Tour to Scottland with my mother:

Long live Great Britain!! We had 4 full days holiday for Easter & Good Friday. We rented a Vauxhall Zafira (7 seater manual van) from Enterprise Car Rental Company. Although we booked the car nearly 1 month before, one wicked lady Paula, area manager of Enterprise Car Rental Company raised the rental amount by 40%. Never mind, after all, the enjoyment is more important.

Me, my mother, Colleague, another Colleague with family, 5 more colleagues in a Daihitsu Car started our trip to Lake District (also called Cumbria) at 5am on Good Friday. We reached Lake District around 10 am. The greenery better than in India, better than in France, better than in Canada, better than in USA invited us (If it rains all the time, why not it won't be greenish). Landscapes, mountains, thick white wool coated sheep, very tall trees stood like a posh building's wall paper. In the first Lake District location of Kendal, we don't have much to see except a very beautiful park named Noble rest. In 5 mile next, we have Windermere, holding the biggest lake of England. Lot of beautiful swans, parks, boats to rent, 2 storeyed huge boat cruises are some things to note here. We did a mistake of renting a huge motor boat and struggled as well as afraid of driving it, so we gave back the boat in 45 minutes instead of the allotted paid one hour. We should have gone for a boat cruise rather than this. Last week's mail from one of my friend who did parachuting brought me embrassment to myself. Then Ambleside. Then William Wodsworth's Dove Cottage in Grassmere. With this, end the Lake District. The drive along the Lake District is one enough to forget the grievances.

How lucky we are!! Indian restaurant Taj Mahal welcomed us on the way to Edinburgh, the capital of Scottland. A pakistani served us (Oh no!!) however he is friendly as well as he told "India has also beautiful location like Kashmir and Simla". I cannot make out whether it is a healthy or unhealthy comment.

This is my third trip to Edinburgh, the things to remember for me in Edinburgh is the up & down, steep & pit roads and a very beautiful Prince Street. I consider Edinburgh as the most beautiful place in the world compared to any other places I have visited.

The Bread & Breakfast hotel, we stayed was really worth of the money. Then next day, a trip to Dynamic Earth (some Science stuff like Earth Quake simulation, storay about creation of Solar System etc all were covered here). Then next we walked down the Prince Street. It is full of beautiful old (type) buildings standing majestically like Newyork Manhattan Skyline. Lot of monuments, parks, Edinburgh Castle (5th best attraction in UK), Queen Elizabeth's official residence in Scottland, Scottish Whisky Museum, Nelson monument, Bagpiper in traditional dress of Tie, Blazer and mini skirt are somethings to note. I used to like Mandolin as my favourite instrument (in hearing). Now after hearing bagpiper music, Mandolin has taken second place.

However getting a parking inside the city is not that much easy. We spend nearly one hour searching for the parking. I learnt how to drive/start/control a manual gear vehicle climbing the mountain. The victims were my colleagues, who pushed the van up in more than one location.

It is sunday and we visited Forth Bridge (one of the very longest road & rail bridge in UK). Then we went to deep sea world, where we went under the sea and watched Sharks and big fishes under water. We can see sea-divers along with the oxygen mask and other costumes feeding the fish.

Next we went to Sterling, the prime castle come in Oscar won movie Brave Heart. The Castle where Scotts fought British bravely for the first time.

It is afternoon 2pm and we decided to goto Glasgow. Glasgow is one of the biggest Industrial location in UK. Beautiful City centre* with George Street, huge old type buildings, Art gallery & museum, Transport Museum and University of Glasgow are some things to note. However road signals are very bad, so no point blaiming the navigator. Punjabi restaurant we visited provided one of the best foods I have taken in life time. Started from Glasgow around 9.15pm and travelled around 400 miles in 4 3/4 hours time. After dropping all others around 3am, we called Madras.

Next day Monday, we went to Weston Supermare housing one of the beautiful beach in England. Joy rides, Casino (lost few pounds, lucky enough not to have much cash), long Beach, hilly areas are some things to mention.

Our enjoyable trip and my solo 996 miles driving ended here.

If considerable amount of people are ready, then probably we can have an enjoyable trip to ISLE OF WIGHT sometime next month end.