And finally there was Scotland

Another country like NZ but would have been nice to spend more than 3.5 days looking around.

First stop of course was a little town called "Troon". The local pub didn't have any glasses with our name on it so the bar man made one for us.


and then had to have our photo taken at the local golf course. So much for playing a round of golf at $600 per person. And they wouldn't even give us freebies. . how rude!! ;-)


Here is Sally a friend in Glasgow who crashed at my house for a couple on nights in Brisbane as a backpacker.


A gorgeous looking cottage


A HEELUND COO!!

Northern Ireland

Belfast: What amazed me was how they turned such a bad part of their lives into such a tourist venture! Bus tours will take you to show you the barb wire around houses, murals on walls, flags hanging across the streets and gates separating the Protestants from the Catholics


This is my great-great-great-grandfather Sam McCausland. He was mayor of Belfast in 1868 and now hangs in the town hall.


The Giants Causeway. We drove 8 hours in one day just to see this natural rock formation. It was pretty cool


And then there was the Cerrick-rope-bridge, 80m above the sea between the mainland and the island. The only time we got wet all trip I think

Republic of Ireland

Very similar to NZ. But there is nothing wrong with that. Difficult to understand the accents sometimes though!! We did LOTS of driving and covered a lot of territory . . . but it was worth it

I found my stone wall so i ran on it and did a handstand on it (among other things!)



This man and his donkeys were standing out in the rain, on a country road, selling bits and pieces


Cute little fishing village in the Ring of Kerry


The coolest stone fort ever!!

The Rowing (thats why we went on holiday!)

The ladies rowed and the rest of us cycled 206km in 5 days from Toulouse to Beziers. Overall they came 17 out of 40 boats which is a fantastic effort. Very sore bottoms but by day three we were numb to it all. Saw some gorgeous sites along the way and lots of wine at lunch time to drink!

Lots of narrow bridges to make our way through


This was masking taped onto the bow of the boat so that everyone knew where we were from . . .as if they couldn't tell by the accents and lack of french speakers in our group!


The country side


The kiwi team and the time keeper.


Typical French men!

Paris

Then there was Paris, the city of love, and boy did I fall in love with it. Twice I was busted sleep talking in French. It was too short spending a day and a half here but there is always next time. I think Mum was glad to have an interpreter!

Hong Kong

A city designed for shopping. Not much fun if you are there as a tourist and have no money to spend. Was good to check out though.

This was a view from our hotel room .. . on the 12th floor!!

Oops

Well so much for updating a blog site as I traveled through Europe. I was lucky to get to an internet cafe for more that 20mins at a time. So now that I am in the land of the strange accents here are some of my favourite photos from the time away!