Fall 2019 UK Trip - Intro & trip index

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In late September 2019, my wife & I visited the UK with our friends Rich & Linda, where we embarked on a 16-day road trip. 

See the Postscript (below)  later about our brief rendezvous & overnight stay in Dublin. The next morning we were in Glasgow.  

Brief Itinerary - After spending four nights in Scotland, we drove south for a one-week stay at Keswick, England, in the heart of the Lake District. Then we returned to Scotland for five more nights.  

Scotland  - Glasgow, Stirling, Isle of Bute & Ayrshire 

day 1 - Stirling Castle

day 2 - Glasgow - Riverside Museum of Transport & Kelvingrove Art Museum

day 3 - Isle of Bute & Mount Stuart

day 4 - Ayrshire - Dean Castle & Culzean Castle

day 5 - Drive to Keswick  - Crawick Multiverse & Robert Burns House (Dumfries)

England - a week in the Lake District 

day 6 - Keswick Market Day

day 7 - Castlerigg Stone Circle & Borrowdale walk

day 8 - Wm. Wordsworth Homes - Dove Cottage & Rydal Mount

day 9 - Buttermere walk

day 10 - Hill Top House (Beatrix Potter) & Brantwood (John Ruskin) 

day 11 - Derwent Water boat launch & etc.

day 12 - Drive to Scottish Borders - Vindolanda Roman Fort & Jedburgh Abbey

Scotland -Borders & Edinburgh

day 13 - Scottish Borders - Dryburgh Abbey, Abbottsford (Sir Walter Scott), & Melrose Abbey

day 14 - Linlithgow Palace

day 15 - Edinburgh - the Castle & Holyrood Palace

day 16 - Edinburgh - Dean Village, Water of Leith & Royal Botanic Garden

Info sources, see bibliography page

Epilogue

Postscript - Dublin arrival

Rich & Linda and my wife Linda & I met up at the Dublin Airport around noon, coming from differents point of origin. After a valuable NERO coffee stop, we took a shuttle to our Hotel, had a short rest, and then jumped on a local City bus to center-city, a few miles away. 

Once in the City, from the double-decker HOHO bus, Dublin came off as gray & dreary, with no green spaces and too much traffic, but, we were on the basic tour, so we took in the sights & sounds, and I started to nod off a few times.  

Later back on foot we stopped at the Arlington Hotel for a 4 pm dinner, with its open air view of the attractive O'Connell Bridge across River Liffey.  

Having dinner on the main tourist track means that every 20 minutes, or so, some tourists wearing metal Viking hats (w/horns), who were crammed into in a crazy looking ship-car, went by. Upon reaching the O'Connell bridge, they always let out a collective Viking scream when they got a green light, three times catching us by surprise, so we gasped, or jumped a bit, maybe a little jetlagged.  In fact, over dinner we realized that none of us had been able to sleep on the US-to-DUB flights. 

Since we had an early flight to Glasgow the next morning, we had to pass on seeing Dublin at night.  

go to next page Stirling     

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