the rail journey begins!

We left the land of potatoes and headed to the land of bagpipes, haggis and tartan. Landing in Edinburgh after a short flight, we were immediately in awe of how beautiful the city was. Our airport bus took us to the centre of Edinburgh where we piled into a taxi, which delivered us to our humble little hotel just a short trip from the centre. When I say "we piled", I really mean that we piled! In the taxi rank, you have to take the first available taxi which in our case was one of those stereotypical UK black taxi's. It had 5 passenger seats which was lucky, but it lacked luggage space. These taxi's also lack a front passenger seat (I'm guessing for the security of the driver), so we were forced to squish into the back. It was a delicate operation trying to get us and our luggage to all fit. Some bags went under seats, some went between our legs and some went in the void (that's usually filled with rubbish from the driver) where the front passenger seat should have been. But! despite our initial thoughts, we made it to our hotel safely and soundly with all of our luggage intact.

We were warmly welcomed into the hotel and were taken to our rooms for the night. We asked our lovely host where we might find a nice place to get some dinner. She told us about a nice pub just a short stroll up the road that she frequently goes to for dinner. We'd learnt from previous experience that it pays off to listen to local advice on places to go and this was no different. The place she told us was so good, we went there multiple times. We decided that since we were no longer in Ireland (where Guinness tastes it's best) that we should expand our horizons and try other local brews. This pub, which is called The Reverie (highly recommended) had a great selection of brews to choose from. We sampled some Caledonian from Edinburgh and Hobgoblin which we didn't know at the time was brewed in little ol' Witney in Oxfordshire. After a great night of tasty food, beer & laughs as we reminisced of our travels through Ireland, we walked back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

We woke up bright and early in the morning (our trusty hotel lady packed us a breakfast for on the go) and we headed to the train station to begin our rail adventure. All aboard the rather modern train (luggage included) we set off towards the quaint town of Fort William. It is here where I must tell a rather embarrassing story... The toilets on this train were fancy. They opened at a push of a button and once inside, you have to push another button to lock the door. The lock indicator was a little ambiguous so if you weren't really savvy with modern contraptions, one might think that the door locked automatically once inside. You might think you know where this is going but I will tell you now that it wasn't me who was caught with their pants down. Anyway... I needed to use the facilities, so I made my way down to the end of the carriage to the toilet and pressed the "Open" button since there was no indication that the cubicle was in use. What I saw inside was a rather flustered lady trying to do her business in peace. Red faced and embarrassed, I quickly searched for the "close" button and madly dashed back to my seat hoping that the lady was too busy trying to hide her private regions to see my face! I recounted my embarrassing story to the family and sat looking out of the window and held my bladder for at least another hour until I was brave enough to go back to the toilet. It demonstrated a great lesson for the rest of us that day - we all made sure the door was locked before dropping our pants.

I could go on about how beautiful the scenery was on the train but I find it hard trying to describe the views without using the cliché words like beautiful, magnificent and well, you get the point. What I will say though, is that you should definitely go on your own rail adventure in Scotland because it was pretty damn spectacular! Unfortunately because of the windows and the fast movement of the train, it was quite difficult to capture the amazing views on my camera.

We arrived in the town of Fort William and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by it. I'd come to expect the town to be a dirty little tourist hole with nothing much to look at, but was instead greeted by a lovely, clean little town with great shops, cafes and wonderful mountain ranges to look at. Since our holiday was during peak season, we were limited with hotel choices so this was the night that we had come to dread: we could only find a place which had a family room to offer us. A single family room. Which meant we all had to share one room and one bathroom. Although it sounds horrible at first, it's nothing a good set of earplugs and a trusty cupboard couldn't fix. During times of bickering (face it, it was bound to happen with five of us within a few square metres of each other) I retreated to the cupboard and sat until the air cooled and it was safe to come out. We had to work out the best schedule for bathroom use and we also established a "lights out" time which worked out quite well in hindsight.

Our humble room.

Roy pouring cocopops into a bottle of milk for breakfast.

Roy enjoying his cocopop milkshake.

The view from our hotel room.

We had an afternoon of exploring in Fort William and because we couldn't work out something that all of us wanted to do, we decided to split up. The girls went for a little bit of retail therapy and the boys headed to Aonach Mor where they took a gondola ride 650m up to admire the views of the Nevis mountain range.

Even though we had a rather squishy room with a fair few frustrating times (nothing too bad), Fort William's charm made up for it. It was a lovely little town and it was a perfect town to begin our exciting rail journey through the West Highlands of Scotland. More "choo choo" stories to come!

Land of Guinness, Leprechauns and potatoes!

After our short but fun weekend in Wales, we jumped on a little propeller plane and headed to Dublin, Ireland to continue our adventure. It was a short flight, a little rocky but we arrived safely. We all had grumbly tummy's so we headed into the city to find some good pub grub. It was at this pub where we started something dangerous... we had our first Guinness of the trip and from that point on, we were hooked!

The Spire of Dublin

We only had one night in Dublin before we set off on a road trip to the other side of Ireland (which isn't all that far). We chucked our stuff into the car (by this point we had the packing down to somewhat of a fine art) and set off to Doolin.

We stopped in Tullamore for some lunch where I confused a poor girl who was making my sandwich. I asked her for a salad bun (in Ireland, buns are sweet, and you would never put salad on one). What I should have asked for was a salad roll. I then asked her to put capsicum on it which she replied with a rather confused look until I realised my mistake and corrected myself and asked for peppers. After we stuffed ourselves full of lunch, we continued on our journey.

We passed through Galway where we stopped for a toilet break and Roy's Mum gave us her rendition of the Galway Bay song. Roy's Mum had a song for just about everywhere we visited. We kept ourselves amused in the long car trips by singing these songs at the top of our lungs, along with various other sayings in Irish accents. I'm sure we must have looked and sounded very strange to the locals.

Galway is pretty much at the end of a long motorway from Dublin so it was pretty smooth driving going from one side of Ireland to the other. We left the large main roads to make our way down to Doolin. Any road that isn't a highway or motorway is fairly narrow and usually has hedges on either side of the road, so it was a fairly interesting drive to Doolin. Aside from the scary navigation and ducking and weaving to avoid oncoming traffic (sometimes large tractors and buses!), it was a very beautiful drive down to the little coastal town. We accidentally took a wrong turn, but soon discovered that it was a happy accident because the road we turned onto took us through the rolling hills of The Burren.

Excuse the very unglamorous photos because they were taken through the window of our moving car.

We continued winding through the Burren and stopped only to have a quick stretch and to appreciate the view. By the time we reached Doolin, we were all thoroughly sick of being in the car and you can imagine the state of our bladders after having stopped for a Guinness along the way...

We arrived at our lovely little B&B, dumped our belongings, emptied our bladders and stopped to admire the charming town of Doolin. We'd heard stories of great, live Irish music in Doolin so we were very keen to head to the local pub for a meal (with a Guinness too, of course). It was great to just sit, relax and enjoy the music and atmosphere that surrounded us. We were entertained by two little kids who were enjoying the attention they were getting from people watching them dance.

This is our B&B! I would have loved to have stayed for more than one night because we were looked after so well and it would have been great to have had longer to see the rest of the town.

Us enjoying one of many Guinness'.

How cool is that? A shamrock drawn into the froth of my Guinness!

After a pleasant night of live music, food, beer and a good laugh, we headed back to our humble B&B for some rest. The next morning we filled up on a tasty breakfast, packed the car and headed to the amazing Cliffs of Moher.

I think I will let the photos tell the story for these beauties. I don't think my words will do them justice.

Gift shops built into the side of the hill. It was nice because they didn't detract from the landscape.

So after we took in the awe-inspiring views of the cliffs, we set off on the drive back to Dublin. With a few detours, pit-stops and Guinness stops, we made it back to Dublin and settled back in to our hotel. We had a rather interesting time getting some dinner the night we got back from our road trip. The sun goes down a lot later than what we are used to in Australia so the night kind of got away from us and we headed out pretty late in search of food. Much to our surprise, most of the places we tried to get a meal had closed the kitchen for the night. We walked from pub to pub only to be told that they were no longer serving food. We got a little tired of the search and stopped for a quick pint of Guinness to wash away our sorrows. Eventually we found a local fish and chip shop which was still serving food (ahh the relief!). mmmmm... greazy chips, a vegie burger and a nice pint of stout.

After spending two days confined in the small car with each other, it was nice to have a little alone time! :P

With a full day to ourselves in Dublin, we thought we might go and check out the Guinness Storehouse. We'd been drinking this dark and mysterious brew pretty religiously during our Ireland leg of the trip, so we thought it was time to gain a little insight as to how it came about. The weather was a little miserable also, so we didn't mind staying indoors (especially when it involves a glass of stout). I was a tad disappointed with the tour, as the storehouse is just a museum and not a working brewery. Roy and I had been on a brewery tour in China and it was great to see the actual process and packaging. But it was still interesting to see the history and facts about the great brew.

Barley

Day-dreaming of stout, no doubt.

The harp from the Guinness logo.

After we toured the storehouse, we headed up to the Gravity Bar for a free pint and a 360 degree view of Dublin city. I'd say that it's a fine art to pour a pint of Guinness but we were utterly impressed when the girl that served us our pint, poured two at once! That's a talent I admire!

I would have to honestly say that I wasn't all that impressed with the city of Dublin. It wasn't bad, but there wouldn't be enough to keep me busy if we had of stayed longer than we did - unless we looked in the wrong places. I did have a nice time though!