Larnach Castle, Otago Peninsula ,New Zealand

The time has passed quite quickly this December and now it is only 7 days to Christmas, we have not done much in regard to Christmas fun this year. We visited the Christmas market at Bellevue a few times, there is such yummy things to eat there.

Again going back to the summer and our trip to New Zealand, while we were in Dunedin we went on a tour of Larnach Castle, situated in the Otago peninsula. It is the only castle in New Zealand, built in 1871 by prominent entrepreneur and politician William Larnach for his wife Eliza.

Our tour guide was very good and he told us lots of information about the Larnach family which included some scandal. It is a lovely castle and the now owners try to fill the rooms with furniture from the era.

We climbed up one of the turrets and we were rewarded with lovely views of the peninsula, we had time for a quick coffee in the cafe before we headed back to Dunedin.

For the first time I will be going away for Christmas to much warmer places, I will be heading to Kuala Lumpur, Bali and Singapore with a friend. It will be an experience indeed to say the least.


Wishing you all a lovely week

On The Way to Isle of Mull

While I was in Scotland we took a trip to the Isle of Mull with my parents, the journey up was fantastic!

We saw lots of wonderful Scottish scenery, lochs, mountains, hills, bridges, castles and towns. We stopped for lunch at The Hollow Mountain cafe which is part of the Cruachan Power Station. We didn`t visit it as we had no time, but I would definitely like to visit it.

We had another stop a little later on at Dunstaffnage Castle and Chapel which is very near to Oban. The castle was built in 1240 by Duncan MacGougall and is one of Scotland`s oldest stone castles. In 1746 it had a famous prisoner Flora MacDonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape, she was held in the castle for her troubles and later taken to the Tower of London.

After our visit we continued the short journey to Oban, found the hotel and had a walk around. I have been here before a few times and it is a lovely looking town. Oban is one of the gateways to many Scottish Islands and the next day we would be talking a ferry to Mull.

The Isle of Mull was beautiful and will be posting about our time there soon, hope you all have a great and fun weekend!

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Back in March I visited Slovenia with my friend Arlene and one of our day trips was to Lake Bled. We took the bus there and once we arrived we wondered down to the lake, it really is such a wonderful place! We decided to walk up to the castle, which was really exhausting, it is not a long walk but uphill seemed to take ages. Once up the view is stunning of the church on the island on the lake and of the mountains and surrounding area.

We had coffee and cake, not just any cake but the Bled cream cake which tasted really delicious. Then we walked back down and started to walk around the lake with a little help of the tourist train. It is 6km walk around the lake but we did not do the whole lake just a bit of it.

There is the possibility to visit the church on the island on the traditional boat called the Peltna which is only made in Bled, it takes 20 people and you are rowed there by the Pletna oarsman. We did not do this but it would have been nice to see the interesting on the island.

A visit to Lake Bled is one of the big tourist places to visit and if we had had more time, I would have like to visit Lake Bohinj.

Blackness Castle

Alessio and I were in Scotland in April and we did a day trip with my parents to Blackness Castle near to Edinburgh, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It is part of Historic Scotland which my parents have a membership and not so far for a day trip from Dundee.

This very impressive castle was built in 15th century by the Crichton family, one of Scotland`s most powerful families. It has wonderful views of the Forth rail and road bridges and not to mention the shore lines in both directions.

The castle is often called " the ship that never sailed" due to the fact that it`s fortifications look like the shape of a ship. We climbed up the towers and walked along the wall and there is lots of information which lets you know what each room was and how it was used. Very near is the village of Blackness where you could get a bit to eat, as there is nothing at the castle itself.