France, ferries and family ties

Last time we spoke we were in Tours in the Loire Valley. We left Tours for La Rochelle, a small seaside resort town on the west coast of France. Here we took advantage of the town's free bikes and saw the sights on wheels. We also struck a new low with our meal of cold canned casserole and bread before jumping on another train bound for Toulouse.

We arrived late at night to a city drenched in rain, proceeded to get lost finding our hotel (yes that's right, the first hotel of the trip) and when we finally found it we jumped into bed and watched the BBC - the only english tv channel in France. The next morning we wandered the streets of Toulouse and took in the Saturday morning market before boarding yet another train, this time to Carcassone.

Carcassone is a small town with a medievial castle-like quarter up on a hill enclosed within fortifying walls, and is the inspiration (apparently) for the Sleeping Beauty story. Our hostel was right in the middle of the fortress so we climbed the hill and wove through the cobbled streets to stay in the most modern building within the fortress. We enjoyed the view best at night, with the cute stalls and cafes all lit up within the castle walls.

After our brief stop in Carcassone, the next day we headed to Avignon for a night, which is another medievial city enclosed by fortifying walls. Our digs were just outside the walls on the far side of the Rhone. This meant we enjoyed a great view of Pont Neuf (an old bridge that's half washed away from floods and which the French charge you four euro just to stand on. So when we say view we mean we stood on our hostel side of the river and looked across at it). We also saw the Palais des Popes, a great monstrosity built by the Pope in the 16th century, and Avignon is now known as the city of the Popes. We also ate a whole box of magnum ice creams but that's a story for another day.

After Avignon it was a day of travel to Calais via Paris to catch the ferry to Dover the next morning. Calais felt as if it was part of England rather than France with its pubs and British tourists, but our visit was short and sweet. Sweet because we had the biggest plate of chicken kebab we had ever seen and after almost 3 meat-less months it was a sweeet feast. We missed our ferry the next morning for women map reading reasons but luckily there are several, so with a somewhat belated arrival we saw the white cliffs of Dover from the boat before picking up our racey rental car (Black Betty) and jumping on the motorway.

The rental is a little black Vauxhall Corsa (we think its a Holden) which goes like a rocket and is our new best friend. No more lugging of the packs, amen. We drove to Trowbridge in south west England to stay with Kim's rellies, Adrian and Kay Gouldstone, who are on holiday in the Scilly's but were kind enough to lend us the keys to their pad. And what a pad! It is fair to say that staying in their house had been our main topic of conversation for a good week prior. We were looking forward to clean beds, a TV, a kitchen and some good old home comforts. We thoroughly enjoyed "the palace" and its garden, and made the most of the vege patch and fruit trees.

While staying in Trowbridge we visited Bath and Stonehenge on our first day, which are both close by. The next day we drove down to Devon and stopped off at the seaside town of Dawlish for a picnic before heading inland to the countryside. We were on the lookout for a Devon cream tea, but couldn't find one so picked up some Devonshire clotted cream from Tescos and made our own the next day. We ate it in "the Palace" garden and it was delicious.

We were sad to leave Trowbridge but had to head north sometime so we packed up the car and drove through the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are lovely with thatched cottage roofs and quaint little towns with boutique shops. We then made it to Kim's cousins, Sian's, house in Manchester where we spent the night. Then the next day Sian took us around Manchester, showed us the sights including five town squares and took us for a pub lunch.

After spending another night at Sian's we made tracks once again, this time for Scotland to stay with Kim's friend Amy who she met at Camp America. Amy and her parents live in a farm house in the country just north of Glasgow.

From Glasgow we did a day trip to Edinburgh yesterday, and were lucky enough to be in town for the fringe festival. The Royal Mile was full of street performers, as well as actors and comedians promoting their shows. We took advantage of the free acts and managed to catch some pretty funny British stand up and a play called "twenty-something". Both exceeded expectations and we were very impressed with Edinburgh in general. It is a beautiful city set amongst the great castle and old town, its just a shame about the rain.

Today we drove north into the highlands and had lunch in a very small village called Glencoe. The scenery was beautiful and the road followed Loch Lommond most of the way, which is a picturesque lake set amongst the hills. There was even a piper on the side of the road to make it all the more authentic.

Tomorrow we will head for St Andrews to catch a gig that Amy's boyfriend Ryan is playing. Ryan is a local of St Andrews who by day works in the aquarium and by night plays and sings in a band. He has offered to make us haggis stuffed with chicken so we are very excited about our visit. Then it's back to London on Sunday and farewell to our faithful friend Black Betty.