365 Book Challenge Days 57 to 68

Day 58

Day 59

Day 60

Day 61

Day 62

Day 63

Day 64

Day 65

Day 66

Day 67

Day 68

Since we are nearly into October thought I would do a book post:

Sunday 25th August - A library book The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

Monday 26th August - YA book called The Secret Runners of New York by Matthew Reilly, I really enjoyed this one

Tuesday 27th August - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson, first in a trilogy

Wednesday 28th August - My Illumicrate box arrived, love it

Thursday 29th August - Recursion by Blake Crouch, I bought that at the English bookshop

Friday 30th August - The Vanishing Star, this is the second in the Truly Devious series. I still have not read it

Saturday 31st August - I picked out of my Tbr jar, A Good Girl`s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, I really liked this one too

Sunday 1st September - I selected Enchantee by Gita Trelease, this is a good book, set in Paris around the French Revolution

Monday 2nd September - It did not take me long to read it and next year comes to next book

Tuesday 3rd September - Sanctuary by V V James, this was one of the Illumicrate books and it did not disappoint

Wednesday 4th September - The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff, another library book. Set during WW2 and just after the end of the war, it goes back and forth.


August was a good month I read 14 books, one that is not on their is One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus. It was a great books and the next in the series is out early next year.

Hope you all had a great weekend

An Afternoon in Andorra

Paris Bridge

In February I went to Barcelona with my friend Arlene and there we met up with my father. The main reason was to see FC Barcelona play, as my father and Arlene had not been to see them. For me it would be my 4th time.

Anyway while we were in Barcelona, I got my phone nicked while we were in the metro. I stupidly had it in my coat pocket. So when we went to Andorra, I used my friend's phone, to cut a long story short I have only now managed to put them onto google photos. I am not tech savvy at all.

The trip from Barcelona takes around 3 hours one way and you can only go by bus or car. I had booked us bus tickets before we arrived in Barcelona. Andorra is as you may or not not know a landlocked country nestled in the Pyrenees. Officially known as the Principality of Andorra and the capital is called Andorra La Vella and is the highest capital city in Europe at 1,023m above sea level.

It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe, the other nations are Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta, Vatican City and San Marino. The only one I have not been to yet is San Marino. The official language is Catalan.

Well we did not have a lot of time, but in all honesty it was enough to see the main sights. Obviously in winter, the main activity is skiing and the other seasons there is lots hiking possible. One of the main attractions is shopping, there are many, many shops considering how small the place. Since Arlene and I are not so keen on shopping this part was not so interesting.

There is Casa de la Vall, a historical house, which is the headquarters of the General Council in Andorra. There the Esglesia de Sant Esteve, built in the 11th to 12th century and bridge called Puente de Paris, which means Paris bridge.

Obviously it is a long way to go from such a short time, but we both found it enough for our purposes, on the bus trip back we were caught in long queues going over the border. So we got back much later than expected, but still managed to have some dinner and drinks with my father.

Stromness and Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

Stromness

St. Magnus

Earl Palace

Bishop Palace

Bishop Palace

Bishop Palace

Earl Palace

View of St.Magus

Bishop Palace

While Alessio and I were in Scotland we had a mini holiday with my parents to the Orkney Islands. We got the ferry over from Scrabster to Stromness which took 1.5 hours, it was an pleasant journey on the way we got to see the Old Man of Hoy. I will post some photos at a later date.

Stromness is the second largest town in the islands, it has a long winding Main Street with lots of lovely shops and interesting buildings. We visited the Pier Arts Centre and enjoyed looking at the great works of art. There was also a lovely small bookshop which I just had to checkout.

We stayed in Stromness for two nights at the Ferry Inn, which was very nice. We then drove to Kirkwall where we stayed for three nights.

Kirkwall is the largest town in the islands, we stayed at The Shore which was also a lovely place to stay. Right next to the hotel was a bar called The Standing Room Gin Bar, sadly we did not visit it but it did look good.

We visit the magnificent St. Magnus Cathedral, known as the most northern cathedral in Britain, founded in 1137 by the Viking Earl Rogvald, in honour of his uncle St Magus. It is a very stunning building.

We also visited two Historic Scotland sights, the Bishop`s and Earl´s Palaces, both are ruins but in very good order. From the top of the tower in the Earl´s Palace you get a fantastic view of the cathedral. The also had a quick look at the Orkney Museum, there is also the Highland Park Distillery but we did not visit it.

We stopped in at the Kirkjuvagr Orkney Gin distillery, we did not go on a tour but I had a gin cocktail. In fact my father and I tasted all the different gin from the islands over the three evenings and they were all really good.

We did lots more on this trip and will be posting it over the coming months.

Hope you all having a lovely weekend

365 Book Challenge Days 43 to 56

Day 43

Day 44

Day 45

Day 46

Day 47

Day 48

Day 49

Day 50

Day 51

Day 52

Day 53

Day 54

Day 55

Day 56

I am a bit behind with my book challenge, so here we go:

Sunday 11th  August - A lovely selection of books

Monday 12th August - A book cover I liked

Tuesday 13th August - The latest two books by the writer Denzil Meyrick

Wednesday 14th August - Bought in a supermarket

Thursday 15th August - In the spare room of my parents` house

Friday 16th August - At the Edinburgh International Book Festival we saw two writers Kate Hamer and Doug Johnstone

Saturday 17th August - Signed book from Kate Hamer

Sunday 18th August - Latest book from Kate Hamer

Monday 19th August - I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Reid Jenkins

Tuesday 20th August - The Last by Hanna Jameson, which I enjoyed along with the other book too

Wednesday 21st August - The Mangle Street Murders by  M R C Kasasian, this is the first book in this series

Thursday 22nd August - A Selection of green books I own

Friday 23rd August - Library books from Zurich

Saturday 24th August - A visit to the Horgen library


This was quite a long post as I want to catch up as much as possible. Since then I have read lots of books and continued buying books too.

How is your reading going?