Passport to Outdoors

  June 29, 2003 We arrived at the  London Gatwick airport  and after clearing immigration took the  Gatwick Express  to the London Victoria station. The people at the airport were helpful. The train carriage was a little old and without lights! It passed through several long tunnels leaving us pitch dark! But it was fun. The feeling of entering London was over-whelming us. We were delighted to see rows of houses with beautiful gardens and flowers. All the buildings were old indicating the age of the city. But they were all well kept giving a historic feeling to the city. We reached  Victoria station  within an hour and then changed to take an underground train to  Bayswater . The underground is the lifeline of central London. Built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Londoners seemed to have preserved the character of the stations. We reached Bayswater underground station and then took direction to  Hotel Blakemore . The walk ...

  July 2, 2003 We reached  Edinburgh  by 9.00 a.m. and then spent over a hour rescheduling our travel plans as we decided to rent the car right away. In the end we realized that it was a good decision as we didn't have to come back to the airport from the city to pick up the car. We got a four door black Volkswagen Golf which was just right for us and our luggage.  The drive into the city of Edinburgh was quite memorable. It was after a long time I was driving on the left side of the road. Surprisingly I was comfortable right away. Edinburgh being such an old city has narrow roads and heavy traffic especially during rush hour. The old buildings were mesmerizing. The church had huge spires. The buildings were well preserved. As we went into the central part of the city, the buildings became older and the streets narrower. We found our way to a parking lot. We then walked for the rest of the day.  We started from one end of the famous  Royal Mile  of Edi...