Saltaire Festival

Today the annual Saltaire Festival was held in sunshine and clear skies! a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEb0t6vVKdpaDYnIshc5F4dDK0sgFLkK2AFWG4yVGpHdzoi09DdsTZujircj8jpwKCGFlYJv8QmaRbafy083q95imyT8G_FoL6jPQt5cWAJ3McdI0fgZcNiKB-ycr0MUEOtfYy7Ms941k/s1600-h/P9210007.JPG">

Oxford - city of ....intellectual-looking types

I had a few days to spare after waving goodbye to my son Luke and his girlfriend Amanda on their tour of Scotland last week so I headed down the M1 to Oxford to visit 2 lots of Aussie friends who are both teaching there this year. It was great to hear Aussie tones again and listen to their working and travelling tales. Here are a few photos of historic (slightly pretentious?) Oxford. Fans of Harry Potter may recognise the dining room......

Down Memory Lane......

No trip to Liverpool would be complete without a trip down memory lane.....

Liverpool - city of...gaint arachnids

We couldn't help noticing while we were in Liverpool that a giant spider was trundling along the street and then proceeded to climb an abandoned building due to be demolished....and they complain about our spiders! It was all part of the celebrations of Liverpool's city of culture 2008. Why a spider? Well its 2008 and a spider has 8 legs....

Liverpool - city of culture 2008

Liverpool is the "European City of Culture 2008" so of course we had to visit. We struck a weekend of festivities and giant arachnids!! More about that later. LIverpool is buzzing, of that there is no doubt, with all the old docks and shipyards converted to galleries, museums, up-market apartments etc. Here are a few photos to contrast the old and new.

Rainbow on Skye

It rained on and off the whole time we were on Skye. We tried to go to the Outer Hebrides ie Harris, Lewis etc and actually got to North Uist on the ferry only to be told that we may be stranded there for several days if we stayed as the weather was "closing in !". It looked the same to us! We caught the same ferry straight back to Skye as we were due to leave the next day. Only the way back to our little house the sun came out briefly and this beautiful rainbow appeared for about 15 minutes.

Raasay

Next to the Isle of Skye is the Isle of Raasay, home of the McCleod clan up until a few hundred years ago. The remains of the old castle can still be seen. We spent a day there is almost total isolation which was a great change after all the other places we've been. Here are a few photos (we didn't see any pink pigs on the road)