Round the World with Mick

Please see http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellar/ for photos.

My day of travelling to Manchester did not start well. After getting up at 5am I was lucky enough to get flashed in Brescia on my way to the train station. He stopped following me when I used the common language of gesticulation combined with some yelling!!

Security made me cry in Heathrow (I'm getting a bit over airports....) and by the time I got to Manchester I was well ready for a drink. Which was just as well because we had time for one cup of tea before we headed out to dinner for Oli's friend Nicky's (another Aussie) birthday. After an overload of brit music and beer (washed down with chips in gravy) we finally got in at 4am. I was a bit tired.

I spent Thursday (after sleeping in), on a foot tour of Manchester and then Friday after work we picked up a hire car, Nicky and Adele (the token English person) and headed off to Glasgow. It took us 3 hours and several arguments to get to Glasgow where we stayed with Finn and Catriona, friends that Oli and Nicky had made a month earlier on a holiday with some mutual friends. They very kindly took us in for the night even if there was some ulterior motives in having people to play Presidents and Assholes with. The cards went everywhere on this trip. The next morning they showed us around Glasgow after a very big and fabulous breakfast.

We visited the Glasgow museum and then headed off to Loch Lomond. We stopped at a Whiskey distillery on the way and then arrived in Balmaha on the Eastern shore of the Loch. It was a little cold and miserable when we arrived but still very beautiful. We checked in to the Oak-Tree-Inn and found our lovely room and then went for a walk down to the Loch and around the (very) small town.

We settled in to dinner with our pack of cards for some more P & A, trumps and poker mixed in with beer, tasty Haggis and some beautiful mains. We all slept very well and then got up to find a beautiful crisp morning. We hired a row boat (nicky and i voted for an outboard) and rowed out to the island in the loch near our hotel. There is an ancient burial site and 1300a.d. church on the top of the island so we walked up and had a look around. It was very beautiful. One of Rob Roy's cousin's is buried there and the ancient church served as the Parish church until a new one on the mainland took over it's function.

We headed up north on the Loch a little further during the day, stopping off at Luss, a beautiful town on the Loch with a well renowned tea shop. We had some awesome scones and hot chocolate jammed with cream before heading up further to see some more beautiful sites of Scotland in Autumn.

On the way home from Loch Lomond we drove through Greenock- near Port Glasgow. Greenock is my mum's home town and used to be a famous ship building town, responsible for the QEII and Queen Mary cruise liners, before the town came down on it's luck and had to close the Kincaid ship building yards. Although quite industrial, there are some very pretty parts of the town, especially near the water.

We finally got back to Manchester around 8pm on Sunday night whence we headed almost straight to bed!!!

The next day I had to get up and catch a train in to London for the next leg!!

Sad to say goodbye to Oli but had a fantastic time visiting her!! She is very happy in Manchester- enjoying the slightly whiny brit music.....