We're Going Home!

Tuesday: Got up and packed. This was not an easy task as we had both accumulated a lot of stuff despite having already sent 3 boxes of stuff home! We had each bought a small trolley case in Greenock so somehow managed to fit everything in. Got on the coach at 12:00, got to watch videos for the 2 hour trip to Birmingham where we changed coaches, boarding the Heathrow coach. Got to Heathrow about 5:30 and checked in, our flight was not till 10:15 so spent a while in the duty free shop (I got 2 bottles of Moet for 35 pounds which roughly equates to $85-90, not bad considering Dan Murphys price is just a touch under $60 a bottle) then wandered around the airport while we waited to find out our gate number. Wasn't particularly impressed with Heathrow, it was very big but for such a busy airport it didn't have much in the way of shopping etc! Eventually boarded our flight to Singapore. Singapore Airlines is great, the entertainment system means you can't possibly get bored! Started watching Wedding Crashers.

Wednesday: Landed in Singapore around 5:30 after a 12+ hour flight which went surprisingly quickly. I didn't get to see the end of my movie but thought I could finish it off on the next leg of the flight! Looked around the shops for a while and used the free internet. Didn't buy anything until we were about to board the flight and had some Singapore money to get rid of - I could have bought a 430g bag of M&Ms for $11 but thought that was a bit steep even for an airport! Ended up just getting a block of chocolate and a magazine. Boarded the plane, the entertainment was a bit lame on this particular flight, no on-demand movies or TV, very limited selection of programmes, no Wedding Crashers, and no Tetris! Can't complain about the food though, great as always! Can complain about the guy sitting on the aisle seat who slept through almost the ENTIRE flight, making it very difficult for the rest of us to get to the toilet!

Thursday: Landed in Adelaide. Quickly through Immigration and onto Baggage Retrieval where we were relieved to see all our luggage had made the journey with us! Then the fun part - Customs! It wasn't too bad, we only had a bit of food to declare and it was only confectionery, and we didn't get our bags searched! Then it was into the Arrivals hall and that was the end of our trip!

Manchester

Saturday: We arrived in Manchester a little after 5 on and were met at the bus station by Davey's cousin Sharon. We were taken to our accommodation which was actually a convent - we had separate rooms which was different! We were free to come and go as we pleased as we were given a key - there was no 10:00pm curfew or anything like that! In Manchester, in an area called Rusholme there is a strip known as the Curry Mile which is nothing but Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Iranian restaurants and takeaways! We went to an Indian place called Shahenshah Restaurant which was really nice, then we headed out to a few different pubs for a few drinks. The wine was nice (mainly Australian) but will someone please tell the English that white wine is supposed to be served cold????

Sunday: First went to Wythenshawe Community Farm which is for abandoned animals, where there were pigs, ducks and chickens, among other things. Then went to look at some gardens in the same area before going to a restaurant for lunch which overlooked a lake where people did things like windsurfing. After that went to the Trafford Centre which is a big shopping centre and bought some new clothes at FCUK. Almost tempted to buy an England shirt as they were SOOOO cheap but, well, it was England after all, just couldn't bring myself to do it! Later in the evening we went to the local pub to watch the World Cup final. After that we went to another Indian restaurant for another curry - the food was great but the service was SLOW!

Monday: Went into the city from where we caught a tram to the Lowry Outlet Mall (bought a ticket this time, unlike in Munich!). Bought a few tops then thought about going to Old Trafford (8 minutes walk away) but decided instead to go back into town. Took some photos in Albert Square which has some cool buildings and statues, then headed back to the convent. The bus terminated earlier than we expected, leaving us to walk the rest of the way which took us about an hour as we didn't really know exactly where we were so we followed the bus route which wasn't exactly direct! Went to see Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 in the evening - not bad, even considering the fact that we had to sit in the 3rd row!

Liverpool

After a couple more days hanging out in Greenock Jane and I said our goodbyes to all and jumped on a bus from Glasgow to Liverpool via Manchester. Trip took 5 hours and once again I slept through most of it. Jane must be getting really annoyed with the lack of conversation when we get on any public transport.

We stayed at the Adelphi Hotel in the middle of town which was just a short walk from Matthew St (where the Cavern Pub is) and a 5-10 minute bus ride to Anfield and the Albert Docks where the Beatles museum is. After a pretty average dinner and a couple of drinks at the bar downstairs Jane and I decided to head to bed so we could cram as much into tomorrow as we could.

Next day we caught a bus to Anfield where I had previously tried to book a tour of the ground with no success. We could get into the museum without a problem but I thought if we turned up on the day there might have been a cancellation. Unfortunately this wasn't to be so we just had a look through probably the best trophy room in all of England. Then off to the Albert Docks for lunch and a quick look around all the souvenir stores. Managed to pick up a retro Liverpool top on the cheap which was great and Jane continued her collection of post cards from everywhere she has been. After that we went back to town, and headed to Mathew Street to check out the Beatles shop and the Cavern Club (not the original one) which is very dingy, and a LONG way down!!

Later in the afternoon we got back on the bus and moved onto Manchester which we'll go into in our next entry.

On the road again

Sunday....
Well with the pubs closing at 1.00am we wasn't suffering too badly after our pub crawl however we did hang around my cousins till after 4.30 so we both were suffering from a lack of sleep. Today involved heading back over the water to Dunoon to see a few more cousins we didn't get to see the last time and from here we have decided to head up the coast to Inverness where we will stay tomorrow night.

Highlight of the day had to be my cousin Robert singing American Pie at a dodgey karaoke. Went to a couple of pubs in Dunoon but they are fairly quiet so we headed off to bed early (4 hour drive tomorrow).

Monday....
Off by 9am and again thanks to Grant and Heather for putting us up for the night. Jane and I both agreed the trip up to Inverness was probably the most scenic part of our entire holiday. We stopped off at Loch Eck, Loch Lomond, Glencoe and of course Loch Ness. No sign of Nessy but we did get a bit of a look at Urquhart Castle which was on the Loch.

Stayed just outside of the city centre and didn't really want to see too much in there. We were more interested in the drive up there.

Tuesday....
Left early in the morning so that we could get back to Greenock to pick up a few things before heading off to Edinburgh for the night. We got stuck behind a big truck on the way back (of course on the narrowest part of the road where there was no room to overtake). We reached Greenock and quickly popped into see Nikki who was heading off the next day with Frank on holiday down south. Then it was off to Edinburgh.

Only took an hour and a half.. maybe 2 hours to get there. We both thought this was a WAY better place to visit than Glasgow. A lot of touristy things to do like the castle and a heap of monuments around as well. We stayed in Princes St which was a prime location to get from one place to another.

Awesome dinner at a local bar that did slightly better than your normal pub meals. Then we watched a pretty good game of football between Germany and Italy.

Wednesday....
Headed back to Greenock to grab all our gear. We will be staying at my dad's sisters house tonight and they wont be there so gives us a good chance to chill out. Besides travel today we also visited Edinburgh castle and cruised around the place looking for souvenirs.

Took Aunt Anne and her partner Andy out for tea to a Portgugese resteraunt to thank them for putting up with our coming and going over the past week. Davey had chicken on a sword, very impressive. Early to bed again.... are we starting to get old here??

Pub Crawl

Friday....
With the pub crawl planned for today the little food poisoning thing couldn't have come at a worse time. We managed to make it out for lunch at the marina in Inverkip just out of Greenock but for the day that was it. Davey went to bed around 5pm and Jane watched tele for the rest of the night.

Saturday....
Well we woke up fully refreshed and ready to hit the town. We started the day just hanging round taking it easy. We planned for a big one today plus two big games on the tele, England v Portugual and Brazil v France. When 5.30 came we already on a high after England were kicked out of the world cup thanks to joint 2006 Scottish Players of the year Christiano Ronaldo and keeper Ricardo.

First pub was the Albert Hotel, tiny little pub in Gourock and it was mobbed with scots wearing Portugual tops and all really getting into the next game where France were doing Brazil over. I was a little disturbed when Frank (cousin Nikki's partner) ordered himself a tops, otherwise known as a shandy where I come from. Excuses like "I have to work really early in the morning" weren't going to cut it. By the time we got to the second pub he was on the hard stuff, full strength American beer.

Next up was the Wherry Inn. Once again a small pub and it was here we were told that we would have to be at the pub we wanted to end up in by 11.30pm. Seems there is a curfew in Greenock/Port Glasgow and you can't get into a pub after this time. So the Wherry and the next pub , the Vic, was a bit of a blur as we made out way finally to the Cafe Continental. Not a bad place, bigger than the rest and was playing some ok 80's music so not too bad at all.

Disgracefull effort by Jane and the girls though when the people next to us got up to leave and left 3/4 of a chocolate mudcake on the table. The girls proceeded to grab the cake and devour it not once thinking about how long that cake may have been there or what the previous owners did to it.

Greenock Morton FC

Today we set off from Dunoon back across the ferry to Greenock where I had planned to go straight to my Aunts but no one was home when we called so instead I dragged Jane down to the famous Cappielow Park to see if I could get myself a Morton strip.

The team that made hoops famous have never have my size in stock when I check on the net and suprise suprise still no joy. Better yet they are changing their strip this season to resemble the Argentinian home strip so they are doing away with the hoops altogether. (Now that everyone else is doing it it's time for something different, I've even heard of teams doing it with green and white hoops... what the??). I could get my hands on the away strip but the blue and red tartan strip was a bit much.

So we headed off for my mum's sisters house for tea and to meet all her kids (and there kids etc) when I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning. It was either the subway I had for lunch or the Chinese buffet I had for dinner. I don't know, I'll let you decide.

So that put a quick end to my night as I spent the rest of it (except 2 hours of sleep) with my head in the toilet bowl and waking Jane everytime so that she too had little or no sleep (hey, I'm a sharing, caring kinda guy).

Meant to be doing a pub crawl tomorrow.... we'll see how it goes.

Glasgow/Dunoon

Monday....
We headed to Glasgow on the train with Davey's cousin Jason to watch the Australia v Italy game on the big screen at the Walkabout hotel cos we thought there might be a few Aussies there to watch the game with us (no we had not completely had enough of Aussies by now, after all it had been 3 whole days since we'd seen any!). In the end there were several hundred so that was great! Everyone knows the result so I'd rather not go too much into that, but other than the last 15 seconds of the match it was a good day oot!!

Tuesday....
Cousin Nicola and her partner Frank have a spare car so they have lent it to us to save us having to hire one over the next 10 days. Fantastic effort guys!! Today we went to the Winnhill (I think that's right) golf course with Jason where Davey was given a golfing lesson by his younger cousin and some cows. Afterwards it was off to a pub for lunch with Donna (another cousin) and then went back into Glasgow for a wee bit of shoppin'.

Wednesday....
We were off across the water to Dunoon today to see my Uncle Sammy and Aunt Sheena. He was out in Oz last year for Susan and Sean's wedding so we had a bit of catching up to do plus meeting the rest of their family. We stayed just down the road at Heather and Grants house (more cousins) and so far (no offense to any other rellies or hotels) this is by far and away the best room we have ever stayed in!!!!

Tomorrow we'll be heading off early to go see more rellies and also pay a visit to the mighty Greenock Morton's club shop.... if it's open!

Greenock & Pt Glasgow

Well with the hussle and bussle of our German tour behind us, we flew into Prestwick Airport in Scotland to meet a lot of relatives in a short amount of time.

Firstly we were met at the airport by Aunt Betty & Aunt Sadie who took us to Port Glasgow where we would be staying for the first couple of nights. This is where I was brought up before we left for Australia way back when America still had the America's cup and Adam and the Ants were still that fresh new sound. The place hasn't changed much in 25 years so I'm glad mum and dad decided to move to Australia.

It was great to see all the rellies on my dad's side again as well as a couple of family friends who lived not too far away from my old home and school.

There was a rumour going round that a couple of the cousins my age (on my mum's side) were heading off on holiday in the couple of days so on the Sunday we headed over to Inverkip to have a barbie and drink heaps of fosters.

Apparently because everyone in Australia drinks fosters they thought it would be nice to give me a little piece of home. Little did they know that Fosters was our joke to the rest of the world.. a bit like what Canada do with Brian Adams. Will need to teach these guys how to cook a proper barbie as well. Nath, not a patch on your barbie.

Once again great seeing everyone and spending a few days with nothing planned, unlike the past 5 weeks or so!!!!

Will update again later!