Sort of!
Well according to Google Maps I am here…
What three Words had me down as: Suggestible. Mimicking. Nations.
Either way, we are far enough off shore to not see the shore!
We are about two hours out of Orkney where I think my seat partner will join me (whoever they are). As you can imagine, we don’t have super fast wifi on a boat in the middle of the North Sea. It has taken so long for the second photograph to upload that we are now: Schoolrooms. Sock. Differing.
Well, that is it, we made it to the boat and are safely on. You can tell it is the last weekend before the schools go back as it is heaving. I have already spotted three teachers. We are back in the pods so it won’t be the most comfortable night’s sleep.
On the way down I was in a pair of seats by myself, on the way back I am pinned on the window by another person. If I am lucky they won’t get on until Orkney.
It is really nice to let someone else do the driving. I left Prudhoe at 08.30 and got into Aberdeen at 14.00. Okay we did stop off in Dundee to grab some sandwiches, and a slight detour caused by a strange Google Maps glitch.
It’s a 17.00 sailing so in a tick I am going to fight the throng and grab some food before it gets too crowded in there.
We may have a view of some dolphins/porpoises as we leave the harbour.
Expected arrival at Lerwick tomorrow morning is: 07.30. I reckon it is going to take us five hours just to empty the car.
We are heading off North in a few minutes, unfortunately, some oik (who wasn’t me) decided to have a shower at 4.00am. There are big signs all over the bathroom thus…
Somehow they forgot. The whole hotel woke up. Luckily it is only an hour’s drive to Darlington. And another hour up to Newcastle. Tomorrow is the drive from Prudhoe to Aberdeen. Probably 4 hours if I have no breaks. The ferry leaves at 17.00 and cars need to be there an hour ahead.
Today was a visit to the Royal Armouries. We used to visit quite a bit around twenty years ago. The Museum is pretty much the same but the outside bit has totally changed causing me much consternation on where to park. In the end I was in the multi story car park. Which was a bloody nightmare in first finding a space and then finding the car didn’t fit the spaces.
My phone died when I got in, so I only managed a few photos…
I did end up spending some pennies on a new book…
We are heading back to Northumberland tomorrow and then heading North to catch the ferry on Saturday night.
Tomorrow is a stop off in Darlington to pick up a beastie for my daughter then into Newcastle for leather for me and a comic book shop for my eldest.
Today we did a hop further down country. It took a couple of hours to go door to door.
We got to the Thackeray with only a minor wobble with the sat nav trying to take us through the back of a hospital.
The museum itself is on a couple of floors with the ubiquitous cafe and gift shop.
It has a good bit where you choose a character and follow them through Leeds in the 1850’s… it wasn’t a good end for a few of them.
They had a pretty good selection of exhibits and information throughout.
I really wanted to find some more of these
I had a hunt in the shop to see if they had any, sadly not. I forgot who did them, but it was to support health reform.
Got off the boat at 07.00 and set off to have breakfast at Dundee. Sadly the cafe opened late. Was short staffed and had nothing gluten free fir my daughter. So we got lunch at a Tesco and headed on down to Edinburgh zoo which was heaving. We were the second last car to get into the car park.
Here is the only animal I took a photo of. Some kind of marmoset.
We left Edinburgh and headed down into Northumberland. I got into my Sister in Laws at 18.30. I am knackered now.
I am sat on the boat eating very expensive, okay, food… so technically as I am on the water I am now officially off island for the start of my holidays.
WiFi on the boat is cack so I am posting this now rather than trying to post later.
Tomorrow is Edinburgh zoo then down to the North East of England to stay at my Sister in Law for a couple of Nights thence down to Leeds for a couple of nights.
We are going to the Royal Armouries so if anyone wants any photos of anything let me know and I will give it a go.
I wish I had brought some paints and things to paint. I have brought some things to sort out some ideas for a Nam Skirmish campaign.
So that’s it our adventure is nearly over. We are sat on the boat in the ‘pods’ which are basically reclining chairs at £20 a pop or whatever silly price they are.
It has been a good adventure, but we are both knackered now. I am honestly not sure how far we walked this weekend, but based on the complaining feet and calves it was a jolly old distance.
Sadly no nice sunset this evening, so a distant view of a couple of oil rigs will have to do!
We arrive into Orkney close to Midnight and then arrive in Lerwick early tomorrow morning, but they wont let us off until around 08.00.
I am really looking forwards to getting back into my own house and slippers!.
Well Claymore arrived and off we set. It was an easy run across to Edinburgh, but to be honest getting to the Granton campus on the bus was going to be a bind, so we blagged a taxi.
We got there about 45 minutes after opening so we were straight in… I was pleased with the entry cost at a fiver for me and three quid for James… more money to spend on toys …
I managed to get some photos of some of the games…
Now I knew that a couple of my friends from the Shetland club would be there putting on a game as they had moved onto the mainland, But what was more amazing was my old club was there from when I lived in England. I was stood there thinking Tyneside Wargames club, that was my club, I turned around and three of my old mates were stood there, now they might have just said oh yeah we remember you, but they said, can you remember the time we went to the show in my red Citroën…i had forgotten that I once owned a Citroën. So it was a lovely surprise. I also got chatting to a guy running a Frostgrave game. I mentioned I was down from Shetland and Lo and Behold his whole family was from Shetland, and the guy he was playing against also had family from Shetland.
I did buy some goodies, I could have gone mental but decided to keep the sensible hat on.
Well sort of kept the sensible hat on. The top box is full of fifty Mantic Zombies and a truck that was a bit of an impulse buy.
Miniatures wise I got some 10 mm Samurai apes from Pendraken, these are the Warband pack, but they will be based as HOTT, like my other packs I have got in the past.
I picked up twenty 2p multi stands for various of my games, I was going to order them online, but as Warbases was there I thought I might as well get them postage free. I also bought some MDF coins for Strength and Honour. Sadly I never got to play a game at the show as James was beginning to flag a bit.
I also picked up the Pavia book in the bring and buy. James was given an inflatable 17 pdr shell. Which he was quite chuffed with.
As it was also his trip he wanted to go to the zoo, so we spent the afternoon in there…
So we made it to the hotel in Glasgow. We are on the top floor, sadly not the penthouse, but it is still a long way down…
By 10.45 we had nearly done 11000 steps, our train was an hour later and we have pretty much walked all over Glasgow so I reckon we must have at least doubled that, if not tripled it.
My feet and calves ache a bit now!
Bogenwald 