Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Glasgow & Oban

 We’ve made it to Scotland! A wonderful fast train ride to Glasgow then a gorgeous train ride through loch’s and mountains to Oban. 




Glasgow Central Railway Station - it was 4c and raining, and even though it was miserable weather the people were super friendly.


On a quest to find some grass to pee on, we went under the bridge that goes over the River Clyde. Beautiful shadows in the water (although the water isn’t as pretty as the Clyde River in NZ that has the most amazing colour to it)
 


The hotel where we were staying (Yotel) had the coolest “smart bed” that converted to a lounge at the touch of a button.


Apparently the best place to get breakfast in Glasgow is in a pub - it was delicious.



On the train to Oban the countryside went from flat (lowlands?) to very high mountains (Western Highlands)


Having some fun on the train



The train had a lady who brought around a trolley with tea (& coffee) and lots of different chocolates to try - it reminded us both of the Hogwarts Express.


Ben Lomond with snow on it



The view out our BnB in Oban (Killorn Guest House - it is really beautiful, with a VERY comfy bed, but we are staying on the top floor and after being so sick this last week we are very weary)






Delicious fish & chips!!!

In Oban we stayed at the Killorn Guest House (which was lovely) and in Glasgow we stayed at the Yotel across the road from the Central Railway Station (the yotel was in a perfect location and had a “smart bed” that converted to a lounge when you pressed a bunch of buttons).




Sunday, March 24, 2024

The Cheese Bar (& being sick)

We went to the Cheese Bar at Seven Dials for lunch, which is like a sushi train, but for cheese! It was a lot of fun and the cheeses were delicious. Not related to the cheese bar, we both came down sick the next day. S was sick with a cold (not covid thankfully), and N had an over exposure to xylitol (if you want to know what that is like, read the 1 star reviews for sugar free gummy bears on Amazon) which resulted in the worst gastro symptoms of her life. Skye stuck by her and wouldn’t move. We are on the mend a few days later (thankfully there is a pharmacy near where we are staying) and hoping to be back to doing fun stuff soon.



It was sooo much fun choosing which cheese to try next - https://www.thecheesebar.com/seven-dials/ 



Our favourite cheese was Tunworth - now we are on a mission to find it in the local cheese shop


There were two fridges of cheese stacked high like this.


Skye didn’t budge from near N whilst she was recovering from gastro symptoms


Even when things settled down she didn’t venture far


Friday, March 22, 2024

Harry Potter Studio Tour

 We loved reading Harry Potter to our kids when they were growing up - waiting for each book to come out and then reading it to them, or as they got older waiting for them to read it themselves so that we could read the books ourselves. We’ve enjoyed the movies as well, so visiting the Harry Potter Studio tour was high on our list of things to do in London. We had a great time, although it was a very long day and we were all exhausted by the end of it.




The Gringotts Dragon greets you as you enter the waiting hall for the tour


The door to enter the great hall of Hogwarts and the beginning of the tour (we were a bit excited)



The Gryffindor side of the Great Hall



The entrance to Dumbledore’s office



Dumbledore’s Office



A staircase set





The Hogwarts Express



Ron and Harry on the Hogwarts Express



The Night Bus



Diagon Alley


Eeylop’s Owl Emporium



The outside of Gringotts bank (bigature)



Inside Gringotts (it was VERY impressive)




The special effects in the destroyed section of Gringotts was impressive



All the animals used in the making of the films



Buckbeak in the Forbidden Forrest was animatronic & moved and made sounds (Skye wasn’t impressed)



Harry’s Letter from Hogwarts 




Part way through the tour we stopped for a Butter Beer (it tasted like melted ice cream). We were allowed to take the cup home.


The Hogwarts Bridge





This is a small part of the model of the exterior of Hogwarts Castle - it was massive and super impressive. It was used for all the external shots and took over 7 months to make. Every single shingle on every roof was placed by hand.


At the end of the tour there are wands in boxes with names for all the people who worked on the films, which we thought was a lovely way to do the end credits.



After the tour we were exhausted


…..and so was Skye





Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The National Gallery & some wandering

Today we had tickets for the National Gallery (it is free to enter, but we had to book a few days ahead to get a ticket). The building is architecturally glorious, the art is breath taking and the staff made us feel like we were old friends coming home, rather than tourists walking through the door for the first time (they all showed me photos of their dogs). We will definitely be getting tickets to go back. 

Yesterday we were going to go to the National Portrait Gallery, but discovered that the bus we were on wasn’t going there anymore, thanks to the St Patricks Day parade and festival. We decided to skip the National Portrait Gallery that day (not wanting to walk around with 50,000 drunk people) & wandered a bit where our bus terminated - the John Lewis Department Store. They had an amazing display of yarn for knitting and crochet & we spent a lovely afternoon in the cafe, just soaking in the atmosphere and I did some sketching. On the way out the door we discovered their “cheese room” and had great joy in picking out some cheese to have for dinner.



I’m not a massive fan of Van Gogh, but we both loved this painting a lot. There is so much light and movement in the brushstrokes. 



This was painted by Monet when he was 76 - there is still hope for me yet :)



S especially loved this painting by Tie Polo and that it didn’t have a rectangular frame. It was really striking on the wall.



We both REALLY loved this painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. From a distance it looked like a photo, but up close it was amazing in the simple brushstrokes. 



I loved this painting by Cezanne.



Turner is a master with light, I just loved the texture in the sky brush strokes.



This is a gorgeous sunset by Turner.



We took this photo for H, who loves Artemesia Gentileschi (this is a self portrait).



If you zoom in you can see they haven’t patched the walls where they have had previous pictures hanging. So much art history here, even in the holes in the walls. 



The architecture was breath taking.



Even the floors have beautiful details.


Even the grates for the heating is beautiful



The Lions of Trafalgar Square. We first took a selfie here in 1991, although it technically wasn’t a selfie because we had to get a stranger walking by to take the photo on our film camera :)












Looking down towards Westminster, you can see Big Ben - we were struck with how much it looked like the Lego one we saw the other night!



John Lewis Cheese Shop - we were in heaven








I’m not very good at sketching in a cafe, but it was fun



We have been taking a LOT of public transport, and Skye has been amazing in navigating these very loooooong escalators. Defence Community Dogs trained her so well - they started training her for this very trip 2 & 1/2 years ago!!