Saturday 3 August 2013. Edinburgh to Crieff via Perth. Perth Show, Hillman Imp 50 years.

Today we left Almond House by the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh and headed over the Forth Bridge to towards Crieff, where we had a cottage booked for a week. The weather was very overcast with a strong cold wind which got worse as we headed north on the M90 motorway.

The weather ahead looked very ominous with black clouds and we had a sprinkle of rain and then the sun came out. This was to be the pattern for the day.

We had decided to go to Crieff through Perth to meet up with Bernie and John whose bed and breakfast we used when we were in Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales. They had told us that they were attending a Hillman Imp 50th anniversary celebration there and said that if we were in the area it would be great to meet up again..

We arrived at the racecourse in Perth to find the Hillman Imps (seemed like hundreds of them) heading out for the day to a Rootes Group gathering and then onto another gathering at the famous Grouse Experience near Crieff.

Despite many phone calls which went unanswered and messages left on the mobile number they gave us to contact them, we were disappointed that we received no response at all from Bernie and John.

On our way into Perth we noticed that the Perth Show was on so we decided to go and have a look.

We found the car park near the showground (South Inch Park) and went in to the entry road to find it cost £5 to park. Mick asked the attendant if that included entry to the show. You guessed it, no it didn't, entry to the show as another £7 each.

We were used to such things so smiled and paid up.

The show was an agricultural show of the type which are typical in the UK with lots of different farm animals, farm machinery and riding events plus various other attractions.

What was different about this show was that as it was in Scotland, it had a Pipe Band blazing away on their bagpipes and drums and marching about the place. Spectacular.

As we had arranged to pick up the keys to our cottage at about 3pm, we left the show at 2pm and drove to Crieff where we were met by a very nice lady who was the sister of the owner who had gone to Barcelona for a holiday.

The cottage was right in the middle of the village so we could walk just down the road to the shops.

 Bernie and John's Hillman Imp

  The Hillman Imp's all alloy engine and it's body panels were built at a brand new factory built at Linwood near Glasgow in Scotland and it was regarded as a "Scottish car". It was also more popular in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. This one is left hand drive from Europe.

Ginetta G15 with a Hillman Imp engine

 

 Real time tuning of the pipes

 Dargill Simmentals?

 

 This guy made this barrel from scratch

 

 £5 each to park, do the maths.

 Perth and District Pipeband

 The boss piper. Note the gold braid

 

"Avonlea" our self catering cottage in Crieff, Scotland

Friday 2 August 2013. Edinburgh. Forth of Firth cruise, Edinburgh city, Fringe festival, castle.

This morning was very overcast early on threatening rain but the day in fact was fine. Perfect for a cruise on the Firth of Forth.

What was not perfect was a continuing problem with our room at the Almond House Lodge in that the central heating radiator which is turned off, taps and gurgles continuously throughout the night. It’s like water torture in that there is nothing we can do about it.

And we haven’t even mentioned the first mornings breakfast which we tried for £12  and neither of us could eat. Oh, well it is only a 2 star hotel. We are back to making our own from now on.

After our own breakfast prepared by Mick, we left the hotel and followed the GPS across the Forth road bridge to North Queensferry where our cruise boat was picking us up. Normally cruise passengers are picked up at South Queensferry except when there is a cruise liner in port and today the Queen Elizabeth was in town.

As we were a little early, we decided to go into the Royal Albert pub near the pier for a coffee and had a nice chat with the lady who served us. She gave us some good advice about going into the city of Edinburgh which was not to take the car. She gave us directions on catching the train from Dalmeny in South Queensferry and getting off at Edinburgh/Waverley station which is near Edinburgh Castle.

We could also park the car at the station for free, brilliant.

After coffee we caught the Forth Belle with a couple of dozen others who were waiting at the pier and went up under both the Forth road and rail bridges to have a look at the new aircraft carrier that the Brits are building. They are also building a new road bridge as the existing one needs major work. They are in the process of pouring the foundations of the piers.

The new bridge will be ready in 2016 and there is quite a bit of discussion as to who will open it. The Queen opened the existing bridge.

We then travelled back under the bridges. The road bridge was surprisingly noisy as the traffic passed overhead.

Just through the bridges the Cunard liner the Queen Elizabeth was moored. It was a very impressive ship and is Cunard’s newest ocean liner reflecting modern elite ocean travel. It made its maiden voyage in October 2010 after taking just 12 months to complete. It has a passenger capacity of 2000.

We then sailed on passing a couple of little islands which were the home to a variety of seabirds and some seals before arriving at Inchcolm, an Island steeped in history and housing a very old priory.

Here, those that wished could disembark to spend about 90 minutes on the island. They would then be picked up on the next trip. Lyn and I decided not to land we had other plans for the afternoon and there was and extra £6 which to pay for a landing pass which went to a body managing the island.

We then returned to the pier seeing more seals and passing very close to The Queen Elizabeth.

We then drove back across the bridge to the Dalmeny railway station and caught the train into town.

We immediately caught the Big Red Bus to get a whistle stop tour before alighting in the city centre right in the middle of  the Edinburgh Fringe Festival crowds.

The place was packed but Lyn, who is not keen on crowds, was persuaded to join the throng as there were many shops selling among other Scottish themed items, beautiful Cashmere clothing made in Scotland.

After spending a couple of hours mingling with the crowds and being bombarded with flyers to go and see various artists perform in the festival, we were worn out and went back to the station to catch the train back to the car.

Whilst walking through Edinburgh to the station we found a Chinese restaurant offering an all you can eat menu so we thought we would have an early dinner until we noticed that because it was Friday, the cost per person had been raised from £11 to £15 each. We decided that was extortion and went and caught our train.

Mick’s choice of a location for our hotel was, as it turned out a perfect choice because despite it being rush hour, the car trip home took about 10 minutes.

For dinner we went to our usual haunt, Toby’s Carvery, which offers a selection of  pork, gammon (ham), turkey and beef (or all of the above) with 7 different vegetables for £5.99. A bargain.

 Almond House Hotel

 We didn't know that Scotland had it's own bank notes! I wonder if they work in England?

Thursday 1 August 2013. Edinburgh. Visit to see The Royal Yacht, Britannia.

Our hotel in Edinburgh was in a great spot by the Firth of Forth but spoiled somewhat by the regular passenger jets flying past plus the noise of the many barking dogs owned by the travelers (Gypsies) who have decided that the lovely parkland between us and the water is a great place to reside. (Have just looked out of the window and found that they have gone. Excellent.)

We spoke to the hotel receptionist who said that as the land was open space legally they are entitled to live there in their caravans. Can you imagine people in Australia towing their caravans into a park  and living there permanently?

Weather-wise we had quite a bit of rain overnight and it continued to rain in the morning, only stopping when Mick decided we should bite the bullet like the English do and go out to see the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Britannia which was built in 1953 and used by the Royal family for traveling all over the world, was decommissioned in 1997 after the British Government (Tony Blair) decided they could no longer afford the cost of a running it or the cost of a refit. This of course was being discussed widely before Tony Blair came to power.

The ship is now permanently moored at the quayside and open for people to visit for an entry fee which goes to The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust.

The trust is a charitable organization that receives no public money of any kind and the income it receives is used for maintaining this historically important ship.

It was only about a 10 minute drive from our hotel and access is gained to it from the second floor of the huge Ocean Terminal shopping centre. Entry cost £10.50 each for seniors.

The tour around the ship was self paced with hand held audio devices provided. These resembled large cordless phones and provided concise descriptions of each area of the ship. These areas were numbered with extra information if requested. For instance Mick wanted to hear more about the engines so by pressing a couple of buttons he could listen to this detail.

All in all this was very professionally developed attraction and well worth the visit.

When we left the ship we walked along the exit gangway and straight back into the shopping centre. Lyn went off to Marks & Spencer's to organize dinner and Mick went to get his laptop out of the car so that he could complete the sending of emails with the shopping centre wi-fi. The O2 service at our hotel is practically useless. Almost resembles the previous Vodaphone’s signal availability in Australia.

Below pictures of Britannia.

 This deck is 5cm teak timber

 Twin diesel powered steam turbine engines have done over 1,000,000 nautical miles

 Laundry

 Lyn having a beer on the Royal Yacht. What's wrong with this picture?

  They used to carry a Rolls Royce Phantom 5 in the early days

 The Royal Barge

 The Drawing Room

 The honeymoon suite where Charles and Diana went on their honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise