Friday

It was a very early start for me on the Friday morning, having to get up at quarter to five in order to grab a decent breakfast before the long drive that was ahead of me that day, and I eventually set off around half five for my long trip ahead.



After an hours driving up the Cumbrian coast roads and through Carlisle I met up with Lee1985, Lee's mate - also called Lee! - and Gary at Todhills Rest Area just off the M6. I just love the fact that that Todhills isn't deemed good enough to be called a Motorway Service Station, so it has to be called a Rest Area, so I had to get a picture of the sign. In reality it reminds me a lot of some of those small continental service stations we visited in France last year, with a cafe, petrol station, picnic area and that's it.



I then had to get the obligatory photo of everyone's car sitting together after us first meeting up. Lee1985's is the black ST and Lee's is the Proton.



We then set off for the first stages of our journey towards and through Scotland. It was a pretty bleak and miserable day at this point, but at least the motorway was pretty quiet for us at this time of day.







By the time we got to Glasgow it had faired up quite a bit and was looking a lot nicer. I don't know why but for some reason the spans on this bridge reminded me of the same type as on the Millau bridge - only a very very small version of it that is!



The first real port of call for us to stop at was along the side of Loch Lomond. It was a really nice place to see, and when we pulled over to take some photos the weather was still fine. But... it was then like someone had turned a tap on full blast... and bang!



We still managed to get a few nice pics of the area though.









After setting off again (mainly to just get inside and out the wet!) we found that the main road actually went right alongside the loch for several miles. It was a great road, nice and twisty and through the trees, but with the awful rain, we had to take things very carefully, although that did give us the chance to admire the view better.





Later on, as we started to climb the mountains we found a large layby halfway up with a burger van. Lee and Gary were getting hungry by this time so wanted something to eat, but it was also a great place to see the views.





Although in the last picture it looks like it was still miserable, I just like the way that the sun is just managing to shine on the top of the mountain here.



Rather randomly there was a bagpipe player in the middle of the layby busking away.



Unfortunately we couldn't get everyone parked together for a picture there as it was so rammed, but luckily we managed to find somewhere just around the corner and further up the hill for us to take a couple of pictures.





We then carried on with our driving through Glencoe. I'll just let the pictures of the scenery speak for themselves.











Whilst Lee was filling up his car a short distance outide Fort William, I managed to get another shot beside a loch.





Just after we'd pulled away again we came across some roadworks. The guys in charge of the lights were on the same channel on the walkie talkies as ours, and we did have great fun trying to confuse them by shouting out all sorts of random stuff when they were trying to control things!

We also managed to stop in a great viewing plave for Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain. The view here was amazing, and we were just lucky to get some nice shots before a whole coach party - literally! - came across and swamped the place.







Now our intention once we'd got past Ben Nevis was to carry on and visit Loch Ness which is on the way to Inverness where the three guys were stopping on the Friday night. But... we ended up managing to completly miss it.

Basically what happenned was that we got frustrated at being stuck in the traffic on the main road, so turned off onto the B roads instead. It was a much nicer drive, but it was only as we started moving further along that we realised that we actually should have stuck with the A road if we wanted to try and see Nessie. I'm sure these picture will give you an impression of what the roads were like though.





When we arrived in Inverness, Lee, Lee and Gary went to the travelodge where they were due to stay. Now although they were about 45 minutes early for checking in, they asked the woman on reception if they could use the toilets. She was really miserable though, and first pointed out there were no toilets, and when asked if they could use the one in their room were told yes they could if they paid £15 to check-in early!

It was at this point that we went on our separate ways for the day. I was due to drive down to Edinburgh, another 150 miles still, with the rest of the guys taking a 120 mile trip further up to John O'Groats. I did half think as to whether to join them, as it was tantilisingly close, but I took the sensible decision to call it a day and set off downwards. Later on I was pleased at having done that as I got a text off Lee1985 to say that they'd got stuck in traffic halfway there and had to turn back around again.

Before I left Inverness I decided to grab a bite to eat, and spotted this on the side of the road.



Now I'd heard a lot about Harry Ramsdens famous fish and chip shops, but had never had the chance to visit one before. I was half expecting to be disappointed, so was pleasantly surprised to find that they really were nice.

After feeling a lot better for being filled up again, I set off for my long journey back down. The main A9 road down wasn't bad, but I did get frustarted getting stuck first in roadworks and then in long queues of traffic, so I turned off onto the B roads for as long as I could, and it was well worth it.





Back on the main road there was loads of good scenary well worth seeing also though.





After driving for three hours I started getting close to Edinburgh, and I suddenly came across the Forth Road Bridge. I hadn't even realised that I was going to be driving over it, but it was excellent to do so. The first I realised was when I started approaching, and it was as great as I'd seen in photos in the past. I managed to quickly get a couple of shots taken going over, and also of the adajacent Forth Bridge.







I then had a bit further to drive until I finally reached where I was staying...



It might seem an unusual place to stay, but basically the university rents empty rooms in the halls of residence as hotel rooms outside of term time. It was certainly a decent place to stop, and costing me less than half of what it would have cost in the Travelodge in Edinburgh you can't argue at that. I wish that my room in the halls had been as nice as this spot when I was at uni in Newcastle 10 years ago!





After checking out where the nearest cinema was I then went for a ride out to see a film I'd been waiting for for quite a long time now...





I'm pretty sure that the owner of this Type R parked next to me would have been going to see the same film I was!



I did find it great, and loved every minute of it, was well worth the wait. It's just a shame that we couldn't have had a load of ST's pulling up outside and all leaving together after being there at the first night as that would have been ace.

By the time I got back to my room I was starting to get well tired though, so ended up crashing out pretty much straight away for some well deserved sleep.

Saturday

I was feeling much more refreshed when I got up on the Saturday and with Lee & Co not arriving down from Inverness until the afternoon, I decided to take the chance to go into the centre of Edinburgh and explore the area. I was a little nervous about driving right into the heart of it, but I shouldn't have been. even though it's a reasonably sized city, I found it really easy to drive round, even right in the middle and had no problems at all. Well, other than the large parking charges, but then you expect that.

Here's a few pictures of some of the places I saw whilst I went around.

I spotted this sign and felt I had to take a picture. Most of you will know the A1 as a really busy road going up the east coast... well... this is where it all come to an end, at this junction between two streets right in the middle of Edinburgh.



The headquarters of RBS and the Bank of Scotland are here. Don't we all own both of these now?





This is the view over Princes Street Gardens, a large open space on one side of Princes Street, the main street in Edinburgh city centre. The large monument you see is the memorial to the famous Scottish suthor Sir Walter Scott.



Here's Edinburgh Waverley train station. Looks quite big doesn't it...



...in fact it continues even further, going right underneath the North Bridge and carrying onto the other side.



And here's the North Bridge itself.



I then went for a walk along the area of Edinburgh called the Royal Mile, a series of streets leading away from near the castle. Here's the headquarters of the famous Edinburgh Festival.



And this is where the World Ends! Apparently it's because this building is close to where the old city boundaries were in medieval times.



Further down the Royal Mile are the Scottish Parliament buildings, and Holyrood Palace, the Queens residence in Edinburgh. The Parliament buildings have a strange design, with some odd carvings in the walls.







In the meantime Lee and Co had been making their journey down, and managed to stop off just underneath the Forth Bridge. Although it was a little crowded for them, Lee1985 managed to get a photo of his car close by to it.



Not too long after I got a call off Lee to say that they had just arrived at their hotel, so I went back to the car and drove to where they were staying. It was free to park in the streets outside their hotel, so we decided to get the bus back into town, rather than parking, as at £1.20 per journey it was much cheaper than the car parks which were well expensive. Once we got on the bus, we found it was even better value, as on the back of the bus ticket was a voucher for £5 off entry to Edinburgh Dungeons (but we'll come back to that later...).



All aboard, as we sit and look out from the front on the top deck.



Our next port of call was to visit Edinburgh Castle. This is the hill up towards it called The Mound, and it's steeper than it looks here!





Eventually we did make it up the hill and into the castle itself!



Inside the castle it's almost like a city within the castle.



I'm sure you'll agree we did have a great time going around it.













We got some amazing views looking out and away from the rest of Edinburgh also from the top of the castle, you could literally see for miles around.







We would have liked to have seen the castle for a bit longer but we'd left it a bit late, so we had to go round pretty quickly as it was closing. So we then went back into town a little earlier than we'd planned to our next port of call for something to eat.



The Hard Rock cafe was somewhere I'd heard a lot about, but never had the chance before to go in one anywhere. I think that all of us were really looking forwards to it, and it was well worth the wait. There was just so much that was good about the place. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was brill, the waitresses serving us were well fit, the music was excellent. The closest I can think of describing it is that it was like having a really nice meal inside a club. There was all kinds of music memorabilia on the walls, here's some of it:









Now we found a good spot in which to rest my camera to get pics of all four of us together, on top of the little sauce dish on the table next to us...



...unfortunately just after that then annoyingly someone came and sat at that table. There was one the other side, but then someone came and sat there also!

So by the time our meals came we couldn't get pictures with us all in.





We all got a little Hard Rock Cafe flag on our plate each which we took as souvenirs.



After finishing our meals, Lee, Lee and Gary decided to get these fancy cocktails.



Now the thing was, these were a little more expensive than you usual because they were drink and keep, ie. you got a Hard Rock cafe glass to take home. But aftyer drinking them they were all thinking, now hang on, do we really want to be carry a wet sticky glass halfway across Edinburgh with us? It had to be explained that no, it wasn't the glass you actually drank out of, they let you take a clean one from the shop instead.

After having a great time there and with the evening getting on, Lee, Lee and Gary decided to go back to their hotel then, so I decided to have a ride back into the city centre. I didn't know if I would be able to get close enough to the castle in order to get some shots, but amazingly it was deserted around it at night and I did.

Now at the moment my camera is quite new so I'm still experimenting and learning how to use all the settings. I couldn't decide which of these I preferred the best, so I've put a few up here and will let everyone else decide which they like.







After leaving the castle I had another walk back into the city cetre and got a few other shots of it at nights. It's amazing how different it can look lit up.

The Bank of Scotland headquarters.



The Edinburgh North Bridge.



The Mound - the steep hill we walked up on the way to the castle earlier!



And looking up to the rear of Edinburgh Castle itself. I love the ghostly kind of colours it's lit up in.



By this time it was getting late on, so I went back to my room for the night.

Sunday

I got up a little earlier than I had the day before as we all had plans to go and see a few things before Lee, Lee and Gary had to set off back to Blackpool later that day.

After arriving at their hotel, I found that all three were a little worse for wear after having had a few drinks the night before, but had tried to cure their hangovers by having tried out haggis for breakfast. Rather them than me is all I'll say.

Now if you can remember, I said that the day before our bus tickets had given us a money off voucher for the Edinburgh Dungeons. At the bus stop on the Sunday, literally seconds before boarding, Lee decided that he didn't need it as he was about to get another and chucked it. Guess what? We got on and this time the bus ticket wasn't a voucher for the dungeons it was for Edinburgh Zoo.

Lee thinking "well I wanted to pay full price anyways".



Us watching ourselves being on the bus security camera.



Lee1985 and Gary thinking "are we nearly there yet?"



We all decided that we should go on one of the open top bus tours around Edinburgh, which would give us all a chance to see a bit more of the city. However, we kind of missed the street where the tours start from, and ended up walking and walking trying to find the next stop. We did eventually find one of the stops along the route, and with the buses going every few minutes we shouldn't have had very long to wait should we? Well we waited... and waited... and waited... then, just as we were getting close to giving up one finally turned up.

The only thing was, with missing the first stop it was already rammed. We couldn't get upstairs, and even downstairs myself and Lee1985 were sitting in the luggage spots. Lee1985 then came up with the great idea that once we got to the castle then some people might hop off, so as soon as we got there we all made a dash for it, and sure enough finally got some seats upstairs where we could see things properly and get some nice pics.

Although the bus was going round pretty quickly I did manage to snap some stuff. This might look just like an ordinary street...



...but in actual fact it goes right the way along the top of a bridge. You'd never know it but there are nineteen arches beneath it all.



This odd tent-like building is a place called Our Dynamic Earth, I think you can guess what it's about!



Another couple of views of the Scottish parliament with the odd shaped windows.





While we were going around we were also listening to a commentary being provided about the sights. The guy doing it was a bit sarcastic, and did come out with some odd commenst, the one we remember most being that it was appropriate for politicians that the Scottish Parliament was built where it is, because it was on the site of an old brewery.



Just round the corner here was something I found totally amazing being in the place it is, a series of hills called Salisbury Crags.





And these lead to a place called Arthurs Seat.



Now the thing I found amazing about this is that it is a large area of wild countryside located pretty much slap bang in the middle of Edinburgh. The closest I can think to compare it too would be if part of the Lake District was just around the corner from Big Ben.

After finishing our tour we went for a short walk to the Edinburgh Dungeons. Unforunately we couldn't take any photos inside, but I'll describe it as best I can. We all went round as part of a big group from room to room and there were people acting out the parts of people from various times along the tour.

The first place we went into was an old courtroom. This one guy was dragged out of the audience to stand trial, and was given a choice of sentences. The judge thought he was od because he chose to be banished to Wales rather than be hung!

We went onto a torture chamber after that and unbelievably the same poor sod as before got pulled out, and this time had to sit locked in a chair to be shown various torture implements, all of which were not nice at all.

After that we went on a boat ride. Now this didn't seem too scary, as apart from being in the dark and having a few dangly things coming down from the ceiling, all it seemed was that there was a lot of noises around. And then... out of nowhere... a load of people suddenly ran down alongside the boat cackling and pushing everyone from behind... and we were like Jesus Christ, what the hell was that!!

We went onto a few more places after that, but the next one I really remember was when we went into this room and evryone else was lined up down two walls, but because us four were the last in we were asked to stand along the bottom edge "to complete the square". Now the actress went out the room at the other end, and we are kind of expecting someone to jump out behind us, but all still jumped when suddenly she actually did and slammed this staff down on the floor right behind us all.

The last place we went into was a ride where we were all locked in along a bench and raised to about 2nd floor level, where there were nooses above us and we all got sentenced to be hung before being plunged to the bottom floor. Now the thing is, I've been in the Tower of Terror at Disneyland, which is miles higher... and yet... that didn't bother me one jot, whereas for some reason on this even with knowing what would happen I was actually jumping - as was everyone else!!

Before we went we had to get some photos outside, with not having the chance to take any inside.





By this time Lee, Lee and Gary had to depart and head back to Blackpool. It was a shame, but everyone had had a great time, and all good things end.

With just myself left, I decided to get a bite to eat with being quite hungry by that time.



And yes, for those of you who don't know me well, i did manage to eat those 20 nuggets and large fries by myself, even though I might only be a little fella!



I then decided that since my ticket for the bus trip was valid for the rest of the day I may as well see properly the bits of the trip that I'd missed earlier on.



A couple of views of the rear of Edinburgh Castle. You can see how steep it is. Try scaling that to attack it!





Finally, I had to include this picture. Not for what it's of, but because if you look carefully you can see that quite blatently I am not doing what the sign is telling me to do.



After that it was starting to get into the evening so I headed back and had one last bus ride back to the car before going on my next journey... to the Forth Bridges. Most people think they're in Edinburgh but they're not. They're actually in South Queensferry, a small town to the north. I did have a pleasant drive up when I seen this:



It's a shame that this is the only one that came out well, as I did try and get some better ones, but were a little fuzzy unfortunately. It's certainly a very rare site to see a Buick on the roads here anyways.

Anyways... once I got to Queensferry I finally got to see the two bridges. I'd obviously only got a quick glance when going across the road bridge two days earlier, but seeing them standing side by side you can see how amazing they look. Having one of those bridges going across a river would look good, but having the two together looks stunning.





Of course I had a few pictures with my car in front of them.





There's just so much to like about the two bridges, the design that went into them, and the way they stand up in the river which was why I took some photos from the underneath of both of them also.







I then seen something I was very lucky to see. I started hearing quite a bit of noise, and there it was going across the Forth Bridge, a steam train! I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time to see the bridge being used as it was built to be used.



With it being a pleasant evening I then decided that I'd go and find somewhere to have dinner. There were quite a few pubs on the street near the riverbank, and after checking out the menus I settled on this one called appopriately The Two Bridges.



I had grilled salmon there and it was really nice. Now the thing was, I didn't quite work out if they were just being really polite, or if they thought I was there to do a review on them. About three times during my meal someone came up to me asking if everything was ok and if I was enjoying my salmon. The thought just popped into my head because before my meal arrived I had been sitting there typing away on my laptop (notes for this write-up as it happens), and with taking a photo of my plate also when it arrived. Whichever, if they wanted a thumbs up I'll give them one here now.



While I was waiting in the pub, I had noticed on the wall some pictures of great sunsets above the bridges with orange glows and everything (sorry, that was the one thing I just didn't think to take a picture of at the time ). With seeing those it made me realise that I had to hang around and see if I could get some over the bridges also. Although the conditions weren't the same to get the orange glows, I did get some nice ones over the evening over both bridges and I hope you enjoy seeing the changes.





















Meanwhile in between taking all those, a local car club came and visited the carpark along the riverbank. In the first one you might mistakenly think that this is a Cortina - in actual fact it's not, it's it's European twin the Ford Taunus.











Finally I was determined that I was going to get a really nice photo of my under the Forth Bridge at night. I had to be very patient hang around for quite a long time so that was enough space in the carpark to get my car in position (most of the cars parked up by then were empty so it wasn't as if I could ask them to shift or anything lol). Hopefully people will think the wait I had was worth it, I think it probably was.



And with that, it was time to go back towards Edinburgh and to my room for the final night.

Monday

It was a reasonably early start for me as I had to be out my room by half nine, so I set off on my journey home now. To start off with I just took the main roads and they weren't too busy for that time of day. But I had plans to take in some of the B roads on the way home, or rather a nice set of B roads the B7078 and B7076. To explain them I need to give a brief history lesson.

Historically, the A74 was the main road between Carlisle and Glasgow, a dual carriageway starting directly after the northern end of the M6. Over time it got replaced by a parallel motorway - the northern half by the M74 in the 70s and 80s, and the southern half by the A74(M) in the 90s.

However, the old A74 is still there today, only it now exists as the two B roads I mentionned. Incredibly, even though it's been downgraded to B road ststus a large chunk of it is still open as a dual carriageway, and there's virtually no traffic at all on it. For what was once a major road it is pretty twisty in places, and I can imagine it won't have been that much fun to drive on when it was, with the heavy traffic and everything, but as B roads it's a brilliant drive.

Hard to imagine I'm standing in the middle of what was once one of Scotlands busiest roads. It does feel a little eerie seeing how totally deserted it is.





Sadly someone has to spoil some of the fun, as someone came up with the idea of turning one of the old carriageways into a cycle track.



Even as a single carriageway it's still an excellent drive though.



All along this stretch there are two way signs every few hundred yards, and it's needed as with the other half of the road still sort of there I can see how it could be easy to forget you're no longer on a dual carriageway.



I've no idea how four lanes were once fitted into this bridge here!



Eventually I had to turn back onto the newer motorway...



...and I was soon reminded the reason I hadn't gone that way to start with.



By now it was getting towards lunchtime, so I nipped into Gretna for a pie. The ones in the bakery there are always really nice, and as the sign inside says ye have to say aye tae a pie.



Soon I was saying goodbye to Scotland...



...and hello again to England.



And an hour later I was back at home finally, three days and 725 miles later after having a great weekend away.



I would like to thank Lee, Lee and Gary for coming up and joining me. I hope you three fellas enjoyed the trip as much as I did.

And I would like to end by dedicating this thread to Scott who couldn't make it to this one. I promised you I would take lots of nice pictures and show you as much as I could of what we did and I really hope that you have enjoyed reading this thread.

I hope that everyone else has also enjoyed reading this thread and viewing the pictures!

Chris

Great pics and amazing write up chris
It looked like you had an amazing time and the roads were amazing. It's a real shame that so few went to the event but hopefully reading this write up more people will come in the future.

Thanks again for the write up and your drffinantly getting the hang of your new camera

Loads of pics, takes a good 30 minute to view them all.
My digital camera is crap! cant take that many photos.
How much is parking there?

Brilliant write up Chris. I can safely say that we all had a fantastic time. Having read your write up, I have remembered a couple of other bits that are worth a mention. Will post again with these soon.

Great write up and some fantastic pics! Sounds like you all head a brilliant time!

Nice write up...shame it all fell apart abit

Seems you had a good time though

Brilliant write up with FANTASTIC explanitory pics there Chris.

Well done to Lee, Lee and Gary for taking time out to enjoy Scotland also.

Thanks for the comments guys.

In answer to your question Spiers, where I was parked on the Saturday it was £1.50 per hour, but if you stopped for a certain length of time it increased to £2 per hour. Considering I could park for free outside Lee's hotel, then paying £2.40 for a return fare on the bus was prettty good value.

Reminds me of Hospital charging.

Brilliant write up there Chris!!!

I really enjoyed seeing all your photos and reading all your comments. I really wish I could have been up there with you guys in the I would have been getting photos in front of everything that wasn't too steep for me to drive up lol.

I'm sure that once the economy sorts itself out and I'm able to get a job back and sort my finances then i'll once again be able to attend the meets... I was really gutted that I wasn't able to be there and from the photos and your write up I wish i could have been!

Thanks for taking the time and effort to do such a great thread

P.S did you talk to the guys at the car club?

Glad you enjoyed it Scott and it was worth the wait for you. In answer to your question yes I did get the chance to speak to a few of guys that were there by the Forth Bridge, some nice people there.

Just read your comment again Spiers about the amount of pictures. That was just a fraction of the ones I took - about 750 which equates to 3.5Gb and not that far off filling the 4Gb memory card I've got.

lol thats an insane ammount! My digital camera isnt even mine, its like a family one im sure it can take 8 top quality pictures and maybe 30 or so crap ones. Dont think its more than 1GB card in it. Went to look now but cant find it.

fab write up chris love the pics , i hat to view thes topic on my desktop as my laptop kept crashing

Just thought I'd add a couple of bits that I got up to on the parts of the trip I wasn't with Chris....

On the Friday, after giving up on the John O'Groats trip, we decided to drive around Loch Ness, as we had missed it on the way up. We decided not to go down the entire length of it, choosing instead to visit Urquhart Castle, on the banks of the Loch...









The visitors centre was very interesting - complete with a video screening that ended with the curtains unexpectantly opening to reveal a great view of the castle and Loch.

By the evening we were very tired and so decided against a night out. We did still manage to chill in the room with a few cool beers...



As our room was not B&B we decided to get some breakfast when we stopped for fuel on the way down to Edinburgh. Just south of Inverness, a short distance off the A9 is the town of Carrbridge. On seeing the relevant 'local services' sign, we pulled off the main road. Parking our cars at a petrol station, we took a short walk to find an eatery. On the way to the Bakery / Cafe we found, we passed this lovely view...



The food and service were fantastic - the fry up hitting the spot perfectly!



After this we made haste for Edinburgh and to meet up again with Chris, only stopping off once more to take a photo of my car under the Forth Bridge (see photo further up).

At the castle, Gary decided to buy a souvenir jar of marmalade. One of us then suggested hiding the jar in several photos - 'Where's Wally?' style. We did take several shots, with the jar often being easy to find, but some were a bit more difficult. The shot early on in the post of us all in the Hard Rock has the same marmalade jar in it as these photos - see if you can find it ...





The jar will be making an appearance at FITP!

After the Hard Rock cafe me, Lee and Gary went back to our hotel, and then to a local pub. The terrible atmosphere convinced us that a night out was the only way to go - especially as we may never stay in the city again!



We had a great night and, not wanting it to end, decided to get a taxi back to a petrol station near our hotel in the hope we could get some more alcohol. Unfortunately, after the taxi had driven off, we realised the petrol station didn't sell alcohol and, to make things worse, we took a wrong turn on the way back to our hotel that resulted in a 1 hour detour. This would have been worse but for the maps on my mobile! By 4.30am we were in the park, just across from our hotel...



By 8.30 the next morning we were, as Chris pointed out, rather worse for wear! But still we weren't too ill that we couldn't have a great day and were more than well enough for the drive home.

The weather on the way back to Blackpool was superb and we ended up taking an unexprected detour thanks to a conflict in our Sat-Navs! This proved to be the best thing that could've happened as we ended up on an amazing twisty A road before rejoining the M6.

All in all we all had a fantastic time and I'd like to thank Chris for meeting up with us, and for taking all those amazing pictures, together with the great write up. The whole weekend has just made me more excited about FITP!

Oh and it's worth mentioning my trip computer reading by the end - 755 miles!