Holiday Thread

[prettyxcool]

Welcome back, hd! Sounds like my kind of holiday too!

[superhero]

I am not really a Harry Potter fan, but went past various HP filming areas today:

the viaduct in Glenfinnan - http://www.obanbackpackertours.com/dest ... innan.html

Glencoe - http://www.glencoescotland.com/p/v/harry-potter/

The Loch Ness was also very impressively menacing, the water's so dark and fast flowing, you could easily imagine a monster lurking in the Loch

Went to shoot some landscape photos around the 3 sisters of Glencoe, which is such a stunning area and the food's lovely in Scotland. I am so jealous of all the lucky FMUKers living in Scotland.

[havingascreen]

I am not really a Harry Potter fan, but went past various HP filming areas today:

the viaduct in Glenfinnan - http://www.obanbackpackertours.com/dest ... innan.html

Glencoe - http://www.glencoescotland.com/p/v/harry-potter/

The Loch Ness was also very impressively menacing, the water's so dark and fast flowing, you could easily imagine a monster lurking in the Loch

Went to shoot some landscape photos around the 3 sisters of Glencoe, which is such a stunning area and the food's lovely in Scotland. I am so jealous of all the lucky FMUKers living in Scotland.

Glad you liked our lovely wee part of the world Thanks for the links. I've heard of the breathtaking scenery at this viaduct and we may come back this way from Skye. Got lots of camping gear all lined up and going to practice pitching our tent this weekend. Not decided where we'll camp yet but it will have to be somewhere close to the ferry terminal. Probably be up at 6 in the morning anyway, a sleeping bags not the type of bed you can lie in for too long i'm sure

[Beate]

I am sure you are all dying to know how my trip to Germany was. I am afraid it will be a food-orientated report! We landed in Memmingen on Saturday and were collected by my Mum, because even though Ryanair wants to make you believe the airport is near Munich, it is anything but. In fact, it’s in the middle of nowhere but it’s picturesque if nothing else.

We didn’t do much that weekend apart from lazing in the beautiful, sunny garden and eating all my favourite food like white asparagus with pancakes etc. On Monday we went into town for some (food) shopping, and I saw my German eye doctor for a second opinion on all my previous eye trouble that has seen me hospitalised by the NHS, something he could only shake his head about. He diagnosed me within 2 seconds and said the good thing is I should be immune against this particular virus now – something no one has told me before, probably because they didn’t know.

Tuesday morning we moved on to Kaiserslautern by train, where a friend of ours lives. It should have taken three hours – in the end it took five. Someone had decided to jump in front of our train near Stuttgart, which cost us 90 minutes delay plus another half hour waiting for another connection. We got free bottles of water but that was about it. They say you can get 50% of the fare price back if you are delayed more than 2 hours, but only if it’s their fault – suicides aren’t. Grrr. There was a family in our compartment who were on their way to Paris – they were delayed more than 5 hours by the whole thing. It had started raining in the evening but we went to a lovely restaurant and had a lot of brilliant German food.

The next day we went to visit a castle and a zoo, during which the weather stayed overcast, but it wasn’t raining anymore. OH tried the local “Flammkuchen” (Tarte Flambee) in the castle restaurant which went down very well. We decided to go to the Funfair (Kerwe) in the evening which happened to be on that week, and we had roast chicken and potato salad in a huge, very warm and busy tent. On the way out Susanne pointed towards a stall that sold hamburgers and sausages made out of horse meat. She said it’s quite a strong flavour and that I should try it sometime. Having just eaten half a chicken, I obviously couldn’t, but I was curious.

Thursday, a brilliantly hot day, Susanne decided that we should go to Heidelberg by train, as she has a special ticket that allows her to take 5 more people for free on weekends and holidays, and Thursday happened to be a holiday in Germany. From there we went on a boat trip to Neckarsteinach, which has no less than four castles, and we managed to climb most of them! Our return train trip was once again disturbed by an inconsiderate suicide, and we had to race to get a replacement bus to the next train station. This made us so late that it was about 10pm by the time we had dinner! Not something I’d like to repeat, my stomach had been rumbling for quite a while, and I think only the sausage I had on the boat saved me from starvation.

We went to a lovely park with animals and rides for the kids on Friday. There were wolf feedings, falconry displays, racoons, boars, mini ponies and other animals, and we went on pedal boats that looked like huge swans. We had planned to visit another castle that day but were so knackered that we only managed to drive to another small town to have a stroll around the picturesque marketplace. We drove back to Kaiserslautern and Susanne took us to one of her favourite restaurants there. Upon perusing the menu, I saw three dishes with horse meat in them! I couldn’t resist so I had horse haunch with white asparagus and rosemary potatoes. It was SENSATIONAL. It’s apparently the only restaurant around that does that. Susanne had a big salad with horse meat in it as well. That’s something in German restaurants – you nearly always get a mixed salad with your meal, and they are not tiny. They also come before the main so OH got confused a lot, saying “Is this a starter? Did I order this?” These salads are lovely, and no one anywhere made any concession to e-coli, so we just ate all the raw lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, radish, coleslaw – you name it, it’s in a German salad.

Saturday was our last day so we packed everything and drove to another castle en route to the airport Frankfurt/Hahn, which also isn’t anywhere near Frankfurt . It was another sweltering day, and after a visit to a beer garden for a meal, Susanne dropped us off at the airport in plenty of time for the flight back. In plenty plenty time as it turned out as the darn flight was delayed by 90 minutes! Why always us? Hahn is a small and somewhat chaotic airport – they had started the boarding process and taken half our boarding passes, and we had been the first in the queue after the priority folks, which meant we were now in the front waiting area. They tried to send everybody out again but people just plain refused. By the time we finally got to board the plane we were nearly at the front. Then I made a fatal error that almost annihilated all the good work. There were two planes parked, one after the other, and they were boarding them at the same time (why, I will never know). I got confused and we turned off at the first one. It turned out to be the wrong one of course so we had to race back down the stairs and over to the other plane. But, as everyone else seemed to board from the front, we ran to the back and still got our favourite seats. Phew. Otherwise we would be in Edinburgh now.

The rest of the journey home was uneventful, except that I managed to drop a wooden chopping board on my foot when I was unpacking stuff in the kitchen that night.

[prettyxcool]

Thanks for the write up, Beate. I need to tag along next time you go to Germany, food orientated is fine by me! Sounds like you had a fantastic time, except for the suicides!

Hope your foot is not too sore!

[Beate]

Thanks, my foot is fine again!

[Diane65]

Thanks, my foot is fine again!

Glad to hear and your holiday sounds fabulous, I love castles and also white asparagus.
I've been stuck at Frankfurt Hahn in the snow so I know where your coming from.

[claire]

im off to las vegas with the family for mum and dad 40th wedding anniversary.
can any one recommend a good show to see?
i know rod stewart is gonna be there but dont fancy seeing that

[Beate]

Wow, why not, he is fab!

[Rainey]

Have to agree with Beate, Rod Stewart is fab live, I got tickets with SFF to see him at the O2 last year and took my mum who has always been a fan, but not expecting too much myself, but he put on a great show, would definitely go and see him again.

......lucky thing Las Vegas, that's on my list......I'll get there eventually!