Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 7

Andrew and I booked a private day tour through Mini Tours Scotland. I wanted to get a chance to see more of Scotland than Edinburgh, but I didn't want to rent a car because it is expensive and I didn't want to have to stress about driving in a foreign country on the other side of the road. A tour was the perfect solution! After breakfast, Craig picked us up in his van. We drove into the countryside, over the Firth of Forth, and into the region of Fife. He took us into some small fishing villages. Well, they used to be fishing villages. Apparently, that industry isn't as prominent today as it has been. Today, they are sleepy little towns that border lovely rock beaches. They attract local families on holiday but aren't very bustling ... read more

We booked a murder mystery tour through Witchery Tours. We were to meet in front of the Witchery restuarant, near the castle, at 7pm. Our route took us through the Princes Street Gardens, where we grabbed another Toastie from the German Christmas Market for dinner. The air was dense and wet, and it started to rain. Not wanting to be late, we arrived at the Witchery entirely too early and sat outside in the cold and wet for a while. Across the street, we watched a line (or "queue," as it were) form. This wasn't just any line. The line wound from the castle above us down the streets below and out of sight. Literally, the line was over a mile long. I asked a woman what people were queueing for, and she explained to me ... read more

After 56 days and lots of experiences to reflect on we made the final journey home from Jo'burg to Heathrow then to Glasgow. We left in glorious sunshine and arrived in clouds so grey and so near the ground we almost didn't believe the captain when he said 5 minutes to landing! Well that's it, it is all over but so many pictures and memories and people to thank for making our time in different parts of the world such an amazing experience. Special thanks to Jimmi and Alfie for providing us with an amazing experience over the last two weeks - we travelled well, we ate well, we drank well and we laughed lots.... read more

There I was, 10am Saturday morning. Exhausted from the red-eye journey, I began primping and puckering in the watermarked mirror of the hostel bathroom. I changed focus in the reflection to see a mildly disheveled young lady approaching through the door. The calm on her face rapidly turned to panic. Then to fear. Then BLEEGGGHHH. Projectile vomit. I narrowly Matrix-dodged the stream (see video. there's no vomitting in it.) and avoided being drenched in the mixture of hostel brekkie and whisky shots from the previous night's shenanigans. Wait for it. Wait for it Go. I mean if that's not a warm welcome to Edinburgh, I don't know what is! Luckily, the rest of the weekend was good, clean, vomit-free fun. This was my first visit to the UK and I'm really looking forward to exploring more ... read more

Any excuse, eh?! And I'm proud to say that most of what you'll see in the accompanying pictures was handmade in Scotland, right here in your correspondent's kitchen, in fact. Everything but the lederhosen, I'm not taking credit for those! Oktoberfest is a time honoured celebration of our American friends, and of course one of Daddy's personal favourites. He supplied two 'pins' (half kegs, i.e. 2x40pints) of beer for the event. He in the rather enviable position of having more beer than he knows what to do with right now, producing 160 pints most weekends, but not quite being able to sell it yet. And it was warmly received by all the men (and one or two ladies) in leather shorts at the party. I went for the more demure 'dirndl', with a long apron made ... read more