August - Camping in Wales & Scotland

Hi All, A quick update to let you know what we've been up to during August. As it was such "spectacular" weather in the UK, we of course decided to go camping.... First stop was stunning Pembrokeshire coast, where we did see a bit of sun including some stunning sunsets over the sea. Even got sunburnt doing some of the Pembrokeshire coast path - amazing scenery and cliff-tops around Martins Haven and Dale. Lots of mad Brits on the beach with their wind-breaks and rain shelters, "surfing" in 2 inch swell. Tent held up well despite lots of rain and wind. Next stop was Snowdonia where there are allegedly some mountains, and there may well have been some lurking under the mist. Camped in a beautiful sheepfield beneath Cader Idris, and went for a lovely walk along Mawdach Estuary and over a long wooden bridge with stunning views to Birmingham on Sea (aka Barmouth) - full of Brummies! Spent a couple of nights with Dick and Thelma in their lovely new house in Llandovery. The sun even came out so we went for a great scrambly walk down a waterfall!

After some niece-sitting duty, and a nice relaxing weekend, we ignored the rain drenched weather forecast and set off for Scotland. First couple of nights camped in a forest just over the border. Saw LOADS of red squirrels - much smaller and cuter than their grey cousins. Then drove up through a crazy rainstorm to find Loch Lomond in gorgeous sunshine and everyone walking around in shorts and T-shirts! Lovely driving up alongside the Loch. Found a fantastic campsite with lovely views, right on the West Highland Way footpath, a stretch of which we did the next day. Fabulous pink heather everywhere, and brooding mountains with heads in mist. Very scenic train trip to Oban and its distillery. Kat thinks she might like scotch after all... For our last few days we then drove up to magical Glen Coe which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. More walking and another fantastic train on the West Highland line to Mallaig. We were finally driven out of Scotland by the rain and the midge and sought refuge at a hotel in Bamburgh on the Northumberland coast. Went for a walk along the beach at Bamburgh - huge skies, and lovely soft sand - shame about the weather! Finished off our trip "oop north" with a flying visit to Kat's cousin Becs and her family in Newcastle.

Spent a lovely bank holiday back in Oxford with John, Lisa and the nieces. Highlight was punting with lovely blue sky weather (yay!). Also went to Hatfield House near London which we highly recommend. Fantastic house crammed with loads of famous portraits of the Tudors, Mary Queen of Scots and the Marquis of Salisbury family who still live there!

Kat's folks have arrived so we are now off to spend a week on Uncle Robin's boat, followed by a week in Sicily. More on that later!

20th July - Munich

As I said earlier we managed to book pretty much the last couchettes on the night train from Rijeka to Munich. Travelling through the night on a rattling old train was great fun and to our surprise we both slept very well. We arrived in Munich very early to a warm welcome from our friends Tim and Nina who took us out to breakfast and then for a wander in the English Gardens in the afternoon. Munich was great fun and oozes history. We went for a guided walk and saw the Third Reich sites. I also went to Dachau which was sobering but worth it. It was a great way to end off our amazing European leg of our farewell tour! Next stop Oxford before heading off to Wales to go camping.

15th July - Crystal Clear Adriatic

From Villach we travelled to Ljubjana in Slovenia and stayed a night in a pretty awful youth hostel whose saving grace was its close proximity to the main train station. With Kat not feeling up to much I ventured out into the bucketing rain to see if I could book our return journey. Luckily we managed to get pretty much the last tow couchette's available - more of which later.

Ljubjana is a very pretty town with a lovely feel to it and would merrit a longer stay with great looking bars and restaurants. However, our train to Croatia left at 6am so we had a early night and we up with the sparrows...and more rain.

The train took us down to the port city of Rijeka in Croatia. Once a hugely important shipbuilding centre it has seen better days but is still boasts some charming old buildings. We had a day to kill before our ferry at 6 so we caught a bus down to Opatija once the Hapsburg Riviera and swam in the clearest waters we have seen in Europe to date. Then back to Rijeka and onto the fast catamaran to the island of Rab.

We were met at the ferry in old Rab town by our host who drove us back to his home, which he had converted into apartments with a tiny kitchen in the corner! It was fantastic and had a great balcony with a view of the sea. Our host, and all the locals we met, were charming and friendly. All spoke German and it was a mainly German destination, and a bit of English.

Rab is a beautiful island with an ancient old town dating from Roman times with 14th century and earlier campanile's towering over it. The island is surrounded by the most stunningly clear warm water and we spent three lovely days here just relaxing and swimming and wandering around and cooking ourselves dinner in our apartment. Bliss.

We were not ready to leave, probably the only place on our stay we would have liked a day or so more, but dragged ourselves onto the bus on Saturday back to Rijeka for our first ever sleeper train experience to Munich.