Hamster Dancin' Around the World

Penny and I have just joined Izzie, Barry the Mod and Fredster for a show this evening. Izzie's mate FlavourQueen is coming as well!

Hey!!!!

How are YOUR travels going.....where's the freaking thread?

Seen some pics of Penny straight off margo's camera .

Wishing Margo blue skys as she and Penny depart London Heathrow later this evening for Oz.

There ain't no freaking fread.
I'm home. Blue skies after almost 3 weeks of just about unrelenting rain.

How d'ya reckon it went?

I've heard of England's green and pleasant land - I can only vouch for green!

Over 700 photos (all in shades of grey) downloaded but not yet sorted.

Met some great people though - fortunately they didn't know me before, so they were nice to me.............

We wern't nice to you,we loved you! Now buckle down and get them pics posted girl!

Well, Here I am on the next part of my travels....England and Scotland with margo:

I was already in Scotland - Barry sent me to margo's friend Moira in Largs, on the west coast. Margo was over a day late in arriving, and then her luggage didn't arrive, but there wasn't much we could do but hang around in the rain.

When her raincoat finally arrived, we went on a ferry from Largs to Cumbrae Island, just across the Firth of Clyde:


Because it was such a dreary day, we adjourned to a pub on the waterfront, where we each had a cider:


Cumbrae is quite close to Arran Island, so we plan to go there next time - it apparently needs more than a day.

We came back and had dinner at the famous Nardinis, fish and chips, but forgot the camera.

today we collected a car and drove from Largs to Fort William, via the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond:

This is the road to the Highlands, and a lot of it looked like this:

The scenery was lovely but the drive on narrow winding roads, in rain, was a bit tiring. I was very glad to get to our B&B for the next 3 days, Invernevis B&B at Fort William, right opposite Loch Linnhe. It was still raining, of course, so I settled down for a nap:

The next day we went out exploring. We saw some funny sheep with curly horns and lots of lochs (apparently Scottish for lake) and mountains and stuff.

Then we went to Loch Ness. I was ready with my whistle but there was no sign of the Monster

On Wednesday, we went from Fort William to Mallaig on the Jacobite Train, a steam train that has featured in some of the Harry Potter movies. Here I am at Mallaig (yes, it was raining!):


and, on the way back to Fort William:

On Thursday, we were driving back to Largs, but margo wanted to have a look at the Caledonian Canal. Small ships can go right through the highlands using a series of locks. This shot is taken at Neptune's Steps, a series of 7 locks near Fort William:


We got back to Largs, stayed at a different B&B, took back the car, and went to margo's friends' place for dinner.
Terence's Scottish seafood chowder:


followed by Moira's mixed berry dessert:


That's all for now - Possum has just thrown up on the carpet.

More to come.

Hey! We went on the Jacobite express too!

We didn't see no hamsters or margos though.

Awwwwwww....sorry to hear that.we sure got some rain....my so called raincoat distinguished only by its ability to channel rain directly to my tenderest bits...but mainly it was fine

As we left Largs, the sun was shining, but, by the time we reached Glasgow Airport, it was overcast, and when we arrived at Heathrow it was raining. Surprise!
From Heathrow, we got a cab to margo's friends' place nearby (and margo's luggage broke!)
There I met Sarah, Ned, Thomas and Colin the cat.
Sarah was preparing some pita breads for the BBQ - she apparently makes all her own bread :

I helped Ned with the BBQ:


Then I helped eat the koftas (that's what Ned called them; they looked like funny shaped meatballs to me!)


I met Thomas:


and his good friend, Bun:


The next day we went for a walk in Windsor Great Park, which is not far from their house, and saw Windsor Castle in the distance and collected some blackberries. margo's pix of this aren't too good! (and it was starting to rain)

We came back to a pub just outside the park for a Sunday roast:

The next day, we caught a train to Bath. We stayed in a pretty crummy hotel this time, and spent most of the time outdoors, despite the intermittent rain. We went on a bus tour of Bath, and saw the Circus, and the Abbey, and lots of other old places. Then we got off and went into the Roman Baths (where you can't have a bath - you must have to be a Roman?)

There's lot's of statues of old dead geezers around the Baths. Here I am, trying to look up Hadrian's kilt (or dress, or whatever!)


a lot of my view looked like this: (margo says it's an Aussie umbrella!)

Oh Penny! what a lot of rain!

I hope they had a good towel ready for you after those adventures.

The Caledonian Canal sure must have reminded you of your time in Eastern Ontario.

Great album!

These are fantastic!

I love the nap picture. She really looks tuckered out.

Is there a story behind the whistle?

(To margo, I did get your PM but was busy at the time, will respond now.)

The Penster got her whistle when I took her to The Notting Hill Carnival a few weeks back.
Enjoying seeing Penny's new pics .

Just showed these to sozlet -- Loch Lomond and the train got the biggest responses (which were both BIG responses!!!) She's read a book that featured a character (Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother, when she was a girl) who lived one Loch over. She recognized the name.

And she just finished the last Harry Potter book and is currently totally obsessed with all things HP, so the train got much wide-eyed exclamation ("SA-WEET!!!")

There are quite a few more photos. The ones for here are resized and ready to be uploaded.
More when I get home tonight - unless Penny has turned the lapdog on and starts posting them herself!

Glad Barry chimed in about the whistle!