Day 7 - the lake district and so...

Drumlanrig Castle

The Lake District
And further south we go into the Lake District which is very pretty indeed. It was also the day that we said goodbye to Scotland and hello again to England. We had much fun in Scotland and saw some awesome things - we will certainly return (if the Scots provide us with the same weather again that is...). The Lake district is very touristy and there are an awful lot of hotels, inns and B&B's along the several lake borders. We have chosen one of the best along the windermere lake: Merewood hotel which has a terrific view over the lake and let's hope good food as well...
Riding here is really fun with lots of curves and inclines as steep as 20% (up and down).
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Day 6 South!

Culzean Castle

Culzean again

Finally I had a good night of sleep...

Sheep everywhere you look and ride
Now we have started our long way south on the British Island. We had to stop at Culzean castle of course because it is one of the finest pieces that is designed by Robert Adam from which we already saw George house, Hopetoun and Inveraray earlier this trip. The famous oval staircase and round room didn't let us down and where simply beautiful and with a stunning view of the Ayrshire coast. The were very few people visiting, so we had practically the place for our own. We ended up in Galloway / Dumbfries - the weather still holding up very high temperatures.
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Day 5 From Oban to Glasgow

To many castles?

Inveraray Castle, the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyle

We started our day at Cruachan, a (man made) hollow mountain which holds the world's first high head reversible pumped storage hydro scheme - a truly amazing engineering achievement. Visiting the plant is fun and leads you trough a tunnel which was dug out by hand through the granite rock by 1300 miners.
Along many lochs and hills we rode to Glasgow, which was a bit of a letdown. The city had clearly better days. Even the Charles Rennie Mackintosh stuff was dissapointing. Our hotel and restaurant compensated that more then enough.
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Day 4: Loch Ness and Oban

Some really old bridges

At Loch Ness - is that a rock in the water or could it be...?

Looks like "The black Island" of TinTin

Room/hotel with a view over Oban
Way up north we further go and then we cross Scotland from East to West, along the many lochs. Nessie was just as the Queen not home... But we saw an tremendous amount of fellow motor riders along the borders of the lochs. Oban is a pretty harbor/ferry town and our hotel was perfectly positioned to have a great view over the bay. We had fresh fish at the fish temple to finish an other perfect day.
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Day 3: The Scottish Highlands and the Queen isn't home

Forth Bridge

Hopetoun House

Scottish Highlands

Balmoral forrest

Eddie calling at the front door of Balmoral
The Scottish Highlands are a blend of Austria, Switzerland with a dash of Norway: splendid!. We rode many miles on windy tiny roads only encountering sheep and other motorcyclists. Riding left has become a second nature very quickly and I hope we can adjust when we are back in Holland... The weather is absolutely awesome - especially for Scotland in May. We visited Balmoral, residence of Elysabeth and Philippe when they are in Scotland, but they were not home - maybe an other time?
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Day 2: Edinburgh

Castlemilk Lads in the Scottish Portrait Gallery

Scottish war memorial
Edinburgh Castle

Checking the guards

On the royal Mile


Scott

Broom
I knew Edinburgh only from films and books (Alexander McCall Smith!) but I fell in love with this city. It is just stunning!. The old town, the castle, the memorials, the new town - everything is really pretty. You have wonderful views over the town itself from the castle and the city itself is just big enough to be able to walk everything. There are plenty of nice museums (national portrait gallery, writers museum) and very good restaurants. So we really enjoyed our day here and will be certianly be back for more.
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Day 1 - the coastal route

Alnwick castle

Bamburgh Castle

Special VIP motor bike parking places

 
The first leg of our journey is along the coast of North East England up to Edinburgh. With sunny skies we were riding quiet  coastal roads along Castles (Alnwick and Bamburgh) and many coastal villages. Just south of Edinburgh we had to stop at Rosalyn Chapel (of Da Vinci Code fame) but find it a little bit in ruins...
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Scotland Ahoy!

huge ferry

every where "convenient bags" - just in case...

After a couple of months of preparation (finding the best regions, tracks, interesting things on the way, hotels and restaurants) we are finally heading to New Castle - on our way to our motor trip through the UK. It should be fun, the weather is awesome (even in Scotland) and our motor gear extra checked. We bought new Nolan 104 helmets - so we should be able to communicate very easily and in high quality during the trip.  The ferry was Ok, nothing special, but the crossing was very smooth and we slept like babies.
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Gå Loreen!, Gå!

Det finns ingen tvivla: Loreen ska vinna Eurovision 2012: Euphoria!
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Touch my hair!

Jacob Philadelphia(5) wanted to know whether Barack Obamas' hair felt the same as his own - and behold: it did!  ‘Gee, you’re just like me...’ and so there is an other proof that Barack is really one of us :-) 
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with his Forelle...

Today we heard to sad news that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau died. After Donna Summer again a favorite singer gone (in a slightly different league ;-) ).
Dietrich interpretation of Schubert lieder is the best - think of Die Forelle or the Erlkönig with Gerald Moore at the piano what more do you need for a rainy afternoon? I am a sucker for German Poems I know.
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Our hotel in Oban got on fire!

We got a mail from the Manor House Hotel in Oban, Scotland informing us that our reservation next week is been canceled due to a fire in the kitchen and some rooms of the hotel. So now we do not have a place to stay in Oban. Luckily the Manor House offered to help us to find alternate accommodation. So let's see were we end up.
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I feel love - for Donna

The first time I saw Donna Summer it was in Van Oekel's Discohoek - one of her very first performances when she still lived in Austria. The song was "The hostage" - later with Giorgio Moroders' I Feel Love she became the Disco Queen and that's how she will always be remembered.
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I am Ultra Fit

As a true Quantified Self person I needed a FitBit Ultra. It's great as has a pressure altimeter that will not only track the number of steps that you take, but will also keep track of when you climb stairs or walk up hills. It can also can be used to turn into a sleep monitor when attached to a special wristband. But I already have my ZEO for that. All the data that is collected by the Fitbit is relayed wirelessly to the Mac. Sweet.
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The World's Oldest Marathon Runner Fauja Singh (101) Prepares Ahead Of The Edinburgh Marathon

While I am still wondering how in the hell I should run the HALF Amsterdam marathon in October, Fauja is laughingly running marathons at a 101 years old - what am I doing WRONG?
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Still waiting for the summer to start...


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farmer seeks guy

willem
Henk

The amazing popular TV show "farmer seeks wife" started again, this time with a gay farmer, Willem. Probably best if Willem stays inside his farm and never comes out... The farmer who I would like to know better on the other hand is Henk, 25...
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Colorful New Yorker

The cover for this week's New Yorker issue by artist Bob Staake
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Audi e-bike Wörthersee

hmmm... I start saving :-)
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Rudi van Dantzig a homage

Yesterday evening was the long anticipated homage performance in the Amsterdam Stopera by te National Dutch Ballet Company. It was a great, moving and excellent evening with especially an awesome performance of "Die Vier Letzte Lieder".
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Time summer starts


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Finding the source of the Nile with Joanna

I am enjoying very much the quest of Joanna Lumley to find the source of the Nile in her (already from 2011) documentary. She is really a warm, friendly and funny lady who sparkles on the screen and makes everything seem so easy, while all the time it is probably very tiresome, scorching hot and smells like hell...
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Albert Falco

I was sorry to hear that Albert Falco died. Together with Jacques Cousteau he brightened up my weekends with their adventures on the Calypso (and under water of course). For more then 40 years he sailed the globe to explore, explain (and thrill). Thanks Albert - you are still one of my heroes.
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Mr Bobo


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