We are now in Whickham, Newcastle and it is cold!! -5 degrees and a light snowfall overnight. We finished our time in Scotland with a walk around Old Aberdeen, an old cathedral (15th century) and then down to Kings Chapel where Harry and Meg where married 42 years ago! We caught the train to Newcastle where Helen & Don met us - they think we're mad to be here at this time (opposite to mad dogs and Englishmen I suppose!). So nice to see them again as it was 4 ...

Happy New Year! We have had a great Hogmanay with friends in Scotland, although as you can see it was pretty chilly in the morning -9 degrees and the water in the inner harbour was thinly frozen ( some of the locals had never seen that before!!) We had a lovely Christmas in London, much quieter than normal, but very traditional. From there we went to Edinburgh where we had a great hotel right on Princes Street, opposite the gardens and with a view of the Castle -...

London was happy to greet us as the sun was shining and there was blue sky!! We have had a day walking the streets of London - Regents St which is dressing for Christmas, Oxford St where all the big department stores are full of shoppers (who said recession??) and more. We have taken advantage of a 2 for 1 offer which is designed to encourage visitors in the off season and have so far visited Wellington's Arch and Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington's House. We ...