A Cafe in Riga

Just under two weeks ago Alessio and I had a long weekend in Riga, on our first day there we visited this cafe. I had promised to find someplace that sold ice cream and then we happened upon this delightful cafe! Alessio was quite happy to go in so we did! In the end he didn`t want ice cream as the many cakes on sale were just amazing.

The cafe also made it`s own chocolate which also looked delicious, so on our last evening we went back and got some to take home. In fact we still have some left so hopefully my parents will be able to taste some as they arrive very soon!

As I just mentioned on Friday my parents are coming to visit us for just over one week. Alessio and I are both looking forward to it. We have a few trips planned but otherwise we will be staying at home and going into Zurich.

A Castle and An Abbey

Aberdour Castle

Dunfermline Abbey

Our only day trip during the Christmas holidays in Scotland was to visit a castle, a town and an abbey.

Aberdour Castle is situated in unsurprisingly in Aberdour, Fife, it is now a ruin but still very impressive to see and well worth a visit. It is one of the two oldest datable standing castles, the other being Castle Sween in Argyll. It was built in the 1100s and in later years more parts of the castle were built. It has a lovely walled garden, a doocot, (which is a structure to house doves and pigeons) and next door is St Fillans Church, which is a fine example of Norman architecture from 1100s.

It is part of Historic Scotland which means it is open all year round.

Next we visited Culross and then we carried on to visit Dunfermline Abbey and Palace which are the remains of a great Benedictine Abbey founded by Queen Margaret. In 1070 Queen Margaret founded a priory in Dunfermline, then her son David I turned it to an abbey in 1128. In the abbey Robert the Bruce was buried here in 1329 (minus his heart) plus seven other Scottish monarchs. Charles I was born here and he was the last monarch to be born in Scotland.

It is an very impressive place and inside the abbey the stain glass windows are amazing. There is part of the abbey you have to pay to visit, this we did not do.

All in all a lovely day out visiting Scotland`s historical past!

Alessio and I returned earlier today from our long weekend in Riga and we had a lovely time. It is such a beautiful city and worth a visit!

A Day in Rotterdam

During the October holidays last year we spent a week in Belgium, but we did have a day in Rotterdam while we were staying in Brussels. I had wanted to visit Rotterdam for a while now mainly to see the amazing Cube houses, but also as there is lots of great modern architecture too.

These Cube houses were designed by the Dutch architect Piet Blom in the 1970s, there are 38 in total and one is open to the public. Of course I had to go and check it out, it was really very interesting but not sure I could live in one though. There is not so much space in these houses, which is due to the shape of the buildings. If you get the chance to visit Rotterdam definitely try to visit them!

We also visited Defthaven and it is lovely part of the city with lots of buildings and a canal passing through. We wondered around for a bit before heading back into the centre. We then decided to go to the Euromast tower, there was a long queue but finally we got up. The view is quite amazing, the seating area turns 360 degrees so you can see the whole view.

So it finally remained time left to head back to the train to catch our train back to Brussels and a great day in Rotterdam.

This weekend Alessio and I are going to visit Riga, Latvia. It will be the first time visit for us and am looking forward to seeing this lovely city!

A Glimpse of Brasov

Piata Sfatului

Black Church

Over the Easter weekend I went to Romania with my friend Arlene and we stayed in Bucharest. We went on a day trip and visited Peles and Brans Castle (which will post another time) and as a final stop we had a really quick visit to Brasov.

Brasov is situated in the region of Transylvania, about 166km for Bucharest and we stopped for a short guided tour of the town. It would have been really nice to have been able to walk around ourselves and check out some of the shops.

Brasov is a lovely 13th century town with lots of colourful buildings with great architecture. One of the big tourist draws of the town is the Black Church. It is the largest Gothic church in Eastern Europe, it earned the name after a fire in 1689 caused the walls to be darkened by smoke.

There is a funicular which takes you up to Mount Tampa with lovely views from the top. The main square is really nice and lined with cafes and shops but we just wandered through to see the Black church. Of the little that we saw of Brasov it definitely would be nice to spend a bit more time to investigate the town more.

Have a great weekend!