On way to Oxford we stopped at Stratford-upon-Avon and saw the church with Shakespeare’s grave while we stopped for lunch. There was a nice canal but that’s about it.
We were staying on the outskirts of Oxford so it would be easier to drive in and out, but the area wasn’t all that nice and there weren’t many places to eat.
The next day we got the bus into the center, and went to Blackwell’s Bookshop while we waited for a tour.
We booked a farmhouse on AirBnB which was really hard to find and Rachael was a bit freaked out when we got there because it was in the middle of nowhere and there wasn’t anybody home. But the owners showed up a bit later and were really nice, and put on an amazing breakfast.
The next morning we went for a hike. To hike Mt Snowden you need to get there extremely early to get a car park, so we did the less popular Crimpiau one instead.
After driving along the wall, we stopped at our next accommodation which was in Penrith. We went to the lake in afternoon for dinner. The pubs would be nice in summer, with lots of outdoor beer gardens along the lake. The lake itself was okay, nothing particularly exciting, although again would be packed in summer.
The next morning we drove back to the Lakes District. On the way we saw a sign to something called Castlerigg Stone Circle, which we went through a extremely tight lane (barely fit one car) to get to.
On our drive south we wanted to go to the beach. Rachael was navigating so took us to what looked like a sandy beach on the map but was actually Lindisfarne causeway, which was a massive salt pan at low tide. After looking it up we thought about driving across to Lindisfarne Castle but it was really foggy and we didn’t really know how fast the tides are so thought it was best not to in a rental car.
We picked up a hire car in Edinburgh, then headed to Glasgow to meet Katherine.
We stopped at a few places we saw on the map on the way, first up House Of The Binns which wasn’t that exciting.
Next we stopped at Linlithgow Palace. Okay view from outside but heaps of midgies, we didn’t both going inside. There was a wedding on at the church with the groomsmen wearing kilts.
After getting off the ferry we had a nice coastal drive on the bus to Edinburgh, briefly stopping at Glasgow on the way. Edinburgh is a really cool looking city, with lots of nice buildings.
We went to our airBnB which overlooked Arthur’s Seat and was hosted by a really nice guy Russell, who told us that the layers actually inspired the theory of tectonic plates.
The next morning we did the free walking tour and had an awesome guide, Sabela.
So we left Dublin early in the morning to avoid the traffic and made our way up north again to visit Slane.
We were told by Matt and Angela to visit a hill with a view of the countryside and was a perfect sunny day so the views were spectacular. There was a freezing cold wind though, so we didn’t stay long.
We went past Slane Castle but it was closed for renovations.
We got in from our drive in the afternoon, and parked at our airBnB which was hosted by a really lovely guy that made us a cuppa, gave us a map and helped us plan out what we wanted to see the next day. It was a bit of a dodgy suburb but lots of good student food places nearby, and we had some amazing Moroccan wraps.
The next morning we did a walking tour, and in more stereotypical Irish weather it was raining and cold.
So we picked up a car and headed north to drive along the coast, which was great. There wasn’t many cars and heaps of awesome scenery. We didn’t go to the The Dark Hedges but saw some cool roads like it in the area.
Our first tourist stop was Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. The rope bridge itself was pretty tame and unexciting (the lady crossing behind us was freaking out), but the coastal scenery was pretty epic.
We flew into Belfast and got a bus in to the city and then to check into our hostel. Everywhere was really booked out in Belfast, and we were only able to book a 10 person dorm at Vagabonds. We found an awesome burrito place for lunch that was a cross between subway and GyG. It was good being back in an English speaking country again, although Rachael still really struggled to understand what we were ordering with the accent which was pretty funny.
