Thom Bedford

Kilmarnock and Crossraguel Abbey

Continued from Part 2

On Monday morning, we woke up nice and early again, got another hearty breakfast, and set off to explore. First stop was Kilmarnock, a slightly larger town than Ayr just a short drive North. The town wasn’t very nice itself, it was fairly run-down with a lot of empty shops. There was some fairly interesting graffiti around though.

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The Largest Collection of Antique Pistols in the World

Continued from Part 1

After Dunure castle, we continued South down the coast. The view all round were beautiful, and there was an old disused railway line on our route that hadn’t been used in 80+ years. We kept passing dismantled bridges, and over tiny bridges. Later on I read up on it, it was known as the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway, and you can trace the route it took on a map. It’s very neatly carved out of the countryside.

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Walks on the Beach and Robbie Burns

Arrival Date: 2014-08-23
Departure Date: 2014-08-26
Accommodation: Mercure, Ayr

The beginning of our August bank holiday weekend got off to a sad start as our guinea pig Mushroom very suddenly fell ill and passed away just a couple of hours before we were due to leave. The plan was originally for me to pick Helen up from work (as she was working the Saturday), then get something to eat in Manchester and get on the road early. Instead, we went home to say goodbye to Mushroom first, then ultimately decided we should still go away and have a good time to remember her. So we dedicated this holiday to Mushroom.

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The Leaning Tower of Caerphilly Castle

Continued from Part 1

We woke up and did our usual on Thursday morning, got ready for the day, got a nice big full-English breakfast inside of us, then checked out of the hotel and went off on our adventures. We set off to Caerphilly to visit the castle there (castles are our favourites after all). It didn’t take us long to get there, and after navigating around the town, we parked at the back of the castle and made our way round to the front.

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Cardiff and Cardiff Castle

Arrival Date: 2013-04-09
Departure Date: 2013-04-11
Accommodation: Novotel, Cardiff Centre

For our short two-night stay in Cardiff for Helen’s birthday, we left on the Tuesday afternoon after lunch, and around 3 hours later we found ourselves in the hotel. The hotel itself was very nice, clean, and professional, it seemed mostly business-oriented, but the minibar was stocked, and the restaurant was inviting, so we were happy.

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