At some stage during these past weeks, Jeannie and Ronnie joined a choir called Voicebeat. At our first practice they were singing some African songs, and had bungled the pronunciation – fezulu instead of phezulu! Here we met our German friends, Mandy and Daniela, who invited us on a trip to the Isle of Bute with a bunch of other foreigners. We graciously accepted the invitation and the morning of Sunday the 28th of May saw us at Glasgow central station, bright, early and ready for an adventure! We got a rail and sail ticket out to the island (i.e. we caught the train and then the ferry) where we went to visit the ruins of Rothesay Castle, which unlike the Dumbarton wannabe was very castle-like indeed. There was even a dungeon! After this we went on a tour of the island in a topless bus. The weather was good, by Scottish Standards, but we still got very cold. Reminiscent of the drive with Donald in the convertible! Bute was very beautiful indeed and we also made a trip to Mount Stuat – a stately home with extensive grounds! Mandy somehow managed to score us a free bus ride out to Mount Stuart; we think it had something to do with batting eyelashes and blond hair! The grounds at Mount Stuart went right down to the beach, and as we arrived at said beach the sun came out, so we decided that a bit of lounging was in order. Frank the German man even made like the natives and took his shirt off! Random!

On the ferry to Bute. From left: Vicky (New Zealand), Jeannie, Mandy (Germany), Ronnie, Marco (Switzerland), Frank (Germany), Steve and Houda (Tunisia)

From left: Marco, Ronnie and Mandy on the open topped bus!

Jeannie and Steve with a lovely view of Bute in the Background

A view of the Isle of Arran through the gorse bushes. The gorse smells like cocobutter suntan lotion, its quite lovely in a bizarre way. Those mountains are Arran. We have plan to go and climb them at some stage!