Dean Village, Edinburgh

The spring school holidays are finished and we are both back to work and school, for the second week of the holidays we went back to Scotland.

It had been a really long time since we have been to Scotland in fact Christmas 2017, so we were well overdue a visit.

I had planned lots of things to do and see for this week and a few days, one of them being a trip to the capital Edinburgh.

I wanted to visit Dean Village which is a part of Edinburgh as I had seen lots of lovely photos on Instagram. It did not disappoint at all, lovely buildings, houses, and views. The only thing was that it is a small area and did not take long to see. Of course we might have missed out part of the area, not sure. There were lots of other people wondering around too. it has the river Leith flowing through and it is possible to walk all the way to Leith. My father and I think we might try that walk on another visit.

We did lots more on our visit but I will post that another time. Now at home there are some changes going on. Alessio is changing his room to the spare one as it is a bit bigger, he has chosen a new bed, furniture and curtains. The walls are getting painted too, I got rid of lots of stuff and some of mine too from the spare room. It is amazing how much stuff has been collected over the years. It felt good to get rid of it all. Hopefully by the end of May his room will be finished.

Happy Weekend

Postcards of Porto Part 1

Dom Luis 1

Riberia area

Riberia

Church of Saint lldefonso

Bookshop Lello

Casa Do Musica

Castle do Quejio

Tram

Clerigos Tower

Alessio and I spent 4 days in Porto as part of our summer holiday, and I have to say that it is an amazing city. It is a very hilly city so we spent a lot of time wondering up and down the streets, but at least we were getting some exercise in the process!

I will name of the things we saw in Porto:

1) Riberia Square, this is part of the historical centre of the city and designated World Heritage by UNESCO. It is really a lovely area to walk around, full of colour and fantastic buildings!

2)Dom Luis 1 Bridge, this is quite the focal point of all the bridges, Alessio and I walked along with both top and lower desks.

3) Boat trip on the river Douro, the cruise passes under 6 bridges and gives information about them all!

4) Churches, there are so many in this city and they are all beautiful with fantastic tiles!

5) Casa da Musica, this is a major concert hall

6)Livraria Lello, this bookstore is famous as rumor has it that J K Rowling took inspiration from here for the Harry Potter books! It is a fantastic store though, although you pay 3 euros to enter and if you buy a book then the entrance fee is taken off! Of course we bought two books, it was so busy but worth it if you like books!

7) Beaches, there are many up the coast and possible to get there by bus. We went to the Sea Life centre but was not impressed. I have been to a few and none seem worth the money.

Next post will continue with more sights in Porto!

Tokyo Postcards

Famous Nijubashi Bridge

Imperial Palace

Holy Resurrection Cathedral

The Golden Turd!

Looking down the Sumida river

Prada Aoyoma

Roppongi

Tokyo Tower

The National Art Center

National Art Center

Naka-Meguro area

Hibiya Park

Hibiya Park

The trip to Japan took place in April about 6 months ago it was a great trip and we had lots of fun and met lots of lovely people.

We visited Tokyo and Kyoto, but most of our time was spent in the giant metropolis which is Tokyo and its population is over 13 million. In all honestly it was always busy no matter where you go or what time it would be.

There are many distinct areas in Tokyo and we tried to visit as many as possible and see as much as possible. We saw a bit of the Imperial Palace, its gardens and we were still able to see the famous cherry blossoms that Japan is famous for this time of year.

We visited the Sky Tower which had great views and before we began us longish walk to find it we can across these buildings with a strangely shaped golden thing. Apparently its been named The Golden Turd. It is on the Asahi Beer building and was designed by French architect Philippe Stark
and it is supposed to look like foam rising from a beer mug.

We took a cruise down the Sumida river taking in all the sites along the river which then takes you towards Tokyo Bay. We stopped off nearish to our hotel and walked back a new way, trying not to get lost!

We walked around Roppongi checking out the shops, buildings, museums and any other odd looking stuff we could see. If you like to see some interesting architectural buildings then get yourself over to Omotesando which has loads of buildings from the likes of Boss, Stella McCartney, Prada, Christian Dior to name but a few.

We visited some parks and on our last day Hibiya park which was near to the Imperial Palace. It was quite pleasant with a huge pond, fountain and lots of benches to sit quietly and contemplate life. We also wondered around a fab area called Naka-Meguro which has loads of really lovely shops, bars and cafes which are alongside a canal. But there was hardly any water in this canal but it was still a super walk along them.

Anyway enough writing, this might have been the longest post I have ever written, who knows!

Have a great weekend!