With so much to do before embarking on our journey, our last few weeks in London went by incredibly quickly.

Before we knew it the whirlwind of house clearing, leaving parties, box packing, and general loose end tying was over. It was time to go.

We hurriedly packed the last of our belongings into the Sunny, newly outfitted with a roof box for this its final and most epic road trip. A quick check of  the oil & water, (honest Dad!) and we were off, rolling out of the quiet Luton cul-de-sac our friends Alex & Peta call home and onto the M25, bound for Portsmouth.

The first stop on our journey was to be the Hellfest Festival in Clisson, France. So from Portsmouth we caught the same overnight ferry to the French port of Le Havre as we did the previous year, arriving fresh and relaxed after a good night’s sleep. When we eventually stopped for breakfast in the Sunshine of a French motorway rest area, it finally began to sink in that this time there would be no return journey to Blighty. For us it was Australia or bust!

Just as it had when we attended in 2008, Hellfest once more offered arguably the most outstanding lineup of the European Summer metal festivals. The big names were a bit uninspiring, (Motley Crue? Marylin Manson?? Manowar???) but further down the bill, Hellfest laid on a veritable smorgasbord of tasty metal goodness.

We stocked up on supplies at the local branch if LIDL and set up camp amongst the wheat fields and grape vines, ready to begin European festival season 2009.

As it turned out, Hellfest was even better this year than last, the Sun beaming down for 3 fantastic days on a noticeably larger crowd than 2008, (possibly due to the utterly atrocious lineup at Graspop).

There were some awesome performances in the Rock Hard tent by Samael, Cathedral, Napalm Death, Moonspell and the mighty Grand Magus.

Entombed were in especially good form and appeared to have as much fun as the crowd as they tore through tracks old and new.

Outside in the sunshine were Down, who sounded great despite Phil Anselmo accusing the crowd of being drunk, (pot? kettle?). Also bringing the groove from the USA were Clutch. We were seeing them for the first time and they went down very well with the cold beer and afternoon Sun. Bringing out Wino from Saint Vitus for a guest appearance was very cool too…

Anthrax sounded fantastic with their new singer  – a real shame they were to split with him only a few weeks later. But it’s not just the ridiculously good lineup that makes Hellfest the great show that it is. The French give their festival touches of ambience that are truly superb, especially when the Sun goes down…

As we wandered back to the tent, Manowar’s fireworks signalling Hellfest’s conclusion, it was good to know we still had more festival goodness on the way before the Summer was done.

After the craziness that was our final weeks in London and then 3 days of partying at Hellfest, it was time for some much-needed downtime. We made our way toward the coast near Bordeaux in search of a campground, wary to avoid Camping La Pressoir after our last visit, (we and our then travelling companions Reb, Al and Jess were forced to make an early-morning escape in the Sunny along an improvised garden road after discovering the gate was locked until reception opened a few hours later).

As it turned out we found another, much nicer location…

The campground we ended up at was on the Dune of Pyla, Europe’s largest sand dune about 60km south of Bordeaux. It was a beautiul spot so we stopped for a couple of days to drink Champagne, take in the beautiful sunsets and organise all the crap we’d haphazardly thrown into the car shortly before our departure from Mother England.

We also started doing a little planning and soon realised that we had a week less than we thought to get to Slovenia for Metal Camp. So we bid the west coast of France adieu and high tailed it across the south to Cannes to have a beer with some former workmates…

and marvel at how disgustingly rich some people in this world are…

Ah well, it’s only money right? The next day we climbed back aboard the humble Sunny and plotted a course eastward – to Italy!

Some more photos of Hellfest 2009 and our French adventures are here.

                          

Every year, the sleepy town of Wacken in the north of Germany becomes temporary home to tens of thousands of metalheads who travel from the four corners of the globe for a few glorious days of German beer, sunshine (hopefully) and of course, heavy metal.

This year we were once more sailing the good ship Sunny from London, heavily laden with a cargo of camping gear and leather boots. This time on board we had Lynda, (now firmly ensconched as an ex-pat in London) and Gareth, who was back over from Oz for his first taste of European festival lovin’.

After one night-time ferry, 10 hours and several hundred kms of autobahn, we arrived at the Wacken campground. We’d been directed to a spot miles from the main festival area, but being experienced Wackeners we knew better than to camp where we were told.

We loaded our gear on our backs and made our way to what has become our traditional camping spot. There we found Tanja and Leo, who’d saved ample room for us and a few others that were on the way. Soon enough we were settled in nicely.

Sarah and I caught up on some sleep and then headed back into Hamburg by train to see Jeff Martin. Getting back at 3:30am we caught some more Z’s and woke up on day 1 of the festival proper. Since we’d left, Gav had arrived from London and Eric, (bassist in Leo’s band Deus.exe) had also set up camp with his girlfriend Anja. Our campsite was complete!

After a camp breakfast and a beer or two to get the ball rolling, Leo and I went forth on another the great Wacken tradition – finding a suitable pole on which to raise the Australian flag. The search was hard and long, but the final result was most excellent.

Wacken tradition #263 – head into town to stock up on cheap food and beer. We managed to enlist the help of an enterprising young local girl with a cart who helped us wheel our purchases back to the campground for a very reasonable fee.

We got back to camp and put some beer on ice – yep, thanks to our eskies and the Wacken shop now selling ice the days of warm campground beer are over! Then it was in for our first band of the festival, Australia’s very own Airbourne!

After their outstanding show at Hellfest earlier this year we knew we were in for a great show. We also knew that with their AC/DC-like sound, the Germans would be out in force and we weren’t wrong. The band got a huge reaction and singer Joel O’Keeffe shined once again as the perfect rock ‘n’ roll frontman, belting out, (amongst others) Runnin’ Wild, Black Jack, and the anthemic Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast as the crowd screamed along.

The excitement was all a bit too much for this bloke, who just couldn’t resist the urge to get naked.

After Airbourne it was straight over to the party stage for one of our personal favourites, Leaves’ Eyes. They were bringing along their viking longboat stage setup that we’d seen at the Metal Female Voices festival and a big show was promised.

Of course they delivered in spades, Liv’s trademark voice in fine form as it melded with the powerful twin guitars of Mathias and Thorsten. The band’s new rhythm section of bassist Alla Fedynitch and drummer Peter Hornung seem to have slotted in perfectly too, with Peter’s use of acoustic drums adding substantially to the band’s live sound.

It wasn’t long before Alex Krull joined the band on stage, bringing his heavy vocals to bear for a rendition of the always excellent Ocean’s Way. He did a great job of riling the substantial crowd, (the biggest we’ve seen Leaves’ Eyes play for) and as with the Metal Female Voices show, there were plenty of pyrotechnics!

The set was made up of plenty of favourites, including Solemn Sea, Norweigian Lovesong and Temptation

and finished up with usual closer Elegy. After the set, Thorsten and Mathias came down to the front barrier to say hi to the fans, and we grabbed them for a couple of shots.

Iron Maiden’s first ever appearance at Wacken was always going to be huge and with 72,000 in attendance this was to be the biggest crowd of their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour. In fact we were to find out afterward that security eventually had to shut the gates to the festival ground, leaving many to watch the show from the beer garden or the big screen by the campground.

After seeing them at Twickenham Stadium a few weeks earlier we knew what we were in for, and so did the rest of the crowd the moment Churchill’s speech began to echo from the PA. The band burst onto the stage with Aces High and then went straight into 2 Minutes to Midnight, Bruce running around the stage like a hyperactive kid and the rest of the band clearly loving the response from the massive crowd of metal faithful.

The True Metal Stage had been kept clear for the whole day to accomodate Maiden’s beautifully over-the-top stage show, it’s Egytian theme taken from their Powerslave album. There were a few items missing from the extravagence that was the Twickenham gig but most of the show was intact, including a huge sphynx that opened to reveal a mummified Eddie!

The setlist was more-or-less the same as Twickenham, with just about every song a highlight. One standout was Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a track that’s rarely heard live due to it’s epic length of 14 mins. The Trooper was also a favourite with it’s requisite singalong chorus and it was great to hear some tracks from the Seventh Son… album in the shape of Can I Play With Madness and then Moonchild and The Clairvoyant during the encore.

The set and Wacken’s first night were rounded out with personal favourite, Hallowed Be They Name and with that, Iron Maiden had finally conquered Wacken in a big way. We made our way back to the campground and kicked on into the night with a few random Aussies that came by to visit.

The next morning I’d planned on catching Aussie stalwarts Mortal Sin, but ended up missing them due to their 11:55am timeslot and sheer laziness on my part. Cynic were up next and while I’d not heard them previously, Gareth played me their Focus album in the car on the way to Wacken. I was intrigued by their unique sound and determined to check them out.

In the end I was glad I’d made the effort. I found Gareth and we settled in to listen to Cynic’s unique take on technical prog/death metal under a refreshing patter of light rain. Their music was a perfect start to the day, employing a lot of dynamics and varying smoothly between clean and mellow parts. The musicianship on display was awesome to behold as well and by the end of their set I’d put Focus

on my “albums to buy” list.

Not long after Cynic’s set was done, the heavens opened over Wacken with a vengeance. I took refuge in a surprisingly clean toilet cubicle and waited out the storm, killing two birds with one stone. My rendezvous with Gareth at the merchandise stand was temporarily put on hold but eventually we found each other and went back to meet the others at the campground.

When we went back in an hour or so later for soilwork, the ground was a little damp. We’d come prepared with boots, but other festival-goers were forced to improvise…

Soilwork weren’t too bad, though not as powerful live as they have been in the past. It was good to hear old classic Bastard Chain

live though.

We ducked up to the Metal Market for some shopping and then made it back inside in time for Opeth. They played a solid set and being Wacken they focussed on their heavier tracks. Masters Apprentice had the huge crowd banging away and Drapery Falls sounded great as a closer.

Children of Bodom were the big draw of the evening and the ground was all but full as they took the stage. Frontman Alexi was as charismatic as ever and in front of their urban stage setup complete with the beat-up old car, the band put on a typically excellent show.

The final band of the night was Corvus Corax, though calling them a band is something of an understatement. They came out with a choir, orchestra, (complete with conductor), 5 blokes with strange bagtypes and all manner of enormous drums and other instruments. The music itself sounded like the soundtrack from Conan the Barbarian – very epic.

We gave Gareth a brief introduction to the Wacken beer garden and then turned in for the night.

After breakfast on day three we ended up with quite a crowd in camp Aussie. A couple of Gav’s mates from up north came along as well as some Swedes who were camped near us and we also met Ed, a Californian who now lives in New Zealand. He was looking for some other Aussies and spied our flag, but ended up hanging out and drinking beer with us instead. Being a Linux sysadmin, it wasn’t long before Ed and I were talking geek.

The death metal groove of Obituary provided a solid start to the day’s music, the band in much better form than when we watched them play Wacken in the rain a few years back.

Then after an hour or so it was time for the first half of Wacken 2008’s 1-2 punch. The reactivated death/grindcore legends Carcass took to the stage for a gig many never expected to see. After Hellfest we knew that we wouldn’t be disappointed…

The setlist focussed heavily on the Necroticism and Heartwork albums, from opener Buried Dreams through to Corporeal Jigsore Quandry, Death Certificate and a truly awesome rendition of Heartwork to round things off. There were also a few surprises in there too – Reek of Putrefaction

sounded great live and Keep on Rotting from not-so-critically-acclaimed release Swansong. “C’mon, that album wasn’t so bad” joked Walker after the song was done.

Bill Steer wasn’t quite as tight on the guitars as he used to be, not having had as much practice playing metal as his bandmate and Arch Enemy guitarist Mike Amott. But he held things together for the most part, and all of his old solos still sounded great live. Amott’s bandmate and partner Angela Gossow also joined the band on for Incarnate Solvent Abuse, which was quite cool.

As the band left the stage the crowd cheered until well after they’d gone – Carcass are a band that won’t be forgotten. Back at the campsite to avoid Killswitch Engage and then it was time for the other big reformation of 2008 – Sweden’s At the Gates.

Like Carcass we’d been lucky enough for a preview of this gig at Hellfest and so this time we could just sit back and enjoy the ride. The Swedes were played as if the12 years since their breakup had never happened, playing their unique brand of melodic death to an enormous crowd who lapped up every sweeping riff and howling solo.

I’d lost Leo during Carcass but this time we were in the same spot so it was good to reminisce with some of the old favourites from back in the day. After a thundering opening of Slaughter of the Soul they played just about everything we could’ve wanted to hear, including most of that record and a few choice cuts form their earlier releases.

Terminal Spirit Disease sounded particularly epic and it’s hard to express in words how amazing the grooves of Suicide Nation and World of Lies come across live. Truly a band that will never be equalled. The encore of Blinded by Fear and Kingdom Gone was enough to leave any fan witha  smile on their face.

We’d bumped into Ed again before At the Gates, (something of a lesson in Swedish melodic death metal for him) and so we joined him at the True Metal stage to check out Nightwish with new singer Anette Olzon. She has rather big shoes to fill and on the last night of Wacken, she wasn’t quite up to the task. The band sounded ok, but Anette’s voice just didn’t have the power of her operatically-trained predecessor.

And so we headed back to the beer garden for the, (almost) final hurrah…

After a quick beer, Gareth and I went back inside for Kreator, who kicked arse as always. Mille and Co. can always be relied upon to deliver a thrashin’ good time and tonight on home turf they were firing on all cylinders. The same old favourites were aired but at the end of 3 days of music festival tracks like Tormentor, Extreme Aggression and Flag of Hate are always gonna go down well. The huge number of assembled Germans certainly thought so.

I returned with the now famous knobbi (garlic) bread for all and we shelted from the patchy rain and drank into the night. A nice german bloke called Sebastian joined us, bringing with him a bottle of Jagermeister which was shared around. It was the last night but we were celebrating what had been a great 3 days, rather than mourning their loss.

The next morning of course was the dreaded pack up, made worse by the mammoth trek back to the car. We dropped Gareth, Lynda and Gav off in Hamburg but due to the atrocious traffic the normally 40-min drive took almost 3 hours and by then we gave up all hope of catching our 9:30pm ferry. We had a last supper at MacDonalds before leaving the intrepid travellers behind to plot their own course.

After many more hours of slow traffic and a few sleeps in German truck stops, we ended up catching a Eurotunnel at 4:45am. We made it home just in time to shower and head off for work – what a productive Monday that was. The things you do in the name of Heavy Metal eh? More pics from our adventures at Wacken 2008 are here. See you next year W.O.A! \m/

                          

The May Day long weekend lay ahead of us. Kevin’s copy of Rock Band for Xbox had arrived complete with guitar, mic and drum kit (!), the final of the Eurovision song contest was on Saturday, the Monaco GP1 was on Sunday, and we were very well stocked with beer, meat and BBQ coals. Game on!

So the day finally came when Kevin stayed home for the delivery of the much anticipated “Rock Band”! Hooray for Kevin!! Two guitars, a microphone, and a drum kit all projected on the big screen at The Grove. In combination with huge amounts of beer, cider, vodka, bbq food and fish pie lovingly made by Joe what more could a bunch of Beamers and friends want?

So the party started with the boys off to do some shopping and some cooking while the girls (Chloe, Sarah, Garvita and Lynda) jumped in and formed the first band. I would just like to say girls ROCK!!

But we knew our time of dominating the game would be short-lived as more boys arrived including the ever so competitive Party Dave who was keen to get straight in there.

We feasted on Joe’s pies, Garvita’s samosas and James’ marinated chicken as well as an array of German sausages.

Rock Band was/is truly awesome. Guitar Hero was always great fun, but the addition of vocals and drums makes the whole band experience so much more fun. The drums are especially cool and it took all of our powers combined to manhandle Kev from the drum stool…

The games continued until the wee hours of the morning before a bit of sleep for some, in preparation of the next day of partying.

Saturday started with the usual bacon and egg rolls which James cooked up for everyone. This was followed by sitting around in the backyard having a few drinks and catching up with Lynda’s sister Rose who had just landed from Australia that morning. Before we knew it, it was time to light the next bbq and get cooking before Eurovision started.

Kelvin and Christina came around to join the fun, as did Kev’s mate Carl. I ran around and organised a quick sweep and printed out the drinking rules for eurovision.

A jug of fruity shooter was made. A shot of which was to be consumed when our country from the sweep was playing. “Poor” Kevin had 3 countries in the sweep and had to have 3 shots – he REALLY hated that! We’d all had enough drinks by this time to be convinced that wearing the Viking helmet while our band played was also a good idea.

I think a few people were surprised that watching Eurovision could be so much fun. But the cheesy songs, funny accents and ridiculous dancing and props combined with Terry Wogan’s famous dry commentary resulted in huge laughs all round. It seemed not a moment went by without a shout of “Use of Props!” or “Keychange” meaning that we all had to drink. I bet Little Adam can hardly wait for next year!!

Sarah was the eventual winner with Russia and picked up the winning glass of coinage and the last shot – yummy!

There was plenty more Rockband to be played after Eurovision with Chloe fronting the band with consistent scores over 95% (but on easy). The drumming became too hard as more drinks were consumed but the band played on until the early hours of the morning.

Sunday was a wind-down day. The rain outside was a good excuse to be lazy so we ordered pizza and settled in to watch the Monaco Grand Prix. Afterward what else could we do but play more Rock Band??? Again it went well into the wee hours…

Monday there were still a few stragglers who didn’t want to give up but the weekend finally came to an end and the rockband tour which included 3 dates at the same venue was complete – until next time…….

                          

After a lunchtime cocktail or two at home, we made our way into town for the business end of proceedings.

We spent the afternoon in The Samuel Pepys, a very nice bar overlooking the Thames and directly opposite the Tate Modern. Before long a weird and wonderful selection of drinks were ordered and we settled in for a very relaxing afternoon.

Apparently The Samuel Pepys is quite busy during the week, patronised by workers from the surrounding offices. But being quite tucked away, it’s virtually deserted on the weekends and so we were lucky enough to have the place pretty much to ourselves.

The lack of business at The Samuel Pepy’s on the weekend is reflected by their unfortunate Saturday closing time of 5pm. We managed to stick around a little longer to finish off one last round before piling in to black cabs, bound for Belgo Centrall in Covent Garden.

Belgo is a Belgian restaurant famed for it’s hearty food and extensive beer menu.

We were soon tucking in to some very tasty appetizers, washed down by all manner of delicious and highly potent Belgian beers!

One of the many curiosities on Belgo’s beer menu are the shot sticks – long wooden racks of schnapps shots. We had one of the largest size delivered forthwith. And then another, and another…

Delicious mains included surf and turf (with lobster in place of the usual prawns), plenty of chips and of course the mandatory Belgian dish – Mussels!

After dessert and yet more Belgian beer, we finally departed and headed for home.

Some of us ended on a quick detour via Kilburn for a pint, but eventually we all made it back to the house where the fun continued with guitars of both the acoustic and plastic, (Guitar Hero) variety.

Great friends, great food, plenty of tasty beers and a lot of laughs – a perfect way to celebrate the big three zero for Sarah! There’s lots more pictures of our silly antics here.

                          

After a great night seeing Anathema and Porcupine tree at The Forum we slept quite late on Saturday. But Kyle was only in London for a few days and we’d promised to take him to see Stonehenge. So after a lazy morning and a full English breakfast cooked up by Lynda all five of us piled into the Sunny and followed the ley lines west to the famous stone circle.

We’d been to Stonehenge once before and driven past a number of times on our way to South-West England, but we decided this time to actually cough up the £6 each to get on the other side of the fence and see the stones up close, (or at least as close as the smaller interior fence would allow).

We wandered around the ancient monument for about half an hour. As the Sun sank in the west the temperature dropped markedly and we all started to wish we’d brought gloves and beanies.

We’d gotten there with less than an hour before closing, but this turned out being a fortunate move. Not only were there a lot less people than there might have been, but we also saw the Sun set behind the henge in stunning fashion.

And with that we were off, back to London for yet another gig – this time Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio). All in all a very successful day! There’s a few more photos from our visit to Stonehenge here.

                          

Two of the biggest distilleries are located in and around Dufftown – a place strangely famous for it’s whiskey rather than its beer, despite what Simpsons fans may have expected.

The first distillery that we were to visit was Glenfiddich – one of the largest in Scotland and located in the heart of Dufftown itself.

We were taken on a guided tour and although we were already familiar with most of the processes from our Edradour tour, it was impressive to see a distillery on a much grander scale. Glenfiddich had 24 of the enormous "washbacks" – huge vats where the initial wort is mixed with yeast and left to ferment for several days. We saw several washbacks at different stages of fermentation – those at the most active stage had a huge fan spinning inside them to cut up the mass of foam rising from the brew.

The number of stills was also impressive – there were 13 in the room that we visited and apparently there are over 20 in total!

We finished the tour with the customary dram of single malt and then after lunch we drove a few miles out of Dufftown to visit The Glenlivet distillery.

Having opted against taking another tour, (we were now quite well versed in the art of whiskey making) the helpful lady in the gift shop offered us a dram to enjoy as we wandered around the Glenlivet history exhibition. We gratefully accepted and learned that The Glenlivet was in fact the first legal distillery in Scotland, although apparently the King was very partial to a drop even before legalisation took place!

Afterwards a member of staff was kind enough to take us down to the tastings room, where I was able to try a 20 year old Glenlivet finished in French Oak. Amazing stuff – full of flavour and yet extremely smooth, but alas I couldn’t stretch the budget far enough to take home a whole bottle!

On the way out of the distillery we stopped for a few photos of the distinctive cows that we’d been seeing all over the Scottish countryside. At least we think they were cows…

Final destination for the night was the village of Aviemore, where we’d been fortunate to book in to a guesthouse in the heart of town, right by the steam railway and across the tracks from a most excellent pub – the Cairngorm Hotel. As it turned out a huge Harley-Davidson meeting was taking place that weekend and while sitting outside for a pre-dinner beer we saw more than a few bikers roll in to town astride their noisy but beautiful machines.

Inside the hotel we enjoyed some delicious Aberdeen Angus steaks and the excellent atmosphere was completed by local piper "Spud", who played out the front of the hotel dressed in full Scottish regalia.

Then after dinner a trio of fiddler, guitarist and accordion player (accordionist?) started playing in the main bar. So we moved inside and spent the rest of the evening clapping, singing and enjoying the very well-price local whiskey. Finally went to bed very contented.

Next morning after another huge Scottish breakfast we conveniently crossed the road from our guesthouse and boarded the train to ride the Strathspey Steam Railway. The little locomotive pulling the train took us on a very relaxing ride up to a station that had been used in the filming of Monarch of the Glen and then back again.

Then it was on to a train of a more modern kind as we rode the funnicular railway up to the top of Caingorm Mountain. We had lunch at the top and then took in the scenery from the viewing platform. Fortunately we’d gotten a very clear day and so we could see for miles. Eventually the cold wind got the better of us and back down the mountain we went.

Back in the Sunny we climbed and set a course for Inverness where the next installment of our trip was to take place. Check out more photos of Scotland here.

                          

There were some great old cars there and a seemingly endless collection of movie memorabilia, old toys etc. This impressive collection included a white Lotus Esprit used in one of the James Bond films and for a limited time, the Ford Anglia used in the Harry Potter films!

I was also particularly impressed to see a Sinclair C5 – the personal electric vehicle that famously flopped and almost sent Sir Clive Sinlair bankrupt.

Back at the railway we watched the beautifully restored engine shunt passenger cars around before heading off around the lake.

We decided not to ride on this particular train, (there were others on Dad’s todo list) so we crossed the tracks to see the museum itself. Inside two huge sheds were beautifully restored engines, carriages and rolling stock as well as a wealth of information on the beginnings of the Scottish rail industry.

Leaving Bo’ness we continued north towards the town of Stirling. Just outside Stirling is the enormous Wallace Monument, dedicated of course to the famous freedom fighter William Wallace as portrayed in the movie Braveheart.

We climbed our way up the spiral staircase to the very top, stopping at the exhibition floors along the way. The highlight was definitely Wallace’s actual sword. It was enormous and the fact that he was able to wield it in battle is a testament to his size and strength.

Leaving the monument, we drove through Stirling stopping only for a quick photo of the castle. Then we continued on to Pitlochry, where we found a nice Bed & Breakfast and rounded off the day with an enormous Indian meal. After dinner we went for a quick walk and Sarah snapped some nice shots of the spectaular Athol Palace Hotel – maybe next time we’ll have the cash to stay there…

The breakfast part of our B & B was Dad and Sue’s first "full" breakfast since they arrived and the vast plate of eggs, bacon, sausages etc that we were presented with soon put paid to any hope of a healthy start to the day. Afterwards we went for a quick visit to the town’s hydro-electric dam and saw the fish ladder,  a series of 31 pools that allow trout and salmon to swim upstream past the dam during the breeding season. Interesting as it was, it didn’t keep us long from our first distillery – Edradour.

Edradour is Scotland’s smallest commercial distillery and on our free tour we saw whiskey being made there in the same way that it has been since 1825. The end result was very smooth and after the tour was over we stuck around to taste some of the other single malts on offer. A hard job, but somebody had to do it.

Continuing north, we stopped off at Queen’s View – supposedly the "most photographed spot in Scotland". The view was certainly spectacular and we spent some time enjoying the scenery in the sunshine before tucking in to an equally enjoyable picnic of sandwiches and ciders.

Blair Castle was our next stop, where we’d been advised by our previous night’s hostess to park in the town and walk in to avoid parking charges. After walking about a kilometre up the drive it soon became clear that no such charges were in effect and we could’ve parked for free, but I guess after that mammoth breakfast the walk did us good.

We didn’t go inside the castle but the outside was very impressive, as were the expansive grounds which we spent a couple of hours wandering. Through the wooded paths of Diana’s Grove we came upon the beauitful ruin of St Bride’s church, the burial place of  Bonnie Dundee who died fighting for the Jacobites in the Battle of Killicrankie.

After watching the deer laze about in their park for a while we made the long trek back to the Sunny and left in the direction of Aberdeen, where we planned on staying the night. En-route we deicded to change course and try for a bed in Stonehaven, a small fishing town a little further south.

All of the hotels and guesthouses in Stonehaven turned out to be full, but the detour wasn’t entriely in vain. Going through the town we spotted a sign advertising the "Birthplace of the World Famous Deep Fried Mars Bar" and so we stopped off to give this Scottish delicacy a try. Mmmm… deep fried Mars Bar….

Having lucked out in Stonehaven we figured we’d have no trouble finding a bed in Aberdeen, but we were wrong. Apparently we’d turned up on the night the city was playing host to a Scottish international soccer game and as such the whole town was booked out.

We eventually opted to drive north towards Banff but fortunately our luck changed before we got there. We stopped at a small inn and although they were full, they found us a room just a few miles away. Our hostess for the evening was Anni who put us up in her beautiful farmhouse and made us feel very much at home. We managed to make it in to town just in time to pick up a Chinese take-away and a bottle of wine and after a long and relaxed candlelight meal, we turned in for some well-earned rest.

As always, more photos await your viewing pleasure here.

                          

After a day to settle in to London we were off on our trip to Scotland – a destination that’s been on our todo list since we first came to Europe. Give the long-haul flight that the parents had just been through we thought it best to make our journey to Edinburgh in two stages and so our first port of call was Liverpool.

We spent the afternoon at the historic Albert Dock, where we paid a nostalgic visit to the excellent Beatles Story exhibition and then enjoyed a quick drink overlooking the water. An excellent afternoon that was only slightly let down by the horrendous ASDA sausages that we took back to the hotel to have for dinner.

On our way north the next morning, we negotiated the sheep along a small country road near Carlisle to see one of the surviving stretches of Hadrian’s Wall. The cold winds that greeted us when we got out of the car gave us pause for the poor Roman soldiers stationed here to keep the barbarians out back in the day.

After checking in to our hotel, we spent the evening exploring the south side of the beautiful city of Edinburgh. We’d accidentally timed our trip to coincide with the annual Edniburgh festival and so the place was alive with tourists, street performers and musicians – including our first glimpse of a piper.

We wandered in to the national gallery to see a small exhibition of etchings and watercolours by William Blake, and eventually ended up in the amusingly-named "Dirty Dick’s" pub/restaurant. Dad had his first taste of ale, (he’s not thoroughly convinced but the stuff does grow on you after a while) and we all got our first taste of haggis. The unanimous decision was that it was absolutely excellent!

With some time to kill before our bus, we went for a stroll in the Princes Street Gardens as the castle lights came on – a lovely sight.

The next morning we climbed the hill to Edinburgh Castle and went inside for a look around the important historic fortress. The tiny Chapel of St Margaret still stands inside and has the honour of being Edinburgh’s oldest standing building.

We enjoyed the amazing view over the city…

…and then had a look inside the various buildings that make up the castle. It was amazing to be able to see the Honours of Scotland in the flesh after their turbulent history. Photos were forbidden but I managed to get a sneaky one of the crown and the Stone of Destiny, used in the  coronation of the earliest Scottish monarchs.

We split up with Dad and Sue for the afternoon and after a quick spot of lunch and we spent a few hours wandering down the Royal Mile, taking in the festival atmosphere. The streets were once again filled with performers as well as people handing out flyers for every kind of performance imaginable – from stand up comedy to musicals to Shakespeare. These blokes were trying hard to get publicity for their Blues Brothers show – not quite sure what the mysterious hooded figure in the background was advertising though…

We met up with the folks for a couple of beers and a hearty pub dinner – pies, beans and chips for Dad and myself as we we’re both trying to watch our weight. They’d had a very early start and so they went back to the hotel to crash while we did a tour of Mary King’s Close – a 19th Century street that the Edinburgh council chambers was built on top of. The street itself is still in excellent condition and after descending we wandered through houses that’d last been inhabited hundreds of years before.

We made it out just in time to get in to see the stand up comedy of Steve Hughes. We’d been looking for a show to see earlier in the day and a banner of Steve holding a B.C. Rich guitar with the heading "Heavy Metal Comedy" was all we’d needed to convince us to buy tickets. Steve turned out being an Aussie and his show was brilliant – satire taking the piss out of modern religion and politics with a healthy dose of conspiracy theory and a plenty of metal references as well.

After the show we had a few beers and a chat – turned out that back in Oz Steve had drummed in influential bands Slaughter Lord, Mortal Sin and Naxzul! Had a great, (and late) night and we’ll definitely be going along to see him next time his show makes it down to London.

Getting up the next morning was a bit of a struggle but we made it OK and bid farewell to Edinburgh on the banks of the Forth river with it’s famous railway bridge.

There’s many more photos of our Scottish travels here.