This is a dream holiday which grew in the planning. From a simple 15-day cruise to the historic city of St Petersburg, we ended up having three wonderful adventures over a period of nearly 5 weeks. Everywhere we went, I kept sending back photos through my whatsapp. Everything was so beautiful to me. I guess I got carried away and I must have irritated my friends, so much so that one of them sent me this note: Are you ever coming home? The photo I like the most is the one above. I snapped it while we were on a train journey from Glasgow to Mallaig. It captures the spirit of my dream holiday. The beauty and the serenity of the English and Scottish countryside. In the good old days, I would have sent this as a postcard to folks back home, with a simple message: Having a whale of a time. Wish you were here! So how did we end up with such a long holiday? It all started with an email from my brother James, asking whether I would be interested in going on a 15-day cruise from Southampton to St Petersburg. And on the Britannia, no less. It is the P & O Cruise's newest ship. Of course, I agreed without hesitation. Next, we had to find cheap air fares to London. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the cheapest fares required us to be in England for 5 weeks. That's when I started thinking about my dream holiday of touring the Lake District and exploring the Scottish Loch Ness and highlands. It became our Dream Holiday, Part 1.
As we would be totally exhausted after 10 days on the road, it was ideal to have the St Petersburg cruise as Dream Holiday, Part 2. The long sea cruise would give us a chance to rest and recuperate.
If we are fully revitalised after that, then Wales would be Dream Holiday, Part 3. We have seen a lot of England, a bit of Ireland and Scotland, so naturally we could not miss out this final piece of the United Kingdom. Our friends Judy and Danny were kind enough to let us use their home in New Malden Surrey, as a base for the Lake District trip and the St Petersburg cruise. Ideally, we should cover the whole of the Lake District and Scottish Highlands by car but you are talking about three old folks -- me, my wife and my brother James. So we decided to cut down on the driving by taking the train on some parts of the journey. Lucky James decided to join us. There was no way I would drive in a foreign land. I tried to make myself useful by navigating, but I sent him off track a number of times. We used Kendal as a base to explore the Lake District and Inverness for the Loch Ness region and the Scottish highlands. We rented cars only in these two towns.
It is impossible to see everything in the Lake District, so you have to pick from the15 available driving routes. We chose two for this trip, one for each day: 1. The Windermere circuit as the drive takes you around the largest lake, and 2. The Keswick circuit as it takes you around some of the most beautiful scenery, and through the spectacular Honister Pass.
There are 14 stops on the Windemere circuit, so we set off very early on the first day. We wanted to cover as many stops as possible. However, reality set in quite soon and we realised we had to be more selective about the places we want to visit.
After all, it is the largest lake in England, measuring a mile wide and 8.5 miles from north to south. So, a lot of distance to cover.
We were also dogged by rain throughout the two days, and had to make a number of changes in our plans.
Our first disappointment was the Beach Hill picnic site. We walked down to the water's edge and came back up immediately. There was nothing much to see. On top of that, we had to pay £1.30 for 5 minutes of parking.
The next stop, Fell Foot Park, was so much better. Managed by the National Trust, the park had a nice picnic area and a good walking path along the shore.
Across the lake, we could see Lakeside which was full of activity. We could hear the sound of steam engine trains and see ferries carrying tourists to Waterhead, Ambleside, in the north.
It was the logical place to have our lunch. Yes, fish and chips. What else?
Much as I would like to take a ride on this steam locomotive, I realised we did not have the time. So I delayed our departure long enough to see off a train on its 40-minute trip to the foothills of the Scafell range.
We estimated we had time for two more stops. One of them had to be at Hill Top, the home of Beatrix Potter, the creater of Peter Rabbit and author of many children's books featuring animals.
The entry fee into her home was £10.40 but it was money well spent to see how she lived. On display in the house were also some of her paintings and illustrations.
She loved the Lake District, and with the proceeds from her books and money from an inheritance, she acquired the nearby farms to preserve its unique country landscape. She left almost all her property to the National Trust.
The drive to Wray Castle also took us through very narrow and winding roads. We did not want to pay the entry fee to tour the castle, which is also managed by the National Trust.
We admired this magnificent building from the outside and we had a bonus of a glorious view of the surrounding countryside.
The rain was much worse on the second day as we started on the Keswick circuit.
We had to skip the 15-minute hike up a sloppy path to see the famous Bowder Stone as we were afraid the route would be slippery.
Six times the height of a man, this unique balancing rock structure has puzzled visitors: Was it a huge boulder which fell from an overhanging support or was it the work of glacial action?
What a shame I did not get to pose on top of this rock! As consolation, we met a guy from Burnley in the car park and he showed us a photo of the famous boulder on his phone.
We waited for the rain to stop to make our way to the Lodore Falls. What a disappointment.
The view may have been better if we had climbed to the top but we did not want to risk going up the slippery slope.
Fortunately, the weather eased up enough for us to risk driving along the winding road through the Honister Pass which is 356 metres above sea level. I am glad we took the risk as the view inside this valley is to die for.
You are advised not to take this route if you are not good at reversing. This is because some parts of the road are so narrow, you have to reverse some distance to allow the oncoming vehicles to pass.
As we headed towards Scotland, James must have felt relieved to take a break from driving.
There is no direct train service from Kendal to Glasgow. We had to catch a train to Oxenholme for the two-hour journey to Glasgow Central.
Glasgow is much bigger than I imagined. And definitely a very vibrant and exciting city.
Surprisingly, accommodation here was cheap. We paid £138 for a 3-night stay at the Travel Lodge here compared to £232 in Kendal.
The next day, we went on a 5-hour train ride to Mallaig which would take us to some of the most scenic sceneries in Scotland.
In one part of the journey, the conductor asked the passengers to get their cameras ready.
"We are about to approach the Glenfinnan Viaduct," he said. This viaduct was made famous after it was shown in four of the Harry Potter movies.
We had lunch in Mallaig at a restaurant appropriately named Fish Market. And what did we eat? Fish and chips, naturally.
Rain started pouring after our lunch, so we did not get to tour this fishing village. We found ourselves stranded in the railway station while we waited for our 4pm train back to Glasgow.
We did a walking tour of Glasgow the next day, stopping at Nelson Mandela place, Glasgow Cathedral, Museum of Modern Art and the impressive George Square where its famous sons like Robert Burns, James Watt and Sir Robert Peel are honoured.
Robert Burns, Scotland's most famous poet, is best remembered by many of us on New Year's eve when we sing Auld Lang Syne. The women in his days must have loved him, too. He was reputed to have fathered more than a dozen children from many women.
It's back to driving for James as we headed to Inverness to look for the Loch Ness monster and explore the other Scottish lakes.
The train journey from Glasgow to Inverness took slightly over three hours. A two-bedroom little house served as our base for the next three nights.
Our journey to the Loch Ness did not go as smoothly as planned.
First, we stopped at Cannich and I was so busy going over the information provided by a roadside map that I left my iPad behind. Luckily I discovered the loss early and we went back to get it.
What caught my attention was the interesting information about Plodda Falls and Gorge, that it was surrounded by some of the tallest Douglas Firs in Scotland, many over 65 metres tall.
The gorge was supposed to be only a 20-minute drive from Tomich, our next stop, but the detour took twice as long as we had to drive through winding single track roads and over a narrow wooden bridge.
It seemed that we would never reach the place and when we finally did, we had to do a fair bit of walking.
But the detour was worth it. The Plodda Falls was impressive, surrounded by the giant fir trees. There is a platform at the top of the Falls for you to get a breath taking view of the surrounding area.
Definitely, this made up for the miserable Lodore Falls experience in the Lake District.
Castle Urquhart overlooking the Loch Ness
We stopped at Drumnadrochit for lunch and decided to book a Loch Ness cruise. To our surprise, they allowed us to pay the senior citizens fare of £19.50 for a two-hour cruise. This included a stop at the famous Castle Urquhart which at one time stood guard over the lake.
Did I see or sense the famous Loch Ness monster? Well no. I did look around as the narrator related the legend of the famous monster, Nessie. Maybe the setting was not right. It was a clear day. Imagine if there was a heavy mist over the lake then.
The cruise finished at 3pm and as it was getting late, we decided to skip the other sights along the lake and head straight back to Inverness town.
We did a walking tour of the town and stopped at another famous landmark, Inverness Castle. You can get an impressive panoramic view of the town from the towers of the castle but we did not feel like paying the £5 fee to get in.
The next day, we took a long drive to the Isle of Skye. The distance between Inverness and Portree on Skye is about 120 miles and it takes about 3 hours if you drive non stop.
Stop we did. Not once but a number of times to stand and stare at the beauty of the Scottish lakes and mountains.
Our first stop was at Achnasheen, a small railway station, after driving for an hour.
I remember a memorable experience at another stop, Lochluichart. I was admiring the beautiful lake and enjoying the sounds of nature, when suddenly the quiet countryside was interrupted by a train passing. And the sound lingered on for a while even after the train had passed.
Now Loch Carron is a sight you must not miss. We stopped briefly at a spot overlooking Plockton to enjoy the panoramic view of this lake. Simply spectacular. Another postcard scenery.
What a shame, we did not stop at Plockton, as it has been described as the most charming village in UK.
Our last stop before the Isle of Skye was at Balmacara, on the north shore of Loch Alsh. From here, we can see the bridge which connects to the Isle of Skye at Kyle of Lochalsh.
We had lunch at Portree and took a small walk around the town.
As the weather was not too good, we decided to head straight back to Inverness, and not explore the other parts of the island.
We did, however, make a detour to Fort Augustus on the way back as we had skipped this town on the southern end of the Loch Ness the day before.
As expected, we took a wrong turn and got lost again. That delayed our journey back to Inverness.
No journey to Scotland would be complete without a visit to Edinburgh.
So we took a train there and spent a night in the city.
We did a walking tour of the city but what I wanted to do was take a ride on its tram which has been delayed for years because of cost overruns and other problems.
The tram was still under construction during my last visit in 2013.
Well I did get to ride on it this time, and for a bargain price of £4. We bought a DAYticket for Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams when we arrived at the Edinburgh station and this entitled us to unlimited travel for the day.
I went for two rides on the tram to get my money's worth.
The next day, we took the train from Edinburgh to London KIng's Cross.
Phew! What a tiring trip. We had travelled from London in the south to Inverness in the north on the trains, and endured four days on the road. And walked miles in between.
So it is back to Judy and Danny's place in New Malden to rest for 5 days before setting off on our next holiday.
Next stop: St Petersburg.