Saturday 16th August.  Lochgilphead

Drizzled all day, so entertained ourselves chatting and reading.  Maggie drove us a few kms out of town to another nice pub for dinner, and a wee dram or two.

Sunday 17th August.  Lochgilphead.

A friend of the Campbells had run his car off the road a few days ago - miraculously just missing plunging INTO a Loch, and carrying his 95 year old mother......   They both survived with not much more than cuts and bruises, but today was check-out-of-hospital day, so Maggie and we Leiths drove up to Oban to collect a visiting relative and drive her back to nearby Loch Sween.  A very pretty road, and Arthur appreciated being able to enjoy the view without keeping his eyes glued to the road.

Weather has cleared up, but still very cool...
We drove out to congratulate the newly engaged couple, Sandy and Eilidh (Gaelic - pronounced Aylee), who are very happy, but seem to be basically underwhelmed by their new status!!
Maggie again found us a lovely pub (with a view) and we enjoyed an excellent dinner...  Pub called the Horseshoe Inn, just out of Lochgilphead, and the food was truly amazing.    Scotland's food has SERIOUSLY improved over the last decade!!

We've loved our few days back in Lochgilphead, catching up with Maggie and her boys and their families. Not a lot - i.e. Nothing - has changed in town since we were there 18 months or so ago.   Not sure anything ever will really, but it is a very quaint and friendly village.

Monday 18th August, Lochgilphead/London

At the urging of the Campbells, we got an early start to drive over to Glasgow.  Gorgeous countryside again, miles and miles of driving beside lovely Lochs, with picturesque little all-white villages dotted along their shores.  Sunny morning and all looked lovely, but we couldn't help but think of Winter there!!!!!

Uneventful flight to London (Gatwick).

Jumped on the Gatwick Express to London, and were reminded that not ALL undergrounds have escalators up to street level.   Poor Arch nearly killed himself lugging our suitcases up MANY sets of stairs!!!  

Lovely to be back in Northumberland Avenue - really the centre of the world it seems!

We were given the keys to our apartment, and were horrified to discover that the two bedrooms (Susie and Jason and kids are coming to stay) are upstairs, and the one toilet is downstairs - of course - it's England!!!!!   And not only that, the access to the upstairs rooms is via a stunningly narrow and steep spiral staircase.   OMIGOD what were they thinking when they constructed this????

Almost had to call the emergency services to resuscitate Arch after he had dragged the cases UP yet more stairs.....

Wandered around, up The Strand, up and down alleyways - lovely fun.   Lovely to be back.....  Found a nearby Pub and had a good meal there too..

Tuesday 19th August.  London.

Being masters of the London underground et al, we headed off for our day visiting the Kew Gardens. Certainly, Kew (village) has some seriously lovely, large houses - albeit built snugly together.  Decided that the poor folk do NOT live there!!  The gardens are splendid - and LARGE.......    We walked for about 2 - 3 hours, and had reached the point of collapse.   So, deciding that some of the Gardens would have to remain "unseen" by us, we headed home for a couple of hours' R&R.
At about 6.45pm we headed out again, this time to the Shard, for our second attempt to view London from on high.  Yay......   Brilliant clear evening, and from our appointed time of 7.30pm we got to view a really lovely sunset, and continued to watch the lights come blinking on all over London..  We also saw the "suspension" section of Tower Bridge go up to allow a passenger ship to pass below...  Have never seen THAT before.....    Very happy little tourists left The Shard at about 9pm.
Dinner at an Italian restaurant in nearby Covent Garden - again very nice food!!!!   What's going on here???  The "waitress" who served us is actually the grand-daughter of the founder of the "Brown" chain of restaurants, and had lived in Melbourne for a few years.   We had a long chat, and in recognition of our 'shared' past, she gave us a dessert 'on the house'.....   Nice!!!!!

Slept the sleep of the dead.....   Did NOT move for about 9 hours!!!!  Again - Nice!!!!!