The journey south begins

Taynuilt - It was relaxing and fun and even unexpectedly had more lord nelson knowledge - according to local legend his cannon balls came from iron made in the taynuilt cast. I can't say there was a huge mention of this at the actual site, and there may well have been an element of the locals talking it up somewhat. We also did a short bush walk in Glen Nant, which is where much of the charcoal for the iron cast came from.

From Taynuilt we drove south (Inverness and Loch Ness would have been fun, but at 3 hours drive away and running out of nights they were unobtainable) and slept in Glasgow at a university dorm room being rented out over the summer. The college was massive and i think we counted about 15 turns in the hall way and several flights of stairs to get from the main door to our rooms - it's a good thing we had a quiet night in Glasgow or this maze could have been interesting. Our dinner venue was set as soon as we walked past a gastro pub called "the goat".

The next morning we were able to do a quick lap of the museum and find a pub for lunch. It was during this lunch that I got into an altercation with a wasp who had decided to steal my chair while i was at the bar ordering. The wasp certainly had the upper hand at first, and did a fine job stinging me on the ass as i sat down unknowingly in the dimly lit pub. However he was beat when my friends joined the good fight on my behalf while i limped back to the car to find the wasp spray Craig had bought when he'd had a similar misunderstanding with a wasp in Cambridge. I can't say the four hour drive from Glasgow to York was the most comfortable journey I've had, but it was mostly OK by the end of it.

The plan was to arrive at york mid afternoon and have a long leisurely pub tour evening. We had a pub tour guide sheet that went through 9 historic pubs and picked up landmarks along the way. Unfortunately we didn't get there till 7 so it became a game of pub hopping only allowing for a quick half pint while we asked the bar staff why their pub was in fact "the oldest and most haunted pub in York" (a claim made by no less than 4 of the pubs we visited). The route between pubs was meant to include a section of the history city wall, however we were quickly herded in the opposite direction by the keeper of the Wall as it was closing time. He agreed however, that if we kept in front of him walking in the opposite direction he would give us a personal guided tour of the wall. As the keeper of the Wall he certainly had a lot to tell us about who'd sieged and occupied the walls and city over the years, it may have been the wrong direction, but it was well worth doing.

Now we're in Manchester, heading south at a rapid pace. I expect that within a week I'll have said goodbye to Craig, Brendon, and the goat and set off for Germany, but of course I still haven't planned anything.