Amsterdam Spring 2018

We've always intended to visit Holland with the Tulips in bloom, although this trip was more accidental in timing than planned it worked out wonderfully.

Helen and I were one quarter of the group who made our way variously to Amsterdam, meeting up for dinner on Friday night.

Saturday we split into two groups of four, with our group managing to run and catch the tourist ferry with just 2 minutes to spare, across the inland sea to Muiderslot Castle also know as Amsterdam's Castle.   It dates back to around 1400 having been developed and maintained since then and is a very impressive structure:

We passed this derelict vessel on our approach to the Castle:

We had a good old explore, enjoying the outstanding weather, which proved informative and enjoyable as was the coffee and the beer, before catching the return ferry and making our way into town to meet up for dinner.

On the Sunday we'd pre-booked coach seats and entry to Keukenhof Gardens from our hotel rather than via the airport.   We'd been advised the queue from the airport for the bus routinely exceeds an hour, so this seemed a smart choice.

As the road to the gardens was already busy our knowledgeable driver dived off at a roundabout and took us down single lane roads through the planted Tulip fields, they are seriously impressive and indeed clearly visible on approach and departure form Schipol. 

We photographed these from inside the gardens as there a couple of decent vantage points:

The gardens themselves are very impressive, well organised, accessible, well priced and generally very European in organisation.   And florally stunning too:

The formal arrangements are equally impressive and often too big to capture, particularly with the ever growing throngs of visitors (the sunshine, the timing and the location meant roughly 50,000 visitors on that Sunday):

We really enjoyed our half day at the gardens, and the 24c warmth and continual sunshine helped that, as did the odd beer :)

From Keukenhof it was back to the hotel and then into town for our final dinner and drinks.   A cracking weekend with some outstanding company, weather, food, drink and general sunshine!

Still Winter

Helen's sister Jenny came to visit for a long weekend over Easter.   The ongoing winter weather (it's snowed today on April 4th as a I write this) is punctuated with the odd hint of sunshine.  Seizing an opportunity on a fine morning we set of North to visit first Loch Arklet which looked magnificent:

This small abandoned dwelling has some amazing landscape to dwell upon:

We reached Inversnaid and enjoyed a short boggy walk to Rob Roy's viewpoint over Loch Lomond:

Before heading round to complete the circuit, passing the waterfalls by the Inversnaid Hotel.   Tourist boats were out on the water, I bet everyone was sat inside, keeping warm!

Down at the waterfront the view was equally impressive:

Having finished at Inversnaid and enjoyed lunch overlooking Loch Katrine we meandered back, passing Loch Arklet again:

The next day was rain day but given another break in the weather we planned a trip a lot further North, staying on the Moray Firth at Rosehearty, near Fraserburgh.  On the way up the forecast snow was falling in the Cairngorms but we stopped anyway to visit Ruthven Barracks:

A strong cold wind rolling off the hills made it feel a lot colder than the 1c air temperature, it was properly baltic but worth a visit nonetheless.   This is the stable with a snowy-mountain backdrop:

We stopped at Cullen for an afternoon walk along the impressive geologically featured coastline:

The forces that turned that sedimentary rock through 90 degrees must have been immense indeed.  We enjoyed the walk although the wet and hard winter meant the principle circular paths had been so eroded they were shut, we used a secondary ascent route and that proved precarious but passable.   A good walk but calling for a hot cuppa ASAP.

The following morning was the bright and bitterly cold start forecast.  I headed down to the small harbour in Rosehearty to take a few snaps in the low morning light:

It was beautiful but i was chased back in by the wind for breakfast.

Starting our return trip (we should have added another night it proved too long a trip and we had to dash around fitting things in we wanted to visit and see) we stopped at Slains castle:

It is an amazing and impressive ruin with a sad story of its own.  Apparently it is in private hands and was going to be developed into luxury apartments.  Now however it is going to ruin.  Perhaps the government could step in and rescue it before it is lost for ever?

The castle is magnificently situated on the coast:

From Slains we headed south toward Newburgh to explore Forvie National Nature Reserve.  It proved an interesting spot though one i think that would be improved with a visit in Spring or Summer.

Heading to the Southern part of the reserve to have a look there we followed a sign for the seals, they have a beach they use just beyond the currently closed Ternery at the Southern end of the NNR.   We estimate 1,000 seals were grumpily moving up the beach to escape the rising Spring tide.   They made quite a racket and number of the younger animals were in the water close to the shore with the human onlookers, watching us, watching them (worth a click to expand this one to see the scale of the spectacle):

We also visited Dunnotar again, just south of Aberdeen and drove through Arbroath too, the Abbey looks worth a visit as do a few other sites in that historic town..   There's so much to see and explore in Scotland, i just wish Spring would get on with itself now and usher Winter away for a few months! 

Athens

Having had to postpone our planned visit to India due to the flu we looked around for an opportunity to get away somewhere we'd not been before but directly from one of the two local international airports.  We settled on a trip to Athens with EasyJet.

Our first day in the city was the half marathon and a number of different distance fun runs too, so we woke up to the noise of pounding music and loud commentary from the speaker stacks along the main road and therefore right outside our hotel. 

Luckily for the runners it was cool and overcast and actually had rain forecast!   We set out to start exploring the city and headed first to the nearby Temple of Zeus.   Athens is low-rise (4 storeys being the typically height of city buildings) with some open spaces, typically surrounding amazingly old structure and ruins.  The Temple of Zeus is no exception.

It's a magnificent structure, many thousands of years old and in fact led to one of my abiding memories of the trip as adjacent to the remains of the temple are the ruins of some Roman baths, built there so the guests could look upon the much older temple, and there we were two thousand years after the baths had been occupied looking at them both in turn.   I wonder what the next two thousand years will bring...

The city is dotted with architectural ruins and often they are stumbled upon by chance, as this well preserved Roman bath was when the city was excavating to extend the metro line:

One thing we didn't like about Athens is the ubiquitous graffiti.  It really spoils the place.   Historic buildings, shops, homes, etc., are all covered.   Some people have resorted to putting up sheet metal in front of their properties to take the paint.  It makes the whole place look ragged and rough, as you can see here in what i assume is the abandoned site of the former Museum of Archaeology:

We visited the new museum, a must, and managed to time it to miss the day's rain, before heading out to a decent veggie restaurant a few blocks from our hotel.

The next day was glorious, lovely and warm, sunny and very pleasant at 18c with a feels-like 22c, much better than the -2c to 2c we'd left at home.

The National Greek Parliament looked rather splendid:

We chose the day, a Monday morning, to head to the Acropolis, assuming it would be quieter first thing.   We were very lucky as anything after 10am looks insanely busy.   We had to queue behind about 10 people, later on it was hundreds.  We chose to access the site via the Temple entrance, taking in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the ascent:

On the hilltop the path narrows as you enter the main site, and as well as the Parthenon which is under constant repair and maintenance there's also a Temple of Athena overlooking the city:

Pretty much any archaeological site in Athens has its historical debris, such as here at the Ancient Agora of Athens:

We really enjoyed exploring the history of the city and walking up a nearby hill to get further views of the Acropolis and Parthenon.

Tuesday was our last full day in the city, we started by exploring some of the sculptures and monuments in the old city:

As well as the more impressive churches, of which there are many very old and quite new:

We spent the later part of the morning ascending Athens' highest hill, taking in the impressive views across the city on another lovely Spring day:

Before exploring further.  In the late afternoon we drank beer on the hotel rooftop and watched the setting sun cast the city orange in its fading light:

We were impressed with our short visit to Athens, it's kind of a must-do for people interested in travel i think.   It's also whet our appetite to explore this country more, particularly the mountains such as Mount Olympus, etc.