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I spent an extremely pleasant November evening strolling along the Thames Path from Tower Bridge to Westminster along the north bank of the river. I started at Tower Bridge Underground station, walking down to the river as dusk was beginning to fall.

Tower Bridge at dusk

I headed west along the well signedposted river walkway. You go through tunnel at Southwark Bridge with have several murals depicting London through the ages painted on to the tiles.

Southwark Bridge foot tunnel

Some of the best view were over to the Tate Modern with the London Millenium Bridge enabling pedestrians to cross from St Pauls Cathedral over to the art gallery.

The Tate Modern and Millenium Bridge from the city

The London Eye is illuminated in a beautiful shade of blue.

The London Eye

It took me around an hour and a half to walk the two miles, mainly because I stopped so often to take photos. The path is well lit and there were people around in all the sections I walked, a mixture of tourists, families, joggers and cyclists. I felt quite safe walking on my own. I was lucky that it was a clear, dry evening only slight chilly in a breeze. There were clean public toilets open at Tower Bridge and Embankment and several pubs and restaurants along the way. I thought that the walk was probably more enjoyable because it was dark and the illuminated buildings and structures were so beautiful. You can see video footage of a daylight boat trip down the Thames at Travelistic.

After a frosty, foggy start it turned into another beautiful, sunny day in the east of Scotland today. I walked along the cliffs in Dunbar, East Lothian, this afternoon and the contrast of the red stone and the blue of the sky and the sea was amazing.

View from John Muir walk, Dunbar

The walk is part of Dunbar to North Berwick section of the John Muir Way which stretches from Edinburgh to the Scottish Borders

This was the location of the Dunbar outdoor swimming pool, demolished in the 1980s when high maintainence costs coupled with falling attendance due the allure of warmer weather offered by cheap foreign package holidays proved a fatal combination for the pool.

Outdoor swimming pool courtesy of Dunbar Community Photo Gallery

The area around Pitlochry in Perthshire is one of the best areas in Scotland for beautiful Autumn colours. The photos below were taken from the circular walk around Loch Dunmore. From the 19 October - 4 November 2007 the Enchanted Forest sound and light show is on at Loch Dunmore.

Autumn colours at Loch Dunmore, Pitlochry 

If you’d like to take a short break in Pitlochry here are some accommodation options.

The Claymore Hotel sits in a beautiful location in an award winning garden with views to the Cluniemore hills. A double room costs from £80 per night and rooms with a 4 poster bed is available from £100 per night. I visited the hotel in March 2007 during the final stages of redecoration. I saw the 2 bedrooms with 4 poster beds at the front of the first floor. The rooms are very light and spacious.
The Pine Trees is a small hotel in ten acres of private woodland offering tranquility and comfort. The hotel is in an quiet elevated position near the town centre but it’s a steep walk back up again. A double room costs from £80 per night.
The Bridge of Tilt Hotel is in the village of Blair Atholl, a few miles north of Pitlochry. It is a former hunting lodge close to the River Tilt. Double rooms costs from £50 per night.

I visited the Cramond village in the north west of Edinburgh for the first time yesterday. I thought that Cramond would be another great place to add to my Edinburgh: Off the beaten track guide. I’d read that you can walk out to Cramond Island, which lies about one mile off the coast, over the causeway at low tide. However it was near high tide when we arrived so the causeway was partially covered. What looks like the narrower path leading over to the island in the photo below is the top of a line of concrete pylons constructed as a submarine defence during the Second World War, which runs alongside the causeway. You should check the tide times carefully before attempting to cross and if’s only safe for 2 hours before and after low tide. The tide can some in very quickly and there have been many incidents of people being stranded over the years.

Cramond Island causeway

You can walk east along the Esplanade towards Silverknowes or south along the River Almond Walkway. The Almond flows into the Forth estuary at Cramond. The most picturesque part of the walk is at the waterfall which you can view through the arches of a ruin.

River Almond waterfall

Cramond village is very pretty and there are a couple of pubs, public toilets and a large free car park. You can visit the 15th century Cramond Kirk built close to the site of a Roman fort.

There a couple of pubs and a cafe in Cramond village as well as a large free car park and public toilets. You can reach Cramond on the no 41 Lothian bus from Edinburgh city centre,

I’ve just uploaded my guide to the county of Fife. in the east of Scotland. Fife lies north of Edinburgh over the Forth Estuary. St Andrews is the best known town in Fife, due to golf and being the place of study chosen by Prince William.

Falkland Palace

However there are a lot of other places worth visiting such as the villages of Falkland, Culross and Ceres and the East Neuk of Fife, a collection of small fishing villages south of St Andrews. One of the things l really like about Fife is the variety of view over the Forth Estuary towards Edinburgh and East Lothian. I think that the best views are from Kirkcaldy, Burntisland and Kinghorn.

Burntisland from the beach 

I’ve just uploaded my Guide to Aberdeenshire. One of the highlights on my trip to the area was the visit to Crathes Castle Gardens one evening.

Crathes Castle gardens

I was very impressed by the beauty of the Banffshire coast in the north east of the county and recommend that you visit this area.

Portsoy, Banffshire Coast

Falkland is a charming village which lies at the foot of East Lomond, one of the three Lomond hills. The village is packed with history and it was named a Royal Burgh by James 11 in 1458. Falkland Palace was built on the site of Falkland Castle in the 15th century. I love the setting of the palace with the contrast of the formal gardens against the back drop of the hill. The Royal Tennis Court built in 1539 for James V, is the oldest tennis court in the UK. It’s real tennis that played here with a more complex scoring system than the current game. The score lines are adorned with paintings of crowns. Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have created a great stir when she abandoned her stiff skirt to don breeches to play here. The court is still used by a local club

Falkland Palace 

The whole village is pretty with restored “Little Houses” used as residences or business premises. There are a couple of good tearooms, Kynd Kittocks and the Hayloft.

One of the Little Houses in Falkland 

I would recommend that you go up East Lomond. It only takes about an hour to ascend and descent as there is a car park with picnic benches and toilets half way up. There’ s a good path to the summit and the panoramic views over the Forth Estuary are great. You’ll see a brown sign for the car park at the roadside on the A912 just east of Falkland

Ceres is a village in central Fife, a few miles south east of Cupar. It’s a lovely village with a stream running through it. The village is very well cared for with flower tubs beside “The Provost”, a 19th century carved stone depiction of the last church provost, Thomas Buchanan.

The Provost

The Griselda Hill Pottery in the village produces the famous Wemyss Ware, hand painted giftware, best known for its cats. There’s a visitor centre where you can watch a DVD about the pottery and observe the potters and painters at work through a glass door. It’s a very interesting story as Wemyss ware was originally made in Wemyss on Fife coast between the 1880s and 1930s. One of the painters, Karel Nekola, came from Eastern Europe and his son, Joseph, followed in his Father’s footsteps. When the Wemyss pottery closed and the trademark was sold to the Bovey Pottery in Devon, Joseph moved to Devon. where he trained Esther Weeks, who became the Head Decorator when Joseph died in 1952. The production of Wemyss Ware returned to Fife in the 1980s when the trade mark was purchased by Griselda Hill. However Esther Weeks has visited the Ceres pottery and passed on the secret painting techniques.

Display cabinet at the pottery

Ceres in also home to the Fife Folk Museum, which portrays the history of everyday rural life in the area.

Fife Folk Museum

I was intrigued by the Bannockburn Memorial in Ceres as the Battle of Bannockburn was fought near Stirling, some 50 miles from Ceres. However several men from Ceres did march to take part in the Battle in 1314. The Memorial was erected in 1914 to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle. The Ceres Highland Games, the oldest free to attend Games in Scotland were established in 1314, to mark victory against the English at Bannockburn, are held on the last Saturday in June. I wonder how those involved in the creation of the Memorial would have felt if they had known of the bloodbath that was to follow in the First World War, starting in the same year?

Bannockburn Memorial

I decided to finish my visit to Ceres with a walk at Craighall Den, a small wooded gorge, just east of the village down the road towards Largo. I’d read an information board at the car park at the start of the walk which showed a circular walk taking in an old limekiln and thought I’d follow that. The walk started well with a path along the stream. It was after a farm that I couldn’t find markers for the walk and ended up in a very overgrown section, fenced off between two fields. It was akin to hacking through the jungle with nettles and bramble bushes almost my height.

You can easily spend a very pleasant few hours in Ceres, as long as you stick to a stroll around Craighall Den itself and forget the circular walk. I noticed several people having lunch al fresco close the stream in the patio of the Ceres Inn.

I really like Cullen beach, on the north east coast of Scotland, around fifty miles east of Inverness and fifty miles north west of Aberdeen. Cullen Beach is one of the few Scottish beaches that has never failed the EU tests of bathing water.

Cullen Beach

There are two very distinctive features of the beach. Firstly the rocks pictured above and secondly the railway viaducts, built as the Countess of Seafield would not allow the lines to crosss her land. The viaducts are now part of the coastal walk.

Cullen railway viaducts

I’ve started a swicki, an intelligent search engine, for cultural and activity holidays in Europe. If you’re thinking of a themed holiday in Europe, whether it be walking, cycling, painting, horseriding, language, water sports, tennis or cooking, try searching in the swicki. If you find any great companies you add them to the swicki and vote for your favourite site. Help build a great resource.

check out the European Cultural & Activity Tours swicki at eurekster.com

[tags]Swicki, Europe themed vacations[/tags]