PERU-BOLIVIA: Day 1 and 2

Day 1
Our trip started in Ijmuijden, where we took the overnight ferry to Newcastle, thereby saving almost 1000kms on boring highways through England. Although it was a relatively small ferry with a capacity of 600 cars and 1500 passengers only, it took us almost 2 hours to get board the ship.

After boarding we spent the evening enjoying the sun and the sunset and trying not to get sea sick. Judit was especially at her limit, topped with our inner cabin amplifying some strange feelings you can only feel at sea and on a rollercoaster.

Day 2
At 10am we arrived on the dot on schedule in Newcastle, which was already familiar for me. I started my journey from the same harbour two years ago to Iceland. The harbour is really nice with its ruins and the fish market.

After leaving the ferry we hit the highway Edinburgh bound, the capital of Scotland. It is the second most visited city in the UK with 600,000 habitants and more than a million oversea visitors a year.
There is evidence of human habitation on Castle Rock from as early as 3,000 years ago. There has been a royal castle here since the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. As one of the most important fortresses in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts, from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century, up to the Jacobite Rising of 1745, and has been besieged, both successfully and unsuccessfully, on several occasions.

A census conducted by the Edinburgh presbytery in 1592 estimated a population of 8,000 scattered equally north and south of the High Street which runs down the spine of the ridge leading from the Castle. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, the population began to expand rapidly, rising from 49,000 in 1751 to 136,000. The city has the largest percentage of monument protected buildings, counting to 4000 together both the Old and New Towns together with the dean Village and the Calton Hill areas.

After leaving Edinburgh we passed by "Forth Bridges". The bridge connects Edinburgh with Fife and was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of 2,528.7 metres. Look at the train to get an idea of its size.

Our next stop was The Falkirk wheel which is a is a rotating boat lift. It connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. Named after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland, the lift opened in 2002. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse. The wheel has an overall diameter of 35 metres (115 ft) and consists of two opposing arms which extend 15 metres beyond the central axle. Two sets of these axe-shaped arms are attached about 35 metres (115 ft) apart to a 3.5 metres (11 ft) diameter axle. Two diametrically opposed water-filled caissons, each with a capacity of 80,000 imperial gallons (360,000 l; 96,000 US gal), are fitted between the ends of the arms.

It takes just 22.5 kilowatts (30.2 hp) to power the electric motors, which consume just 1.5 kilowatt-hours (5.4 MJ) of energy in four minutes, roughly the same as boiling eight kettles of water.

Our final destination for today was Broomhill castle, which we rented for a night to sleep in style in Scotland....