Roaming Rome!

Wow... been a while since our last blog and we have been quite busy! We had a fantastic weekend celebrating our 7 year anniversary in the Lake District -  with beautiful scenery and fantastic food to completely spoil us. On the way back to Edinburgh we visited Hilltop House, Beatrix Potter's Lake District House. It was so much fun to see some of the inspiration for her stories and drawings, unfortunately we didn't find squirrel Nutkin but we did spot Flopsy, Mopsy, Peter and Cottontail! :-)

Our dessert at Broadoaks Country Lodge

High Tea

Hilltop House

The Lake District...

We managed to get ourselves to the Royal Highland Show and had a wonderful day out with coos, chainsaw carving, first class show jumping, cart-horses, gun dogs, exhibitions and sheep-shearing!

We have done a bit of local travelling, visiting and spending a bit of time in Musselburgh, St Andrews and it's Castle and stunning University grounds, as well as North Berwick where we had delicious seafood and a walk along their lovely (by Scottish standards!) beach.

Lobster in North Berwick!

St Andrews Castle

NOW... time for details about of most recent adventure to Rome! We finally made it to Italy after a fair amount of stress trying to get our Schengen Visa from the Italian Embassy! But, passports safely packed we arrived at Edinburgh Airport at 5am, a bit bleary-eyed but ready for a taste of Italy. We stayed at a lovely, simple hotel called Hotel delle Muse which had everything we needed. We arrived at the hotel at about 2pm on Friday and after a quick recovery period and a quick change we headed out to find some sights. After spending over an hour trying to find the right bus, then figuring out that the map and current bus route did not match... (in other words, getting lost!) we had to re-evaluate our plans and just headed to the nearest park in search of some gelato. Luckily Rome is packed full of beautiful parks and piazzas and we ended up in a huge, beautiful park of fountains and sculptures called Villa Borghese. We took a stroll through the park, ending up in the spectacular Piazza del Popolo. This really felt like Rome! Fountains all around us, street performers, music, beautiful buildings and cobblestones!

A fountain in Villa Borghese

Neptune Fountain

Piazza del Popolo!

We found a small little side-street restaurant for supper and thoroughly enjoyed the delicious home-made, authentic Italian Pizza and local beer. Both of us immediately fell in love with the food from the little local cafes which are dotted all over the place. Everything is simple, fresh and so tasty with wonderful salamis and cheeses! Just yummy! :)

Saturday was dedicated to the Vatican City. We made our way there quite early to try to beat some of the crowds. The sight of St Peter's Square and St Peter's Basilica as you walk into the city just takes your breath away, it really is spectacular.

St Peter's Basilica

Luckily we pre-booked our tickets online and that made a HUGE difference. The queue to buy tickets at the gate was already insane at 9am and the wait would probably have been at least 2 hours! It took us 10 mins to get in and from there we took our time exploring the Vatican Museums...  which are just INCREDIBLE! The number of beautiful paintings, tapestries, sculptures and other artworks are mindblowing, there are just rooms after beautiful rooms of exhibitions. The rooms all lead towards the Sistine Chapel. You know when you start getting close to the famous Chapel because the crowds start to build again and it begins to feel a bit overwhelming, like cattle being herded through a huge, busy, very hot dairy! We did manage to beat the claustrophobia and were rewarded when we finally made it into the Sistine Chapel. There really aren't words to describe how beautiful a work of art it is and its actually difficult to take it all in. I absolutely loved it, even with the heat and all the people crammed inside.
After the Chapel, we took some time to recover with iced coffees in the gardens then visited a few of the rooms we previously missed. All in all it was an amazing experience that we both really really enjoyed! Unfortunately we didn't make it into St Peter's, but we enjoyed the views of it from the Museums and the Square. That will have to be on our "next time" list.

St Peter's Dome

Apollo

The Laocoon

(Helen wrote up to here yesterday and now she's gone to work and left you all mid-post. Bloody rude I think but you don't have to worry because I'll finish it off for you.)

After the Vatican we went back to the hotel to recover and then went in search of the Trevi fountain which we weren't able to get to on Friday. We managed to locate the fountain but unfortunately it was being renovated and was covered with scaffolding which blocked much of the façade and the fountain was empty. There was however a raised walkway over the fountain so you can still walk past it but there was quite a queue so we didn't bother to take a closer look at the scaffold. From the fountain we wandered a bit further and came to the Piazza Navona where we had MORE gelato while we sat and watched the people and hawkers and took in the atmosphere as the sun went down.

Not enough Gelato!

A fountain at the Piazza

The next day was devoted to the Colosseum. Again, the professional travellers pre-book their tickets to skip the queues. They also don't take photos with the people dressed up as gladiators because they only tell you after the photo that it costs 5 Euro. And they have swords...

Awesomeness!

Guess where that is...!

While the Vatican had many different museums and gardens and maps etc. the Colosseum didn't. You go to the Colosseum for one reason only and that's to see the Colosseum. We walked around the first floor and it was very interesting to read all the information we hadn't bothered to research before going. I didn't know that the Colosseum was actually oval shaped, I didn't know that gladiators were paired up according to their weapons and that games were free to watch but seating was segregated according to social class.

We had lunch (pizza of course) in the shadow of the Colosseum. While eating lunch we overheard others waiting to get into the Colosseum and saw a great example of tourist-trapping. Helen and I paid 36 Euro each for our Roma passes which gave us free entry to two attractions in Rome, priority entry (no queues) and concessions on the others, as well as three days of public transport travel. For the unprepared American family we overheard it would have taken a couple of hours waiting in the queue and 16 Euro each. Or they could purchase a priority entry ticket for 80 Euro each!

At the forum

After lunch we took a stroll back along the Roman forum which used to be the centre of the old Roman Empire. It was incredible to see the old monuments, memorials, temples erected over 2000 years ago still standing and thinking that this is where it all happened. Once we'd passed through the forum we left by a small little gate and got more gelato which we ate sitting across from the prison where St Peter and St Paul were supposedly imprisoned. Once again, it was absolutely phenomenal to think that we were surrounded by what was the social, political and commercial hub not just of Italy but of one of the largest and longest reigning empires ever.

From the old to the comparatively new. Down the road from the forum we walked a bit further on to the National Monument to Victor Emmanuel commemorating the unification of Italy. We'd passed it on the bus on the way to the Vatican the previous day and only caught a glimpse of it and already it looked massive. We approached it from the side and climbed what felt like a mountain of steps to just get from street level to the point where you can enter the monument. Going up the back of the monument is a lift going all the way to the top of the monument and the view from the top is incredible. From the top you can see St Peter's Basilica, the Colosseum, the piazzas, the palace, the gardens and parks and all the way across Rome to our hotel on the other side of Rome. And everything we saw was against a backdrop of a huge thunderstorm slowly advancing across Rome towards us although it ended up spending itself out before it reached us.

The view from the top (spot St Peter's!)

Happy couple at the top!

The view to the top!!!

After taking in the sights from the top of the monument we went back down the lift and through to the front of the monument and down the broad sweeping steps that lead up to the face of monument. There's a large traffic circle with a lawn and flower bed in the colours of the Italian flag in front of the monument and a smaller piece of grass with some trees off to one side. Helen and I thought the shade on the grass would be a great place to either have a snooze or snack on the pastries we'd kept from breakfast that morning - that seemed to be the idea everyone else already there had and when in Rome...

We'd been enjoying the break for about an hour and thought it was very civilised that Rome had provided the grass and shade for the public to rest when out of nowhere a police man appeared and blow his whistle in very insistent manner with barely contained glee as he shooed us all off the grass. Guess who won the Go Piss Off the Tourists office sweepstakes that day! Since we couldn't lounge on the grass for the rest of the afternoon we decided to head back to the hotel and refresh before heading out for supper.

And the next morning we left and that was Rome, one more stop along the way. It was hot, chaotic, disorganised, ancient, grand, majestic and beautiful! Much like our own tourists who don't always understand concepts like African time and our own unique approach to order, I think you have to be born and raised in Italy, and perhaps even specifically in Rome, to feel completely in step and at ease with the strange, uncompromising but still hospitable nature of Rome. It's a strange mix of new, modern and familiar with old, majestic and beautiful and a long weekend was not enough to even touch sides.

Ciao
xxx

Bonnie Bonnie Banks

Hi All :)
Tim and I have both been working for a few weeks, exploring Edinburgh bit by bit and saving a few pounds, so we planned a long weekend away to Loch Lomond. :)

We hired a car (oooh, fancy not using public transport for a while!) and set off on Saturday morning. We took the scenic route and went via Stirling and the Stirling Castle, the second biggest and probably most important castle in Scotland. The weather wasn't playing along but we had a great time trying to soak up Scotland's fascinating history inside the stronghold. It was quite an experience to walk through the bedchambers and home of real famous Royals who shaped this country. The tapestries hanging in the throne-room were spectacular, showing that unicorns do exist, hehe!

Tapestries in the Throne-room

The impressive and beautiful Castle walls

Defenses!

After the Castle we got back on the road and headed west to Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The trip ended up being slightly longer than it should have been after we took an unplanned hour-long detour... but of course no-one is being blamed for that! We finally arrived at the extremely cute and beautiful 'Gardeners Cottages' - our accommodation for the next 3 nights. The cottages consist of about 4 apartments in one long building which used to be the staff housing to the big fancy Arden House next door. The gardens were beautiful with bunnies, robins, daffodils and lovely big trees. It was just a short walk to the shores of the famous Loch with it's special views.

The Gardener's Cottages

On Sunday morning we went on a beautifully scenic drive around Loch Lomond, Loch Long and Loch Eck to reach the Argyll Forest Park. The road took us through a spectacular river valley with mountains and cliffs towering in the mist, past mountain goats, sheep and highland coo's! We walked the Puck's Glen Gorge, which was just magical! It is named Puck's Glen after a mischievous sprite who appears in Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream'. The walk mostly criss-crossed over the river, wooden bridges and waterfalls through the gorge and really felt like a fairy wonderland!

Puck's Glen

Where the fairies live!

On Monday we took a ferry across to Inchailloch Island, one of the biggest Islands on the Loch. It was previously a hunting ground for Robert the Bruce (and we spotted some of the deer that still live there!), as well as monastery for a runaway Irish Princess known as Caintigern. The name Inchailloch means 'Isle of the old woman', probably after the nuns who lived on the island. We visited the rruins of the Church and burial grounds. The Island also has remains of a farm, and was the burial ground for Clan MacGregor. The burial rituals used to involve some heavy drinking and there are some funny, if morbid, stories of the family members losing bodies or forgetting to bury them because they all got too drunk!
We climbed to the top of Inchailloch and the view of the Loch and Ben Lomond was stunning, made even better by the sunshine! We were lucky enough to watch an Osprey circling above us. :) The forest was amazingly peaceful and carpeted in a blue haze of bluebells. After we enjoyed a picnic lunch on Inchailloch we caught the ferry back across the Loch and drove up to The Lodge Forest Centre and Red Squirrel Hide - excitement! After a pretty, short walk through the forest and past a lovely waterfall we found the hide. The birds were extremely active and fun to watch and eventually we were rewarded with a little red squirrel who came down and had lunch in front of us!!! It really made the weekend, to be able to sit quietly and watch him nibble away! :)

View from the top!

Burial grounds

Bluebell carpet

RED SQUIRREL!!!

Our final morning was Tuesday and we treated ourselves to a 1.5 hour cruise up the Loch. We passed a couple of cute little islands and Rob Roy's cave, where the famous Scottish outlaw and hero hid from the Duke in the 1720's. It was a lovely morning on smooth water, with the high mountains around us still with patches of snow on them!

One of the Cruise Loch Lomond boats

Natural Beauty

Cruising!

Loch Lomond

And so after an amazing time on Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, we headed back to Edinburgh!

In other news, Tim's job is still going well and I have also been working for the past ~2 months. I am working about 4 days a week at a cafe called Leo's Beanery. I'm in the kitchen, doing breakfasts and lunches and some mornings I go in early to open up and make scones, soups and quiches. It is pretty hard work but I am enjoying it and I work with great, friendly people.

We are still enjoying this beautiful city and ticking off things bit by bit. We were able to visit the spectacular St Giles Cathedral, walk the Royal Mile and picnic in sunshine at the Royal Botanical Gardens. The weather is slowly improving and all the buds on the trees have popped open and flowers are blooming!

I am sending lots and lots of love and hugs to everyone, miss you all! Hx

Barefoot and in the kitchen

I imagine some of you might be confused. What is Tim doing in the kitchen? Surely it must be too cold in Scotland for even the thickest soled person - even Tim! - to be barefoot? But Helen and Tim are living day-by-day from hand to mouth in someone else's flat they found on AirBnB; they don't have a kitchen to be barefoot in! I'm sure these are just some of the countless expressions of disbelief cascading through your minds as you read this very post. Well rest assured. You may all sleep comfortably (as I am unable to do at 23:00) in the knowledge that in a blow to global feminism it is not I but Helen who has been spending her time barefoot and in our own kitchen:

Heron Place
Granton
Edinburgh
EH5 1GG

That is the location of our new kitchen and here is the view from the kitchen:

Together with an open-plan kitchen we also have 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, 2 broom cupboards, a balcony and a bonnie Scottish lass called Robyn. This is what the flat looks like from the outside (we're actually around the right hand corner of the building):

So what has Helen been up to in the kitchen? Well, she's been baking awesome brownies, biscuits, muffins, cupcakes and rocky road.

We also found an awesome one pot cooking cook book which we've been working through. I must admit I've been pretty chuffed with the way things have been going. I work all day and I get to come home to new baked goodies and then Helen cooks dinner. I think it's really a good deal. Until I have to wash the dishes...

The more financially minded of you may be wondering how it is we're now able to fund renting a flat and all this baking and cooking. Well I got a job as a barista on weekends at cafe. The ad was simple - Barista needed, work starts next week. I was invited for an interview and it was only then that I realised it was for a children's play cafe. The whole place is designed to let parents of little ne'er-do-wrongs sit back and enjoy their (rather expertly prepared) skinny/soy half-shot latte without having to worry about what little Jonny is up to. There's a small plastic jungle gym and millions of toys for the little darlings to play with. This was obviously the goal at the end of my career rainbow and I signed up immediately - what luck!

This was just before we found the flat we're in now and also just after I submitted my CV to a software development company without much hope of a response. However, after starting as a barista on the wekeends, I had an interview with the software company and they offered me a contract during the week. It was all rather serendipitous and we were able to sign a lease for our current flat since this all happened within the same week. The cafe hired me because they were just too busy for their current staff and I felt bad about just dropping them suddenly so I worked there until the end of Feb (fyi: a 7 day working week is a bad idea).

As for Helen, she's still looking for work and spending my money as only a woman can. She is however spending it on sweet treats so I guess I can't complain too loudly. It is a small world though and a friend of Anne's who actually lived in Edinburgh for a while mentioned Helen to one of his old flatmates who runs a deli in Haymarket near the Murryfield stadium. The guy who runs the deli chatted to Helen and while he can't even give Helen part-time shifts he did say he'll let her know if one of his staff needs covering. Helen's already worked one shift there and she's got another tomorrow. Obviously this kind of casual work isn't ideal but at least it's something - if Helen spends too much time at home I'll be poor and fat. On the other hand, with my software contract we're getting by so any money Helen earns would just be a bonus and I think she could probably concentrate on her baking instead of getting a job as long as the cost of baking comes out of her pay :P

...Aaaaand we're back!

We're back in Scotland and boy is it cold! We left 35deg C in George and landed in 5deg C weather in Edinburgh. But at least there's no snow on the ground here yet unlike the mountains we saw from the plane. We think it was the Alps but the cloud and snow were covering the signs and SAA didn't have the greatest map.

Now, a few of the more astute readers might realise that we were going to fly with Lufthansa so how did we end up on an SAA plane? The short version can be summed up with the following quote from one of the helpful airport staff: "The plane is technical." The long version is hopefully more entertaining but just as enlightening.

5th Dec 2013: The prologue to this saga of global travels concerns the tropical storm of December 2013 that tore through the UK and northern Europe the day we left: Storm Xavier. Helen and I were supposed to catch a train from Dumfries to Edinburgh and then fly form Edinburgh to JHB via a 1hr stop-over in Frankfurt. Xavier had other plans and forced the UK authorities to close the entire Scottish rail network due to the risks posed by trampolines and plastic garden furniture strew across the tracks. Thankfully Brian and Debbie drove us to the airport where we managed to catch our flight which was half an hour late. Xavier continued to accompany us on our journey and the half-hour approach to Frankfurt was not stable. I'm not a nervous flyer but even I was thankful when we finally touched down in Frankfurt. At 21:20. When we were supposed to board the connecting flight at 21:05. Helen's calm demeanour however ensured that we ran across Frankfurt airport, through the unexpected security checkpoint (containing precisely one very short and very peeved, voiceless female German security officer) and onto the next plane with a whole five minutes to spare. The next flight to JHB passed mostly uneventfully and thus concludes the prologue.

22nd Jan 2014: Helen and I arrived at JHB and proceeded to check in for our flight to Edinburgh via Frankfurt. Helen noted that the flight to Frankfurt was delayed but we had around 6 hours to catch our connection in Frankfurt - we were not going to have a repeat of last time.

I, in my boundless wisdom, made sure we arrived in JHB from George 4 hours before we needed to board the first flight to Frankfurt. This gave Helen plenty of time to not stress or worry when we arrived at the Lufthansa check in counter to be told that our flight was delayed until 11:40 the next morning due to a technical fault. Our option was to either stay the night in JHB or try and get onto another flight to Frankfurt. We chose the later and that was how we came to be on an SAA flight departing at 20:30. Which was then delayed until 21:30. At 21:00 a CheckPort official came around to check our passports. He loudly proclaimed that the plane had arrived and that now he had to check our passports. He proceeded to check everyone's passports in the surly manner that only an official can. Once all our passports had been checked we waited to board the plane. We continued to wait until 23:30 after the plane we were supposed to board "went technical" and they had to get a new one out of the hanger and ready to fly to Frankfurt.

Eventually the powers that be took pity on us and in a move to boost moral taken out of every hostage drama movie they handed out food and beverages to us. This was a mixed blessing as it meant we got food but also that they thought there was enough time to actually get through a whole meal. Except that suddenly the plane was ready and we had to board even as the last people were being served their meal. Anyone who has been disturbed at 23:30 by someone and had to go out on an errand can sympathise with the plane at this point. However, I personally think it was little unfair for the plane to retaliate by making its auxiliary power unit to "go technical" leaving us on the plane on the tarmac with no aircon while all the grumpy people board. Being an SAA flight and an ACSA managed airport I suppose it was predictable that the tug (the truck that pushes the plane around the runway) would then also join the plane in solidarity and the spirit of ubuntu and refuse to co-operate too. We finally got off the ground at around midnight but we did arrive in Frankfurt a whole two hours before our next flight. We were NOT going to go through that again!

24th Jan 2014: Epilogue - Helen and I have settled in quite nicely in our room in Edinburgh. The people we're staying with are very friendly and even printed us a map of Edinburgh with touristy things pointed out. Before we left last year I signed a zero-hour contract with a stocktaking company which means that they don't guarantee me any work but they'll keep me in mind when clients need stock taken counted. Well it looks like I have 2 jobs with them next week so that's something at least. Also, there is a job fair in Glasgow on the 29th for the commonwealth games which I think are in March so we'll go past and see what we can find. The weather is cold here but no snow yet. Carol and Rob, our hosts, say the snow is still coming though. Hopefully that gives us enough time to go down to Dumfries and visit the Yates's to say 'Hi' and pick up our warm clothes - trampolines and garden furniture permitting.

Love to everyone back home, hope you're all enjoying the warm weather.

P.S. Helen says this is a very long post but considering it's my first one I need to make up for lost time...

Squirrels and fireworks

Hello from an increasingly chilly Scotland! Got out the leg warmers, boots, stockings, gloves and scarves!

Tim and I have managed to do a bit more exploring when the weather has been kind enough to allow it. We went to the spectacular Caerlaverock Castle, just down the road from Dumfries. It is a beautiful, medieval, triangular castle with a moat around it! We had a fantastic day in this 13th century stone building, admiring how much of the original castle remained. Photos just don't seem to do it all justice and show it off properly. Tim especially enjoyed the stories of the famous 1300 siege when the English army attacked the Scottish Castle, defended by only 60 men! Unfortunately the Scots surrendered after only 2 days.

We had a fantastic, if fresh, day walking through the forest at the Ken Dee Marshes near Castle Douglas. Aaaand.... I found my red squirrel!!!! :-) :-) :-) so we've finally seen one, he was very busy foraging on the forest floor and didn't even notice us. Super cute and I look forward to watching more! The forest walk had 2 bird hides along the route and we enjoyed getting to know the Scottish birds at the feeding boxes. It was the first big-ish frost and some of the puddles were still completely frozen at 14:30! We'll have to remember to wrap up before our next walk, no more shorts and t-shirts!

Remember remember the 5th of November... we celebrated Guy Fawkes night in Glasgow with Megan and James. We planned to make our way to the fireworks in the Glasgow Green, but unfortunately the subway was unexpectedly closed and taxis were useless! So plan B, we walked up to the University and watched the fireworks from the top of Glasgow. The setting was beautiful with the gorgeous University behind us and fireworks across the whole city in front of us!

The next morning we had some time to enjoy the art and museum at Kevin Grove gallery, before heading back to the train and home to Dumfries. It was a short but sweet stay and good introduction to a beautiful city we hope to explore some more later on!

So that's all of our recent news in a nutshell, I hope you will like my photies attached. In other news, I've only got 2 weeks of work left, and the we're planning a couple of days on the Isle of Man and then we're heading South! Decided to go home for Christmas, so will see everyone back home soon! :-) lots of love to everyone! Special love and thoughts to Anne and all of her chicken pox. Hx ♥♥♥