The Lake District was full of rolling green hills, crooked stone walls, quaint whitewashed farmhouses, winding lanes lined with overgrown hedges, and...well, lakes of course. In short, it was the England I had always imagined whilst reading 'The Faraway Tree' series, Winnie the Pooh, Famous Five, and Charlotte's Web. It is also Beatrix Potter country, and her home 'Hill Top' was only a short distance from our B & B in peaceful 'Far Sawrey'. I was charmed b...

To get to Glasgow we had a huge day of driving ahead of us. I had decided that the Isle of Skye was worth a detour, so we drove the three hours from Aultbea to Portree before another five hours from Portree to Glasgow. By the time we arrived at our hotel on the outskirts of the city I was tired and Dale was exhausted! Was the detour worth the extra driving? Maybe not, although we did see some lovely scenery it was pretty similar to what we had already scene on...

I was pretty excited about heading north into the Scottish Highlands, anticipating gorgeous scenery, muscular kilt- wearing Scottish lads striding around with or without their bagpipes, nourishing meals from fresh local produce, and lots of whiskey. I was disappointed in everything except the scenery!! The drive north of Edinburgh to Inverness was indeed beautiful - hills empty but for thick layers of purple heather and the odd sheep, white frothing streams tum...

Unused to being woken early by a three year old, Dale and I were yawning as we set off for our day trip to Stirling. May - still excited by her grandma's Kiwi house guests - poked her head into our room to say good morning after being dropped off by her father on his way to work. Since we were up, we joined Siggi and May for breakfast in the kitchen, and then set off for Stirling while Siggi readied May for her pre-school gymnastics class. As we neared Stirlin...

As we drove north from England and into Scotland the scenery became more rugged, the buildings greyer, and castle sightings more frequent. The landscape seemed less populated too - large empty tracts of land with only a few black-faced sheep. Occasionally we passed through a village with a few unadorned grey stone houses clustered around a pub. The traffic increased as we neared Edinburgh, as did the height of the grey buildings we saw. Four and five storey h...