Our wedding anniversary in Bath || Travel diary

Last weekend we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I can't believe how fast the last two years have gone. This being said, we took the opportunity to do something a little special and took a trip to Bath, Somerset. A place we had heard great reviews about from our friends. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Filled with good food, activities, sightseeing, relaxing and terrible Bath puns (because we couldn't help ourselves).

We caught the train from Brighton to Bath at 9am, so we arrived at lunch time. We instantly had good first impressions of the city. This was definitely helped by it being super sunny and everyone around us was making the most of it. We took a minute to have a picnic (lovingly prepared by M&S) lunch in a park nearby.

We then loaded up our packs and went to find our Airbnb accommodation. We stayed in the top story of a three level home. Our host, Mary, was lovely and accommodating and instantly made us feel welcome.

The Hairy Coo "Free" Tour || Scotland | Travel Diary

On our first full day in Edinburgh, we took a tour with The Hairy Coo Tour company. This was a "free" tour, in that we put our own value on our experience and pay at the end accordingly. Allowing anyone on any budget to get a great experience.

At 8:45am the sun was just rising and we jumped onto the bright orange mini bus, designed to look like a Highlands hairy coo (a.k.a cow said with a Scottish accent). Our tour guide and driver was Donal, the founder of the company and a proud Scotsman.

Our first destination was the Firth of Forth bridges, all three of them. Quite a confusing tile for a newbie to the region, but to clarify: there are three bridges over the estuary or "firth" of Scotland's River Forth. To add another alliteration to the mix, they all cross from Edinburgh to Fife.
Each bridge was built in a different century and in a very different style, this was to accommodate for the previous bridges "short comings".

So you have the Firth of Forth bridges leading to Fife. Phew...I reckon they might as well add another bridge into the mix just to make it more difficult.

The two bridges from the 19th and 20th century are easily visible in the picture below, and if you look closely over on the far left side you can see the 21st century bridge starting to take shape.

Incredible Bonfire night in Lewes || The Brighton side of life

Lewes is the Bonfire capital, boasting the worlds largest Bonfire Night celebration on the 5th of November, with 3,000 participants and 80,000 expected spectators. This small town of 16,000 locals, grows immensely for this annual tradition.

"Imagine a head-on collision of Halloween and Mardi Gras and you're well on your way to picturing Bonfire Night, Lewes style – barrels of burning tar, processions of thousands of fiery torch-bearing crowds, massive bonfires and firework displays" —Rough Guides, Daily Telegraph

We left Brighton at 4:30pm to catch the train to Lewes. The trains were crowded but running regularly to accommodate the mass influx of people. We arrived early and trekked our way up to our chosen vantage point, where conveniently, the Pelham Arms Pub was right across the road.