Photo of the Week - I Love Scotland

I was in Edinburgh this past Tuesday for the day, I enjoyed myself very much. I always like to come back to Scotland for visits to see family and friends. If I had more time I would love to explore lots more places that I have not seen before, especially of the islands.

Sadly I will not be back until next October, but hopefully I can plan a trip to one or a few of the islands.

If you have never been to Scotland then I suggest you come and visit, there is so much to see and do. It is a beautiful country, friendly people and the weather, well everything cannot be perfect!

Christmas Time

Friday Alessio and I flew to Scotland, a small delay at Heathrow (what do you expect) but the main downer was that our luggage did not arrive the same time as us. Eventually the next in the evening the delivery man came, at least everything was still there!

Saturday we went on a steam train ride (more to come on that) with Alessio, his two cousin Liam and Jamie, me and my dad.

Sunday was at home with my parents and a lovely meal which my dad made, due to the very high winds we are having it did not look very enticing to leave the house. On Boxing Day my sister and family came for another lovely lunch. Alessio was glad to see his cousins again, although around 5 members of the family are sick at the moment, mum, dad, sister, son and nephew 1. Nephew 2 was ill before we arrived so it is just me and brother-in-law still standing!

Tuesday I went to Edinburgh for day (post will come) and today we saw aunt and uncle, Jo and Frank, my cousins Helen and Neil.

Well it has been lovely being back in Scotland, still lots planned and tomorrow is my birthday, we lunching in St.Andrews after a visit to the dentist (lucky me).

I hope everyone else had a fab Christmas time and I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Vintage Reaching Challenge 2012

Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2012

Vintage Themes:

1. Colorful Crime: 8 books with colors in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: 8 books with a number in the title
3. Occupational Hazards: 8 books with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Perilous Policemen: 8 books with a policeman as the primary investigator
5. Lethal Locations: 8 books that are all about place (for instance: country houses, hospitals, schools or even particular cities/countries)
6. Dangerous Beasts: 8 books with an animal in the title (The Bat; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
7. Deadly Decades: 8 books, one from each time period plus one of your choice (Pre-1900s; 1900-09; 1910-19; 1920-1929; 1930-1939; 1940-1949; 1950-59)
8. Golden Age Girls: 8 books by female authors OR 8 books with female detectives
9. Cherchez le Homme: 8 books by male authors OR 8 books with male detectives
10. Murderous Miscellany: Choose your own theme. Get creative--surprise us! The only stipulation is that the theme cannot be reading books by a single author.

I have decided to do the Vintage Reaching Challenge again this year as I enjoyed it very much last year and I love to read crime novels. It is different from last year, this year has themes to chose from and I am going to do the Colourful Crime theme, but all books must have been written before 1960.

1. The Greenwell Mystery by E. C. R. Lorac

2. The Mystery of Blue Train by Agatha Christie.

3 .Strange Murders at Greystones by Elsie N Wright.

4. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Looking forward to the start!

Pictures from Nuremberg

For ages now I always wanted to visit another country and see their Christmas markets, so now finally I got to do this. My friend Aimee and I went to Nuremberg in Germany for the weekend, we decided to go by train which is around 5 hours, a bit too long for only two days we decided. We arrived just before 3pm and found our hotel which was very nice and near the centre and went straight out. On our way to the market we passed the castle is quite majestic and lovely views of the city!



It became dark quite soon and it was also very windy, but we were warmly dressed up. This is the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, which treated lepers apparently in the middles ages.





There are many churches in Nuremberg to visit, we did not have much time to go inside so we admired them from outside.
This lovely square is where the house of Albrecht Dürer is situated, a native of Nuremberg he was a painter, printmaker, engraver amongst other things. Sadly the photos of his house was taken at night and does not look good.
The night before we had a few glasses of prosecco in this very small but cute bar, and they only costed 3 euro!

We had a lovely but short time away, it would have been nice to have visited a few of the places we saw, the next time we go for longer.

365 Photo Challenge 280 - 290

Friday 25th November - Day 280

In Horgen at the park next to the ferries with the kids from my work.
Saturday 26th November - Day 281

Outside the Rote Fabrik (red factory still a post to come on that) Alessio played at the playground.
Sunday 27th November - Day - 282

A lovely shop just opposite the chocolate factory.
Monday 28th November - Day 283

Christmas present shopping in Zurich. it is also circus time!
Tuesday 29th November - Day 284

At the Christmas market near Bellevue with friends before seeing the new Twilight movie.
Wednesday 30th November - Day 285

The advent calender that the children made at work!
Thursday 1st December - Day 286

At the Abbey in Einsiedeln with the children from work, horses were in their fields.
Friday 2nd December - Day 287

This is the advent calender for Alessio from his Uncle Luca and Aunt Andrea, they are not around at the moment so they had this idea. He loves it!
Saturday 3rd December - Day 288

In Nürnberg for the weekend with Aimee in a bar we saw this sign!
Sunday 4th December - Day 289

Still Nürnberg lots of food stalls at the Christmas markets.
Monday 5th December - Day 290

The view from the window at work looking onto Au penisula!
Wishing everyone a good week!

E is for Edinburgh

Edinburgh the beautiful capital of Scotland these were taken two years ago over the christmas period. This is the view from Carlton Hill with the castle in the distance, we were lucky to have a clear, sunny but cold day to see all of this.
This is Holyrood Palace which we visited and it was fascinating, I love to hear about history!

I will be back in Edinburgh for a visit over Christmas, looking forward to that and just being back in Scotland.

Christmas Market in Einsiedeln

On December 1st we had a trip with the children from my work to visit the Christmas market in Einsiedeln. It was very misty in and around Lake Zurich but as soon as we got higher all we could see was lovely blue skies and the sun! Once we arrived we made our way towards the Christmas market, the people were all quite friendly and either waved to us or said hello.
It was quite impressive seeing all the huts from this view point, first of all we took the children in the Abbey. We warned them all that it was important to be quiet and they all behaved very well. Then we wandered in and out of the stalls looking at all the goodies on offer.




Right next to the market is a playground and it is there we had our lunch and the children got to run around and play.
We then went to explore around the abbey and we got to see a horse getting a hoof on, which was quite exciting for the children to see. Also we got to see two pigs which was also lots of fun.

The next lot of photos are from walking back down to the station, we all had a nice day out!