Adventures With Harvey

Kilts, Castles and Whisky

Greetings from the train between Glasgow Central and London Euston – yes, the Travelling Woodies are making a flying overnight visit to London… FOR THE RUGBY! For your rather excited author, the dream of following the All Blacks on a November UK tour has finally been realised: Cardiff, Edinburgh and London in three weekends! But before I lose a section of my readership with rugby stories, let me back the train up a week or so for a few more interesting tales 😊

After loitering a couple of days in Cheltenham while some minor Harvey repairs were completed, our motorhome and his occupants pointed their noses in a northerly direction. Following a most enjoyable overnight stop in Stafford with our friends Lisa and David, we found ourselves in the ancient city of York. Like many towns in the UK, the Romans were parked up there for a few hundred years, however (in the opinion of this correspondent) the most interesting history of York involves the Vikings. From around the 9^th century these Norsemen conducted raids into Britain on a reasonably regular basis before eventually conquering and settling in York. Following a huge archaeological dig in the mid 1970’s the remains of an entire settlement were uncovered and these days you can see it all, in the very spot they found it, at the Jorvik Viking Centre. They have recreated the actual dig showing what was found back in the 70’s, then you have a little train ride through a recreated Viking village complete with moving wax models and the actual smells of the village! You get such a great insight into life 1000 years ago, really excellently done!

No visit to York should be complete without a visit to the famous York Minster (including a climb up the tower). Many of these churches have free guided tours or older folk there happy to answer questions and tell tales. One such story told of the tremendous concern at the outbreak of WWII over how to protect their precious stained-glass windows from falling German bombs. At great effort and expense they were removed and safely stored, their refurbishment and reinstatement taking almost 20 years following the cessation of hostilities. In the years following the war one of the visitors to York Minster was a former Luftwaffe pilot who, on hearing the story of the removed windows, commented that he and his colleagues would never have bombed the church, it was far too useful as a navigation landmark en route to northern industrial cities such as Leeds or Manchester which were their real targets. In the evening we enjoyed a Ghost Walking Tour, our guide was an older gentleman and such a brilliant storyteller – it was a wonderful way to hear some history of the town, take a stroll around of an evening, and hear a few spooky tales! Much to the delight of Anita, the town was beautifully lit with many nooks, crannies, shambles and shops to complement our evening meanderings.

With noses still pointed north, our next overnight stop was in Newcastle with a former work colleague of Anita’s – Sally, Malcolm and their family made us just so welcome and it was another thoroughly enjoyable overnight stop. Your author particularly enjoyed having another lad to watch some sport with, this time it was the rugby league world cup semi (Aus vs NZ) in the evening followed by the woman’s rugby world cup final the next morning which was a super-exciting game and a brilliant result.

Country number 15 on this trip was next – yes, we’re talking about Scotland and a first-time visit for your rather excited author. Early in our research for this trip we came across an app called park4night which has been a massively valuable resource. Pretty much every campervan parking place in Europe is there, from campgrounds and aires (in France), stellplatz (in Germany), dedicated motorhome parks along with random carparks and other free overnight parking places. Users leave reviews so it’s easy to tell whether others have recently had trouble-free stays or certain spots should be avoided. Edinburgh was a classic example of this, basically a dead-end road right on the waterfront and we were able to stay there for free for 3 nights, leaving Harvey parked up while we explored each day. Even on a fine day the sun is too low in the sky for solar battery charging at this time of the year, however we have a generator on board which does the job if batteries are tired.

There will be no prizes for guessing why we were in Edinburgh – yes, we’re talking highland dancing! Ok, you all know I’m kidding, there was an All Blacks test of course 😊. Your author has spent the month of November throughout his adult life waking up in the middle of the night each Sunday (or sometimes Monday) morning to watch the All Blacks play northern hemisphere opponents. “One day” he thought to himself… “I’ll be there in person” and that day arrived again on Sunday. What a treat to get amongst things, as soon as you jump on the train to Murrayfield in your black jumper people are stopping to say gidday, discuss the game and hear your story. Rather than finding a pub prior, most people seem to get to the ground early, there is a large fan zone with plenty of food & beverage vendors and again, plenty of new friends to be made. For quite a while it looked like Scotland might prevail for a first ever win against NZ, however despite being kept scoreless for 55 minutes of the game, the All Blacks again left Murrayfield as victors.

Top of that list of places to visit is of course Edinburgh Castle however we also discovered that the Royal Yacht Britannia (which was retired in 1997) is moored in the harbour and is a popular tourist attraction. Whether you’re a fan of the royals or not, the ship is a fascinating floating insight into the life of the late Queen and her family. Among other features there is a garage on board into which the Royal Rolls Royce was craned to provide suitable motoring for her majesty when ashore (they had to remove the bumper bars to make it fit). If you forgot you were aboard a ship, you might be reminded of a relaxed country manor, albeit a pretty fancy one. There were board games and jigsaw puzzles for the kids as well as a grand piano for the entertainment of guests.

Edinburgh also seemed to be the perfect place for a whisky tasting – just down from the castle is the Scotch Whisky Experience which was a great intro to the industry, distillation process, different regions and their peculiarities, and of course a tasting. On-site is also the largest collection of unopened whisky bottles in the world – 3400 of them with some being more than 100 years old!

Edinburgh Castle was as spectacular as expected, such amazing history and stories to be told, our favourite part being the beautiful National War Memorial. The most interesting of these stories for your author was the fact that, during WWII, Scotland’s crown jewels were in fact buried in David’s Tower on site at the castle. Only 4 people in the world knew their exact whereabouts, including the Governor General of Canada in case the King of England, Lord Treasurer and Secretary of State for Scotland all met a sticky end.

We departed Edinburgh on a miserable cold rainy day for further exploring - first stop was St Andrews where your author wished to check out the famous links. When one visits a famous sporting venue, one expects there will be some restrictions on entry, however, until one is prevented from doing so, a wander and an explore is in order. Like many sports fans worldwide, the young Dave grew up watching the British Open at this most famous of golf courses. On this day it was pouring with rain although a few hardy golfers were still out doing their thing and happily no-one was on hand to prevent this curious visitor from meandering around the fairways and greens, taking photos and soaking it all in. Vivid memories exist of seeing on TV the 17^th ‘road hole’ with bunker right in front of the green and now your (by this stage very soggy) correspondent has walked the very same hole and photographed the very same bunker. Happy days!

A quick afternoon stop at Dundee was next and a splitting of tacks, the blue team visiting the Discovery Museum and vessel – yes, the very same one which delivered Robert Falcon Scott and his crew safely to Antarctica and back between 1901-4, including 2 years stuck in pack ice! There was also a good deal of information about the manufacture of the ship which was made of timber (rather than steel which was the usual material used for a ship's hull at that time) to provide more flex against the suspected pack ice - would you believe the hull was half a metre thick!

Meanwhile those of a pink persuasion visited the Verdant Works, a museum which gave the history of jute, a type of hessian imported from India and used for sails, wagon covers, sacking, ropes etc. The manufacture of jute dominated Dundee in the 18^th & 19^th centuries, employing over 160,000 people at its peak, but the industry's demise occurred when India realised they could manufacture it themselves rather than just exporting the raw material. It was a fascinating insight into life in that era, particularly for the mill girls who often started work as young as 7. Our overnight stop was at Perth but sadly there was no time for exploring due to our late arrival and the poor weather.

The next couple of days were spent stooging through rural Scotland, mainly the Trossachs National Park area - the scenery there is just idyllic with many a loch to be seen! We had planned to venture further afield however the pace has been quite sustained the last week or 2 so it was nice to have a few shorter driving days and be a little more relaxed. Also, the windy roads of Scotland aren't really to Harvey's liking! Last night we arrived in Glasgow where Harvey will be parked up for the next 3 days. The final rugby test of the series is today against England in Twickenham – your faithful correspondent and his travelling companion have a hotel booked in London for the night, returning to Glasgow tomorrow.

We’re really looking forward to the next couple of weeks which will be spent in the Emerald Isles, generally completing an anti-clockwise circuit starting in Belfast. We love the variety of ferry options in this part of the world – on Tuesday we shall board at (of all places) Cairnryan and disembark at Larne in Northern Ireland.

So with that we shall bid you a fond farewell – thanks so much for keeping us company, we love your replies, likes and comments so keep them coming!

Lots of love!

The Travelling Woodies

do you think we're happy to be at Murrayfield?!!

sorry, there was no-one available to take a photo of us both :-)

dinner with Lisa and David - cheers guys, your hospitality was awesome!

not The Shambles, Shambles Road, Street or Avenue. Just Shambles

you never know who might have originated where!

Shambles at night - originally a street full of butcher's shops but these days a trendy retail precinct. You almost never see this street empty.

York Minster at night

York Minster, view as we walked around the walls

check out the dates in the bottom right hand corner - created in 1310 and refurbished in 1789 and 1950 (following removal during WWII

view from the top of York Minster #1

view from the top of York Minster #2

this statue of Queen Elizabeth II inset into the front wall of York Minster had only been unveiled the day before we arrived. It was supposed to be as a celebration of her 70 years on the throne but ended up commemorating her life

with Sally & Malcolm from Newcastle - such a wonderful overnight stay but the Geordie accent is basically another language!

Harvey loved his overnight stopping place in Edinburgh!

Edinburgh Castle at night

downtown Edinburgh

Nita found Nessie

nice take Sam!

game kicked off at 2.15pm but it was almost dark by the full time whistle!

making new friends after the game

on our way home from the rugby - Edinburgh Castle in the background

view from the top of Edinburgh Castle

war memorial at the Castle

I told the guard that I needed everyone to smile for the photo. That got the tiniest of smirks. Then I said he'd be smiling for sure if Scotland had won the rugby and that actually made him laugh :-)

St Andrews Links, just by the 18th tee

The Discovery took Robert Falcon Scott and his crew to Antarctica in 1901 and returned them in 1904 after 2 years stuck in pack ice. Scott returned 10 years later but perished in his attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.