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Showing posts from November, 2013

The South Shore of Iceland

As I only had three full days in Iceland (this time!) I wanted to see as much as possible which meant taking day tours into the country side.  My last day in Iceland I took the South Shore Adventure tour .  Unfortunately the weather failed to cooperate but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. So come along while I relive that day... But first...I have to share these pictures from the Marina Hotel where I picked up the tours in the morning as it was just a three minute walk from Michael's house.  I can't imagine anything like this in prudish North America.  This morning we had a large van and there were about 20 of us.  Our first stop was to walk up to a glacier...sorry I forget the name...well don't even know if I knew what the name was!  Three of our party were walking on the glacier and then meeting us later on in the day.  I guess I am getting old as I did not envy them one little bit.  A fellow from Thailand was on the tour and he was thrilled to bits to see sn

Discovering Urquhart Castle

You can't go far in Scotland without seeing one of its spectacular castles.  Urquhart is probably one of the most well known ones sitting as it does on the banks of Loch Ness and within spitting distance of old Nessie.   I had seen Urquhart back in 1981 while on a day trip from Inverness but we did not stop to visit - just a view from the parking lot ( as we did on our trip to Skye this year)  Our intrepid leader June figured out that we could get there if we got to Invermoriston in time to get the 1:15 bus from there to Urquhart.  We were "only" walking 8 miles that day (by that time 8 miles was a breeze!) so we made sure we got to the town in time and were able to stash our luggage and get the bus as scheduled. It was about a twenty minute trip along twisty roads along the loch. Urquhart Castle has been around in one form or another since approximately 580 AD.  In the beginning it was a residence but became a military stronghold in the 1300's and to quote the o

Huffing and puffing up to Broadway Tower

The Cotswolds are like heaven for walkers...I have done some walking in the Cotswolds in the past but nothing like we did for two of the days we were in the Broadway area. I can't even describe how amazing it was and how much fun we had. And I must say my family is from the Cotswolds - further south near Stroud - but I do love the fact that both my grandparents were born and raised in the Cotswolds.  I feel such a connection with that area.  June and I walked to the village of Snowshill and back - stopping at the Broadway Tower enroute.  I will take you along on the walk to Broadway Tower today and my next post will be the rest of the way to Snowshill and back. We stayed in the lovely town of Broadway which is breathtaking with most of the buildings in the lovely gold Cotswold stone.  Here is the bed and breakfast we stayed at for the three nights - our room was on the main floor on the left. After our first English (as opposed to Scottish) breakfast of the trip we heade