The historic walled city - York

York, the oldest city in United Kingdom is rich with its heritage and architecture. Though called, the city has been well developed (unlike our so call old areas in bangalore. ahem!) with bounteous greens!!!

Taking upon a friend's advice, we made York as our next stop in 3-day Early May vacation. The city was founded by Romans in 71 AD and is distinguished as the hub for Railway network and confectioner manufacturing unit, since Victorian age. Without a doubt, The Railway museum, is a leading attraction site, when you accompany kids!!!

As I ticked on the first checklist - Railway museum, my memories drew me to the one we visited in Mysore. My daughter Diya fancied on the artifacts displayed!!! The York museum, on the other hand, is overflowed with plenteous items and vast history facts.The display shows the pride of the city in being the primer in railway connectivity in UK. It was interesting to note that their first ever train from London to Scotland took 10 long hours and now with modern techniques they have compressed to 4.5 hrs!!!! They had a good demonstration of their engines and railway tracks too!!!

After feeding our minds, we quickly fed our tummies as we are due for a cruise in York. The York City Cruises is over the river Ouse which has almost 8 bridges. We had the open deck ride on this sunny day with all out hats on!!! One of the bridge known as Millenium Bridge is worth a visit for its architectural beauty. It is a cable styled arch structure with linear, non-linear and dynamic analysis. Its inspired by the spokes of a bicycle wheel and consists of an inclined arch with radially aligned cables. Due to its technical beauty, folks visit and relax on the stretched cable. 

We then took city walk for more than an hour. We took pleasure of the city with its crowded stones streets. York also has the famous  city wall; Built by Romans stretching for 3.4 km, one can take walk over the wall to get the city high view,  which would take 2 hours to complete.

Not sure, if its true, but I heard that, few people from York moved to US and developed the New York City! Regardless of this fact, one would surely enjoy the city walk if he\she is mad like me, shopping in Bangalore commercial street.!!!!!

Heights of Abraham

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek
                                         

Heights of Abraham!!!! a question for the readers. What strikes when you hear it for the first time? What you think the place be???Please do leave your answers as comments to this blog. I am just curious to know how different or same all our beautiful minds think!!! :D

Well, let me not hold the fact any longer. Heights of Abraham is hilltop park in Derbyshire with two lead caverns and has neither remembrance to Abraham Lincoln statute or for that matter any Abraham!!! :D.
When I first heard about our next destination for early May vacation, I did had similar expectation about the place. However, I was proved wrong. 

This is a tourist attraction and derives its names from a supposed resemblance to the "Plains of Abraham", known by same name,situated in Canada. However, I must confess, its an absolute entertainment spot. We drove along with our neighbor, packing our lunch and snacks. We were thrilled to get into our first cable car transport and it was indeed a fun ride. The Cable car takes you to the top of the hill, where more adventure welcomes you. Though a short path, it takes out your breath when they stop for few seconds to grasp yourself viewing the hill top view of the landscape from heights!!!!

After the cable care adventure, you are taken into two caverns - Great Masson Cavern and Great Rutland Cavern. They are lead mines and the tourist guide superbly explains the life history of the miners that almost in Roman times. It bewilders to learn that the miners had worked without any sort of sunlight and children aged from 5 had their share of tale too. Amazes me, what triggered them to seek adventure inside a cave filled with danger, hardship and possible disappointment!!!???

I must warn you, the cave travel was not just hard for those miners and it indeed is difficult for one to hike even now. The authority have kept the passage ways in the same way for us to experience it. the steps are too small and steep and once you come out, you would be wishing for a day's relax! Nevertheless, once you reach the top of the caves, you could treat your eyes with a magnificent view of the  area. There are few resting points over the hill and you could enjoy your nature talk!!!

There is one in formation I would like to share about UK. For sure, you visit any place in  UK,  they would  definitely have children's park area. hahahah! Any it no more  surprised me when we saw one here too!!!

Our kids enjoyed  superlatively!!! With aromatic packed lunch, even  our tummy  was  happy along  with elated hearts!!!

Land of Mountains,Lochs, highlands and glens - SCOTLAND

Visiting Scotland would be any man's dream in this world. The Serene beauty inspires you with awe and freshness. Wherever you go, you would be surrounded by gigantic mountains, river flowing valleys and all that you see on any windows desktop screen saver!!!

Our 4 day trip to this land of beauty started on an early Sunday morning and taking a look first at the famous Falkirk Wheel. The infrastructure details and the scenic pleasure would sure fill one's curious mind! One amazing information is that it could hold a weight of 100 African elephants!!! They let you ride in scheduled trip and do have a gift shopping centre for you to kill the time. And mind you, the lavatory has more waiting time than the trip!!!☺The Wheel tour is short which was a bit disappointment to us. However, the way your boat taken up and the tour guide's humorous speech will still amaze you!!!

One more attraction in Falkirk is the Kelpies. These are 30m high horse-head sculptures. The name intrigued me to google a bit and an astonishing news awaited me. The name is a local Scot name given to shape-shifting water spirit inhabiting in lochs!. Neverthless, this is a famous tourist spot and of course ideal picture click!!! Next to it is the Helix park for kids with water fountain entertainment. We rested our first day at Falkirk Stay home after a long journey.

The second day was filled for embracing the real scotland beauty. Visiting the mountains scene. We took a tour to Loch Lomond. I would dare say words are not enough to describe this serenity. One should experience it on own and capture it in their eyes forever. You would never get over with numerous camera clicks and still feel there is more to go!!!! We also had our packed lunch on the bottom of a mountain with a small stream flowing over a bridge. And this is definitely my fav spot!!!! My kids too had different experience playing the small stream and they always amuse me with their excitement on their nature love!!!! Like Dad, Like Kids!!!! :D

We also visited the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct. Any harry potter fan would surely not miss this spot. The majestic view of the railway bridge where the famous Hogwarts train zooms out is worth all waiting! We were lucky to watch two ScotRails passing and though they were not steam engine as shown in potter film, but still a fan would have a childish moment on it. From the parking area, one had to take a mountain trail for 10 mins to cherish that potter moment! Wonder how the directors of the movie came to know about such place!!!!! Wonder how they make such barren landscape into a major tourist attraction!!!! All in the movie game!!!!

We reserved our next day for kids entertainment and hence our obvious choice was "Blair Drummond Safari and adventurous park. I always love the self safari drive in UK as they let you drive safely near the animals and also you get better look at the animals comparatively and longer time too!!! This was the first zoo ride for my 2yr old and he was stunned to see a real lion. He is always fascinated on the famous Kannada folk song of Punyakoti - about a ferocious lion and honest cow. The impact of the song had got into his nerve of portratying the lion character a numerous times at home. :DDD

The park's sea lion show is another highlight of the day. The 30 mins show was packed with thunderous claps from the crowd on the performance of the mammal. The guide gave a fact details on Sea lions. The other shows were mere talks on penguins, tiger and rhinoceros. They had a wide pirate ship - sand park and more adventurous slides for kids to tire out their energy. More than the zoo, my kids enjoyed playing in the slides. One interesting play was on the sand.They could build different sand castle and use other tools and ways to move up and down the sand. 

The last day of our trip was on the capital of Scotland - Edinburgh. Mark me, one day may not be enough for you to explore this beautiful city. With an acclaimed university, the city was buzzed with students! The hilltop castle is a must watch. We just wandered around the streets to get the feel of the city. Oh Man!, you will never get tired on their long paths. I would strongly recommend this place for newly weds - to rope hands on hands and get lost in a romantic walk!!! You might need more gigantic energy if carrying kids!!! :D The City shops are filled with "Ginger Shortbread Biscuits" which are remarkably tasty, apart from, as heard from others, the Scottish whisky. 

I felt more lucky to watch a person playing bagpiper, which is again, a must look out in Scotland. I have heard them in few of English novels and had the chance to experience it this time. The City also has infinite botanical garden and they had more beautiful flowers than I saw in lalbagh or Ooty garden.The hues of the flowers tickled my small heart's wish to get a saree on it next time!!!! After all, Women will be always Women!!!! :D One more stop in our trip was the Edinburgh Museum. It has varied items on display from cars - rockets - about early life on the land to culture change, animals and food! And both museum and botanical garden have free entry and they are more worth to watch it.

And thus ended our four day trip to scotland and back to home sweet home, to celebrate our shared birthday. I am grateful to my hubby dear for making my dream come true - visiting scotland and that too as birthday gift!!!! ohhhhhhooooooooo!!!!!