My first English X-Mas with Geoff's family!!!!

Okay!!! its the first posting since I set off on my Highlands adventure trip. While talking with Geoff he invited me to come on my way to Scotland to come and spend my X-Mas with his family in Earby, Lancashire. Earby is a very traditional English village (population 5000) hidden in absolutely stunning North Yorkshire country side with very narrow lanes and a backdrop of picturesque hills....

So I reached Geoff's family on 24th Dec. and I was stunned to see the reveling beauty of Earby in misty and foggy evening. Anyway, Geoff's family immediately made me comfortable in his house and I was became a part of the communication in no time. More importantly I got three little friends on that day, Noah, Jessuah, and Hannah, Geoff's nephews and a niece, really sweet kids.

After tea, we all went to a really traditional Engligh pub called The Red Lion, and for the first time I tries really really nice English ale called X-Mas pud which by the way is a seasonal ale as opposed to commercial beers. And it really doesnt get more traditional than this to see a seasonal ale just brewed for instance for the occasion of X-Mas. Our rest of the evening passed chatting and having fun.

Next day was a X-Mas day and early in the morning me and Geoff were in a deep sleep when we were called downstaires to see Noah opening his presents, it was really a nice experience to see a kid enjoying opening his presents and getting thrilled with every present he unwrapped. It lasted for nearly 2 hrs. After that everyone started preparing for the X-Mas lunch. And then in the afternoon we all went to Geoff's sister's home for our X-Mas lunch and had a really nice Turkey. After that another round of presents unwrapping session took place. I really was excited to experience a tradiotional X-Mas day with an English family.

We spent our rest of the evening taking micky out of everyone, chatting, and of course playing card games and rest of the X-Mas games.

This was really a great beginning of my long journey towards Scotland, and further north to Highlands.

Next morning I set off from Geoff's lovely Earby to Glasgow for my second part of the journey. In this part there are many great things happenin such as my 3 days going around in Highlands to Cullodon Battle Field, Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, Fort Augustus, and then to Isle of Skye. The detailed description of my this journey in which I covered nearly 800 miles in 3 days along with nice photographs will appear soon.

Cheers
Dnyanesh