365 Photo Challeenge Days 291-299

Tuesday 6th December - Day 291

We bought a Gritibanz from the bakers for breakfast.
Wednesday 7th December - Day 292

A walk in the woods near work where this statue is situated.
Thursday 8th December - Day 293

A decoration in kilchberg.
Friday 9th December - Day 294

A flower shop in Zurich, always lovely things to buy!
Saturday 10th December - Day 295

The cafe in Kilchberg lots of lovely food to eat.
Sunday 11th December - Day 296

The wreath on the door of my neighbour.
Monday 12th December - Day 297

Christmas lights in Zurich!
Tuesday 13th December - Day 298

Taken from the restaurant next to my work.
Wednesday 14th December - Day 299

On the library window!

I am quite behind in my photo challenge but hopefully now will try to catch up. I finish this challenge mid February and am glad as taking a photo each can be quite challenging!

Caledonian Railway

On Christmas Eve my sister booked tickets for us to go on an old stream train from the Caledonian Railway. An added bonus there would be a surprise visitor! Situated in the town of Brechin it runs from there to a stop called Bridge of Dun, the whole journey is 45mins. Steam trains stopping running officially on the mainline in August 1968, so this is a treat.

On the way Bridge of Dun Santa made an appearnce much to the delight of Alessio and his cousins Liam and Jamie. Alessio got a airplance which he liked a lot!

We had a 10min break and since Thomas the tank engine was driving the train we had to get some photos of him.



The station is of the Victorian era, part of the station was built in 1848 and then completed in 1896. The boys liked to see the steam coming from the funnel and the hear the whistle blowing. It was very busy and a different but fun thing to do around Christmas time.

Christmas Markets Nuremburg

I hope everyone had a great new year, I wanted to post these photos in December, but I found out I had no more space to upload photos. I eventually bought more storage space then I went to Scotland so only now I can do this post. The first weekend in December I went to Nuremburg with Aimee, we both really liked walking around the Christmas markets the only thing missing was snow!





The stalls were selling food, drink, candles, lights, wooden houses and other things which I cannot remember just now. We liked drinking Glüewein while wandering around the stalls, it did start to rain but we still enjoyed yourselves.




Afterwards we found this cool looking square, and a cute but very small bar where we settled down for a few glasses of prosecco to help warm us up!

So I wish everyone a great 2012!

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.