Dreams shattered - music has also faded away...

After a miserable and pretty short night with three of us in the rocking 1.40m bed, we can hardly wait for the arrival. Ida kept us awake in the middle of the bed with her arms spread out and reliably gave us kicks and punches as soon as we nodded off.
But what the hell - the excitement would probably have prevented us from sleeping anyway.

The captain had promised us a calm crossing with mirror-smooth water, and he kept that promise. It was just too bad that the boat still swung like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Heavens, we felt sick. Ida lost the apple juice she had slurped up for breakfast as soon as possible, so we fled from the restaurant on deck without a meal. There we ate a few sandwiches after a few minutes of fresh and cool sea air and, thank God, felt better quickly. Generally, cruises were never high on our vacation list, but after this experience they are probably completely cancelled.

The entry was uncomplicated, the onward journey to Stirling not so much. In addition to driving on the wrong side of the road, a full closure made it somewhat difficult for us to make progress. Concentration was required: Lars focused on the road, I focused on the diversion signs. We ignored the annoying "please turn around" of the navigation system for a round and reached the expressway after a 20-minute detour through Newcastle. 

To shorten the journey, we stopped at Hadrian's Wall halfway and went on our first hike. In perfect photo weather, we shouldered the Kraxn (a carrier for children for hiking) and hiked 1.7 miles along and on the Roman structure against the Celtic barbarians from the north. Uphill, downhill over sheep and cow pastures to a lonely tree between two hills, known from the movie Robin Hood with Kevin Costner.

Contrary to our expectations, Ida's short legs carried her the entire distance, no matter how steep or slippery the ground. Only in the struggle against treacherous thistles and nasty nettles did she throw in the towel and switch to Papa's back. In the car, she then managed to say "that was nice" before her eyes closed for two hours. 

Next stop Stirling

For the sake of the little red one, we skipped the city's historic sights (Wallace Monument, Stirling Castle, Battlefield of Bannocburn) and limited ourselves to a short stroll in the city for dinner. Since we had integrated the city into the travel route mainly for logistical reasons, it was no big deal that the city center was not such a real highlight. On the contrary, we were not sad that we had no time for sightseeing, and can continue without delay. 

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