uk roadtrip part 10: from glasgow to huddersfield

Time for a travel day! We woke up outside of Glasgow in the lovely home of Nick and Katy. Had breakfast together ...



... and then said goodbye for now in the late morning. They are always such a delight to visit. Next time in Gothenburgh?

The drive from Glasgow to Huddersfield is just over four hours. Liam and I both needed some alone time and to sink into ourselves for a bit, so he listened to a podcast while I wrote in my journal and listened to Love...Thy Will Be Done by Martika on repeat. What a song. What a life this is.


We stopped at Tebay Services for lunch. I bloody love Tebay Services (also Gloucester Services when going to the south - it's the same company). Actually, I don't know any Brit who doesn't sigh happily at the thought of Tebay Services. They drive A LOT in this country, you know, so how would you not love services with a pond? And actual grass? And good veggie food?


AND they have a shop for locally grown food. I bought some local and local-ish stout, OBVS. Had so much great beer on this trip.


And in the afternoon we made it to Skelmanthorpe (not really Huddersfield as it says in the title of this post, but they lived there for so long that I still think of it as "going to Huddersfield") to see Rosie and Marshal and their lovely family. Turns out we made it back to England from Scotland just in time for a heatwave. When we left Glasgow it was 21°C; four hours in an air conditioned car later, we stepped out in 31°C. Help! :)


Georgia handed me a very cute egg tattoo almost as soon as we got in the door.


She was a very tattooed lady herself this afternoon. :) I wanted all of her tattoos!


Something about Marshal's cooking was loud, apparently!


Is that a black hole I see, resting on the stairs?


Marshal made us some delightful dinner.


And then we spent the rest of the evening out on the patio.


It was a slightly more comfortable temperature of 25°C at night, and a perfect summer evening to spend outside with fabulous company ...


... a good beer ...


... and sticky toffee pudding. :)


The next morning we had breakfast ...


... and cuddled with Molly ...


... and took selfies ...


... and then we waved goodbye to the family. It was so, so lovely to get to spend time with these wonderful humans. The memories from this trip are so incredibly valuable to me.

Martika | Love...Thy Will Be Done

uk roadtrip part 9: loch lomond national park

We started our last full day in Scotland petting Highland Cattle. Liam had looked up a place where you can feed and pet them, so obviously we had to go, because Liam is obsessed with dogs, and cows are essentially big dogs (or "grass puppers" as they are called in our household).



This is Liam's lovestruck face whenever he sees a particularly good dog, or in this case, three very big grass-eating good dogs.


Then we drove to the second national park of this trip (woop woop), Loch Lomond national park. I was going for a walk (obviously) but it was very sunny and I realised I had forgotten to take a hat. Liam, who was only going down to the village pub and not up a mountain, let me have his hat and put a t-shirt on his own head instead :)


And then I started walking up Conic Hill.


More up.



Sat down for some fika halfway up ...


... where this was the view. I was not suffering.


Then some more up.



And then I reached the top!


It was so beautiful up there. I was so so happy.


I stayed for a bit just to take it all in.



And then I went back down again the same route. The path was well paved and it wasn't too steep, so this was a very pleasant afternoon walk.





I went to the pub to find Liam who despite what it looks like had had a delightful day inside, away from the sun and the heat, drinking coffee and tinkering on his laptop. :)


Then we drove to Glasgow where we stayed another night with the lovely Katy and Nick ...



... talking about life, the universe and everything until late.

Little Simz | Young

uk roadtrip part 8: fairy pools & the way from skye

Are you ready for a massive blog post? This was SUCH a beautiful day that I couldn't rein myself in. Photos and joy overflowing in all directions. Okay, let's do it. :)


In the morning we said goodbye to Portree and I took yet another photo of the bay with all the boats, because I can.



That big dark building just above the row of houses is the community hall where the cèilidh was held the night before, by the way :)


We left Portree and went to Glen Brittle to see the Fairy Pools. Liam was not feeling like seeing any more nature at all so I went for a walk down to the falls by myself.


"By myself" meaning me and plenty of other tourists, of course. On this photo it looks like the path past the falls would be crowded, but it wasn't bad once I got down there.



The Fairy Pools are a series of small waterfalls in the burn that runs through the valley, and the path leads past them all. It's a really pretty place.







But the biggest reward for me came when at the top of the last little pool, the wide, paved path turned into a narrow, winding, rocky path, more like something you'd find in the Swedish mountains. I could see that the path continued to follow the burn further up in the valley, called Coire na Creiche, and I decided to keep walking.


It was such a lovely walk. It felt so much like being in the Swedish mountains - the closest I've ever come to it without being in the actual mountains. The temperature was perfect, the nature wonderful, the air easy to breathe, and I was so happy. I made the most of the few hours I had here. In the end I turned back at the cairn at the foot of the mountain, but at some point I'll come back and do a longer hike here.


Then we continued driving and stopped to take photos ...


... of extra pretty views, like this one ...


... and this one.


We went to check out the Talisker destillery on the way which was fascinating - the air in the whole area smelled so peaty and bready!


And then it was time to head to the mainland to not get to our accommodation too late. But you can imagine that it was hard for me to leave a place where every road leads through landscape like this.








But at Eileen Donan we had to stop to have a look around. How can a castle BE this picturesque?!





All of these photos are just taken from the side of the road we were driving on; we didn't even have to go "anywhere special". The Highlands is a ridiculous place and at the end of the day, I was completely emotionally exhausted from trying to take in all this beauty. This is Loch Linnhe.



And these last two are taken from the Ballachulish Bridge.


This is our delightful bed & breakfast, Orchy Bank House.




There's no restaurant in the area so we bought some dinner on the way and ate it in the lounge.


We were asked to hand in a little note with our breakfast order before bed. Liam hoped that by drawing a fried egg with hearts around it, he would be able to get a full vegan and a fried egg. Turns out, he absolutely did. :)

Jalen Ngonda | That's All I Wanted From You