Air Travel

Well, good friends getting married in a country as lovely as Scotland was enough motivation we needed to take a look at this beautiful place, and 5 days was just enough to make us realize that we need a longer period of time to explore it properly.

We landed at Glasgow at Prestwick airport, not the nearest airport to the city but certainly the nearest to our first destination - which was the Isle of Arran.

We stayed in a budget B&B overnight near Irvine, where we caught the ferry across from Ardrossan to Brodick on the Isle of Arran (nicknamed "Scotland in Miniature"). We checked into a welcoming B&B on the waterfront, the owners of which went to ridiculous lengths to make us feel comfortable and able to get ready for the wedding despite our rooms not yet being available... all at no extra cost!).

View across Lamlash Bay from our B&B in Brodick

The wedding was at Lamlash Parish Church, a lovely spot overlooking Lamlash Bay, and we all had a lovely time seeing our good friends marry in such beautiful surroundings. The Reception followed at the Auchrannie Hotel, again, a lovely room which was set out beautifully for us all to dance, eat and drink the night away. The bride and groom had employed the services of a traditional ceilidh, a called dance, not unlike a barn dance, which everyone had a go at, most of us looked silly doing, but we all thoroughly enjoyed!

The Isle of Arran is a beautiful place to visit and we wish we had have allocated some more time to explore the island... so have made a commitment to return to see it properly with more time!

Isle of Arran

The following day, Holly. Kris, Stephen and I headed off back to the Mainland and on to Glasgow and checked into a lovely serviced apartment Holly had found a few weeks before, in the heart of Glasgow. Perfect for exploring the surrounding city.
Glasgow is a bizarre place, with beautiful old buildings and architecture swamped by masses of ugly and poorly designed housing estates for the cities low income earners, of which there are many.

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral Interior

Beautiful Art Deco theatre, the Capitol

We were lucky enough to be in Glasgow on a day where many of the cities public buildings were open to the public to visit, for free! We visited the Glasgow City Chambers, just off George Square, and were stunned at the full marble staircase, the dark council chamber and the sheer grandeur of the banqueting hall. It was a great coincidence to be there on the day that we could visit, and we are glad we took a peek inside.

George Square - Glasgow City

Glasgow City Chambers

Glasgow City Chambers Interior

Glasgow City Chambers - Full Marble Staircase

We took a stroll up to the "Barra's", the market area in the East End. There were all the usual things you expect to find at a market in any major city, Copied DVDs, BB Guns, Cheap Clothing and household items. Another thing we saw a lot of at the Barra's was what is known as a "Glasgow Smile". This is also known as a Chelsea Grin/Chelsea Smile. Basically, a Glasgow Smile is a practice which originated in the city of Glasgow which involves a person being cut from mouth to ear, causing a permanent and extended smile like scar (most famous recipient of such practice would be the Joker from Batman). Its quite a fascinating thing to see, when every 3 or 4 men that pass have such scars... and these look like regular guys (did not seen any women with this)... Very, very strange thing to see indeed. Needless to say, we did not get a photo of one of these...

After two nights in Glasgow, we decided to get up early and drive to Edinburgh for our very last day before catching a night flight back to London. After all, It's guid ti hae yir cog out whan it rains kail (Make the most of your opportunities!) Boy... are we glad we did! As soon as we reached Edinburgh, we let out a sigh and smiled as we knew we had gotten up early for good reason. It took us about 1.5 hours to drive from Glasgow to Edinburgh (including time finding a car park!).

We wondered up the Royal Mile towards the Edinburgh Castle, where we spent a few hours wandering around exploring and taking in the amazing views of the city from the Castle. Lunch was fabulous, Oysters, Haggis, Chicken and Lamb, and boy were we all full!

Entrance to Edinburgh Castle

Jen at Edinburgh Castle

Stephen & Jen at Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Guns eye view from Edinburgh Castle

The Sun stayed out for us to wander the streets of Edinburgh until it was time for us to get back on the car and head back to Glasgow Prestwick for our return flight to London.

We did toy with the idea of changing our flights to stay in Edinburgh longer but decided instead (thanks to the small issue of our four jobs!), to book in another holiday back there really soon.

I've never met anyone who came back from Prague without raving about it, and we are no exception.

The city looks just like the sort of places I imagined when I read fantasy books as a kid - huge cathedral spires, gothic statues and gargoyles reaching out from the tops of buildings ready to pounce. Add menacing grey skies and you have a very pretty, quite unique, almost spooky city.

We arrived in Prague in the afternoon. Dave had planned our journey to the Hotel by way of public transport. 1 bus, 2 trains and 60 minutes later we were checked in. The rooms were very nice and the staff were pleasant. We fuelled up each morning with the hot complimentary breakfast and it kept us running well into the afternoon.

As is the case with most of the cities we have visited in Europe, the transport network is very good. We were able to get around very easily. Our hotel was located close to Florenc Metro station and our well set out transport map made it easy to plot a course, each day, to see the various sights.

We have had a great run of luck with regard to weather on our travels almost no rain in more than 12 months. Suffice it to say, the run came to an end in Prague. Severe storms swept through Europe and the Czech Republic was not spared. We took the finicular up a steep hill to visit the replica Eifel Tower only to be met at the top by howling winds and a massive hail storm. We managed to get around, between rainy periods, and see just about everything on our list. The sun even showed it's face for a couple of hours!

Prague is a truly beautiful city, even dressed in hues of grey. Here are some of the sights.

Statue of Jan Hus in the Old Town Square

King Wenceslas watches over Wenceslas Square

Statue of St Augustine on Charles IV Bridge

The lamenting of Christ, Charles IV Bridge

17th Century statue of the Crucifixion

Charles IV Bridge

Memorial to the victims of communism

Night view towards Prague Castle

Gargoyle at St Vitius Basilica

St Vitius Basilica

This trip we decided to spare ourselves the 4am taxi ride to Luton airport for an Easyjet flight. Instead we got the Heathrow express straight to terminal 2. After about 2 hours in the air we were landing at Leonardo Di Vinci airport in Rome.

We took the express train from the airport to Rome's main station, Termini. It was about 8pm and dark so we hailed a cab and headed for our hotel. We arrived at the address. Only one problem... no hotel. Our driver lokked confused for a while and then jumped out of the cab and started racing down the road searching for the hotel. A guy came out from his business and explained, in charades, that the numbers were all out of whack and that our hotel was actually a block down the road behind us. We found it, checked in and laughed with relief.

Day one we jumped on the metro and headed for the Colosseum. We figured why not start with the big guns of sightseeing. There is a metro stop located there so we emerged from the station to the awesome sight of this huge structure. It is genuinely staggering to see something so enormous and so old. It had a capacity of over 55000 and was built in the first century AD.

The Colosseum

To be able to walk the interior gave just a hint of what it may have been like in all its glory.

The rising stands of the Colosseum

Just beside the Colosseum stands the Arco di Constantino.

A short walk SW took us to the Palantino, a hilly area scattered with the ruins of temples built for the Emperors. There is an orange grove at the top and several terraces from which we could view the remains of the Roman Forum.

We Grabbed some pizza sandwiches for lunch and ate seated in the shadows of the Coloseum.

After a pit stop we headed out for a veiw of the city at night. We had our guide book, a metro map and an illustrated map provided by the hotel. Now... as we have found previously in European cities, it is easy to get a bit mixed up with similar sounding place names. We devised a foolproof Aussie system to plot our course around Rome. We determined that if we got onto the metro and Boyzone station (Manzoni) and travelled past Colin See 'em and continue as far as Vinnie Barbarino station (Barbarini) we could walk to Trevor the fountain. It was illuminated beautifully and, as is customary for visitors, we tossed coins into the water to ensure we would return.

Trevi Fountain is so impressive and beautiful at night, we took a heap of photos before getting completely lost on the walk back. We did, however, manage to get a look at the Colosseum on the way home.

On Monday we headed out to the Vatican. We arrived at about 10.30am but the line to get in wound around corner after corner for blocks. We decided to give it a miss and, instead, jumped on the first tram we saw and went exploring. Here's what we found...

View along the Tiber towards St Peters

Parliament house

Entrance to Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

Central fountain in Popolo

Fontana detarughe

On our anniversary we got up really early and took the first train to St Peter's Basilica. The piazza was almost completely deserted and we were able to watch the sunrise from within.

We went inside the Basilica and it was astonishing.

Next stop was the Vatican museum, home of the Sistine Chapel

Parts of it reminded us of the bathroom in our old place in Coburg!

It was still really early so we went and explored the ruins of the Roman Forum.

We returned to Central Rome and climbed the Spanish Steps.

We walked to the Pantheon and had lunch at a cafe out front.

... before taking a romantic ride around the city in a horse drawn carriage.

We finished the day off with dinner at a great restaurant near our hotel. The food was fantastic and the service was outstanding.
We had a beautiful day filled with amazing experiences and, most importantly, spent it together. We thought it was going to be tough to capture the romance of Paris but Rome delivered us a perfect day.

Wednesday was our last day in Rome. We spent a lazy morning in Piazza Della Repubblica

So that was Rome. The amazing city where the ancient word meets the modern world