Today we left Edinburgh and drove to Loch Lomond via Glasgow. 

Our first stop was Balloch Castle Park, a wonderful old estate overlooking the shore of Loch Lomond. The walk to the castle is mainly through woodland. The castle was built in 1808 for John Ardoch of Buchanan. The estate with its walled garden, woodland, shore walks and picnic areas is now a national park and can be enjoyed by everyone.

It's been a few days since the tour has officially been complete, but I have still been touring, visiting friends both in Scotland and back here in England. 

I have even been enjoying the rain... back in Bahrain, we get very little of it.

Yesterday, I made a planned visit to the Land Rover factory in Solihull. The Land Rover LR3 has, of course, been a very reliable vehicle for me, one I have been happy to trust on a gruelling tour such as this one. It didn't once let me down right through the drive from Bahrain to England.

At the factory, I was welcomed by Roger Crathorne, manager, technical communications and public affairs, who was very enthusiastic about the Friendship Tour and arranged an interview with the Land Rover magazine to feature our expedition. 

This morning after a good night's sleep, I contacted the Bahrain Embassy to confirm the time I was expected there. I got to the Embassy well before the scheduled time, and was welcomed first by Yusuf Jameel, deputy head of the Bahrain mission, and then by the rest of the staff.

Rebecca interviewed Mr Jameel, who spoke about the importance of the tour in promoting Bahrain and friendship between the many nations we visited. He also spoke about the special relationship that Bahrain has with Britain, which goes back a long time.

Then the guests started to arrive, among them high ranking diplomats from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

After leaving France in the late afternoon, I drove to Calais, the French port from where the ferry leaves for Dover, England. 

The ferry left at 11pm and took about an hour and a half before docking in Dover.

I drove for a few miles, then stopped at a Bed & Breakfast for the night for a rest before the drive to London.

England is officially the final stop on the Friendship Arabia Tour, though I will also be taking in Scotland and Ireland before heading back to Bahrain.

This morning, after breakfast at the hotel, I drove to the Gulf Air office in Paris and was welcomed by the manager, Vincent Verdonck and his staff.

We had a good meeting and spoke about how we could promote Bahrain as a tourist destination and also as a one or two day transit stop for people flying beyond Bahrain.

It has been raining all day since I reached Paris.

After getting to my hotel, I had a nice time just walking around the city. It was great to have the rain - not for the French, of course, but as for me, I've always enjoyed the rain just as how the travelers would enjoy some rain on their holidays to Spain.

Later, after returning to the hotel for a rest, I met up with Fiona Chan from Gulf Air's Paris office who invited me to dinner. We spoke about how we can work together to promote Bahrain in the future, especially with our national airline having a daily direct flight between Paris and Bahrain.

We also discussed how Bahrain could benefit by offering transit passengers who fly from France to the Far East a stopover for a day or two.

After spending three days in Lugano, I got into the Land Rover and set Geneva as the destination on my Garmin GPS. 

Once I started to drive, I noticed the navigator taking me there via Italy and France. I was a bit puzzled, but followed the route nevertheless, and sure enough, it got me to Geneva, back in Switzerland. When I arrived at my destination, I mentioned to my friends about the route I took and was informed that not only was this the best route, it was also the fastest!

This morning I had coffee with my tour guide Peter Knapp, after which we went on a walking tour of Lugano's city centre to see some of the historic buildings as well as some of the newer ones.

Later, we returned to the hotel and then drove about 3km to Gandria, a village on the Italian border. We had a delicious meal here at the Locanda Gandriese, then walked around and explored this pretty village, which has only 219 inhabitants.

After a week in Italy, I left for Switzerland at 7am today, guided by my very reliable Garmin GPS fitted in my Land Rover.

The border crossing was as quick and efficient as you can expect with the Swiss, and I drove all the way to the Splendide Royal Hotel in Lugano.

Lugano is one of those unique areas in Switzerland that combines Swiss quality with Italian influences. It is famous for its lakes and mountains as well as its modern and ancient architecture.

Today, I met Stefania Tanesini, who is the press officer for Focolare (see previous post) before going to visit the Gen Rosso ROSSO Band. Valerio Gentile and members of the band have travelled around Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America to promote friendship through music, so we do share a common goal.

The band  gave me a warm welcome and spoke about how pleased they were to meet someone who shared the ideals. They also mentioned that they would be very happy to do a concert or two in Bahrain or elsewhere in the Gulf, if there is interest.