Edinburgh (RTW) - Month 4 and a half

Ok well it has only been a couple of weeks but I thought I should send an update anyways.



Southern England


Well a couple of weeks ago we decided to go down to London and as I had to work on Monday and Tuesday we happen to have a hire car for the weekend so we decided to drive around while we didn’t have to pay for a car. Ok so our flight left at 6:25am from Edinburgh, we got up and left home at 5:30 as we were already had our boarding passes and we had to just drop off 1 bag to go underneath. We arrived at the long-term car park at 5:45 so still has 45mins to go. Bus didn’t arrive to pick up from the car park until 6:00 which mean we got to the airport at 6:05. Katherine and I sprinted to the BA bag drop desk to drop our bag off. We were told that plane was on final call and that the bag couldn’t go underneath the aircraft. The 4 of us roared upstairs to security, while we were in the line we quickly put some of our gear in P&M’s bags so our bag could squash down. Meaghann’s bag was pulled aside to test some hair stuff and she was “you can have it”. The guys was “it will only take a couple of minutes”. My bag had to be rescanned as I forgot to take the laptop out and I had a liquid which was over 100ml so that had to be chucked out. M&P quickly raced to the gate and told them we were on our way. We quickly raced out of security splitting groups of people in the process and got our passports and boarding passes out. The gate wasn’t that far off which was good and as we got to the gate they didn’t even want to look at our stuff. It was like we were running a marathon and they were our coaches as the last turn waving us through and tell us to get a move on. We jumped down the stairs and bolted across the tarmac to the aircraft. As soon as we got on the place the doors were closed behind us……..We had made it…..JUST! Anyway it was a great flight down and we got breakfast on the plane, yay! Well we got down to Gatwick picked up the car and drove to my mates place where my parents me us with up for 30mins before they flew back to Australia which was nice and we got some goodies which only lasted the weekend…….well it was pointless just bringing back a wee bit of rum so Phill and I had to finish it off on Monday night.



Anyway we headed out to Stonehenge with Katherine, Phil, Meaghann, Phill (not a typo…..ok so I know a few people call Phil) and me! It was really nice and the weather held up for us which was grand. We had a great time out at the henge and had a nice pub meal on the way although I must say that I don’t really enjoy the English ales as much as the Scottish ales. We went back to Phill and Bronwyn’s had a great meal, watch some TV played with Amelia and went to bed.

Next day we went to Windsor castle had a look at the Queen’s pad and must say it isn’t too shabby at all. Got back to car and had a parking ticket on the windscreen but it was worth at as the car park we got was in a great spot. Right outside Windsor castle! We dropped Phil and Meaghann off at Heathrow as they were flying back to Eddie on the same flight as Phil’s parents. Katherine and I then went to meet some cousins of mine that live in Surrey and they took us to the little town where half of the movie The Holiday was filmed and based. We had a night meal and ale in the pub where Cameron Diaz meets her beau. We then walk for a nice walk around the town and the surrounding woods. After that we went back and had a drink with Rob before heading off to Swindon to stay with some for cousins. Swindon very interesting especially when the GPS takes you through the Magic Roundabout! That’s right it is a round about with 5 little roundabouts on the edge of it……..just google it. He had a nice meal and a good sleep on the floor.


I then went to work in Surrey the next two days while Katherine got to trip around London seeing all the sights and really enjoying herself……..That night we went back to Phill and Bronies had a great me and Phill and I got to jam which was great fun as it has been a long time!

We then flew back to Eddie and made sure we were at the airport in ample time.



Inverness


Well last weekend we went up to Inverness and it was amazing!!!!! We drove up Friday night and it is quite a ways up there but we got up there in time to have some food with Phil, Meaghann, Stan and Nancy. The next day we went to Cullodan battle field which was the last battle in Scotland and also to Cawdor castle which is still lived in today. We had the best weather and it was a great day. The castle was cool as it has a draw-bridge and seeing it being lived in was really cool. The grounds were amazing and we had a beautiful picnic there. Oh yeah the castle also has its own golf course…not bad huh.


In the afternoon we briefly went to Fort George which is a fort the English built after winning at the battle of Cullodan and it was quite impressive. That night we went for a drive down some of Loch Ness to have a look at Urquhart Castle and at night it was amazing! The next day we went back to the Loch and had a look around Urquhart castle and also the little town around there. It was really nice going to Loch Ness and we did find Nessie!!!! We have a picture or here believe it or not! That afternoon we spent driving down the rest of the lochs out to Fort William and then back to Edinburgh via Stirling…….a HUGE drive one that we all underestimated just a wee bit.


Anyways this weekend we are not really doing anything at all but I will keep ya posted with the new adventures we have and the people we meet.


Dan

Edinburgh (RTW) - Month 4

OK so another month has passed as we are still enjoying our time here. Katherine finishes up her contact today than has 2 weeks off and starts her new Glasgow contract after that. Me well I’m still plodding along at Bodycote but I have been down to Manchester and next week down to London for work. So I hear you asking yourself I wonder where they have been the last month, well I’ll tell you…….Manchester, Prague, Brechin (Scottish Highlands) and Lake Geneva (Switzerland/France).

Manchester

Ok so we went down and visited Nab and Nat one weekend to actually have a look at what there was around Manchester. After the 4 hr drive we had a few drinks a few laughs and headed off to bed as we had a big day ahead. Well we didn’t really stay in Manchester we decided to go down and have a look at where Wedgewood was made and then made our way towards Nottingham………that’s right we went to Sherwood forrest! We had fun climbing up the inside of a tree that we probably went spose to but hey, we saw a 1000yr old Oak tree (which is held up by steel supports) which was cool but have to feel for all the other trees that don’ have help. Later that night we went to Pau Brasil which was great. It is a all you can eat and you have a green/red disc. You put it on green if you want meat and red if you don’t. They come around with meat on big skewers and then just cut off however much you want…….so cool and it was awesome to have lamb!!! The next day we roamed around Manchester and just happened to be there for St. George day parade. It was quite good and then weather was typical English weather……WET. Later Phil, Meaghann and Katherine all went back to Edi but I stayed on for work so Nab, Nat and I went to the Man City vs Portsmouth match which was really good and we really enjoyed it. There was quite a few soft goals though.

Prague

Well Katherine and I decided to go to Prague for our Wedding Anniversary this year. So we flew our early Sat morning (we had to be at the airport at 5am!) when we arrived we caught a shuttle to town which dropped us off at the castle. We did a quick tour around the castle and soon ended up at Lobkowicz Palace. This place was amazing it is still owned by the family and they have some awesome stuff, like for example the original manuscripts of Beethoven’s 5^th symphony which was written for them and the Halleluiah Chorus manuscript that Mozart we wrote. After that we screamed down to the Charles bridge and did the touristy thing along it and then shot through to the town square where the astronomical clock is (we missed it by 5 mins). We then headed on down to Wenceslas square and had a look at some of the shops. I of course had my Czech sausage on our way to a nice park were we stopped watched some of the dogs playing and just relaxed in the sun (yes there was SUN and lots of it it was GREAT!). We then moved on to check in at our boutique hotel. Well when we got there we found out that there was no room at the inn and they had changed us from their very romantic boutique hotel to a Best Western…….we weren’t very happy! But he we were on our anniversary so we didn’t let that get us down, we checked in and then went back uptown to do some more touring around. We had a wonderful dinner in a wee restaurant in the Jewish quarter; we finally saw the clock on our way back to our hotel. The next day we were up early and climbed up to the top of the astronomical clock where we got a great view of Prague. We went up and sat in another park and went to the local markets which was fun trying to buy stuff speaking Czech. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed it we left later that night and arrived back in Edi around 10pm.

Brechin

Well my folks arrived so we decided to take them, Phil and Meaghann and Jim and Sandra to Brechin for the weekend and stay IN A CASTLE!!!!!!! That’s right we stayed in a castle with 800 aces of land it was soooooo peaceful and amazing. We absolutely loved it and we ate in whenever we could as there was a huge dinning room, a drawing room with a real fire place, 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. There was a deer farm on the property and horses and forests to explore as well. The weather was unbelievable and so beautiful. The first day up there we sent for a drive and took mum and dad to a whiskey distillery which they loved and drove around a few wee towns. We came back and mum cooked an amazing roast lamb. The next day we just roomed around a bit and then on our way back we went up to Dunnotar castle which is on the sea on top of a rocky outcrop. We then drove down to St. Andrews and walked the 18^th as they don’t play golf on the old course on a Sunday so we were very lucky. Dad was over the moon and we had photo on the famous stone bridge. We also stopped off at Carnoustie on the way and had lunch for mother’s day, who would have thought mum would be drinking Moet out of the bottle!!! We had a nice drive home but was exhausted when we got there.

Geneva

Ok so for the May long weekend the 4 of us decided to go to Geneva and meet Brendan there. Now we didn’t really know what to expect (probably a good thing) and we were blown away by what we found (but I’ll get to that later). So we grabbed our car and decided that maybe we should get a GPS as we were staying about 5km out of town……in France. Well it was a jolly good thing we did as the streets in Geneva are so confusing and it didn’t help that we had to drive on the other side of the road. So the first day we walk along Lake Geneva (only a little bit as it is massive!) saw the giant bidet (water fountain) walked up and saw St. Pierre Cathedral and then went to our unit. Phil wasn’t feeling the best so the 4 of us went on with out him (we suspect he had food poisoning). So we decided to go for a drive and we ended up down the other end of the Lake at the foothills of the alps looking at Chillion Castle after tripping around the castle we headed back towards Geneva and stopped off a Montreux. It was heaps of fun as they had just had a huge Marching Band comp so there was all these different Marching bands going down the streets and cheering and tears etc.etc. We ended up having a meal in a traditional Suisse restaurant where we shared fondue while looking over the Lake to the French side. After dinner we headed off home and to sleep.

Well the next day Phil was good but Meaghann was sick but anyway we pushed on. We went into town to a little bakery to grab some breakfast which was quite interesting as the lady only spoke French or Italian. Ordering was ok but when she short changed me 10 francs that was a little bit harder and a nice bloke came and rescued me. Anyway after brekky we were off to the United Nations Building and where on a tour with our great leader Katherine. The tour was very interested and I actually sort of know what they do now. After that we dropped of Phil and Meaghann as they had to work on Monday, and then there were 3. So the three of us choofed off around the lake again but this side on the French side. We stopped off in Evian where we all had our Evians (good thing Brendan brought some Euro…..different currency) and then headed off towards the alps. The alps were amazing and we only got to one little medieval village which you may have heard of cause of their cheese…..Gruyères. WOW what a village it has a amazing view all the streets are cobbled it has a great spring and the water is beautiful, there is an amazing castle and a horror museum (forget about that). We also saw some Suisse guys playing those huge wooden horns. All I can say about this place is it is amazing and I want a holiday place here. After leaving Gruyères we went and had dinner in Ouchy which is a part of Lausanne. We had traditional Rösti and I had Suisse chocholat mousse for dessert. I was amazing! After that we headed off home and to bed. The next day we walked around town and then back to the airport to go home. Both Katherine, Brendan and I said the same thing……….this is our favorite country! That is all I have to say.

Well last weekend we really didn’t do much at all. We went down to Newcastle to visit a mate and went shopping to get new clothes. So that’s really it for now. In the next edition you will hear about adventures from London to Inverness.

Anyway until I chat to you next time.

Dan