Blogs from Aviemore, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe
June 13th 2011
After the wedding in the south of France we headed back to Paris for a final farewell. Went to Giverny by bus to visit Monet's garden. Unfortunately it was a holiday in France, and the garden had been heavily promoted within France, so the crowds were HUGE. Still it was lovely. Our final night in Paris was a flaming sucess, and we were given a warm farewell. Or at least Graeme was - the waiter spilled flaming Grand Marnier into his lap when flaming his crepe!!! No lasting damage, but I think the waiter may have PTSD as a result - to say nothing of Graeme. Eurostar to London. Our hotel in Russell Square was a pleasant surprise, with our room being quiet, clean and spacious. Hop on Hop off bus tour of all major sights, ... read more
Snowboarding at Cairngorm, Aviemore
Published: February 25th 2011Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Aviemore
February 25th 2011
12th Feb 2011 It was an early start. Since it was about 123 miles or 2 hours 40 minutes drive from my place (meeting point), we were on the road by 7am. Thank god i wasn't driving. So i manage to continue my much needed beauty sleep at the back of the car as Khai was driving The day started off not too bad, a bit gloomy and foggy. Well, as i've learned you can't predict the Scotland weather at any time, we weren't too worry. As long as it wasn't raining! Khai, being a good driver (ehem!), we manage to arrive just about half nine and went straight to the equipment hire shop at Glenmore. We decided to hire here instead at the mountain to avoid the longgg queue (learned our lesson from the previous ... read more
Day 2 Edinborough to Aviemore
Published: April 13th 2010Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Aviemore
April 13th 2010
Edinburgh De greutva drinkt nooit gene Famous Grouse meer want me het bezoek van de destillerij moeste nondedoeme 8 pounds betalen! en da zag ons oudje ni zitte. Enfin (nvdr), hij mocht er gin foto s trekken of filme, da was d echte reden. dus na lang in den auto te hebben gezeten kwamen we wa rook tegen in de bergen, allemaal uitgestapt kijken we van waar de rook vandaan kwam, van nen brand doeme! dus den eersten brand was verschieten en schrik maar na twintig werdt ge et wel beu, want blijkbaar doen ze da vanuit bescherming voor de schapen bij brand of zo. natuurlek zen we smorges nog langs edinburgh waarda we waren opgesplitst de "klein" mannen zijn gaan shoppen en gaan eten in den marcs en spencer en de oude mannekes naar national ... read more
Schotland - Cairngorm Mountains
Published: April 22nd 2009Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Aviemore
April 14th 2009
We breien een tweede deel aan 'den toerist' en trekken vandaag richting CairnGorm mountains. We staan voor één keer extra vroeg op zodat we het voederen van de rendieren niet zouden missen omstreeks 10:00 uur. Na wat gesukkel met de juiste weg komen we ter plaatse aan en betalen een 10 pond (= 10 teveel) om 4 rendieren op een klein gazonnetje te bekijken en een huisje met informatie betreffende. Het voederen van de wilde dieren in de bergen gaat voorlopig nog niet door omdat men ze nog niet gevonden heeft. Deze trip heeft normaal gezien plaats om 11:00. Wanneer men ons komt vertellen dat de kudde gelokaliseerd is twijfelen we nog even , maat uiteindelijk besluiten we toch nog mee te gaan (mits opleg, uiteraard). Met de auto trekken we tot op een 500 meter ... read more
The Big Trip Part 3 - Kincraig and More Family
Published: August 16th 2008Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Aviemore
April 20th 2008
Kia Ora! This is ridiculous - 8 months later and I finally remember to write this up! Oh well, here goes..not sure how much I'll remember now! I think we spent about a week and a half in total at my Mum & Dad's new house in Kincraig in what is now the Cairngorm National Park. Its a cracking house in a wonderful area that has come to mean a lot to me over the years since we started holidaying there as kids. The first visit was pre-Christmas for a few days and it was at this time that we were visited by my dad's sisters, Winnie and Dorothy and my cousin Alison and it was great to see all of them. Jo-Ann , Ailsa and I took a few strolls ab out the place which ... read more
You take the high road and I'll take the low road...
Published: December 29th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Aviemore
December 29th 2007
Hello All! Sorry for the delay but we have been quite busy and lazy with Christmas and food galore. Hope everyone had as wonderful a day as we had and I'll share the Christmas goodness in a future post but I need to catch you up on the trip to Aviemore that John and I took. A few facts... Aviemore is about a 2 1/2- 3 hour drive depending on how lost you get and is the in Scottish highlands in the mountains and lochs. It is undoubtably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and looks and feels just like Winter Park Colorado if you forget the accents for a moment. The mountain is called Carigngorn Mountain. The drive up was magnificant as we got in the highlands just about sunset and I ... read more
Is Nessie the real mystery?? â¦â¦. & our brush with stardom!!
Published: April 16th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Aviemore
April 16th 2007
YAY PHOTOS NOW! Well hidy ho diddly diddlers from sunny Scotland. Yep Sunny. I think we must have brought it with us from Oz. Well its been a big week since my last update, apart from the fact that half the time we have needed to use matchsticks to keep our eyes open after getting up for work at 5:30am every morning and not getting til after 7:15pm we also have had some extra curricular activity. Friday night was supposed to be another HUGE night out at a local bowlie. Turned out to be a bit of a fizzer, not many people, but our band mate Nige played for us anyways and we made the best of a funny situation. Now, if I hadn’t physically seen Loch Ness myself the last time I was here… ... read more
August 1st 2006
Success! A haggis meal has been consumed. It was not all plain sailing though. Yesterday we hopped on board the train at an ungodly hour (7ish) and headed for Inverness. At this hour our Britrail train passes aren't actually valid, but we were counting on the conductor not knowing this or not caring. Indeed the conductor glanced at our passes and then passed right on (he didn't let on if it was apathy or ignorance). Nothing in Inverness was open at that hour, except McDonalds. We boarded our train to Dunrobin Castle at 10ish. The Dunrobin Castle station is only open during the summer months. It is at the end of Dunrobin Castle's driveway and is used solely for their tourists. Actually it was built by one of the Dukes of Sutherland (the family that lives ... read more
July 30th 2006
I had a wee dram of Talisker on the Isle of Skye last night. Since we couldn't get to the distillery, it was the least I could do. Last time we were in Scotland we had haggis at the Saucy Mary's (the hostel on Skye we were staying in). At the time we had had haggis a few times already and so were able to say, with a degree of certainty, that the haggis at Saucy Mary's was the best we had had so far. So, I was looking forward to haggis and Talisker as my last meal on Skye. It was not to be. Under new management, haggis is no longer on their menu. In fact, haggis has been very elusive this trip. No where have we seen it. Oh sure, the odd butcher has ... read more
