Easter in Aberdeen - Giving Chocolate to the Rats

Easter was spent with good family friends, the Ratcliffes (the Rats to us), at their home in Aberdeen. Jane spent 18 months in Aberdeen when she was wee and the trip included visits to her old house and school and plenty of deja vu (she was only 5 and 6 when last here).

The Rats have 6 horses including 2 Shetland ponies, 2 cats and a very active puppy, Alfie. We had such a relaxing holiday and were adopted into the family. The Easter bunny even found us!We drove up to the East Coast via Glen Shee , Scotland's best ski field. The wind was blowing everyone away and we heard the following day the ski field closed. Spring had certainly sprung as there were signs of new life all over the place.

Jane's parents recommended a trip to Crathes castle which was worth it from the outside atleast. Building was completed in 1596 and the guide books say the painting inside is a must-see. Unfortunately The National Trust has certainly put the price up from the last time the Mitchell's visited (20 years ago). Something to come back to see.
Although we'd been dreaming of a white Christmas the big man in charge postponed that to a white Easter. It snowed the entire weekend. We were thrilled to see the snow and even went out for a snowball fight, however it did sadly mean a horse ride was out of the question.The horses would have been too cold.Quad bikes were a totally different story and we spent an hour or so hooning around the paddocks.Despite the cold we still got out of the house. John, Marsha, Alice and Alfie took us for a walk around the cliff tops to Hackley Bay. It was the first time either of us had ever been to the beach in so many clothes and in the snow too! The dog had a great run on the beach, chasing tennis balls but we didn't envy him for his ocean dips.
During the walk we passed the stone remains of a church. There used to be a fishing village here but the wintry weather and isolation forced its demise.
The Winter Garden was another jolt to Jane's memory. It is a series of green houses done-up with different themes in each eg. the cactus garden.The garden was opened in 1883 and it's been reminding Aberdonians of colours and tropics from around the world ever since.

More Aussies in Irvine

Zaidee and Hayden came to visit us in Scotland for the weekend, coming all the way from London. On Saturday we took them to see the sights of Glasgow. The city has a hop on, hop off bus service with commentary so we endured the freezy winds (just) for the full tour. We got a taste of the cities major highlights including the big football (soccer) stadium, Merchant City area (see picture below) and the West End (where coffee was needed to defrost).

No we're not back in Australia at the Opera House but at the Glasgow Exhibition Centre or as the locals call it "The Armadillo" (for obvious reasons).Sunday was beautiful weather-wise so we went out for brunch and took plenty of photos of Arran Island to make the most of it and record the unusual sighting of that ball of fire in the sky that's rarely seen in bonny Scotland.

At the mouth of Nessie

No we haven't been eaten by the Loch Ness Monster. The prefix "Inver" can mean "mouth" as in mouth of a river or where a river leads into the sea, a lake or a loch. Therefore Inverness is the town at the mouth of the River Ness where it leads out of Loch Ness.

Last weekend we booked a cheap backpackers for a night in Inverness. The quick trip involved four hours driving there, through Perth, and five hours driving home, via Glen Coe. But boy was the scenery worth it!! We were absolutely spoilt with the weather. Every time we got out of the car the rain/hail/snow stopped whilst we looked around, only to begin again once the journey continued.
After terrific burgers in Perth (almost as good as the ones in North Melbourne at Burger Republic) we followed the A9 north into Perthshire, passing two fairytale castles.Alice, a radiographer at Crosshouse, had recommended a lovely walk at The Hermitage and the sun came out as we pulled into the car park.
We had great fun with the camera (sorry Jono, we're still learning the manual functions). The Hermitage was apparently a leisure park in the 18th century, You can still visit a cave, built two centuries ago, that was built as a shelter from the harsh weather. Within the grounds you can also see Britains tallest tree (a Douglas-fir), standing at 59 metres.

The River Braan was absolutely gushing, hinting at the conditions we were headed for further up in the Highlands.On Saturday evening we tasted the gastronomic delights of the Highlands. Greg tried Wild Pigeon and Jane ate Scallops (perhaps they weren't so highlandish - do scallops live in lakes?). Our backpackers was an absolute gem. The room had stunning views across the river to the Cathedral and the Castle could be seen out the side window. The sun was shining on Sunday morning while we hunted for our compulsory breakfast coffee. It was nowhere to be found. Brunch has definately not caught on in Britain. We took some more snaps of the castle and bridge before heading down the road to hunt Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. No the big green thing is not the monster...
Entry to Urquhart Castle (at £7 each!) was a out of our price range so we happily took our pictures over the fence. Hmmmm... have we done this before at a famous British sightseeing attraction?
The road ahead was spectacular. Although the top of the mountains were often covered in misty clouds, the sun poked through to reveal snow-capped peaks. We saw Ben Nevis in all its snow-covered glory. It's the UK's highest mountain reaching 1,344 metres.
Then the sun shone again as we passed through Glen Coe, a beautiful valley not unlike the Gap on Dunloe in Ireland which we walked through last year. Glen Coe is also one of Scotland's popular skiing and hill-walking areas. There were plenty of cars parked beside the road as we drove by despite the snow falling outside. We did brave the icy wind for a few quick snaps.
The last two hours of our weekend journey finally delivered the sight we'd been waiting for: Highland Cattle, or as Beck calls them "Hairy Cows". Following several U-turns on the A82 we arranged a good viewing point and finished off the storage space on our camera with pictures of the darling beasts. Does anyone know their purpose apart from being lovely to look at? Are they for beef mainly or just improving Scottish tourism?

No Birthday Blues for Jane (including sky colour)

The weekend before Jane's birthday, Beck and Paul came to visit from London. We drove them several hours down the coast to the small fishing village of Portpatrick. Its a pretty picturesque place with plenty of pubs selling good meals. That is, once you've determined what Scotch Broth entails. We wandered through the craft shops and the lighthouse gallery, sampling some lovely jams and lemon curd. The rain came and went, came and went but it couldn't have been a proper Scottish holiday for the two Londoners without true Scottish weather.

Before they left they presented Jane with a surprise early birthday cake. It was great to have some Aussies around even just for a weekend.

On the 2nd of March, just when we thought Spring had sprung, Scotland told us to hold our horses with more snow! The daffodils were coming out but Janice from work informed us that the real Spring began after Easter. We snapped plenty of pictures to remind us of these days when we return to Oz to face 35-40 degrees.

Greg will not miss preparing the car for its journey to work each morning.

BACK TO 14/09/07 Family Reunion in Lyon, France

Following a rather stressful train trip involving three train changes and two trains being delayed just for us, we arrived to the wide smiles of the Mitchell family. Jane's parents, Greg and Bron, and brother Jono, met us at the train station, having navigated the city of Lyon for an hour in their hire car just to be there to greet us.Jono was studying his final semester of Law at Lyon University. The two Gregs, Bron and Jane stayed in a rather small apartment (not much bigger than the apartment in Southampton, but for four!) just near the crayola-shaped building in the photo above. Lyon is a lovely city on the intersection of two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone Rivers. Overlooking the city is the Notre-Dame de Fourviere basilica, perched atop the Fourviere hill.Inside the basilica there's plenty of gold leaf and almost garishly coloured mosaics but the grandeur is impressive.

In the afternoon New Zealand was playing Portugal in Lyon for the World Cup Rugby. Despite valiant efforts to scalp tickets, Greg Mitchell was the only one to see the Haka and the match to follow. From this point the Altmanns developed a keen interest in the World Cup, stopping to view most of the following games at various big screens across Europe. Anyway, Dad missed out on a scrumptous picnic by the Rhone!Whilst in Lyon we ate some terrific meals. With help from Jono we avoided the infamous black Andouille sausage (only to eat its cousin in Scotland several months later).The girls and their Gregs. We navigated some brilliant markets and made the most of the set menu options at several restaurants in the Old Town of Lyon.We couldn't eat French for a whole week straight so one day Jono took us to a pizza place he'd discovered (conveniently just down the road from an Aussie Bar with day's Rugby scores).

Jane particularly loved the Zoo in Lyon. Its a huge park that people skate in, run around the perimeter, and kids (plus some grown-ups) go crazy over the FREE Zoo. Some people preferred to soak up the serenity.Sadly some of the animals did not seem happy. This elephant rapped to an internal beat for the whole 10 minutes we watched him. He just rocked backwards and forwards, making some very unelephant-like motions.Atleast the turtles and pelicans were happy enough to breed - although the unusual extent of turtle breeding whispers discontent.

Lyon has some impressive artwork. We visited the museum with its impressive collection of paintings to suit all tastes. Picasso and Monet were two of many artists represented here. Even the streets oozed art. Here's an interesting use for the side of a building. Lyon also enchanted us with this statue. The horses actually have steam coming from their nostrils. Its not difficult to imagine this pack of horses coming straight at you.