Iniitial blog posts

content/blog/day3.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 3: Doncaster to Livingston'
+date: 2013-06-10T14:37:15+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Scotland at last
+
+On to Scotland!
+
+So, Doncaster is nice and all, there's uhm .. "food", sort of a bed, uhm. Yeah. Let's get rollin'! Onwards, to Scotland!  We get up around
+8, I hit the shower (careful not to bump my head against the showerhead) and go for some breakfast. We've already lowered our expectations,
+so we'll be OK. With some calories down the hatch, we quickly jump in the car and program the car for Scotland. Only 240 miles, a piece of
+cake after yesterday. And since it all went so well driving on the left side of the road yesterday, we start of on the right side for good
+measure... Luckily, that oncoming bus turns left so we avoid some damage and quickly go back to the "proper" side. Pim orders my iPod
+connected and we start today's drive with some Nederhop from our Opgezwolle friends.
+
+We make excellent time; there's some great scenery and we don't have any horse drawn carriages slowing us down like there are in the
+oncoming traffic. We cruise up the M6, despite our initial plan of taking the costal route (thanks, Mercedes!), pull up for some more
+diesel, switch from Dutch hip hop over to some rockin' Tenacious D and arrive in Edinburgh at 14:00. Having no clue where to go (we've both
+been here once, a lifetime ago), we drive around without a real goal for some time. Eventually, the decision is to park "somewhere" and do
+some sightseeing around the big castle.  We grab some grub and get going. Somehow, it's really a beautiful day: sunny, not too cold, a
+slight breeze .. perfect! We decide against actually forking over the dough for a couple of tickets and just walk around a bit more. A bunch
+of postcards and stamps are acquired, souvenirs are checked but dismissed, sights are seen: true tourists! Before we know it, it's time to
+head back to our car (hoping we can still find it). Time for more hip hop!
+
+{{< image src="/img/map-day3.png" width="600px" >}}
+
+Before we know it, we're in Livingston at the Travelodge hotel. There's still some time left, the sun is still out, so after checking in to
+the hotel (with Rachel, who has a true Scottish accent!), we decide to drive around with the RC car a bit more. There's a really nice field,
+just perfect for racing the car, next to the hotel by some college. On the way there, there's a couple of speed bumps in the road that make
+a very nice ramp for jumping around. Pim does one jump, two, three .. he circles back for another and then, as the car touches down again,
+one of the wheels flies off! Oh noes! Slight damage to the chassis of the car, the wheel has rolled away 50 meters (or should I say, 55
+yards) but some of the bolts and nuts have fallen off and those are pretty hard to find. We spend about 45 minutes trying to find these
+parts, but unfortunately come up empty. No more RC car driving this trip :( After the remaining parts are stowed safely in the trunk of our
+'real' car, we're ready for some food. Now luck has it that the hotel we're staying in is right above an Italian restaurant. And not just
+any Italian restaurant! This place is called "Toni Macaroni" (we are not making this up, I promise!). Just HAS to be good. And, in fact, it
+actually is pretty good food. Soup, salad, focaccia, steak and pasta .. all pretty tasty.
+
+We show our friends and family we think of them after dinner by writing those postcards we bought in Edinburgh. I try to drop them off at
+reception but we're directed to the local shopping mall where we should be able to find a letterbox ourselves. Excellent, some excercise to
+help digest Mr. Macaroni's meals. The mall is really close by the hotel (our room has a view of the mall parking) but the place turns out to
+be quite big. We manage to find a way inside with whatever I could understand / remember from the directions I got at reception. Now all we
+really need is that letterbox. Some guy is walking around with two girls and a boy and we ask them if they happen to know where we could
+deposit our postcards. They have some clue and try to give us more directions. According to one of the girls it's "a wee bit away", which
+turns out to be at the other end of the mall. Then, like a jack-in-the-box, the other girls runs off. We check with the guy if everything's
+OK and he thinks she's just checking to see if there's a letterbox somewhere closer. After a small lap inside the mall she returns:
+apparently not. Eventually, he offers to drop off those cards for us. We gladly accept Danny's (as we learn his name is) offer, leaving the
+fate of our postal greetings to a complete stranger. The Scots are really great people!  After having dispensed with the formalities of
+ensuring postcard delivery (delegating works for us! If you're reading this and are expecting a postcard from us, blame Danny if you don't
+receive anything), we still cannot let the letterbox mystery go so we set out to locate it. Circling the mall, we come across another
+friendly Scot, a cleaner this time. He speaks the magic words: near Starbucks, next to Mellie's cookies. And indeed, in the corridor where
+the toilets are located, there's also a big red letterbox: mission accomplished! We treat ourselves to some severe back and leg injuries
+(and cartman style probing) in the massage chairs available and limp back to the hotel. Hoping to recover from this onslaught during a good
+night's sleep...
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 3:50 PM**
+
+