LIVERPOOL AND THE BEATLES

The sun was again shining the whole way til Liverpool. It was a very long ride with two stops. We arrived in Liverpool at 3 pm and could visit the town afterwards. Our hotel was again an Ibis hotel and the Internet rates expensive. I really don't understand why in most of the cafés, pubs and restaurants WiFi is free and in Hotels you pay a fortune. Even Skype is expensive.



There was a WW 2 celebration for marines taking place in Liverpool and the city was crowded with marines, war ships etc. We went along the habour and walked a little through the city center. Liverpool is not a very beautiful town it's very industrial and was rather poor and you still can see that. Fortunately the Beatles brought masses of tourists to the city !



And wherever you go you see the Beatles !  On the way to the habour was the Beatle shop and the Beatle museum. We made a tour in the shop, it was interesting to see,  the Beatles on cups, plates, T-shirts as dolls, in short on everthing possible.


After supper some of us went with our guide to the place where the Beatles had started their career. The place was a basement called "The Cavern".  Just besides  "The Cavern" was a restaurant or hotel I don't know exactly what,  with Beatle sculptures on the front side.



We then went inside ! We went down 3 floors to the cave and there was a group playing but so loud that I hardly could hear what they were playing.  I thought when I was going dancing at least you could hear the music. It was so full that I didn't stay long, just the time to take some pictures and then I went outside, while Ilona stayed inside for a while and danced with all the others ! It was fun ! I observed the people who came out, one girl was so drunken that she could hardly walk on her high heels ! It was really interesting. Then we walked slowly back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we are off to a more intellectual visit ... Shakespeare in Stratford on Avon. I should also meet a cat there which a blogfriend had photographed and written about ! Would be too funny if I would see the cat too ! 

THE HIGHLANDS AND LOCH NESS

Our hotel in Edinburgh

We left Edinburgh at 7.30 am direction Loch Ness. If anybody would ever have told me that I would get a sunburn at Loch Nesss I would have thought he is crazy. But I did ! Tonight I have a red face ! 



We drove through the beautiful Scottish Highlands, stopped at the Wallace Monument, who I guess was Braveheart. I had never seen this movie, but they played it in the bus. I preferred to look out of the window and see the landscape life. Anyway my poor head is unable to keep the history of all places we visit in mind, so I prefer to do a short resumé of my roundtrip and write about history dates and wars later when I have looked it up.



When we arrived at Loch Ness, the sun was shining as payed for and it was warm ! 15° C and of course in the sun even more. We made a cruise on the Loch but besides some people who looked like monsters I haven't seen Nessie ! The sun was probably shining too much, and he prefers misty and cold weather to scare people.





The cruise lasted one hour and was wonderful. What beautiful views !!

Then we continued through the Scottish Highlands and admired the stunning landscapes. I have already seen quiet a lot of beautiful landscapes but this one was really special



We stopped at a Whisky  distillery and had to listen to the explanations,



I wasn't interested at all and visited insteat the Art Exposition of local painters just besides the distillery. Which I found far more interesting. My travel companions didn't come out singing and stumbling, but a little disappointed, because instead of a glass of Whisky they had gotten only a few drops.
We then continued our way again through the Highlands and arrived in a little town  called Callander, where we slept in this kind of castle.



It was very romantic and beautiful, but the lift got stuck, we had to carry our luggage to the 2nd floor, the water of the shower was or burning or too cold and impossible to mix. The handle broke when I tried to get out of the bath although I don't have the weight of an elephant. But the supper was excellent and the grilled salmon so fresh that it almost jumped off my plate.

Unfortunately old hotels are romantic but not practical and it had no Internet connection at all !

After a rather strange breakfast with only jam, toast and porridge (the British cooked breakfast arrived when almost everybody had finished) We climbed in our bus again and as we have now to change our places, it was a battle to get one, as some of the people just throw a coat on the seats and then went off to I don't know where before taking their seats !

Then started a very long drive through the end of the Highlands and then after a stop in a little charming town we arrived in Liverpool.

I'll write about it later, because now we are off to visit Liverpool and follow the Beatles traces !