Edinburgh and Nessie

Day 1 - London to Edinburgh

Terminal 5 didn't' loose our bags, thanks British Airways. We made it to the hotel half an hour before Jim and Carmel and had a couple of drinks n Nacho's. Then we had a walk around the city to check out the place, ended up walking through the shops, that night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant across the road from the Hotel. The hotel we stayed in was right below the impressive castle, we had a great view.

Day 2 - Edinburgh to Loch Ness

Since we were in Scotland and Jim and Carmel had a car, Melissa decided a trip to Loch Ness was in order, she organised it Contiki styles and had a day sheet drawn up and all. So up early back late, what a day, Scotland was grey but getting out and about was good fun.

Inverness had a local fund raiser on and we walked through a pretty island park, very relaxing and the town provided the country pace. At lunch we'd made it to Loch Ness and stopped off at a restaurant, in the hope that we'd spot Nessie over lunch but we found a place without a view :/

I ordered steak at an outrageous cost and everyone had crusty hamburgers, they all felt sick and decided to have two milk shakes to make up for it. I joined them in their indulgence, which was to my detriment as I felt very car sick later on as we really haven't gone for a car journey in quite sometime. The Scottish Loch's are very skinny and the country side was a refreshing view to the contrast of the grey grim London streets.

That night there was a wedding on at the hotel and Jim had to park the car a couple of blocks up the road, it took him half an hour to get back so he must have enjoyed a pint at the local or something...

Day 3 - Edinburgh Castle and fireworks

The castle was by far the best part of our trip, the tour guide was very impressive and rattled out a whole lot of information which I won't repeat. The staff inside the castle looking after the place also spoke about each room as you walked in, it wasn't their job but they did it anyway. It added to the tour and we had a great time, even if it was raining on me all day and I was in a t-shirt, the weather made me feel like I was at home ^^

That night Jim and Carmel met up with a workmate for drinks and Melissa and I had a swim in the pool and a steam in the Sauna, for some reason in Europe we haven't found a proper spa yet... very un-impressive really. I think you need to pay heaps to go to a spa resort, I don't think my mother would survive a year without a spa....

We all met up eventually and watched the fireworks which went for an hour played to a Hungarian opera's conductor or something, it was very impressive and we'd seen all the fireworks at the castle earlier, all four tons of them.

Day 4 - Edinburgh to London

Melissa and I had such a good time here we're coming back!!! Watch this space for the Isle of Skye(Mist) and Isle of Bute, where Melissa and Jamie explore a few of the western Isles.

Other Stuff

Some of our fun times in London can be seen via the slide shows here.

The squirrels



Kew Gardens

Expeditious Visits

June is nearly at an end and it has been a busy month, what with me being off work and everything..... the life of a loafer ain't all it's cracked up to be :)

As you might all know I've been off work recently and I'm counting down the months until I get back to the mighty NZ! Although there are many travels to accomplish before that - Italy, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, France, Egypt, Singapore and then Australia.

At the end of June, Danielle who is Melissa's cousin stayed for a couple of nights, she's not new to travelling and this was her completely independent mission, well that's what we were told :) So being in our a new apartment we were more than happy to put Danielle up and we showed her around three separate markets and a park in one day - Camden, Angel flower and Brick Lane markets as well as Regents park.

That night we rounded up ingredients for a fabulous mango daiquiri and it was scrumptious and a little alcoholic. Danielle was worn out that night and fell asleep during a Top Gear episode that was playing at a record number of decibels!

Although Danielle was a seasoned traveller she still had a little trouble with her monetary funds and called upon Melissa for assistance. That was after a discussion with her mother and I happened to hear the words 'things should just be simpler and easier'. Apparently banks these days don't accommodate for travellers that forget their pin.... shocking!

Well Melissa was all to happy to help however the story did the family rounds as Danielle's parents had to get in touch with Melissa's parents to get Melissa's bank details. Money was exchanged from Australia to Australia and from the UK to the UK.... now that was simple..... hmmm confused... I am :)

So Danielle has her London legs now and a bit of spare change in her pocket. There were a couple of close calls with the train and one missed however as Auntie Bev found out this is all to common a story in the UK.....

Which brings us to Harrods, I don't know how I get roped into all these shopping adventures but everyone tells me you must go here and there and do this and that.... Really... well... you know. Harrods was huge, Auntie Beverly and Bronwyn came along with us. The girls were really chuffed with Harrods and they only tortured me for a couple of hours all and all it wasn't too bad.

So Melissa and I showed the Southern girls how the tube worked and around Regents park. They were really impressed with the park and I think they were really impressed with Melissa too! After a load of sight seeing and eating Auntie Bev and Bronwyn had to catch a train up north late in the evening however as they found out, the trains aren't really all that reliable.

The train they were meant to go was delayed and at about 10:30pm they decided it wasn't leaving the platform so they came up to the King's Cross Palace and crashed out on the exclusive air bed and couch. Our flatmate Dan has been pulling out all the bedding for the folks, good stuff Dan.

In other news family members have been breaking their collar bones, sinking their boats, loosing rapid amounts of weight, cooking up storms and getting new jobs! For more information please contact the Director.

Wine Tasting and Brighton

For Jamie's birthday I took him for a vineyard tour and wine tasting day in Haywards Heath, Sussex. We took the train and were lucky enough to find tickets for only £10/day after searching different fare prices on the net. Upon arriving at the train station we found that finding the correct platform and train was a bit harder than we bargained for, and we were really lucky we left a few hours early. Otherwise we may have missed the wine tasting, and that would have been really sad...

British wine, is well to put it bluntly weak, this is due to the lack of sunshine in Britain, however there are a few wealthy Brits who have decided to squander their money on creating vineyards around the countryside. The vineyard we were at had a lovely man, that guided us around the vineyard and explained how vines grew and all the finer details of creating wine up to putting the labels on the bottles. It all looked very expensive and he suggested it wasn't a viable investment. After our tour we tasted three wines, which were o.k., Melissa and I liked the sparkling and the rose wine. Then they served dinner as well, which was very British it reminded me of eating at a British friends house. Cold cut ham and salad, but doesn't the chutney make the meal :)

After we had finished our wine tasting we packed up and headed off on the train to Brighton. Brighton is a really crazy place and it would definitely pay to book your accommodation much further in advance if you want to find a good deal. It was really quite pricey £100 / night - no breakfast , but I guess we were paying more for the location than a nice room. The photo below is the view from our room.

The 'Brighton Best Western Hotel' was just horrid, upon entering our room there was a foul aroma, which we soon discovered was due to the wet carpet. Which was being dried by a small fan heater, all the windows were closed and I though they were trying to gas us!!!! It was either stay there or go home and we decided to tough it out and stay. On checkout there was a line of people all complaining about their rooms. The shower was dirty and the view was dismal, they could have put in a little more effort, it should be called the Worst Western. Not something I'd recommed this 'Brighton Best Western Hotel' has put us off all Best / Worst Western hotels.

The beach there is quite weird to us antipodeans, no sand all rocks and pebbles. It made for a nice but very loud walk along the water. Brighton just felt like a town that was a constant funfair. The pier had all sorts of carnival attractions (rides and games) that were open all year round.

Apart from the beach, Brighton is well known for 'The Laines', which is a series of small walkways with shops on either side and lots of stalls. Just before entering 'The Laines' we found a really nice cafe that made fabulous eggs benedict for breakie. It as so good we had the same both mornings we were there. We really just had a relaxing weekend walking around taking in the sites.

We headed out on the town on Saturday night for some Cocktails, they had a 2-4-1 deal on so we thought why not give them a go. Our order took awhile to be filled and even then they got it wrong, however eventually we were given the drinks we had asked and paid for. The first cocktail we tried was a Cosmopolitan, it was really nice. The second was a choc-mint and boy was it STRONG!! Jamie had to finish mine, as it tasted like straight vodka with a hint of mintiness.

On the Sunday the sun finally made an appearance (however the temperature still didn't get above 13degrees- so much for summer) and we sun-baked on the rocks, eating hot chips and ice-cream for lunch, yum yum!!!

By 2pm we had had enough and decided to head home to London. The train ride to Clapham Junction - London, took as long as the Bus to Earl's Court (the train we needed wasn't running that day.....) After finally making it home at 4pm, we decided to have a quick nap before dinner, however we didn't wake until 4am!! No point in making dinner now, so we just went back to sleep.

What a relaxing end to the weekend.