Scotland - We were blown away!!!

We just got back from our trip to Scotland today ... Colin will blog all about it, but for now, let me just say ... "WOW!!!". We have already planned our trip next year August for a return visit.

This is our photo of Glenfinnan...


You will recognise it from the photo of our last blog letting you know about our planned trip. When we saw the picture on the web while researching for our trip, Colin said "now, I want to be standing right ... there... (pointing at the shore just below the monument)...


And Boy, was it worth the trip!

The Great Winter Shop

Since Winter has officially arrived (although it was only the first day of Autumn last week), we have had to do a "Monsta" shop to prepare the bean-sprouting-babies for the winter chills. They have been growing on average nearly a cm a month, which doesn't help for long usage of clothes.

We took the "yellow-bus" into Prague early this morning and spent the entire day working the credit cards. Fortunately, the cost of heavy winter gear is not that great here compared to back home - a full ski suite for R200!

The evening was then spent unpacking all of last season's ski kit, preparing it for washing; sussing out if Sarah's old ski kit will be Mandy-sized; clearing out cupboards to make way for the new stuff. So, the girls had a field day in amongst the mess ... And of course, Sarah found the swimming kit ready for packing away and promptly wanted to go swimming...

Amber in the meanwhile, was practicing her snow plough!

Belated Birthday Cake

So since we know already that Colin is a chocoholic, the flavour of cake comes as no surprise. Even the smarties on the top had to be bought 3 x over as they got devoured before they made it to the cake (and then Colin bought the biggest box he could find ;)...)

And Yes, The girls were the master artists behind the cake decorations.

The chill sets in...

Well, the central heating came on yesterday...
I guess that means the delicious summer is over, now, where is the snow?


As a complete aside...

I thought this was really funny

Colin's Birthday

I am never really sure who has the most fun on our birthdays - us, or the girls! They have been counting down Daddy's Birthday for the last long while. Sarah even made a Daddy's Birthday worm to help with the count down.

All my sneak attempts were discovered while trying to plan and prepare for the big day (even down to him coming in to scold the girls for "not sleeping" while I was sneakily trying to get them to wrap his presents and draw his cards). Oh Well.

The presents were hidden in the girls' bedroom, so in the morning, Amber and Sarah eagerly wished Dad "happy birthday" and he then had to go treasure hunting to find his presents.


The girls were very predictable in their choice of pressies - chocolates; chocolates and more chocolates! (We obviously all know you well enough by now Dad!)

Happy Birthday Col! We Love You!

Week-end in the Mountains at Špindlerův Mlýn

Each time someone asked us where we were heading for the week-end, I had to mumble and fumble the name of "shplindlerlunmlyndler"..... because I could not for the life of me remember the name of this town - and obviously I got very confused looks from people who obviously thought I was completely mad. Ok, so in case you are wondering, the village is called "Shpeendleroov Mleen".

It is in the "Giant Mountains", which border the Czech Republic with Poland. It is totally a ski village, with every kind of winter sports catered for (and it makes do in the Summer with hikers and mountain bikers, but it definitely thrives on the Winter season)

Our accommodation was a few kms outside of the main village, and it was the hotel at the very end of the road, where the road disintegrated into a mountain trail.

We took the girls' bicycles with us as we were hoping that they could amuse themselves while we got an hour or 2 to relax on the veranda, sipping PU, while reading our books.

But one thing that we had completely oversighted, was the fact that even while the girls are amusing themselves on their bicycles, your direct involvement and ever presence, always watching, (and in Sarah's case) constantly holding and pushing is required without ceasing, so there was actually never really any non-parenting time on the week-end.

The weather was very cold and drizzly, which hampered "outdoorsing" to a large extent, but we made up for it with good hot pizzas in the local village (while sipping PU's) in the comfort of a central heated restaurant, while the girls coloured pictures.

After the torrential downpour eased, we took a short walk through the local village. It is an incredibly picturesque village, nestled in the valley of the mountains.

On Saturday evening, we ventured into the mountains to explore the paths behind our hotel and found ourselves escaping into the complete solitude of fresh mountain air with the noise of rushing streams. There were a lot of hikers about (they call it "Nordic Walking" here and are kitted with special rubber footed ski poles and the works) - one group came passed us and on asking us for the distance to the village, we found out that they had walked over 30ks that day over the peak from god-knows-where.



The whole area is really stunning and on the way home I couldn't resist taking some shots of the passing lakes.

Well, I must admit, that I could have spent the whole week-end hiking (or "Nordic Walking") over those mountains, but I guess that will have to wait a couple more years yet...

p.s. On the Monday after we left, it started to snow on the peaks! OMG! Winter comes early in Europe!

Scotland - For the Brave!

Yip, you guessed it!!! We are off to Scotland...

8 days of roadtrip through the Scottish Highlands! Just makes you wanna fling, doesn't it ;)

Leaving 12 September, so watch this space.

Medieval Tournament

The Czechs seem to be very passionate about their traditions and their history - even the traditional folk music (like those of the medieval King's court) is still played and listened to widely.

While I was out for a run on Sunday, I noticed an arena being setup in one of the monastery grounds in a park land near us. We made an outing of the afternoon, packing the girls' bikes and going down to see what all the fuss was about.

Well, we got there just in time as a medieval tournament was starting - showing the skill and horsemanship that was needed to be a medieval knight!


The riders took the part very seriously - and could very easily have been timewarped from 1107 to today, straight from King Author's court.

Sunset

Just one of those sunsets that makes you stop what you are doing; call the family and watch it until it fades into darkness...

Skiing in Jan!!!

Now that the sun is no longer setting after 10pm, it is very very quickly becoming apparent to us that the summer is waning and we are very interested to see what the winter will hold in store for us this year.

With Mish & the family arriving for a visit in December, we have been frantically planning a winter ski holiday - somewhere where the snow is pure; the air is clean; and the children are taken care of!

Finally, we have found the place and booked our spot: http://www.samoens.com/index_en.html

So, Roll on Winter!!!