We were heading back to London today. It was time to farewell Inverawe, Rosie and
Robert. I wonder how they feel when
after nearly 2 weeks of having mass people in their home they were back to 2
people, oh and Ludo-the family dog. I
bet it is quiet and I guess they like that too.
We had a departure time of 8.30am and ended up getting on the road at
9.30am. Girl, Jamie and Fiona were on
the road 30 minutes before us and we all had a full day of travel to get us
back to London. Lucky for the Addletons
that I didn’t bring the monster and my other bags as the car was packed to the
rafters as it was already. I took the
back seat and after a final wave to R&R we were on the cold and wet
road.
As mentioned in my last blog Paps and Em had their
reception at Inverawe and we passed the church where they got married, so we
stopped briefly so that I could have a look around and it was a beautiful
church and it had a headstone at the front with a date of 1898. St Conan’s Kirk, Church of Scotland, is located in Loch Awe, Argyll and
Bute, Scotland. It is situated on a crag high above the water amid
vegetation which includes roses, honeysuckle, and ivy, and is surrounded by
large trees. It was established as a chapel of
ease by the Campbell’s of Innis Chonan. The
Bruce Chapel is renowned for the fragment of bone that is rumoured to have come
from Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. It was designed by the self-made architect
Walter Douglas Campbell, great-grandfather of the Duke of
Argyll, and built in 1881-6; with renovation in 1906. The heavy
oak beams in the cloister are believed to have come from the (then) recently
broken up wooden battleships, HMS Caledonia and
HMS Duke of Wellington. An eccentric
blend of church styles, from ancient Roman to Norman, it is built of local stone. It
consists of a nave and
chancel,
with the chancel-stalls being canopied. Large, unsmoothed boulders of granite
from nearby Ben Cruachan, form the piers which carry the
chancel arch, and the transepts make the Sacred Cross. There is also a tower
and spire. It was a stunning church and
again I didn’t get a chance to see the view due to the low laying fog but Paps
and Em recreated a wedding pose for me in one of the stone entrances.
It really was a crap day to be on the roads. Em took the first shift of driving and it was
a little tricky. They were not very
narrow roads and they were so windy that I was starting to get a little car
sick. I am normally a good traveller, I
don’t get motion sickness, but I was feeling very dodgy while we were on the
bendy roads. I am going to say it had
nothing to do with Em’s driving of course.
It was shame it was so foggy as I had been told by several people just
how pretty the scenery is around this area, I missed it coming up as it was
night time when I arrived and now this morning it was super foggy I couldn’t
even see the loch to glens at all in some places. I guess that is Scotland and it could also
happen in the summer months-it weather is just so unpredictable!
We finally made it onto the freeway around lunch time and
it was like an instantaneous feeling of better.
The weather unfortunately didn’t improve and after a toilet stop at a
very busy road stop and a swap of drivers we were back on the road and getting
caught in some delays due to the fog. At
one point it was so heavy that you were lucky to be able to see 3 cars in front
and you can see how the mass pile up of car accidents can happen when you sit
in this kind of fog. Apparently there is
a welcome to England sign along the road, but it was that foggy we didn’t even
get a chance to see that. We stopped in
to see Paps grandparents on our way home and for a quick cuppa and then back on
the road again to London. Paps was given
a GPS from his dad for Christmas, so we were giving that a crack on our way back
and it was interesting the way that it wanted to take us and what our actual
arrival time would be back home.
Pap’s mum, Sandra and Brian were at the Addleton
residence when we got home. They had
spent New Year’s Eve in London and had used the Addlepad while the guys were in
Scotland. They were staying one more
night so when we got home dinner was in the oven and ready to be served. Ahhhhhh Sandra you are a lifesaver! We were ravenous only having eaten 2 ham
rolls that Em had made this morning for the trip. It is funny I have nearly met all of Justin’s
relatives over the course of the week and meeting Em’s parents and all their
friends as well. It was a great week but
I must say I am looking forward to a little downtime over the next few days as
I am feeling a little burnt out. I think
the last week has finally caught up with me having travelled nearly 19,000km in
8 days. Today we travelled 800km and it
took 11 hours but we did have a stop at Grand ma-ma’s for 45 minutes but
otherwise we were on the road all day. I
only fell asleep as we entered London around 7pm and to say I am now tired is a
bit cheeky when I didn’t even drive today, but that always seems to be the
case.
I have made one New Year’s resolution. I don’t normally make them, as I am not a
firm believer or believer in them but this year I have made one and that is to
keep in touch with my family more. I
have the email addresses of them all and I also have Facebook for some too. So there is no excuse and I think it is a resolution
that I will be able to keep.
Hopefully.
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