Oban. This is such a great part of the UK, probably my favourite scenery in the whole world. We were blessed with such amazing weather too. Arriving in Oban we were staying at this guest house called 'Glenara', perched right at the top a huge hill on Rockfield Road, to walk up it hurt, lots! This was owned by a lovely retired couple from Nottingham of all places. Checking in we got loads of info on the place, then headed down to the quay to see what's about and bumping into the most friendly Old English Bulldog called Harvey!. - Within 10 minutes we were on a boat going out to see the wild seals and hopefully Minki whales in the Sound of Mull. This is really my kind of holiday, the thought of wasting time lazing on a beach on a greek island bores me to tears! Oh well, no whales, but common grey seals in abundance with relevant cute factor attached. Back in Oban we found a deli restaurant called the Kitchen Garden probably some of the best sea food and home cooking i've had in ages. Go and vote for them in the Local Food Heroes type thing which the BBC are running at the moment, truly deserved. Their Bread & Butter Pudding is incredible! (Not as good as my mum's though, in case she reads this...)
The next day we booked ourselves onto a ferry for the trip across to the Isle of Mull. Up bright and early we caught the ferry at 8.45 for the hour's crossing to Mull. Sun shining, calm waters, amazing views, stress of the office left well and truly behind and now out of the system!
Catching a bus in Mull it took us over the island to the otherside, en route catching a glimpse of the house owned by Genesis, where they recorded a few albums back in the 70's, if there's ever a place to write an album then this is it, you can just see it in the distance!
The trip to the other side took just over an hour. There we caught a boat to the strange looking volcanic island of Staffa. A compelling site the pillars of basalt rising from the ocean.
Many people will be familiar with Mendelssohn's 'Hebrides' overture ('Fingal's Cave') written after the composer's visit to the island in 1829, so I was told!
We made our way up the trecherous steps to the top of the island, vertigo well and truly kicking in! There are a few puffin colonies on the island, however the only one I caught a glimpse of was a dead one, I took a photo of the skull but Maz wouldn't let me bring it home as it was still a little guey, in the latter stages of decomposition! Bugger!
After a rest on the island we headed back off to the boat and away to the Isle of Iona. Supposedly a very religious island, they have an Abbey still there under restoration and a few missionary types I think. We got there and headed the direct opposite way from the rest of the people on the boat. We walked all the way to the end of the island, a good 30 minutes and found the most idyllic deserted sandy beach. This was where the Vikings invaded in 694AD and proceeded to kill all the monks living on the island. Now, it was hot, the sun was shining, not a soul around, so insted of killing any stray monks, I stripped to my pants and went into the sea to cool down! Probably the coldest water I have ever been in and once that hits your nuts, you squeal! Anyway, back to the boat, across to Mull, back to Oban by late evening and straight to the deli restaurant we had eaten at the previous night, A great day, confused by it not getting dark until past midnight! I love it up here!
We left Oban behind next morning after a couple of truly magical days. Our original plan was to head down to Kendal in the Lake District, however after seeing what we had in Oban and the Western Isles, we just decided to head back to Nottingham! 9 hours straight driving! Maz is such a martyr!!!
Oh yeah, BEWARE OF TANKS!!!
