[Jeroen]

Every year my best mate Peter and I take our Alfa Spiders out for a 4-5 day trip abroad. I have written about a number of our annual trips before. This year we decided to take a trip to Scotland.

We live in the Netherlands. There are various ways of getting to the UK from the Netherlands by car. I have mentioned the Stenaline crossing Hoek of Holland Harwich before. However, when you want to travel to Scotland, you want to take a ferry that takes you as North as possible. That means we booked our trip to IJmuiden Newcastle some 6 months ago. We left IJmuiden on Thursday the 7th of September, at 17.30 and were back in IJmuiden Wednesday 13th of September at 10.00 hours and some 1750 km of driving behind us!

These annual trips are about driving our Spiders and enjoying each other company. So we tend not to have a specific goal or destination in mind. We usually play it by ear. At breakfast, we usually plan where we want to be around lunchtime. At lunch time we plan for the rest of the afternoon and by about 16-17 hours we start looking for a place to sleep and eat.

IJmuiden is a Dutch coastal town, with massive locks that are the entry to Amsterdam harbour. There is also a small fishing harbour outside the locks. It is also used for various offshore activities/vessels and the DFDS ferry docks here as well.

As Peter lives in the North and I live in the South we had agreed to meet at the Ferry terminal by about 15.00 o'clock.



As per our usual routines, we stuff our Spiders with various parts and lots of tools, just in case. These Spiders are well over 40 years old. We never made a trip abroad without having to do some kind of spannering, so better be prepared.

We had booked a return ticket for two and two cars, two cabins, three-course dinner and breakfast. As we had booked early we got a 20% discount. Still, per person, we paid almost Euro 600 (INR 53000). Not cheap, but you only live once as they say!

We have been on numerous ferries over the years. And we have visited the UK many times, however, the last time we toured Scotland was some fifteen years ago. And we were going to cross on the same ferry as fifteen years ago.

She was built in 1987, this ship went through a major renovation in 2006 and has a wide range of restaurants, shops, bars, cafés, two cinemas, casinos and children’s entertainment.

Technical Details:

Length/Width: 163m x 28m
Cars: 600
Cruising Speed: 21 Knots
Engine Output: 19,880 kW
Passengers: 1325
Year built: 1987
Cabins: 522
Renovated: 2006

So it is quite an older ferry. But very well kept. We found the restaurant and dinner excellent. Really good choice of very well-prepared food and drinks.

The cabins are quite small but still perfectly adequate. You tend not to spend any time in your cabin on these crossings, other than for sleeping.

Bunk bed, for single occupancy the top one is raised flat against the wall of the cabin.



Tiny bathroom



Boarding the ferry went pretty smoothly. You pass a DFDS check-in point and Dutch immigration. From the minute we arrived till we had parked out Spiders onboard was about one hour. DFDS starts boarding cars and foot passengers well in advance of the actual departure time. So if you arrive a couple of hours early they will let you board as well. Much better than hanging around on the quayside.

We were directed to deck number 5, which was a bit of a squeeze. The Spiders are quite narrow, but there were modern SUVs on this deck as well. Could hardly get past them. Every car is "marshalled" into the exact position. This means the mirror of my Spider was about 2 cm from the wall!



The weather was gorgeous. So we dumped our bags in our cabins and went straight up to the top deck to enjoy the sun, have a drink, and watch the cars and lorries and the endless seagulls trying to steal food from unsuspected passengers.

We left a couple of minutes early. Here we are just passing the northern breakwater pier of IJmuiden.



Some of you might know I started my career in the Merchant Navy. I left the merchant navy in 1986 having sailed as Chief Engineer on all sorts of vessels. Although my sailing days are long gone, I still enjoy being out on ships, going to maritime conventions and so on. On every ship, I find myself I will always introduce myself to the crew as a former Chief Engineer and colleague. Could we please have a look in the engine room?? Of course, you can!!

If you're not into engine rooms, scroll past the next couple of images. Peter had never visited an engine room, so it was a new experience for him. We got picked up at the reception desk by one of the apprentice engineers who took us down to the control room.

Some of you will notice this is an all-analogue control room. This is a traditional analogue diesel engine control room. Lots of gauges, levers, buttons and some annunciation panels. All officers are Danish. They also have Dutch crews.

We met up with the second engineer on watch. We talked extensively about various (technical) topics and he took us on an extended tour all over the engine room.



This ship has four, identical, main engines. All MAN. They are coupled in pairs, via a gearbox to two propellers with controllable pitch. All the engines run on very low sulphur diesel. This means this vessel is exempt from having exhaust scrubbers. Which is a good thing too. Can be very complex retrofitting on old vessels.



The gearbox at the rear of one of the main engines.



One of the propellor shaft going aft.



Also, four, again identical, MAN auxiliary diesel engines driving a generator each.





One of the four auxiliary engines was having a major overhaul done. Which means pulling all cylinder heads, cylinder liners, pistons, fuel pumps etc. For these big jobs, a factory team of engineers joins the ship's engineers. They will also bring additional spares. It is not that the engine room team can't do these sorts of jobs. It will just take too long.





Ships always carry a large amount of spares. There are both insurance and legal requirements on the amount and what kind of spares to have onboard. Here are some cylinder liners and pistons.



Here we have Peter and yours truly posing next to one of the main engines.





These are the separators. They are for continuous cleaning of lubrication oil and fuel and also remove any water content.



One of the Airconditioning plants



The desalination plant for making all the freshwater onboard.



This is one of the fire pumps (the red one). The second engineer told us, that in case of a fire on the car deck, this one will pump water to the sprinkler system. (Good thing we had parked our Spiders with the hood up! )



Finally, a very nice, roomy and well-equipped workshop!



After about an hour we had returned to the control room and talked some more. Many thanks to the DFDS engine room team for showing us around and compliments for a very nicely kept and maintained engine room.

We went back on deck, a very calm sea



Some years ago the UK did away with the rules for quarantining animals. Up till then, it was simply not possible to take animals with you to the UK. But since this rule has been lifted all ferries have animal kennels on board. Look at this fire hydrant in the dog kennel!



The next morning we had a BIG excellent breakfast. After breakfast, we planned our route for the morning. We usually have a paper map, with sufficient detail (better than 1:30.000) and program our route into our TomToms.



Getting off the ferry was a bit of a problem. The ship has numerous car decks. Deck 3 is the main deck, deck 4 is above deck 3 and there are hydraulically operated ramps for the cars to get from deck 3 up to deck 4. Deck 5 is sort of on the starboard and port side of the ship. Getting onto and off deck 5 needs the ramp of deck 4 up. Just our luck; A German camper got stuck on the ramp of deck 4. Initially, it would not start. So they managed to find a big enough jump-start unit. It started but stalled again. Eventually, they simply raised the ramp with the German camper still on it, so we could drive off the ferry.



These things can't be helped, but it gave us a delay of almost an hour and a half

[Jeroen]

Even though Newcastle is pretty close to the Scottish border, it is still quite a drive to the border. Also, we wanted to get above the line Glasgow Edinburgh. We had planned a route along some nice country roads towards Falkirk. We wanted to see the Falkirk Wheel. I have read about it, and seen many YouTube videos about it.

From Wikipedia

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project.

We were in luck, two minutes after we arrived it started turning! It is an impressive sight.

This 36-second timelapse video will show you how the Falkirk wheel works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucg1O-5jsnM

We stopped along the way for a light lunch at a nice country-friendly country pub. After a full Scottish breakfast on the ferry, you don't need much for lunch.

As always we leave our spiders next to each other on the parking lot.





We planned a route that would take us across lots of little rural roads east of Pitlochry. After a couple of hours of driving, we decided to find a place for the night. So we broke out the map and started looking for some B&Bs or Hotels in the neighbourhood of Kinloch Rannoch. We quickly discovered there were virtually no rooms available anywhere. Which is a bit unusual. Normally we have no problems finding rooms. Maybe this was going to be the last busy weekend of the year in Scotland. If anything the weather forecast was excellent.

We use various booking apps, Booking.com being the one that usually gives us the best options. I also have a Genius 4 status so I often get discounts. We did find some rooms but they were ridiculously expensive and too far away as well. In the end, we got fed up looking at our smartphones and we booked two rooms at the Dunalastair Hotel Suites. At a considerable cost of Euro 225 per person (INR 20000). We usually per less than half that per night. But we had been doing a lot of driving, in the blazing sun. And we wanted to get a nice dinner and a few drinks. Hang the cost!

It took us another hour or so to drive to our hotel. Very nice drive!



Just some images to show you what a Euro 225 suite looks like and what kind of hotel this was:

Main sitting room:



Bedroom:



Bathroom



Lounge / Bar



The check-in process was a PITA. I simply don't get it. I made the booking through Booking.com. They have all my details including my credit card details. When you arrive you expect to announce your name and be handed the key to your room. Not at Dunalastair Hotel Suites you don't. The guy at reception was hacking away at his computer for about 10 minutes. The next morning when we checked out same thing again. I think there is something very seriously wrong with your approach to running an (expensive) hotel if you let your guest wait for 20 minutes whilst you do your admin. I have been to coffee shops, ordered a black coffee and it took the guy five minutes of tapping away on the till to ring it up. How ridiculous is all of this?

Anyway, the rooms were of course fine. Although not really my, or Peter's, taste.

If you find your bed like this, you know you are paying through the nose! What's with all the pillows/cushions? Even my wife doesn't keep that many of them on our bed!



We went for a nice little walk before dinner. The hotel is located on the Loch Rannoch.



On our way back to the hotel, we met this friendly chap. His conversation was a bit thin we thought. The next day we drove past him in our Spider and it was pretty "life" like. Enough to come off the accelerator, which is the whole purpose.



When we returned from our walk, we had a quick drink in the courtyard, still outside, nice temperature. Our dinner was nice and we went to bed fairly early.

Next morning a nice breakfast. I love pain au chocolat and croissants! Not very Scottish, but there you go!



All in all, Dunalastair Hotel Suites is one of those hotels that simply does not live up to its price point. We don't mind paying a lot, but this was a bit of a "pretend posh" hotel. They just don't get what it takes to provide the services at this price level.

As per our standard operating procedure, we were planning our route during breakfast. We discovered something very odd. According to the online version of our TomTom we should be able to drive west past the Loch and past Rannoch station. However, none of our paper maps, nor the TomTom itself showed a road.

We decided to see for ourselves and headed west!! We have been in similar situations before and it usually leads to tiny little unpaved roads. Not suitable for a 4x4, but we enjoy taking our Spiders on these challenging roads.

Thundering along the gorgeous Loch Rannoch early morning.



After about half an hour we simply ran out of road! So we pulled over and rethought and replanned our route. We decided to drive back on the southern bank of the Loch take a left at our hotel and drive north west from there.



The weather was improving along the way. We had decided to head for Fort Augustus. It is at the bottom of Loch Ness. Touristy, but a nice place for lunch. We had planned a route into our TomTom but found signs for a tourist route which was much more interesting, so we just followed the signs.

Perfect weather:





We had been to Scotland before and one of the things we recalled was seeing a lot of wildlife. On this trip, we mostly came across roadkill though. Only once did we have a few sheep on the road and once we saw some highland cattle. We also ran into this tall guy during one of our coffee stops.



Endless empty rural roads.



We reached Fort Augustus around 12.30. Parked our Spiders and walked along the canal a bit. Always interesting, lots to see. Of course, we did a bit of Nessy spotting, but I am sorry to say, still no Nessy.



You can see plenty of Nessies in the various tourist shops though! Mrs. D is a hardcore Nessy believer so I got her a mini Nessy.



Fort Augustus is pretty touristy, but we found a very nice little simple restaurant right at the end of the footpath in the above image. Far away from all the touristy hustle and bustle. We ate a simple, but good lunch and walked back to our Spiders.

A bit of rain as we were walking back. One of the attractions in Fort Augustus is the five locks at the beginning (or end depending on course) of the Caledonian Canal. With the rain a bit hazy and mostly.



During the summer it gets very busy with yachts passing all the time. I can watch ships in locks all day. Very entertaining, but there were no yachts, so we just pressed on.

We started heading east, and northeast. We came across the Commando memorial in Spean Bridge. It is

in memory of the officer and men of the British Commando's

who died in various conflicts.



I am all for ensuring we don't forget about these sacrifices. Although I never understand why they mention officers and men. I mean, is there a difference?

Beautiful surroundings.



After a brief stop, we pushed on further into the Highlands. The weather started to improve and we came across Eilean Donan castle. Gorgeous. We did not visit, just had a look around and another quick coffee.



Weather improving



From the Internet:

Eilean Donan is probably the most photographed fortress in the whole of Scotland and has been featured in movies such as James Bond (as the Scottish HQ of MI6, no less). The castle guards a small island, deep in the Scottish highlands, at the intersection of three tidal lochs.

We drove on and this is where I took the very nice (if I say so myself) photograph of our two Spiders, near Loch Maree, as shown at the beginning of this thread.



Throughout our trip, Peter managed to take a few video's. Not the best quality but it gives an impression about how it is to drive in Scotland on these little rural roads;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc6TwnhoPa4

[Jeroen]

We ended up in Gairloch and stayed the night at the, what else Gairloch Lodge Hotel! Photo from the Internet as I forgot to take one!



Again, booked at around 1600 hours on booking.com. Very easy and convenient. Also a much more reasonable price, about Euro 125 per person (INR 11000)

After we checked in, we went for a little walk towards the harbour. Nice proper working fishermen harbour!







The rooms were fine, I had a big room, a double bed and a single one! Notice the two duffel bags. I always use these sorts of bags in the Spider. They are easier to fit into the relatively small Spider boot. On the first night on the Ferry, I make sure I have all my toiletry things, my book and a set of fresh new clothes in the smallest bag. Same on the last night on the Ferry back home. Because ferries have many many decks you need to climb from the car deck to your cabin which might be 8-9 decks above the car deck. So you want to travel light. There might be elevators, but it will take forever. So one small bag is the most convenient way.



Bathroom:



I love being in England and Scotland. We owned several properties in Suffolk and we lived in Brighton for more than 4 years. Our eldest son was born in Brighton. But some things about the UK just drive any man to insanity.

This is one of them: Behold the epitome of British Engineering!!



This is a warm water electrical heater. You need to understand that even today all plumbing in the UK is substandard compared to.... well anything! So they still have a ridiculous gravity-fed warm water system. The warm water was not supposed to be warmed up in pressurised pipes. Enter the warm water heater. Don't look for the main switch in the bathroom. It will always be outside the bathroom.

I found it in the main bedroom, next to the door. When I switched it on, it blew all the fuses in the entire hotel. This was normal as within 30 seconds a guy came up and told me he was on the case! So a few minutes later the lights come back on and the guy tells me to switch on the heater mains, slowly and carefully.

All of the electric heaters work differently and none of them work properly. Either you get scolding hot water or ice cold water. Part of the problem is that the water flow has a very big influence on the water temperature too!

Other than the wonky electrical heater for the shower, this was a very nice hotel. Lovely staff, we had a great dinner. And they still had what is known as an honesty bar. Which means the bar is unattended. You just write down what you drink and present your little list to the receptionist the next morning.

I am not sure if an honesty bar would work in India. Or in most countries for that matter. But we have come across it several times, during our past Scotland trip. It is widespread in Bed & Breakfasts. Best of all, the prices were a lot more realistic than in our previous hotel. Neither Peter nor I are big drinkers, but when in Scotland do as the Scotts, and we do like the occasional single malt.

The next morning, a very healthy breakfast. Well, let's say, we got sufficient proteins for the day! All are included in the room price.



During our normal breakfast planning, we were looking at the weather. It was going to be a rainy day along all of the highlands. Even so, we decided to keep driving along rural routes on the most western coastline.

But not before checking the oil in my Spider. Those of you who follow my "fiddling with the car" thread know the Spider has had a complete engine overhaul. But something is very wrong. It is using more oil than ever before. I had to add about one litre of engine oil for every 350 km we drove! Not good.



Driving in nasty weather. It looks not too bad in these images, but we got some very heavy showers along the way.

Attachment 2504935

We always, and I mean always drive top down. Sun, rain, snow, sleek, hail, fog it does not matter. Why would you get a ragtop car, if you are going to drive it top-up? Might as well get an ordinary saloon.

The trick to not getting wet is to keep your speed up. Rain is par for the course in Scotlands and specifically in the Highlands. You don't want to be travelling in the rain, don't go there! True Scotts would consider having your car wipers on anything but super fast, just a bit wet. There were times we had our wipers on intermittent, which is Scottish for dry weather.

Truth be told, I do enjoy the highlands in the rain. It makes for a very special sort of scenery.



Given how much time we had left during the afternoon we decided to start turning east again. It would also bring more sunshine. We ended up driving along the north side of Loch Ness. I had planned to stop at Urqhart castle. Unfortunately, it has a small car park and it was full. No other parking nearby so we drove to nearby Drumnadrochit for our lunch.

Both Peter and I like steam trains and we will stop at any steam train depot. We came through Aviemore which supposedly has a very nice steam train. So we stopped to check it out. Unfortunately, the steam locomotive had been damaged during winter. So they were running the service with an old diesel locomotive.

Attachment 2505111

For all you train buffs out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgwnIJXbbBM

Eventually, we ended up in Pitlochry at the McKays Hotel. Nothing very special, but again, we were having trouble finding something reasonably priced and even more importantly; the availability of two separate rooms. Could not park anywhere, but eventually found a church courtyard. We checked very carefully, no cars at all, but also no sign prohibiting us from parking. So that is what we did.

The next morning our Spiders were still there, no ticket or anything!

Now here is the thing; you can not do a trip to Scotland without mentioning whisky, in particular single malts. It is, next to oil and gas, the most prominent export product of Scotland. I know our forum rules, but if you are reading this bit, the moderators have approved the text and a few photographs. It is part of any travelogue in Scotland.

During breakfast, we were planning our day again and we noticed a nearby whiskey distillery. Open to the public that day and a tour starting at ten. So we booked two tickets online, hopped into our Spiders and drove straight to it.

Here you have it, the Lindores Abbey distillery.

https://lindoresabbeydistillery.com



It is a new distillery, that started operation in 2017. The family who owned the land and the ruins of the old abbey went through a lot of effort to establish this distillery. They employed only local people, with great attention to detail.



The weather was gorgeous, so after we toured the distillery we replanned our trip some more. Again rural roads towards the east cost and then start making our way down the coast.

We ended up in a nice little coastal town, Anstruther.

Parked our Spiders, overlooking the harbour and went for a stroll.



Very photogenic little town!





All along this trip, Peter had been on the lookout for a real Ploughman's lunch. We could not find it anywhere. Again, we searched and checked with several restaurants here as well. Nobody does Ploughman's anymore. The staff in some of the bars/cafes had no idea what a ploughman was. We must be getting old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman%27s_lunch

But then we stumbled on this one; the Wee Chippy!



Having one of the best awards for 2023 we decided to have our lunch here. We sat outside with our fish and chips, in the sun, overlooking the harbour. Life does not get much better than that. I love good fish and chips! This one was excellent.



After lunch, we drove onward once again. This was our last full day in Scotland. The next day we had to catch our ferry back home. So we wanted to make sure we could easily reach the ferry and still have a nice route and look at some things.

Coffee stop along the way. Always parking our Spiders so we and others can admire them. We always get a lot of attention with these two Spiders. By and large the British love anything old and classic. Lots of people come over to talk to us when we stop.



We found a nice hotel with two budget rooms available. Quickly adjusted our route to head for the Dunmar House Hotel.

[Jeroen]

This might have been just budget rooms, they were certainly the cheapest rooms during the whole trip, but the hotel turned out to be excellent. Gorgeous location, with friendly staff and we had a smashing dinner in the restaurant next door.



The next morning we had our final, hearty breakfast, that would set us up for the day!



We looked at various options on what to do and what to see, what route to take. Our ferry was to depart at 1700 hours, last check-in was at 16.00 hours. But we did not want to risk it so we were planning to arrive around 15.00 hours. We planned a very nice route that would take us across the famous Firth of Forth bridges with a coffee stop on the quayside of South Queensferry.

In my Spider on one of the bridges! Very happy boy!



I have been across here numerous times, always an impressive sight!







The quayside was off limits for all cars. A large cruise ship had anchored just west of the railroad bridge and was ferrying its passengers across all the time. Very busy with tourists and busses coming and going.

We managed to get ourselves a coffee and planned the last stretch of our journey. I found a nearby aviation museum. We like aviation museums. We figured we could spend about 1.5 hours plus looking around the museum have a simple lunch and then head for the ferry.

So we drove to the "museum of flight" https://www.museumofflight.org

Turned out to be a very nice museum, well laid out with some interesting plans and lots of things to explore and do.

Their centrepiece is, of course, what else: Concorde!



No matter what plane I look at, the Concorde cockpit never fails to impress:



They also had a part fuselage/cockpit assembly from a BOAC Boeing 707.

This plane had a cockpit crew of two pilots, an engineer and a navigator. Look on the left and you will see a special sextant the navigator could stick through the cockpit roof to shoot some stars or the sun.



This is quite a rare machine, the Messerschmitt Komet. It was the fasted (rocket-propelled) plane of the Second World War. But not very successfully in combat.



I am only showing a few images of the planes. There is lots more to see and do.

Harrier and a Lightning:



My personal favourite is; the Vulcan bomber



We had a quick lunch and walked back to our Spiders. Another classic car had arrived and joined our little lineup of classic cars!!



We set our TomTom's for the quickest route to the Ferry terminal in Newcastle.
Not a real rural drive, but still pleasant enough and nice scenery as you drive along the A1 south.

We arrived as per our planning around 15.00 hours at the DFDS terminal.





When we arrive at Ferry terminals we always ask the various staff members to keep our cars together. We tell them: these are old cars, they are Italian cars. Sometimes they don't start, so can you make sure we are close together so we can assist each other just in case?

They always do, because they have lots of experience with oldtimers that would start, break down halfway up or down a ramp. Trust me!

They also told us, we would go in last, so we would not have to go up the steep ramps. Which was fine with us. It worked out great because we were parked behind a couple of buses and trucks. They need to empty the lower deck before all the passenger cars on the higher decks can be let off. So we would be the first passenger cars on the ferry in IJmuiden!



Here you see Peter posing on the car deck, the ramp is already closed. Spiders in the background.





With our Spiders parked, handbrake on, and in gear, we went up to our cabins, threw our stuff in and went out on the deck again. I can never get enough of ships leaving or entering harbours.



Steaming towards the Netherlands



We had another excellent meal. The next morning we docked around 10.00 o'clock and sure enough, we were the first passenger cars off. This is great, because due to Brexit, immigration and customs formalities take forever and there is usually a monumental queue of cars waiting in line to get out of the terminal.

We had one nice little bonus as we came into the piers of IJmuiden. I noticed this peculiar-looking vessel. It looked quite small. It is 12 meters long and is a drone vessel carrying out hydrographic and geophysical research

https://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/n...s-in-rotterdam



We did a little over 1750 km in all. Averaging about 350 km a day. Not a single breakdown. Which Peter and I agreed, was unique! We have never taken an extended driving trip abroad in our Spiders without some spannering required!

Well, my Spider did use 5 litre of engine oil, but that will be fixed in November as we are going to take the cylinder head off and the liners out once again to see what is going on with this engine.

All in all, as usual, a very very enjoyable trip. We have driven our Spiders hard across many tiny gorgeous rural roads. Enjoyed good food, shared a few drinks and visited several interesting places. Most of all, we got to enjoy each other company.

We are already starting to think about where to go next year. Friends of ours have come up with a plan to go a visit the Goodwood Revival Festival once more. So we might be able to combine various trips. Part of the fun of making these sorts of trips is discussing them in advance!

I hope you enjoyed our Scottish adventure!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

There is more?!?!

Yes, there is. But it is a secret. I was not allowed to add it to the main story as it would have given away its secret location!! We would have had to shoot all members who read this thread!

By sheer coincidence, we stumbled upon Scotland's best-kept secret!! I kid you not!!

Hidden beneath a Scottish Farmhouse, a tunnel leads to Scotland's secret Bunker. 24000 sq ft of secret accommodations the size of two football pitches, one on top of another, two levels 100 feet under the ground.



We found this secret tunnel that leads you into the bunker:



Some very sobering signs as you enter the bunker







It is a real village, underneath the ground. It has a hospital, cafeteria (men and females would be served separately) and even two cinemas.



This bunker was one of the Nuclear Command centres. From here they would have the country had the UK been attacked and a nuclear war had broken out.



One of the two operations rooms



RAF control centre



Some light literature.



Quite impressive and with the war in Ukraine it does make you think.



It was an impressive, and chilling experience to walk around these bunkers. Read about the events they were planning for.



With special permission of the MOD, I can share this very secret Internet link where you can find some more information:

https://secretbunker.co.uk

Promise not to share!!

Jeroen

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[theqca]

Enjoyed reading about your trip. Thank you for sharing. Reminds me of my time in blighty. Any update on the oil issue you mentioned?

[VigWheels]

Wonderful travelogue, with some great pictures. Lovely, as always, Jeroen! Relaxed unharried trips like this, in beautiful places, that's the good life.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by theqca

. Any update on the oil issue you mentioned?

Not really. I have made an appointment with my Alfa specialist Marc for November 1st. We are going to pull the cilinder head and pull the cilinder liners. We can do all of that without having to take the engine out of the car. We could even replace the piston rings this way.

I hope we don’t need to take the engine out again! Fingers crossed.

Updates in my “fiddling with cars” thread in due course.
Jeroen

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I have been across here numerous times, always an impressive sight!

Attachment 2505126

Nice. A very nice read and great source for a Scottish road trip. When were you in Scotland? we were also in Scotland first week of Sept. Did not have time for sight seeing as had gone to drop my son off to college in St. Andrews

But I seem to remember the bridge - is it the bridge you take to reach Dundee?
We stayed in Dundee and in Dunfermline (quaint little town) very much enjoyed.

P.S:- the whole week while we were in Scotland, the weather was very nice and sunny

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

But I seem to remember the bridge - is it the bridge you take to reach Dundee?
We stayed in Dundee and in Dunfermline (quaint little town) very much enjoyed.

P.S:- the whole week while we were in Scotland, the weather was very nice and sunny

These bridges are just east of Edinburgh. Here is some more information

https://www.theforthbridges.org/

When driving to Dundee along the east coast you are likely to cross them on your way to Dundee. Dundee has its own bridges of course. The Tay road and the Tay train bridge.

Jeroen

[wheeledwanderer]

Another gem from Jeroen, as usual, stunning photos and explanation! Thanks for showing the world to us through your lens! Cheers!

[Clouseau]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

There is more?!?!

Jeroen

Very nice travelogue. Just one question since you're dealing with us Indians:

Technical Details (ferry):
...
Please share the mileage details also

Cheers!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Clouseau

Please share the mileage details also

DFDS does not provide all the details. But we can take a stab at it.

Bear in mind that the speed of the ship is crucial to its fuel consumption. To double the speed you need to increase the power output by a factor of 8! (Speed / Power is a power to the three relation!) Power is directly proportional to fuel usage.

As a very rough rule of thumb, this sort of medium-speed diesels has a specific fuel burn of 4,5-5 HP/Hour/Liter.

Assuming the ferry would be running at top speed and thus requiring all its 27000 HP, that would be 5400 litre/ hour. The distance IJmuiden Newcastle is about 265 nautical miles. Travelling at a top speed of 21 knots would take just under 13 hours.

So it uses 5400 l X 13 hours = 70200 litres of diesel to cover 265 NM (490km)

So its fuel efficiency is somewhere around 140 l / km!!

We left IJmuiden at 1700 hours and docked Newcastle around 0900 UK time. So the total of 17 hours. So she was not running at full speed. Roughly at 13/17 times her max speed, less than 60%. So her actual fuel efficiency would have improved dramatically!!

Just very rough guesses. It's been a long time since I looked at the fuel usage of Marine diesels.

The 140 l/km sounds high. But be aware, for that amount of fuel you are moving 600 cars and 1325 passengers (plus crew) at a speed of about 40km/h!

Jeroen

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

This is a warm water electrical heater. You need to understand that even today all plumbing in the UK is substandard compared to.... well anything!

Can you elaborate on the poor plumbing part, please.

On water heating, I've come across a few and the one I find really good is from Rinnai. Works on natural gas though and we all know the world is moving away from this. As a water heater, it can push boiling water at high pressure. No turning on switches. The system triggers as you open the tap. You can regulate the flow of water and not loose water temperature.

Rinnai. This is similar to what we have. We have a older model

I am not sure if an honesty bar would work in India.

Never in a million years. Honesty isn't in all of us. Not in our upbringing nor do schools do much to inculcate the idea of being honest.

We love things that are free or pay Rs. 2,000 for one of the meals with no limits. I used to go to such places when we lived in India. It got tiring after a point as the food was exactly the same. I'd rather pay that same amount and order a-la-carte.

We learnt and observed many things after moving abroad and one of those that stood out was honesty and being kind to one another. Similar to the honesty bar, we have small farms that leave produce on the side of the road. In a little hut. Is unmanned and not a soul in sight. This practice must be there in your part of the world too. You could get some fresh vegetables, farm eggs, etc. The people who put the produce there put a notice for a specific amount or leave a note saying, pay what you think is a fair price. Everyone who takes produce always pays for what they take in a little cash drawer, which isn't locked. Nobody takes or steals the money. I was amazed by this, the first time I saw one of these setups.

I love good fish and chips! This one was excellent.

Once again, a new discovery for us in terms of cuisine. We don't mind good Fish and Chips cooked in engine oil every once in a while. Can't do too much of it though. Gets a bit insipid.

On entering and exiting a port, its a similar feeling I have when exiting and entering a large Railway Junction in India like Nagpur, Itarsi. I miss this part, living abroad. Trains just zip in and out so fast, compared to Indian trains that take points or crossing as low as 20kmph.

Lovely travelogue and one heck of a road trip. Thanks.