Unfortunately our flight to Rome was cancelled because of the volcanic ash activity. After our initial feelings of disappointment we did a quick re-think, and decided to head north instead to Scotland - despite having our bags packed with clothes for the warmer climate in Rome. A few hours spent cancelling everything Roman over the internet, and some ringing around to organise a hire car that would carry all six of us (Ray‘s dad, John, and his Aunty Margaret are coming with us), we finally headed off just after 3pm, initially for Carlise, then decided to carry on to Glasglow, but after seeing a sign for a scenic route to Edinburgh, arrived in Edinburgh just after 7pm.
We had a lovely meal out at a restaurant recommended by a cabbie and then walked around the city until 10.30pm.

The weather has been kind to us and we spent the next day exploring Edinburgh castle and learning a lot about its fascinating history. We were told the Queen was in town so we walked the length of the Royal Mile to drop in for a cuppa with her at Holyrood Palace (the Queen’s official residence in Scotland), but unfortunately she wasn’t in. We ended the day at an Italian restaurant that made us feel we could have been in Rome.

Left Edinburgh on Wednesday morning and drove to the holy island of Lindisfarne to visit the Priory which was built 1,300 years ago. Lindisfarne is known as the cradle of English Christianity. To get to the island we drove across the tidal causeway which is only accessible for part of the day. The village was quaint and the scenery, as usual, beautiful.

The girls and Marg are learning a lot about England’s history, as we pick up information from each place we go to, together with Ray’s (who has always had a keen interest in history) knowledge as we drive along.

After leaving Lindisfarne we headed towards Hadrian’s Wall, but got side-tracked by the market town of Hexham, where we visited the old gaol. As it was getting late in the day, we only saw one part of Hadrian’s Wall, but that was a lovely ‘adventure’ as we had to climb over a style and cross a field of sheep, with new born lambs, to get to it. We then moved on to Durham to spend the night.

Had a very interesting guided tour around Durham Cathedral the next morning and then climbed the 325 steps up to the top of the tower. John & Aunty Margaret passed this up.

Gave the girls and Aunty Margaret a bit of time to wander around the shops in Durham while, Ray and I went for a walk along the river and John went for a pint, then headed off for York.

A frustrating arrival in York as we tried to navigate around York’s one-way streets to find our hotel. The sat nav was no help as we didn’t have an address it recognised. We all arrived a bit tired and frustrated, but after a good night’s sleep we had a good day out. We decided to do something that the girls would really enjoy and visited Jorvik, an interactive Viking centre and then the York Castle Museum - also an interactive museum of English history from medieval times to the present day. We ended our day in York with a boat ride down the River Ouse, had a drink on the riverbank at the Kings Arms, a fish and chip dinner and then headed home. Having a quiet weekend before we head off for a week in London.