"Middle earth: fiction or do we call it Scotland?" Scotland by Renteboy

This page is the overall page of my Scotland trip in 2003. It will give you a brief impression what I experienced after the trip, even almost 1 year later when I make this travel rapport based on a diary, notes and many pictures?

Border

The biggest cost of your journey will be the crossing of the channel. I booked with P&O Ferries who set sail from Zeebrugge to Hull (which is still England). You can book a trip to Newcastle (or even higher on the map) but that was too expensive for me. You have to know that I was traveling alone (booked a shared cabin) with my car and the cost of it incl. dinner and breakfast was around 500euro. I advice you not to take the breakfast because you get at your destination very early and for that price you can get a decent meal ashore.

First miles

Eventually the first kilometers arent that hard to drive at the other side of the road :) You drive very precautious after someone, drive to the motorway and then its straightforward.
But when you drive on those little roads and take crossroads or roundabouts, THEN you are starting to freak out! :P
I entered Scotland not trough Highway but via a main road. This was the loveliest landscape I ever saw (until then I wasn't in Scotland yet :) ). You must take that one! I really have no clue how I get on it, but guess you can take an exit to drive straight to Galashiels.

3 s in a nutshell

Well Scotland exists in Castles, Stills, Hills, Lochs and very friendly people!!!

Well if you ask me about:
The castles: you visit 3 of them you have seen them all :)
The Sills: if you visit 3 of them, you get the picture but you didnt TASTE them all!
The Hills: once you have seen 3 of them you havent saw nothing yet!
The Lochs: if you think you have seen them after seen 3 of them, you will see many more.
Habitants: You defiantly want to meet more than 3 on your journey

Summary
As on the picture you can tell Ive drove a long way trough Scotland, perhaps a bit too, but I like to drive so It wasn't boring me at all, especially with these landscapes.
So I taste of everything a bit, which is quite good for the first time so the next time you (in this case: I) know where to go first, cause you want to see it all in the end.
The checkpoints on the map are the endpoints that day. In the detailed rapports youll get to know where I stopped and which adventures I lived through.

I hope you find more details on the next pages and useful!!... Because I want that VT rank! hint hint :)))

• Pros:realy a lot!
• Cons:find the right period to travel to it
• In a nutshell:Castles, Stills, Hills, Lochs and very friendly people!!!