Saturday 30 March 2013

Epic road trip to Scotland

and back
in less than 48 hours !!!



 
Some of you may not know
that my eldest son , Jonathan
has a son named Aidan age 9,
who lives with his mum in
Cupar Fife.



 
Aidan wanted to come down
to England to spend Easter with his dad,
Claire and his sisters Olivia and Amelia (who he
had not seen) ... but he also wanted his dad
to go and see where he lives ..(they live  in a different
house now) .. SO I said I would accompany my
son on the journey up there !!!!!!



 
I must be mad ....don't answer that ;-)

So we set off on Thursday at
10.30 am ,, arrived in St Andrews ,Fife
at around 6.30 pm....




 
It was not a very eventful journey,
(only the nightmare traffic on M6,)
UNTIL
There we were crusing along nicely on the M74 
when all of a sudden  the SAT NAV.. 
decided it wanted to take 
us  off our route ,
up into the highlands ,

Please click on photos to enlarge..
it took us to a place called Moffat
then through some tiny villages
 apparently
this is the Edinburgh SCENIC route,
as much as I love scenery , it was a bit bleak up there
and so many windy roads.

Scenic routes are quite  nice, but not when you want
to get somewhere in a hurryy!!!
As you can imagine, Jonathan wondered what was going on !!

We stayed overnight in The West Port, which I can
say I would stay again, it was fab.

Up at 06.45 am, breakfast at 07.00 am
(amazing breakfast) ... picked Aidan up
at 8.00am , left Cupar at 08.30am
and on the road again!!

Please click on photos to enlarge


 These photos were taken on the way back ... can you see all the Wind Turbines!!

There are so many of them , in the snowy hills.

Photo in centre below is the Forth Road Bridge
and below it is the
Forth Bridge for the Trains.


The M6 was horrendous...(Birmingham area)
and finally made it back to my house at around 16.30pm..
and I think they got home to Winchester at 17.15pm.


 All in all , a good trip , even though it was
very tiring . 

But as my grandson said "Nanny , how can
you be tired, all you did was sit there, Daddy did the driving!!"


(Note to myself... change the date and time on my camera,, they were
taken on Thursday and friday ..promise!!)

Friday 29 March 2013

Monday 25 March 2013

A few hours in Oxford ....

Yesterday I took myself off to Oxford..
for a few hours.

Just had to get out of the house,
even though it was freezing , to say the least.

I went down a few lanes I had not been
down before, but knew about,
and found the famous pub



Click on photos to get a closer look :-)

and a cute hidden hotel ...

very friendly receptionist ... I was unable to see
the rooms as they were fully booked, I did ask.






It is surprising what you see when you look up!!

Thursday 21 March 2013

New Friend and Concert in Oxford

My new friend Laura and I met up for the first time yesterday,
and went to a free concert in Christ Church Cathedral , Oxford.

Now when I say we met for the first time , this is true ..
but back in January I went to another concert
in Christ Church with my friend Sarah ,,
 Laura was actually sitting two seats from me ,
but we did not talk to each other !!

Long story on how we did make contact again ,
but I am so happy that we did.

The concert was performed by the
Valley High School Orchestra
from IOWA...





Christ Church Cathedral is the smallest cathedral in England and the seat of the Bishop of Oxford. It is unique in serving not only as a cathedral but as the chapel of Christ Church College.


Below is St Frideswide window ....by Edward Burne-Jones 1858

The panel shows a ship of souls carrying St, Frideswide to heaven.




The panel above tells the story of the eighth century
local saint, and to the right is the shrine, the oldest monument in the cathederal.  once held the relics of St. Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford, but  was destroyed during the Reformation.




Edward Bouverie Pusey (22 August 1800 – 16 September 1882) was an English churchman, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at Christ Church, Oxford.
He was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement.



The The oldest stained glass window in the cathedral is the Becket Window, found in the Lucy Chapel on the south side. It dates from 1320 and is a rare surviving portrayal of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in his cathedral by order of the king in 1170.



If you are ever in Oxford and would like to meet up ..
I would be happy to take you around the city.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

What has happened to my blogging??

I have not forgotten

BLOGGING

nor have I

FORGOTTEN

you!

I have lots of photos to sort
out and then something else comes
UP!!!

Time is actually flying past us,
I am sure it is going faster than last year,
or is it I seem to be doing more and more??

I will leave you with this photo ..

NOT Rouen but OXFORD..

Little hint to my next post ..

In the meantime,
I hope that you are
all well and busy. Not too busy to blog :-)



Sunday 3 March 2013

So much more to see in Rouen ......

It seems to me that everyone would like to go to Rouen...
Either on a return trip or for the first time...
 
Wouldn't it be fun to do a trip there ...
Well I think so ..
 
On one of our walks
we went to the
 
Notre dame catheral

Please click on this first photo, and then you will see
them all , more clearly .♥
 
 
we couldn't get in on this day
(so more to come)
 





 
We took a stroll around the back
 
 
 
 
and found a little gathering
and a band playing ..
 
 
 
 

lots more to see, Enjoy. ♥♥♥