Walking in the cold

A lot of locals would consider it strange to go hill-walking (tramping) in the winter, particularly on a day that sat mostly at or below 0 deg C. However, while it provides some challenges and hardships to be endured, there are also some rewards!

Steve found a sausage in the car park. Apparently it has paedophile glasses.

Grave of Rob Roy. His epitaph, 'Macgregor Despite Them', refers to a royal edict banning the use of the clan name.

The remains of the chapel beside his grave.

It is also the traditional seat of the Maclarens, and the Boar's Rock (Creag an Tuirc), meeting place of the Maclarens and also their war cry!

Nice view from the Boar's Rock.

Once we got up a few hundred metres, we entered a world of mist and whiteness.

Christmas in the winter

A unique concept: Christmas when it's actually cold, there's a real possibility of snow, mince pies and mulled wine keep you warm and the Christmas lights illuminate your way home. Also, in Edinburgh, Christmas announces the arrival of the German market and ice-skating in Prince's Street Gardens.

I had a moment's reflection at the absolute beauty of the city when I was biking home (in the cold, wet and dark) and an explosion of fireworks began above the castle. It was the most amazing sight and I wish I'd had my camera. The celebration was St Andrew's Day (Scotland's patron saint) and so I went to a celebratory Ceilidh later on that night with Allie (one of my workmates) and Abbie (from NZ). There was blue and white everywhere and Abbie and I collected a little paper Saltire (Scottish flag) each to wave around.

Amsterdam: red light, anyone?

Last weekend we went to Amsterdam. The bus to the airport actually took longer than the flight, something that us kiwis still find amazing. After locating our hostel, we immediately caught up with the lovely Julia van Luijk (and her boyfriend Alex), who is studying there. It was handy having someone who spoke the lingo, although all the dutch spoke beautiful English and apparently are not insulted by rude tourists who don't learn dutch before they go.

The following day we explored some of the multitude of canals including the Grachtengordel - the ring of three around the city centre that were built in the 17th Century. The most amazing thing was the huge number of bikes parked just about everywhere. They were mostly what we'd consider old fashioned ladies bikes and none of them really looked new but they were all locked because apparently bike thievery is even more rampant there than in other parts of the world.

We caught up with Julia again in a real cafe (something that is lacking in Edinburgh) before braving the queue for Anne Frankhuis (Anne Frank's house - the one with the green doors in the photo to the right). It was surprisingly large inside and took up two stories; for some reason I'd alway imagined it would be small and poky. Still, it was pretty sad and thought provoking. To cheer ourselves up we went for a delicious home cooked dinner at Julia & Alex's apartment.

The following morning we checked out the Coster Diamond Workshop (Mark refused to by me a £5000 necklace, talk about stingy!) followed by the History Museum, which kindly had lots of signs in English. It was pretty cool to learn about the city, including that it's built on a giant bog, which kind of explains why some of the houses are a bit wonky. They have to put piles 13m down to sand and gravels (which aren't that stable either).

Following this we decided some more culture was in order so we went for a jaunt around the red light district. We'd be warned that the colours around the windows with the girls in them meant different things, and sure enough, the blue lights indicated that they weren't girls at all...

We're arranged to meet Pascal and Kristyn (recently arrived from NZ via the States) early that day but had missed them, so luckily managed to meet up in the evening for a spot of dinner. On our last day we went market shopping with them (and found some humorous shaped chocolates that Kristyn just couldn't resist taking photos of - check out their blog for those) followed by a 75 minute canal ride.

I also caught up with Julia for a last minute goodbye coffee. Hopefully not a goodbye for too long though!

Munt tea, anyone?

Homeward Bound

Hello, just a quick note for those who didn't already know, Sylvia and I will be back in New Zealand on January 4th. We'll be around for a couple of weeks, flying out again on the 20th. We're returning for my sister Rachael's wedding and will probably spend a lot of time in and around Christchurch (especially around the wedding on the 12th). We'll also be in the Takaka area at some stage to visit Sylvia's folks at their place up there. Apart from that, we're not sure what we'll be up to but we'd like to see as many of you who are in NZ as possible!

We'll be using our old cellphone numbers while we're in NZ and those, or email, will probably be the best way to get hold of us.

Personally, I'm quite keen to get out for a few days in the NZ outdoors and get my fix of sunshine and NZ landscapes before heading back to the depths of a Scottish winter, anyone else keen? I was wondering about doing something, perhaps a terrorist training camp, in the Kahurangi area to tie in with visiting Sylv's whanau.

Anyway, there is bound to be an email with more details closer to the time. See ya!

Limestone, Yorkshire Puds and Rugby

Three go for a stroll down a country lane

We drove down to Yorkshire to meet our friends Ele and Steve last weekend. The plan, since they live in Bristol, was to meet halfway. Unfortunately for them, it was half-term holidays in England with associated motorway chaos. So our 3 1/4 hr drive was a bit shorter than their 5 1/2 hr drive - unlucky, guys.

I used to work with Ele at PDP, and was pleased to find when I arrived at Dalesbridge that she is as mental as ever, despite having a chest infection. Her mum's family is from around that area so she knew the cool places to go.

The accomodation was bunkhouse-style (4 bunk beds) and reminded us of school camps! Lots of fun (if a little noisy from the neighbours and the plumbing - nothing the earplugs couldn't fix).

On Saturday we went for a bit of a stroll. The weather was beautiful for October and a great day for exploring some traditional English landscapes and local geological features.

Gordale Scar is a sharp gorge with a waterfall. Scrambling up through the gorge was more challenging than we'd expected (English hillwalking, anyone?) and particularly sterling efforts were made by Ele (breathing difficulties) and Sylvia (still only one serviceable arm).

Another characteristic of that area is limestone pavements. According to Steve, a great way of crossing boggy ground. It was disturbing how many of the big bits of rock actually moved though, and made quite a noise banging against one another. At one point we were making a bit of a racket - Sylvia pun - "We could start a rock band".

Cool drystone walls too - as you can see in the photo.

The rugby world cup final on Saturday night was great fun, Sylv and I were the only ones there supporting South Africa. Ele and Steve are quite into their rugby and I'm sure that if Steve had been the video match official then England would have got that try ;-)

Sylvia and I were constantly amused by place names like "Gayclops" (a gay guy with one eye?) and "Giggleswick". But on Sunday we had lunch with Ele's Mum and Gran at Giggleswick and had a great time (and great meal). Ele got a hard time from the staff for not liking carrots and swede ("Oh look, the girl who doesn't like carrots and swede finished them all. Or did you give them to someone else?") and her coughing ("Cough it up! It could be a gold watch"). But it was a yummy and traditional Yorkshire Sunday roast, with Yorkshire puds and all. I had to ask Neil why he had never cooked Yorkshire puds in all the time I lived with him, and he responded that maybe it was because we didn't have proper pud tins - apparently most of the flavour comes from never washing them.

I was feeling greedy so had a cheese selection for dessert, I hadn't expected so much though! Must have been several hundred grams of cheese, including some local varieties (Wensleydale, and Stilton from a bit further afield). Fortunately I had some help to eat it all so didn't suffer from cheese dreams.

A very narrow (historic) bridge in Yorkshire

The afternoon found us feeling lazy and sleepy, so we took it easy on the drive back to Edinburgh, stopping off for a couple of hours in the Lake District on the way home.

Thanks Ele and Steve for a great weekend :-)

Three Munroes in One Day

A Munro is a mountain over 3000', and the sport of climbing munros is called 'Munro Bagging'. While I wouldn't want to be known as a Munro Bagger (since there are lots of worthwhile hills less than 3000') I suppose if you're going to do one...

It was nearly four, but we didn't climb the Devil's Penis because we might have ended up quite shagged. The final list was Beinn Bhrotain, Monadh Mor and Cairn Toul. While three 3000' mountains in one day might sound impressive, of course there was only about 300 or 400 m of drop between each one, I think I worked out that we ended up doing about 1,500 m of climb in our day.

We climbed more than three peaks, but there are some complex rules about how much vertical drop, and horizontal distance, there must be between any two peaks for them to both be considered Munros. Our three are all in the Cairngorms, within striking distance of the Brown's house in Braemar - the strike in question being a 1 1/4 hr scenic bike ride up the Dee river.

As you can see from the photos, we had a bit of cloud about and compass navigation was required a couple of times. It's quite a barren landscape when you can't see much but the views certainly improve with a good opening in the clouds.

By the time we got to the bottom of the Devil's Penis, we knew we were already short on time - following our descent, we had a 6 km walk/run back down the Dee to where we'd stashed the bikes, so regrettably would have to leave the ascent of that protuberance for another day. As it was, we just got back in time to watch Scotland beat Italy in the World Cup, and for a yummy dinner cooked by Sylvia :-)

Mhairi gazes longingly at the Devil's Penis

Fortunately we stopped long enough on our slog back down the river to catch this view! This is the route followed by the Lairig Ghru, the route from Braemar to Aviemore throught the Cairngorms.

Go Black!

Well, actually silver, since the All Blacks played in their alternate strip against Scotland in Edinburgh. This blog entry is being written in the aftermath of New Zealand's early dismissal from the World Cup. In the interests of not rekindling anyone's pain, rugby will be mentioned no further in this post.

Lots of friends came to Edinburgh from all over the UK and beyond for the game, in fact the vast majority of kiwis that I know in the UK were here. Andrew Macklan and Mark Mayo stayed with us for the weekend, and we also caught up with (hope I haven't forgotten anyone): Tim and his mate Cocksy, Mike and Heather, Eyk and Tim, JP and Bernie, and Cynthia. Also Ed and Abbie, who have just moved to Edinburgh and happened to arrive that weekend! Some of these people are in the fuzzy photo below, taken at an Indian restaurant where we had a good discussion with the owner on the footpath outside the restaurant over the bill.

Here are some more photos of some other dodgy characters.

We all had a great weekend and it was fun to catch up with so many friends at once. Mark and Andrew particularly enjoyed spooning on our lounge floor.

(Photo credit Mark Mayo for the stadium photo)

It was raining heavily. Five hours later, it was still raining heavily, but the scenery had changed - I had finished my bike ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
I was doing it with 4 of my workmates for charity, although waiting for the bus to Glasgow at 6am on a Sunday, I was feeling less inclined to be charitable. A huge delay in our bikes arriving into Glasgow also dampened already sodden spirits. However, with over 3000 people participating, it was hard not to be infected by the enthusiam. There were children and not-so-fit types as well as the usual lycronauts, so we didn't feel outclassed. It was an 88 km route, following roads and cycle paths and minimal hills (except for the killer up from Queensferry), with 4 yummy food stops along the way, which I took full advantage of. By the end, I was completely soaked, but thankfully not sore or even particularly tired. I'm even thinking I might do it again sometime (maybe without the ridiculously early start).

The Rain in Spain...

...falls mainly on the plain. Or something like that. At least, it didn't fall anywhere near Andalucia anyway, and we enjoyed 8 days of fine weather :-)

We got cheap(ish) flights direct from Edinburgh to Malaga return, so this dictated our itinerary to some extent - not that we cared about that, since Malaga is on the coast and we were keen on some beach (in)action. Here are some highlights from our trip.

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Shadecloth over

shopping streets

Our Hostels

View from the hostel -

more mortar than brick?

Picasso's Corner in Malaga was quite a nice place - medium sized, as far as hostels go, and located in the best part of town for travellers. It had a wee bar, free internet, and the rooms didn't have too many beds in them. For a couple of nights we had an English girl called Lindsey in our room. She's going to Bristol - why does everyone either seem to be from, or going to, Bristol these days? Anyway, Lindsey took this nice photo of Sylvia and I on our way down from the Castilla on top of the hill above Malaga central.

Our hostel was located next to Plaza Mercad, and when we were there they were celebrating 20 years of sister city-ship between Malaga and Passau in Germany. So there was a stage, sound system, outside bar selling German beer, and heaps of guys walking around in Lederhosen drinking lots of beer before they played their horns. There was also a high school jazz band called (I'm not making this up) "wet and easy". I suspect that something got lost in the translation.


In Granada we stayed at the Funky Hostel. It was lots of fun - small, with facilities in proportion, but it had a great rooftop terrace with a bar that everyone hung out in for the earlier part of the evening.


The Gypsies of Sacramonto

Sacramonto caves

Here is a picture of Sacramonto in Granada. It is a small suburb of cave dwellers - you want another room in your house? Dig one! This is where the Gypsies live. You can see them in the touristy areas of town handing out sprigs of rosemary (quite forcefully - they seem to have trouble accepting that you don't want their crappy rosemary). If you accept one, you will find yourself getting your palm read before you know it. And of course you're then expected to pay them, and believe me, whatever you give them won't be enough, in fact it will be insulting to them and they'll get quite agitated. It was quite amusing to watch silly tourists falling for this scam.


Sylvia and Mark Get High - Again

Refugios on Mulhacen

We headed up into the Sierra Nevada (only an hour from Granada) for a day trip up Spain's highest mountain, Mulhacen (3,480 m). The bus only ran once a day in each direction so it was quite a short day trip and we had to run some of it, but it was worth it to get away from cities for a day and get some bracing mountain air. It was 30 deg C during the day in Granada, but would have been only about 15 deg C up Mulhacen.


It was surprising how much the thinner air affected us, both of us found ourselves breathing noticeably harder than we would expect for the moderate level of exertion, and I got a bit of a headache. Probably a bit of dehydration too, as you can see in the photos it's an incrediby dry place at this time of year. There is a big ski resort that runs up here in the winter though.

The old stone refugios were cool too, most were in better condition than the ones in the picture.








The Alhambra


The Alhambra of Granada is a large palace/fortress dating from about the 10th century. It was originally a castle (alcazaba) overlooking the town, and was developed later as a palace complex for the Moorish rulers of Al-Aldalus once they shifted camp there. Parts have been chopped and changed around a bit, and after the Catholic monarchs Fernando and Isabella captured Granada in 1494 during the Reconquista, Carlos V decided to demolish a bit to build his imposing palace.

It's a pretty cool place - said to be the only remaining example of a mediaeval Islamic palace anywhere - and a lot of people queue for hours in the morning to get tickets. A lot more miss out. We're smarter than that so we booked our tickets beforehand. We still would have had to wait 1/2 hour to pick them up, but we'd just booked the queue when some official came over, grabbed us out of the queue and told us to follow her, took us to the front of the queue and in we went. I still don't know what happened there!


The Alhambra has a good mix of history, gardens, extensive water features, views and impressive (yet impressively plain) architecture and art. We seemed to be the only people in Granada who though it was good but not mind-blowing. We think we've maybe been spoiled by some of the cool places we've been and things we've seen!



Hanging Out

Bullring in Malaga

The best thing about our wee holiday is that we managed to strike a good balance between relaxing and doing the touristy stuff, by only visiting two cities we avoided spending all our time on buses.


We spent quite a bit of time on the beach in Malaga but also enjoyed just hanging out in the cities, poking our noses into little streets and plazas, and sitting with a beer or an icecream and watching the world go by. Our modest level of Spanish was generally enough to get by and it was good fun practicing what we'd learnt!


Hasta pronto, Espana