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) about our initial arrival & overnight stay in Dublin.
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 & Linda met my wife (Linda) & I met up at the Dublin Airport around noon, coming from different point of origin. We had a valuable NERO coffee stop, and took a shuttle to our Hotel. After a short rest, we jumped on a local City bus to center-city, a few miles away.
Once in the City, from the double-decker HOHO bus, to me Dublin came off as gray & dreary, with no green spaces and too much traffic, but 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, right on River Liffey, for a 4 pm dinner. There was a nice view of the O'Connell Bridge area.
Having 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 on the one-way road just outside, that runs along the River. When the traffic light at O'Connell bridge turns green, they group lets out a collective Viking scream, 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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