Fancy a Sit Down! at Art Basel

Last Sunday I visited Art Basel, it was the last day, but still very busy. At first I looked around the art halls and then went to Design Miami/Basel. Here they showcase designs from furniture, jewellery and other stuff. For me what caught my attention was the furniture and the chairs in particular, there were some really lovely pieces to see.

Everything was amazing to see and I liked the second last photo of the chair, who knows how much that would cost!

There is not only art and design to see but also films and talks with various artists which would also be quite interesting to see. Hopefully next year will go again and see a bit more! I will post some of the art that I saw, so keep looking!

A Weekend in Edinburgh

I had a lovely weekend in Edinburgh with my sister, usually when I go back home we try to have a weekend away or at least a day trip. We took the train to Edinburgh and went straight to our hotel which was in Haymarket. Our hotel was called No. 32 Hotel and we would both recommend it very much. The staff were helpful and it is about 10 to 15 mins walk to Princes Street.

We decided to go to Leith for the afternoon so we hopped on a bus and well, got a bit lost and had to double back and ask a bus driver for directions. Eventually we found where we wanted to go and by that time the sun had come out so we spent some time having a few drinks sitting outside.

We wondered around and then had to get back into the centre as we had booked afternoon tea, I am quite partial to afternoon tea now. We went to Tiger Lily restaurant which is also a boutique hotel, it was really busy. I have to say that I was disappointed, after having had afternoon tea both in Dublin and Hong Kong it did just not measure up.

The next day we planned to visit the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to see The House of Annie Lennox. It is full of her costumes, photos, awards, including an Oscar, records, hand written notes and lots more. We both found it very interesting to read about her life in Eurythmics and then her solo career.

Afterwards we walked around a little bit more but it was bitterly cold so we decided just to head back to the hotel and then back to Fife. We are already planning our next trip, not sure where just yet though.

Belvoir Park in Zurich

It was only last Sunday that I went with Alessio out for some fresh air as he had the chicken pox and since I did not want to go anywhere with lots of people, this park was ideal. It also helped that the weather was still not so good!

Belvoir park is in Enge area of Zurich, a large park with a villa which is now Restaurant Belvoir and a gastronomy school. It has a small playground but not very exciting for older children, some ponds, lots of benches and an iris garden ( lots of other flowers too).

It has views of the lake and mountains, definitely a place to enjoy some quiet time, as where is not so much for kids to do.

And Now For Some Wildlife in Scotland

For the Spring holidays Alessio and I went back to Scotland and on one of those days we did a lovely and memorable day trip to Incholm Island. To get there you go to South Queensferry to catch one of the two boats that offer this trip. The journey there was amazing and will post about that another time.

On the island if you decide to get off the boat you have 1.5 hours to expore this island and that is plenty of time. One of the highlights of this trip is to see the wildlife dotted around the island and the Firth of Forth, on the trip there we saw some porpoises, which I had never heard of before. They are smaller than dolphins, it was to hard to get a photo of them. On the island itself you can see many seagulls, I was not so keen to walk very close to them to I looked from afar. We saw 3 seals very near to the island, one was very cute indeed, then the boat came back and we started the return leg of the trip.

Then we saw lots of puffins, this was the first time I had ever seen this bird, they really stand out with their orange beaks. Then for me the best part of the trip was seeing this colony of grey seals, there must have been maybe 50 of them lounging on two large rocks.

I guess they are used to these boats coming by and stopping for a bit so all us tourists can snap away. Some of them looked up to see what was going on. They all looked so lovely with their cute adorable faces, then one of them decided to go for a swim. I must have taken lots of photos of his trip into the sea and watched him swim off. I could have stayed and just watched them, but they were not up to much.

I am quite keen now to see more animals in their natural habitats, will have to see if I manage to plan any trips with that in mind.

Statues and Other Stuff!

Back in Paris for this post as you can imagine there are lots of statues to look at and enjoy, the first one is from the Luxembourg Gardens. Then we saw this fellow in the next photo as we made our way back to the river Seine. We came St. Sulpice church and fountain and around were a number of art creations, some of which you can see in photos 3 & 4.

Then over the river into the Tuileries Gardens which are beautiful, we did not have lots of time to really enjoy them though. The 5th photo is my favorite, I wonder why he is covering his face with his hand and who was he, the next one is also from the gardens. Finally the last photo is from the Sacre-Coeur Bascilica with great views of Paris.