Scotland - Spring Holiday Part 5 of 5

After touching down in Edinburgh late one Sunday night we woke up to the brightest, warmest, sunniest day of the trip! And the good weather continued for the remaining 8 days Jess and Andrew spent in the UK. They seemed to have accidentally packed up the warm weather and taken it home with them too. I think it may be still lost somewhere in Beijing Airport.
But back to Scotland... So we hired a car and spent a glorious three days driving around the strangely sunny Scottish countryside. We made our leisurely way across to the west coast via Stirling and a night in Culcreuch Castle. This was part of Andrews birthday present from me. I was hoping for something for a bit more grand and incredible, but it seemed a bit more run down and in need of a "Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmare" make over. All the same it was lovely and I think Andrew enjoyed it too. We then had a night in the pretty "Scottish resort" town of Oban. I'm not too sure what Scottish people do on holiday but I am pretty sure it does not include immersing themselves in the sea water. My pushy big sister got me to dip my feet in and see how long I could hold them in. After my feet turned blue and the onset of frost bite kicked in I pulled them out. There is not a chance in all hell I would get in that water. Next day we headed east back towards Edinburgh through the pretty tourist town of Falkirk where we finally got our fix of scones. After dropping off the car in Edinburgh the next day we headed back to London where we spent the next few days showing Jess and Andrew our favourite bits, sweating (not just on the tube) and cooling off with a Pimms. It was very sad to say goodbye to Jess and Andrew but we had such a great time. Thanks heaps for sharing and making our adventure so much fun guys!!

Stirling Castle, notice the chavs in the corners.

Beautiful hand painted wall paper from our room in Culreuch Castle

The castle grounds

On the shores of Loch Lomand

Oban

I think Andrew was more excited about this castle. It was pretty cool.

*

10 million Londoners trying to keep cool in the "Heatwave" of 27 degrees!!

Farewells

*Photo taken by Ms Jessica Strickland

Austria - Spring Holiday Part 4 of 5

Leaving Slovenia, chuffing along in the train to Salzburg, this is the type of scenery we were treated to. I know. It's lovely.


This is a shot from within the center of old town of Salzburg with a view up to the castle on the hill. Yes, there is a man standing precariously on a giant golden sphere. Luckily, he's not made of flesh and bones like you or I.

Alright. How many of you out there have seen the sound of music thousands of times? This garden should look familiar to you then. For everyone else, hey look at this lovely garden.
This is a shot form a Marionette exhibition on in the castle.
Fear. (Part 1 of 2)
Fear. (Part 2 of 2)
We found a giant sized 'grown-ups' playground, so we obliged.
This is a gorgeous shot of the old town.
After two beautiful nights in Salzberg we were keen to train it to Vienna where we were meeting Sarah's sister, Jessica and brother-in-law, Andrew. It was a very happy moment when the two sisters were reunited.
This is a church in Vienna in a square called Stevensplatz. Hehe.
Andrew, having no respect for such petty things as laws, defies the signage and decides to stand casually. Later he is relieved when he finally gets it right.
For morning tea we went to the the (disputed) original home of the Sasha Torte to try the merch. NOTE: The desert pictured is not a Sasha Torte.

That's a Sasha Torte! This picture features the two major parts in the life of a Sasha Torte.


We stayed in a sweet apartment while in Vienna. This is the view outside the kitchen window.
Lovely architecture. And finally, one for the kids.

Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps

I don't usually feel compelled enough to share articles, but I have to share this.
There is nothing in this article that isn't funny or terrifying:
Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps

Slovenia- Spring Holiday Part 3 of 5

So, we're at the half way mark. Spring is starting to set in with sporadic showers and blushes of blue sky.
We Eurail it up to Slovenia via an 8 minute train changeover in Zagreb that would impress the toughest "Amazing Race" competitors and are greeted by the most spectacular green countryside we have seen in a long time, in fact, you could say, ever.
The railway curled itself around the magnificent towering alpine region of southern Slovenia, following the incredibly blue Sava River (I think that is the name anyway). After about 8 hours train ride we found ourselves in Ljubljana (pronounced Loob-lana). After only reading the brief paragraph or two from our massive, but information light Lonely Planet- Europe on a Shoestring Guide we were not sure what we would find. After locating our awesome hostel (Hostel Most is case you ever go) with room that overlooked the river we went out to discover a beautiful little city. The centre of the city it feels like a perpetual Sunday afternoon as most of the inhabitants seem to be students with a lot of time to drink coffee and eat ice-cream at the incredible number of riverside cafes. It also helps that the centre is pedestrianised too so, even when in the centre of the city, it is amazingly peacefull and quiet. It was a shame we only spent a day and a half here as we could have spent a lot longer, but we enjoyed every minute of it and would easily go back.

GREEN!

We found this little bit of genius not far from the Horse Burger joint.

We were both a bit scared to try the horse burger, but Andy did have a "lamb" kebab. I wasn't convinced it was just lamb.

This came from the door of a the castle postioned high on a hill in the middle of the city. I just thought it was a cool door feature.