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 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
Postscript
Dublin arrival - Rich and Linda and my wife Linda & I met up at the Dublin Airport around noon, coming from a different point of origin. After a valuable 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..
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 only, so we took in the sights & sounds of the City, and I started to nod off a few times.
Later on foot we stopped at the Arlington Hotel and had a 4 pm dinner, with an open air view of the attractive O'Connell Bridge across River Liffey.
Dinner on the main tourist track meant 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 let out a collective Viking scream, three times catching us by surprise, so we gasped, or jumped a bit, maybe a little jetlagged.
Over dinner we realized that none of us were able to sleep on our US-to-DUB flights. We had an early flight to Glasgow the next morning so we had to pass on seeing Dublin at night. My trip diary says my wife and I went to bed around 7:30 pm.
go to next page Stirling
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