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