Scotland & England

December 2023
Carrying on the adventures after NC500 Read more
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  • 672kilometers
  • Day 1

    20. Edinburgh

    December 7, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    We woke up and the car park was completely full , we thought people we’re looking at us a bit strange , then we realised we had accidentally parked the van too far away from the bank and we were blocking half the car park - whoopsie.
    A swift exit and headed to Ingliston park and ride to catch the tram into Edinburgh . To our amazement, Maddy could come on the tram too . I don’t think she enjoyed it quite as much as we did , too overstimulating , but she coped very well .
    Once we arrived in the city centre , we had a look around the pretty Christmas market and bought some lovely , quirky presents for family .
    Afterwards , we walked up a beautiful cobbled street and stopped off for a mocha as it was freezing outside and had started to rain .
    James and I are quite big Harry Potter fans and Edinburgh is the birthplace of Harry Potter . We could totally see how Rowling was inspired by Edinburgh , all the little streets resembled diagon alley and there were so many cool little witch shops everywhere - Edinburgh has the most witch history in the whole of the Uk, with mass witch executions taking place between the 16th and 18th centuries .
    James had downloaded a Harry Potter tour of Edinburgh which we followed for the day . We went to the graves of Tom Riddell and Mcgonical, also catching a glimpse of George Heriots school, the school which hogwarts is based on.
    After about 4 hours on our feet in the cold and rain , we decided to call it a day and catch the tram back to the van . Maddy was very wet and ready to get cozy in the van.
    We decided to have a bit of luxury and book a campsite for the night. My foot cramps were terrible and needed a hot shower to try and help . Very disappointed as the showers were tepid .
    By the time we had finished cooking and tidying up , it was gone 11 . Few games of rumikub then bed time for us .
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  • Day 2

    21. Edinburgh

    December 8, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    We spent the morning sorting the van out whilst we were at a campsite . Water restocked , grey water empty , toilet cleaned .
    James bumped into a solo van lifer outside and they got chatting . This man had a really cool vintage VW camper and lived on site most of the year . His travel companion is his cat! James really shouldn’t have told me this , as now I’m determined to get a van cat ( it’s going to happen !)
    We headed back to the park and ride and cooked some lunch before catching the tram into Edinburgh again . We covered the areas we didn’t see yesterday and I managed to get a phone case for my new second hand phone ( thanks again , Jackie).
    After a while , we headed to this really quirky little coffee shop to get warm and kill some time before our evening ghost tour at 530. Edinburgh has a much greater witch history than Salem in Massachusetts, 4000 witches were executed in Scotland as opposed to 400 in Salem . Not surprising that Edinburgh is so haunted.
    There was quite a big group of us on the ghost tour with our tour guide called Soldier Jock
    We started the tour at the underground vaults , we were taken into a little room that used to be student accomodation in the 80s . Jock explained that the vaults were discovered one night when an angry , drunk student punched through one of the walls and found a secret chamber . Turns out that a mother and daughter lived there during the plague . The young daughter (8 years old) had the plague , but the mother didn’t want her to go into quarantine , so she was kept hidden away from the public in this small room. One day , the mother had to walk miles to find clean water for her daughter , but by the time she had got back , her little girl had died . The mother was distraught and committed suicide , the vaults are said to be haunted by the ghosts of the mother and daughter .
    Further through the vaults was an old children’s nursery , the room felt very cold and was quite ominous . Maddy could definitely sense something as she had her tail between her legs the whole time we were underground .
    Jock then took us out of the vaults and to a square where they tortured criminals for their crimes . The torture would last days and the public would come out and watch for entertainment . One of the tortures was molten metal being tipped over their heads- just like game of thrones !
    That was the end of our tour , we found it so interesting but spooky ! We caught the tram back to the van and drove for half an hour , getting closer to the Falkirk wheel for our visit tomorrow .
    Paella for supper and a few board games before bed .
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  • Day 5

    22. 23. 24. Falkirk Wheel to Coalburn

    December 11, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    First stop this morning , the Falkirk wheel . Luckily it was only half an hour away as the wheel was shut . We still managed to get quite close to it and take Maddy on a walk - so wasn’t a completely wasted trip .
    Afterwards , we headed slowly towards Glasgow ; stopping off to get fuel and food along the way .
    We arrived with our friends , Elle and Ricky at about 5 o’clock . We spent the evening chatting and treated ourselves to a Chinese takeaway , it was a great night and so nice to see our friends , the last time we saw them was 15 months ago when Elle and Ricky got married in Worcestershire.

    We went to bed quite late the night before so had a bit of a lie in today . In the afternoon Ricky , James , Connor and Evie went to take the dogs on a good walk , whilst Elle and I went to do some shopping for supper .
    The closest shops to them are a good twenty minute drive away.
    Elle had made us all a traditional Scottish lentil soup in the evening , which was amazing.
    Afterwards , we watched a horror film together and had another late night chatting away with a few drinks .

    Elle and Ricky were very kind and let us do our washing at theirs. We had a good three loads so we were so grateful !
    The guys went dog walking again and Elle and I went for a drive around Hamilton and stopped off at a shopping complex to see if we could find any Christmas bargains .
    We had a red bean soup and rice for supper and played some games together in the evening . Elle had work early next morning and Evie had school , so James and I went and chilled in the van when the others went to bed .

    The next day , James and I refilled the water in the van using water bottles , which took ages .
    We stayed until Elle came home from work and said goodbye to everyone before continuing our journey south .
    James and I decided to head to a park up next to loch doon , about 90 mins south west from Glasgow . The park up is lovely , maybe even one of the best we’ve had so far ! Right next to the loch , with a backdrop of dense and pretty woodlands .
    After getting everything sorted , we took Maddy on a walk around the loch and settled down for the night .
    We had fajitas for supper and played a few games before watching a film in bed.
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  • Day 6

    25. Coal Burn to Loch Doon

    December 12, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    Today we filled up our tanks with 2ltr bottles which was a workout and had a quick shower, before heading south to Galloway forest park which is the UK's biggest forest park and is only 3 acres away from being a national park. It got very scenic about halfway and we followed this road alongside a huge Loch.
    Once we got to the end we found this awesome park up right beside the Loch and in the grounds of a castle. We had some Chicken Fajitas and played Rummikub into the night for abit and finished with watching the sci fi horror M3GAN which was entertaining.
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  • Day 7

    26. Loch Doon

    December 13, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Today we woke up and made plans for our onward travel, we still want to visit York and see our friend Leah in Manchester. So we made the decision tomorrow to drive down and meet her then have a trip to York afterwards, so tonight will be our last night in lovely Scotland.
    We decided to stay exactly where we were last night and have a chill day as today was a nice day and we had a couple of nice walks to do before we head down to Manchester.
    We headed on a 3 mile walk up to a viewpoint and then around some of the Loch and then down to a waterfall. Maddy had a great time as spent quite alot of the last few days in the van whilst visiting Ellie and Ricky.
    We gave the van a much needed deep clean and then headed down to the Loch for sunset. Cosy night inside tonight as its getting chilly outside!
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  • Day 10

    27. 28. 29. Manchester

    December 16, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Moving down to Manchester to see Leah and James today . Leah wasn’t around until after 1700, so we took Maddy on a long circular walk before the 4 hour journey .
    Once Maddy was sorted and the van was ready , we made our way to Manchester .
    The journey was uneventful and we managed to find a parking place just outside Leah’s house .
    After quite a long day , we enjoyed a Chinese and a few beers together and chatted until late. We had a lot to catch up on as this is the first time we have seen Leah since she got back from Panama ( doing research for her PhD) . We all had a lovely evening .

    The following morning , Leah cooked us all eggs for breakfast before we set off into the city centre to do some Christmas shopping .
    Manchester City centre was heaving , there was a huge Christmas market selling amazing food , so Maddy had a great time hoovering all the food off the floor .
    James and I took it in turns to look in the shops , James had to look for a specific Christmas present for his dad and a new belt . James was successful, thankfully !
    Elle from Glasgow highly recommended these thermal lined leggings from primark, so I just had to go and get them , Leah came with me and we ended up buying the same “happy camper” hoodies which was quite funny .
    Leah had to go her separate way to a meal with her lab group in the evening , the two James’ and I went back to Leah’s house and cooked some food and watched the new chicken run film ( it’s so cute ) .
    Leah came back at about 10 , so we stayed up for a while discussing plans for new years before heading to bed .

    All going our separate ways today , Leah was heading off to Leominster to see her family for Christmas , James was heading back home to Buxton too.
    After our morning caffeine dose , we left Manchester to go to York ! James managed to find a cool little place to stay.
    When we arrived , we were greeted by a lady, called Elaine, who lives here permanently on site . She gave us loads of advice about what to see in York and was very helpful in general.
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  • Day 12

    30. 31. York

    December 18, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We headed to York after a nice few days in Manchester, we are both really excited to visit York as we were supposed to visit my sister there during Uni, we never got round to it so we were hyped to explore. We headed to a (erm campsite?) which is at Rufforth EX RAF base. It is ultimatelty a
    sports complex, but has everything we need and only £11pn.

    As York isn't overly campervan freindly we decided to make this our base for the next few days.

    Day 1. We chilled when we arrived from Manchester and took Maddy for a long walk. Followed by a an amazing Sunset.

    Day 2. We headed into the York Christmas Market.(which was great but heaving with people, busiest day on record with over 1 million people within the York city walls) we decided to leave Maddy (finally had the courage) and left her in the Van in a campervan park and ride. This worked well whilst we monitiored her on our CCTV. We had a lovely lunch at SandWitches which is a haunted building near to the famous Shambles street. We wandered the huge market fighting people to the stores and called it a day at about 5pm.
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  • Day 13

    32. 33. York

    December 19, 2023 in England ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Day 3. We decided to have a chill day today at the van and just went on a nice walk with Maddy, we did a few bits on the van and then decided to treat ourselves to a takeaway Pizza.

    Day 4. We got up and headed to the Train Musuem, this was great but sadly no flying Scotsman. We got the train car into the centre which was fun as it looked like a steam train and we had lots of looks.... We then headed around the town again as it was much quieter and brought some lovely fudge. After getting a few bits we headed to the City walls as we wanted to walk all the way around. We found this amazing cafe which was built into the bridge and stopped under the heater for a coffee. Afterwards we carried on and sadly they shut the walls at night so only managed to do 2/3rds. We had seen an app advertised for a self guided Ghost walk so decided to buy this and do a tour of the city at night stopping at the specific ghost places, as York is supposedly the most haunted city in Europe. We aren't suprised with the history of this place. It has such a deep history and is very interesting. After the ghost walk we headed back to Maddy and took her on a walk before having some Chicken Fajitas.Read more

  • Day 15

    34. York 35. Home

    December 21, 2023 in England ⋅ 🌬 10 °C

    Day 5. Today was our last day so we decided to go the Cat Cafe, which we (but especially Grace) absolutely loved. We headed to a really funny place called Whip me Whop me Gate. Afterwards we were going to head onto the ice skating but as this storm is hitting us now, decided against it and headed back to the van. It was such a rocky night and the van felt like it was going to take off (it wasn't our doing either....). We had 60mph winds in York so the campsite took abit of a battering. Nice sleep for the last night.... Yeah right!!

    Today we are heading back to Hereford stopping at Grace's dads for the night before heading onto seeing my family tomorrow at the Oak. We are hyped to see everyone but gutting our trip is coming to an end. What a month we have had though, we have seen things we have always wanted to see. Tested the van and given Maddy a good test run, everything has been sweet and only a few small jobs to do before we head into Europe next month. We are ready and so excited, Van life is simply the best and we have really learnt that this is such a great lifestyle, so lets see where things take us.
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