Where were you Nessy!!??

Brett and I completed a trip to Loch Ness in the midlines of Scotland to complete some Nessy watching. We stayed at Loch Ness backpackers and went on a cruise on the Loch searching for Nessie- ok so I was searching, Brett the non believer was just taking in the amazing scenery. Basically the Loch's depth is shaped like a bath at the bottom and the edges have mountains rising either side. This means that even very close to the edge of the loch is extremely deep. The Loch is extremely murky as it contains a lot of Peet from the mountains. This makes the visibility in the lake extremely poor. Divers can't use lights underwater as the Peet particles reflect the light back making it near impossible to see anything underwater. It is much like using high beams on an extremely foggy night when the light is simply reflected back and you still can't see very far in front. There have been over a thousand recorded eye witness sitings of Nessie and our captain had a couple of photos that he had taken of her. In Scotland the locals call her the water horse, not Nessie, apparently this name was given by the media to the hype around the mysterious creature. The captain had said that  many other people have seen the water horse but haven't come forward because the media are ruthless and harass the witnesses... So maybe I did see Nessie, maybe I didn't... He said that sonar isn't sophisticated enough yet to confirm or deny the water horses existence as it can only tell you if there is something down there, not how big it is, nor the shape of it- and everyone knows there are plenty of animals living below the surface. 

Anniversary catch up blogg

So I forgot to post this back when we were in England....Brett's sister in law Zoe helped us organise a celebration for our 3 year anniversary (31-07-12) by booking a hotel room where she works and making a reservation in a well-to do restaurant. Zoe is the manager at the Royal Berkshire and she gave us one of the best rooms- a lovely big suite. Our room overlooked the 15 acres the property was set on. Brett and I went for a little stroll, had a bit of a snoop around the hotel and tried out the pool. Dinner was amazing and although Brett's main left much to be desired, we had a brilliant night. I am so lucky to have Brett in my life. He supports my dreams, wants the best for me and loves me for who I am. With only one year until our wedding I hope I make him as happy as he makes me... Well most of the time anyway :)

Get some York on your Fork

York is an amazing place full of history and wonderfully old buildings. Brett and I stayed in a youth hostel and participated in a night time walking ghost tour. It was quite interesting as the director recounted real facts and stories from times gone by and narrated eye witness accounts of spooky events that have occurred since. The last being around 18 months ago at the excavated Viking site. This morning we headed to the site and learnt about the viking people and saw some of the archeological finds from that spot in the middle of town. It was pretty surreal to be under the city in the exact spot where the artefacts were found. They have shoes from the Viking times as well combs to get live out of their hair, weapons and other cool stuff- randomly they even had some preserved human faeces; amazing I know lol. It is such an amazing city, I have fallen in love with it; quaint buildings all once contained within castle walls, some of the walls are still standing today! Amazing place! 

Hadrians wall

Brett and I are currently chilling in a guest house room after a busy few days. Last night we spent the night in a barn camp. It was created for walkers and backpackers who were on an adventure across hadrians wall. We had the bunk barn to ourselves and we were literally in the roof of a barn in bunk beds. It was cosy, cheap, quaint and served us well. Brett and I had been driving along the road searching for Hadrian's wall and had only come across a small section on our own. It was incredibly impressive, but i really wanted to see more. We followed signs to a roman fort and some extremely helpful people at the counter directed us to greencart farm which provided b&b's, backpacker and camper accommodation. This property was about a 10 minute walk from much more of hadrians wall. It was amazing. The wall was built around 122AD and was the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire. The section we saw was actually the most northern piece that still remained. It was supposed to be built around three meters wide, but in parts was only around 2, which was still bloody impressive, given how long it had survived and that it spanned around 120km. Brett and I spent around 2 hours walking along the wall, with beautiful countryside views and so close to cows we could touch them. It was the most surreal mix of old and new. There was a misty fog over the land and it was around sunset so there was crisp fresh air surrounding us. It was such an experience which really made me feel alive.

This morning we drove along some of Hadrians wall as throughout time they had actually used some of the wall to create the existing roads... This helped to explain why we couldn't always find it when we were driving around. Brett and I continued our adventure and drive to Edinburgh, Scotland. We got out to take touristy photos of the boarder as we crossed from England. We then got caught in a bit of a storm and the rain came bucketing down. Brett was great at driving through the storm and got us here safe and sound. We chilled in the room for a while, grabbed some dinner then set out on an underground ghost Tour. We saw some arches that had been buried over time and heard about how the undesirable people were put here. They were made of stones and housed between 10,000-20,000 people. Originally they were built as the substructures of the south bridge and to make money they created them into vaults to store people's goods such as whiskey. The only problem was that they leaked liquid lime into the vaults which ruined the food, drink and supplies. They then decided housing people would be a better idea... We heard about people snatchers and other awful things that happened to people. People who had the plague or women who were pregnant out of wedlock were put here. The tour was kinda lame but at least we got to see something interesting.

London- St Paul's cathedral

We spent the day in the city at st Paul's cathedral. We climbed the 571 steps to the very top. It was an extremely impressive looking building and was designed as such. Three domes were built to create the illusion of one spectacular dome. Looking up at the ceiling I was incredibly impressed by the design and the ability of the people at the time to build such a structure without modern technology.

London hop on and off

As a tourist I had felt the desperate need to go onto one of those hop on and off bus tours that travels throughout London. It was actually a really great way to learn about some of the history of the famous London landmarks and buildings. For instance at one stage their had been window tax where you had to pay money depending upon how many windows you had. People therefore plastered over their windows and the term daylight robbery was born. It was brilliant in terms of education and site-seeing. We hopped off and saw Buckingham palace which was amazing and I got a photo with the clock tower which holds big Ben. We had a cruise along the river Thames and were guided by a cheeky Pom who many a passing jokes at the local politicians. We saw the globe theatre on this cruise which is where Shakespeare's plays were, and still are performed. I finally felt like I was in London although it was all a bit surreal. Being a tourist is actually quite exhausting as see you see all new sites and learn about people, buildings and places and all your senses work on overdrive trying to take in as much as possible. Brett and I were absolutely stuffed when we returned back to Sean and  Zoe's. It was such a good thing that Sean is an amazing chef as we arrived home to a cooked dinner and collapsed on the couch.

London town

A drive and a DLR (docklands light rail) into the city and  Brett and I arrived into london and were starring at tower bridge. It is an amazing bridge. Brett and I had kind of arrived at tower bridge and had absolutely no idea what bridge we were looking at- Brett had even thought it was London bridge. We were those kind of tourists... Whilst admiring the bridge and contemplating whether to climb up it or not, a little something on my left had caught my eye and I was fairly entranced. It was a castle with people walking on the balconies and terraces. I desperately wanted to be one of those people... It was the first castle I had ever seen and like a mouse to cheese, I was quickly drawn in. It was the tower of London and it was unbelievably impressive. We walked around and apart me was overwhelmed at the thought of being in a castle let alone wondering through it! We learnt an awful lot about the history of the building and I was interested to know that william the conqueror had built one section, the white tower, in 1078. Throughout its time the castle had been used as a prison, an execution site, a menagerie, an armoury, a mint and currently houses the crown jewels, which we were able to see. We visited the 'dungeon' and saw the old equipment used for torture and saw a site set up near the place where people such as Anne boleyn were executed. I thought the whole thing was absolutely wonderful. Such a surreal day but it was exactly what I had been dreaming about when planning our Europe trip.

I made it to Great Britain!!!

After an uncomfortable flight, Brett and i flew into London heathrow airport tired and I was a bit emotional. Reality is often a complete disappointment when you build it up in your head and boy had i built up magical london! A few awfully mean ladies on the plane behind us for 14 hours and a mix up of times and dates saw us organising a national express and heading for bretts brother Sean and his wife Zoe's house. I was surprised and emotional as we were driven out of london and to a village named Great Dunmow. It wasnt quite what i had been expecting given i had thought we were staying in london and i suddenly realised that i had not been on the same page as brett when were discussing travel plans. I would have eagerly spent the afternoon walking around London but Brett was all about the shower and chillax at Sean's place. Understandably Brett was interested in catching up with family but it wasn't until we were on the bus that I realised how different our plans were. It was all ok though, everything was just worse because I was beyond tired and Brett and I were able to compromise with our plans- oh and he also gave  me lots of cuddles. We arrived to a quiet house and Zoe's sister met us at the house and let us in. Sean and Zoe were lovely and although  I was struggling with a bit of jet lag I managed to cope with it ok- Brett would wake me every 30-45 minutes in the arvo to ensure I slept at night. The following day we had a walk down Main Street and although we had not been in the country long, let alone the village, I began to feel a bit chrostrophobic and I was unbelievably desperate to head into the city of London. Travel was expensive and were about 40 minutes from north London. Brett was very understanding and suggested hiring a car so we could have some freedom and get around. We did just that and finally I was able to head into the city and sink my teeth into the elusive London town....