Off on an 18 day snapathon (ahem I mean holiday)

[baz7175]

Leaving tomorrow on a 4000+ mile roadtrip holiday spanning over 18 days (strangely enough I'm coming to the UK and not running away from it)...thankfully Mrs Baz is a fan of snapping too after having her first work published just over a month ago in a mag, so we've put together a "very" extensive and intensive plan of where we're going to be hitting in the next 18 days as well as taking a very long trip all around Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales (even getting close to Mr Carter's dwelling midway through the holiday when we head from the Isle of Skye up the West coast and along the North coast to John O'Groats...

Needless to say we'll probably have plenty of pics on our return to Germany at the start of September (just concerned my bank account runs dry due to the amount of fuel my Monaro is going to drink in the process of eating up the 4000+ miles)

Small (yeah right) list of where we shall be visiting along the way:-

Netherlands
Belgium
France
Glasgow (loads of stuff there)
Edinburgh (same here)
Stirling (and some here too)
Bannockburn
Belfast
Giants Causeway
Dunluce Castle
Portrush
Portstewart
Coleraine
Benone
Londonderry/Derry
Oban
Dunollie Castle
McCaig's Tower
Glen Coe
Fort William
Ben Nevis
Isle of Skye
Old Man of Storr
Dunvegan Castle
The Quiraing
Trotternish
Ullapool
Durness
Smoo Cave
Kinlochbervie
Thurso
John O'Groats
Wick
Golspie
Dubrobin Castle
Dingwall
Inverness
Inverness Castle
St Andrews Cathedral
Drumnadrochit
Loch Ness
Culloden
Inverurie
Tolquhon Castle
Culsh Monument
Fyvie Castle
Huntly Castle
Kildrummy Castle
Braemar Castle
Crathes Castle
Drum Castle
Castle Fraser
Caerlaverock Castle
Penrith Castle
Brougham Castle
Brough Castle
Blackpool
Stafford Castle
Dudley Castle
Goodrich Castle
Caerphilly Castle
Castell Coch
Cardiff Castle
Oxford
London

Somewhat of a castle theme going on as you can see, think we'll be sick of the sight of them come the end of the holiday

Also, I've even managed to convince her to go to the BTCC at Knockhill this coming weekend, woohoo, being German she doesn't realise just how mad the weather is back there

[roy e6]

All that in 18 days. Thats going to be some drive.

[baz7175]

We had a few days quiet in work and sat with the sat nav program on one screen and this interweb thing on the other and through together one hell of a schedule

[Jenx]

baz7175 said:

Somewhat of a castle theme going on

When are you doing Windsor Castle? I can feel a coming on

Martin.

[Dibble]

Why are you doing Blackpoo? It's a sthole.

[Penny-lope]

You should look this one up too

http://www.dunnottarcastle.co.uk/index.cfm

[Typhon]

What about Nottingham Castle!

[Asterix]

Elephant & Castle?

[Reidy10_0]

Now that is some trip.
I would also miss out Blackpool.
Have a good holiday

[Dogsey]

Reidy10_0 said:

I would also miss out Blackpool.

and do The Lakes instead.

[Reidy10_0]

Dogsey said:

Reidy10_0 said:

I would also miss out Blackpool.

and do The Lakes instead.

Oh yes!

North Wales is also lovely

[TheGreatSoprendo]

I'd definitely second the suggestion to skip Blackpool, and I'd add Castell Carreg Cennen to your itinery instead. OK, you'll have to venture further into Wales than you were going to, but it's well worth it IMO. There's also a good chance you'll get to see RAF or US fighter jets screaming past the castle on low level exercise which is simply awesome!

http://www.castlewales.com/carreg.html

[Tycho]

Could miss Blackpool and go down to Liverpool if you like architeture. The catherdrals are outstanding for photography IMO. Lots of great buildings down by the Mersey.

http://www.liverpoolarchitecture.com/
http://www.aidan.co.uk/photos8-Architecture.php

[havoc]

There're a few counties where you'll need to watch your speedo carefully on the main arteries - Cumbria and N.Wales (OK, not strictly a county) spring to mind instantly.

Otherwise, have a great time!

[ae111sr]

If it's castles your after - between Goodrich and Caerphilly you could visit Skenfrith, Whitecastle, Grosmont, Raglan, Usk, Newport. This is border country with lots of castles.
You can find some of my pics of Skenfrith, Whitecastle and Raglan here

[edited to add link]

Edited by ae111sr on Thursday 14th August 21:01

[baz7175]

Cheers for the comments and other castles info etc, blackpool is on the list as we're visiting friends nearby on the way down to Cardiff the following day, then on to London on Saturday before heading back home to Aachen in Germany on Sunday

So far the hectic plans have worked really well, with me writing shedloads of procedures and stuff for work you could say I overplanned the holiday a little with mileages and plans for each day with rough times etc (I even laugh at this myself), but so far we've done day trips in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling (including castles in the latter two and the Wallace Monument), a tour around Northern Ireland, quick visits around Oban, Fort William, Ben Nevis, Glencoe, a day in the Isle of Skye, a drive up the west coast of Scotland via Ullapool to the North coast near Kinlochbervie, along the north coast to John O'Groats, down through Wick and Inverness to Loch Ness, Culloden and several castles and then on to Inverurie and Aberdeen where we spent days around approx 10 castles in the area...

Great fun, rather tiring as you can imagine now that we've cleared 3200 miles so far in 13 days, and now we've the final 4 days kicking off with the drive down through Glasgow to Blackpool, on to Cardiff on Friday and then to London on Saturday to stay with the younger brother and his wife before the ferry home on Sunday morning.

Weather has been un-naturally good, we reckon we've been taking the sun with us as the locals everywhere we've been have said the previous days have always been wind and rain, yet we've had plenty of sunny days with some days a little overcast but only a dusting of rain at worst (drive back from Skye to Kyle was a bit hairy with rain and strong winds and we heard on the news after we arrived in the hotel that someone had died in a 2 car crash on Skye).

[Reidy10_0]

Well done mate, that is a good trip.
I must admit i did think you had planned too much to do.
Glad you got the weather.

[crmcatee]

YOu may want to drop in past Leeds castle - not in Leeds oop north, but in Leeds by J8 of the M20.

Leeds Castle

[Stu247]

Coming to N.Ireland and not going to Carrickfergus Castle ??

11 miles up the coast from Belfast, just follow the Causeway Coastal Route

http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/carrick.shtml

[DIW35]

And there's Dover castle as you enter/leave the UK.