How delightful to see and hear English everywhere!

We are in Scotland and loving the familiarity of everything. Our backpacker accommodation in Edinburgh is tucked away in a little lane way of steps and has Australian receptionists. Everyone understands what we say, and the food is familiar and not as expensive as Iceland and Scandinavia. Biggest bonus of all is that cars drive on the left hand side again.

We have an excellent first night when we catch up with Nikki, who we travelled with through Eastern Europe on our Busabout trip and have an excellent meal and quite a few wines.

We hire a car again, this time to head north and see some sights we had not seen on our last trip to Scotland in 2005. The Falkirk Wheel is a marvel of engineering in the form of a boat lift, that lifts river canal boats to a much higher level. We also took the opportunity to take a short walk to visit the remains of Antonine Wall, the border of the Roman Empire. 

Best of all we saw the amazing Eilean Donan Castle which stands starkly on a island, joined to the mainland by a short bridge. We found an absolutely gorgeous bed and breakfast to stay at, reasonably priced and the breakfast was superb.

The next day we wound our way back towards Edinburgh going via quite a few castles and lastly the New Lanark Mills. This proved to be an interesting sight. The Mills were first built in 1785 and used for the production of cotton and wool. It is quite famous for being managed by a social pioneer Robert Owen, who believed his workers should have decent homes, fair wages, health care and education. 

After our briefest of briefest visits to Scotland, we board the ultra cheap MegaBus for a cramped and tiring overnight trip to London.

Footnote: Frontiers of the Roman Empire and New Lanark are UNESCO World Heritage Listed. Eilean Donan Castle features in the book Unforgettable Places To See Before You Die.