We've haggis a great time!

Ok, so the posts a little late... sorry about that. I have been sick in bed most of the week without the strength or motivation to lift my head so we're a little delayed on this Scotland post. You will have to forgive me, anyhoot... I'm on the road to recovery and excited to tell all you avid readers about our thrilling week in the land of Scots!!!

Our trip started with a 5ish hour train ride out of London and along the coast hitting into Edinburgh at around 2 in the afternoon. We found out hostel relatively quickly and strolled along the Royal Mile towards the impressive Edinburgh Castle. Where we foolishly purchased an audio tour each and no sooner had we collected them were we offered a free guided tour, oh well! We wandered the Castle learning all about Mary Queen of Scots, James VI and I (of Scotland and England respectively) and all the scandalous details that any good Castle endures during its reign. We concluded the day with a pretty standard hostel dinner and a ghost tour of the vaults where J was treated to a little spanking from our guide and had Bec scared out of her mind the rest of the evening!

The second day we tried (and tried ... and tried) to collect our car before lunch, but despite our efforts we were told to come back around 2ish, so we opted to head to Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament. Both equally amazing in their own right, I'd show you the pictures but due to a small camera fault most photos were deleted... but we wont go into that. In the afternoon we jumped in our car and successfully navigated our way to St Andrews. J spent the afternoon admiring the old course and Bec stood baffled as to why one big stretch of grass had captivated Jarratt so. We raced around to the ruins of the Cathedral and Castle and within 2 hours had efficiently 'done' St Andrews and both agreed we'd set off early the next morning for Balmoral Castle.

Soaking up as much of St Andrews golf course as he could, the next morning J ordered breakfast and marched us down to the R&A for one last happy snappy. Afterwards we jumped in the car and headed out to Balmoral via the Grampian Mountains where Bec proceeded to go mental at the amount of snow, as I'm sure you'll appreciate when you look over the video we have uploaded. Balmoral was amazing in the sense that you walked around going "Who lives like this?Oh right, the queen... whoops" but without the snow I don't think it would have been half as spectacular. After a Venison Burger at the Queens Cafe we made a beeline for Inverness and the Battlefield of Culloden, passing many a snow-covered Highland Cow along our way. Culloden proved to be quite an insight into Scottish history and really triggered great interest in us both to find out more. Afterwards, exhausted from a long day of driving we headed to our modest accommodation for the evening, Culrain Castle (!!!!!) Little to say, i was a bit excited! :) Despite being an amazing building and everything I hoped for, amazing big gates, atop a hill and... haunted... We had a great, well lit sleep!

Day Four saw us head to the Isle of Skye via Loch Ness for a brief session of Monster Watching! Both Loch Ness and Isle of Skye proved to be very picturesque, with amazing gorges, beautiful mountains and sweet little boat houses hugging the shoreline. We spent one relaxing night there and then headed back to the main land via the Skye bridge passing Scotland's most romantic castle, Eilean Donan. We continued on our way to Oban stopping twice along the way. The first was at Fort William, home of Ben Nevis (Britain's tallest mountain) where we followed the Ben Nevis lookout road all the way to the end, continually quizzing each other with "is that it?' as we went. Upon arrival at the lookout we were told that "you can't see Ben Nevis here because you're too close and other mountains hide it from this point" Of course you can't, how silly of us to think that we could actually see the Ben Nevis mountain from the Ben Nevis lookout point (?!?!?!!). Our second stop was at Glen Coe, the home of the most famous clan massacre in all of Scotland. When we finally reached Oban we were welcomed by a strange little hostel owner and his dog and two wonderful glasses of Oban's finest scotch whiskey! All in all a good day was had.

The next morning we played bargy bargy for breakfast in the kitchen of our hostel and then headed out to Kilmartin Glen. The birthplace of Scotland... and the finest examples of ancient standing stones and cairns! However, since these are off the beaten track (literally... you need to navigate through paddocks to get to them), there wasn't your normal plethora of fellow tourists to snap a picture for us, so we resorted to timer photos... and boy! did we have fun with those! (As you can see by the evidence below) Afterwards, we dropped into Glasgow for an obligatory whirlwind visit (as we were not impressed with the place in the slightest) and ended our day cooking dinner in an amazing Stirling apartment and watching Braveheart!

Stirling proved to be an amazing place in the world, full of medieval features such as castle gates, city walls and cobbled streets... but more importantly host to the historic Scotland weekend and in full support for free entry to all its attractions and sights (yay!), taking full advantage J and I headed straight to Stirling castle and then on to the Wallace Monument before ending at the field where the Battle of Bannockburn took place! We ended our day in the city walls (pub) drinking Scotland's finest and eating some Haggis!

Our final day saw us racing back to Edinburgh to recreate some happy snaps that had been earlier deleted, rolling through the Scottish history Museum and listening to how Whiskey is created on our Whiskey Experience tour! We strolled onto our 3:30pm train at about 20 past and within 6 hours were home, unpacked and in bed! You gotta love London......

Tomorrow we're off to Turkey and cannot wait!!!! But enough about us... how have you been? :P

Jarratt at the 18th hole of St Andrews Old Course

Us at the first hole of the Old Course at St Andrews.

In the excitement I may have forgotten to put on my jumper... maybe that's why I got my cold (tee-hee)

Snow-covered Highland Cow

Our intimate castle accommodation, with J and our transport for the week in front.

On monster watch at Loch Ness.

At Scotland's most romantic castle, Eilean Donan.

Us at Ben Nevis, (we think) its the one peaking out from behind covered in snow!

Oh what a feeling! Stone Circles! Defying gravity through the magic of timer photography.

At Stirling Castle's Gates.

Stirling Castle's lookout over the Royal Gardens.

Great Scot!!! That's a lot of snow!

Viva-la-France!!!

Well as much as I hate to be cliched Paris truly is a magically romantic city which J and I were fortunate enough to spend the Easter long weekend break in. We departed from Kings Cross St Pancras bright and early and I have to say I was very impressed at the efficiency of the whole eurostar train ride! When we did arrive in Paris a whole two hours and 15 minutes later we took a quick metro ride to montemarte where we checked into our quaint hotel. A lovely establishment with plumbing that ran straight through our room but had a location that could not be beaten; around the corner from Moulin Rogue and down the road from Sacre Coeur. We dropped our bags and made a beeline for the Pantheon, where we visited the crypt and saw the burial places of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie and Pierre Curie. Afterwards we headed out to the Lourve for our obligatory visit stopping at Notre Dame along the way. We spent an amazing hour and a half in the freezing wind to climb to tower and look out high above the skyline of Paris and see the most amazing gargoyles. We finished the day with an amazing dinner, including an entree of snails, at the base of the Eiffel Tower, which was amazing!

The next day we woke early and headed out to the magical land of Disney, much to J's reluctance. At Disney we visited all the themed lands and rode rides including space mountain, peter pan lift off and Indiana Jones's Temple of Doom. However, was very disappointed that the small animated children for Australia in the "It's a small world" ride were merged with New Zealand and only given a brief cameo appearance in the ride. We ended the day watching as sleeping beauty's castle was lit by Mickey and Minnie to celebrate 15 years of Euro Disney.

Easter Sunday saw us head out to the Palace of Versailles, the home of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Where we were shocked by a 3 hour line wait to purchase tickets for entry into the palace. We instead opted to buy tickets to a guided tour which saw us skip the line, pay a little more, but allow plenty of time for a relaxing stroll of the gardens and an amazing picnic of cheese, chocolate, cake and red wine! After our tour we headed back to central paris to prepare for our 8pm show at the Moulin Rouge. The show was amazing! A real highlight was the older UK couple seated to our left who 10 minutes in leaned across and whispered to us "Did you know it was topless?" and "I've never seen so much TIT in all my life". At which point Bec nearly spat out her mouthful of free champagne all over them!

Our final day was spent visiting the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Eylsees, Napoleon's tomb and slowly made our way up to the Eiffle Tower. When we arrived the top level was shut due to an incoming electrical storm so we spent time taking a few photos. We then opted to head back to montemarte and visit Sacre Couer before heading to Paris Nord for our return train ride to London. But pictures tell a thousand words so heres a few ;) from our trip...

The Craic was mighty!!!

Hi Kids, well we have just come back from a great 4 days in Ireland. We arrived on Sunday afternoon, checked our bags, and headed to the local pub (The Knightsbridge) to try some local Guinness and meet up with Corey and Lee. The afternoon turned to night, and the Guinness was still flowing. After trying some different pubs in the temple bar area, we moved to a night club to dance the night away.

The next morning we headed passed the General Post Office and the Statue of light towards Kilmainham Gaol. After visiting the museum and doing a guided tour we headed back to town for another tour, this one was all about the 1916 uprising. The tour was blahh but the guide was awesome, very knowledgeable and excited about the topics. From there we headed to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour and more importantly our free Guinness. At the top of the factory there was a great viewing platform to enjoy your beer. That night we went back to O'Connell St for dinner, Blue and Jarratt enjoyed a traditional irish stew, Bec had a Gaelic dish of chicken and potatoe and Rebecca had a Celtic dish, all very tasty.

Monday was the day of the parade and in our green outfits we got in early to reserve our spot for the parade. However one local lady and several little kids had other ideas, by managing to push in 10 minutes before the parade. However we still had the front row in the end. The parade came and went, with much colour and flare from a typical parade. However it was St Pats day and there was Guinness to be drunk, so we got down to business. A great day with many memories.

Tuesday was our last day, and our last opportunity to take in Dublin. So we headed to Trinity College to see the Library, the long hall and the book of Kells. We also took a look at the old Parliament building, the Dublin castle and St Stephens green. Before passing the statue of Molly Malone, who was featured in one of the many Irish anthems heard over the weekend, that continued around and around in our head.

All in all a great weekend was had by all and hear are some of the photos...

in the mean time...

Howdy Readers! Well it is the eve of our St Pat's debacle and before we forget everything due to large consumptions of Guinness we thought it best to update you on the week past.

Since our last update many memorable events have past including the festivities for the Birthday of Bec. The festivities included a memorable visit to the local Mexican restaurant 'desperados'! We also danced most of Saturday night away at zigfrids, although a few participants failed to remember much and others took off chasing a double decker bus, only to be boo-ed by commuters once aboard!

The weekend also saw us off to the exciting destination of Greenwich. Which does not offer much, except a small sleepy village looking suburb which is home to the prime meridian of the world (AKA Greenwich Mean Time - GMT). We took all the tokenistic photos of feet either side of the east/west divide and watched as the big red ball dropped to signal the start of time (1300hours). As riveting as it is we have included a video for your own enjoyment (you can all reveal in J's enjoyment at my stunt.) So sit back and enjoy... I'm sure you'll hear from us soon! Lots of Love, Us!

Bec and her birthday cake!

J didn't find this as funny as security at the Museum.

Where time begins...

<------------- Sydney is THATA way!!!

OLD AND WISE!!!!