Day 37: On to France

Posted on July 28, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 28 –

It was a dreary rainy day in Luxembourg this morning so we ate breakfast in the hotel but only because the kids were free! Good thing too because we were not at all pleased with the buffet. It took forever to get coffee, the eggs came either runny or uncooked and needed to sit in a pot of semi-warm water for a *long* time, and they never came to clear away the plates even though we used many and they piled up on the table!

Undaunted by this inauspicious start, however, we packed up the car and programmed Helga to take us to Strasbourg – about a 2 hour drive. We encountered our first European toll road – which took credit cards – and managed to keep up with the flow of traffic proceeding at 130kmph. We pulled into the city and up to our hotel right around noon.

Cases unloaded and the car parked, we wandered into the old city to experience the market. When we asked at the desk where the market was, we were essentially told that it was all over the city. This was no exaggeration! You couldn’t turn a street corner without seeing more stalls lined up on every street. Shoes, sausages, tank tops, toys, watches, pretzels, mattresses (?!?), and just about anything else you could think of was for sale somewhere. And the people! I don’t know the population of Strasbourg but I think that half of Germany was also here today!

And we did do some shopping – of course. I bought a great sundress and Gillian got a new watch. I encountered my first truly rude French sales clerk in a small shop. I wanted to buy a 2 litre bottle of water for €2 but all I had was a €20 note. When she pointed out that the bottle only cost 2 – by holding up two fingers – and I shrugged and looked helpless – the international sign for “that’s all I have” – I got tsked at, she rolled her eyes and then turned to a colleague behind the counter and continued a previous chat! I was ready to hit her with the bottle of water but Duncan saved me from an international incident by scrounging up a coin and then she was all sweetness and light; I even got a cheery “Bon jour” on the way out the door…. go figure.

And for those familiar with my nun saga (I’m being stalked by nuns – really!), I had my first real sighting today. Asian nuns in grey habits fairly swarming the streets. As it was raining intermittently, one had decided to don a fishing hat over her habit – a sight not readily forgotten! To make up for the lack of sightings prior to this, we ran into a group of French nuns later on in the day. I suspect I will encounter them regularly now since their cover was blown….

We skipped the formal lunch and grabbed munchies in the market. Duncan and Frank enjoyed the traditional French treat of Churros (!) while Gillian and I settled for the more mundane crepe. I dedicated my crepe to my friends Christine and Julie with whom I should have shared one last year and then proceeded to devour it!

After some wandering, we went to the main attraction in Strasbourg: the cathedral. I lit a candle (that’s 6) and admired the stained glass windows. This is the first cathedrals we’ve visited with a serious decorative disparity between indoors and out. It’s incredibly ornate architecturally but very plain inside. There is a really cool astronomical clock inside as well – Duncan had to explain it to me of course.

More wandering around the city until the real rain started then we decided to get an early dinner. Later on in the evening, we ventured back to the cathedral for a really neat light show. Starting at 10:15 p.m. the cathedral puts on a light show set to music on the western facade. It was really neat! Not quite as cool as the Magic Fountains in Barcelona but definitely a sight to see.

/san/

[Pedometer: 25, 958 which is probably only about 10 miles since most of it was spent jostling impatient French market goers.]

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Posted in France

Day 36: Luxembourg is more than just a city

Posted on July 27, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 27 –

It seems that the weather gods are smiling on us – another dry morning. More clouds than yesterday but the promise of another good day. No run for me as my left knee isn’t faring well – I think I need to stretch a bit more. We started the day with the bakery run and got coffee from the hotel restaurant. Then we dropped off two large loads of laundry at a local laundromat for a service wash – I love that concept! – and headed into town to tie up some loose ends.

First, to the casemates, the historical fortification of the city which was built up again and again starting in 963. Apparently an independent state in the middle of Europe including a city with natural defenses was too much to leave alone so European rulers have passed it back and forth for centuries. We walked through the Bock area through walls that are hundreds of years old and looked through cannon holes and down wells and under buildings. It was really cool!

Then we wandered back to the Cathedral to take pictures which we couldn’t do the other day. It really is a tremendously beautiful place. We hit a few kitschy shops to pick up some interesting souveniers – where else could Duncan get small statues of Asterix and Obelix? Then we picked up the clean laundry and prepared to head out of town.

We programmed Helga to take us to Vianden – a town that Victor Hugo raved over and was suggested to me by both the guide book and my friend Guiseppe as a nice afternoon out. Correct on all counts! The Vianden castle is picturesque beyond belief! It’s like something out of a storybook – I kept waiting for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to fly over the mountain.  We wandered all over more centuries old stones and looked out over a beautiful valley.  Then it was time to head home and when we stopped for gas (the cheapest in Europe at about one Euro per litre – you do the math!) that’s when the skies couldn’t hold back any more and we got a soaking downpour for about 20 minutes.

The sky was clear again by the time we got back into the city and got some of the yummiest Indian food yet!  Big thumbs up for Luxembourgian Indian food (?!?).  Now it’s time to pack up and prepare to head to Strasbourg tomorrow. I’ve promised to have a crepe for my friends Julie and Christine since we weren’t able to do that ourselves last December.

/san/

[Pedometer:  22,389 or about 11 miles mostly up and down old spiral staircases and over old rocks!]

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Posted in Benelux

Day 35: Another business day

Posted on July 26, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 26th –

Another bright and sunny day! Since this hotel doesn’t offer a yummy breakfast buffet, we wandered out to the local patisserie for coffee and pastries (because I’ve never met a breakfast worth 18 euros!) Then it was off to work for me! I worked out the details of the number 18 bus and got to the offices of Eurostat in time for my day’s worth of meetings. The folks I chatted with were wonderfully helpful and I learned a lot about how an international statistical agency works, how it’s different from a national statistical agency and how they do some of the things that we do.

Meanwhile, the family was out enjoying the sunshine and the city. It made it up to 26 degrees celsius – significantly warmer than we had in Scotland! They traipsed all over visiting museums, walking through the valley in the shadow of the fortified city and generally exploring. After I got done discussing database design and dissemination strategies, we all converged on the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Tonight’s repast was to be a bit more traditional. We wandered to Mousel’s Cantine for traditional unfiltered beer and pork products. Gillian had the kid’s schnitzel which was the size of Rhode Island; and Frank and I had two of the traditional pork dinners. Only Duncan had to be different: he had HORSE for dinner! He said it was delicious and didn’t get the jokes about eating Trigger! A bit more wandering through the city and then it was home to call it a night.

/san/

[Pedometer: approx. 24,000 steps or 12 miles for the family – Frank forgot the pedometer for part of the day’s wanderings. I managed about 10,000 including much wandering about in the Eurostat building.]

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Posted in Benelux

Day 34: Racetracks and border crossings

Posted on July 26, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 25 –

Today may have made up for the last week of rain!  We awoke to beautiful sunshine and a “vigorous” breeze.  So the running shoes came out and I managed about 3.5 miles along some main roads in south Dusseldorf only to return to the hotel and notice a lovely running path running on the opposite side of the building!  Oh well – I love the smell of diesel in the morning!

We filled up on the yummy breakfast buffet and checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car and hit the road.  Our final destination was Luxembourg but we couldn’t go straight there.  There was an obstacle in the way:  the Nürburgring !  It was sorta on the way (not really!) so we had to go see the mecca of racing in Germany!  They were still cleaning up from the Grand Prix last weekend (where Lewis Hamilton failed to earn a podium spot for the first time this season!)  and we missed the start of the German only tour of the facility.  Nevertheless, Frank got some pictures of the track and lots of stuff from the gift shop and then we were off again.

We stopped for lunch in a village just south of “the ring” and did our best to order only in German; we didn’t do too badly!  Everyone got what they thought they ordered even if it wasn’t what they expected!  For example, Frank ordered the currywurst which is what he got but wasn’t quite what he expected.  In this part of Germany at least, it was sausage covered in a sauce that was best described as ketchup with curry in it!

We pressed on after lunch  and drove through some beautiful countryside and then arrived at the border to Luxembourg and what was the first thing we saw…. Pizza Hut!!!!  No border crossing officials but deep dish if you wanted!  A short time later, we found the hotel (thanks Helga!) and unloaded.  Unfortunately, parking is at a serious premium in Luxembourg and our hotel doesn’t have a lot so we have to put the Mercedes in a public garage (secure at least!) next to a strip club!!!

We wandered around the old town section for a while, checked out the shops, got some ice cream and found the cathedral which is  *gorgeous* .  I lit a candle (that’s 5!), we took some pictures and then wandered to the place d’Arms for a seat outside in the glorious sunshine and a local brew.    We wandered back to the hotel to freshen up before meeting my friend Giuseppe for dinner.  We went with him and his partner, Marie-Helene, for dinner in a castle!  We went int the mountains above Luxembourg to the Chateau de Bourglinster for dinner.  It was *very* French – the menu had no other language and neither did the waitstaff!  Giuseppe ordered for us and we had a culinary adventure!  Gillian even tried the caviar and I braved the raw tuna with white chocolate!  It was a lovely meal and I have to brag about my wonderful children who tried everything they were offered joined in even the most boring adult conversations without a single admonition from me!  They obviously had a good upbringing!

/san/

[Pedometer:  15,545 or about 7.5 miles – all up and down hills and along race tracks!]

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Posted in Benelux, Germany

Day 33: Chocolate and cathedrals in Cologne

Posted on July 24, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 24 –

We awoke to more teeming rain (no run *again*!) and so took our time getting dressed and enjoying our first European breakfast.  Duncan and Frank love the sausages!  Since we had pretty much seen all there was to see of Dusseldorf in the rain yesterday, we pulled on the rain gear, grabbed the brollies and  hopped in the car.  We programmed Helga (our name for the satnav system!) to take us to Cologne or Koln if you are in Germany.  We couldn’t quite follow all her instructions due to construction but eventually we found our way to the main part of town and into a parking garage.

It turns out we were in the main shopping precinct so it took a little while to locate the cathedral precisely.  You can’t really lose it because the thing is so HUGE!   There are 12 gothic churches in Koln but there was no way the family would put up with visiting all of them so we decided to settle for just the really big one!  It is quite amazing inside and we wandered all over admiring the 13th century bits as well as the parts that have been added in the 800 years since then!  Unfortunately, because it was so dark and rainy, we couldn’t really fully appreciate the stained glass windows but we did our best.  We also saw the sarcophigi of lots of dead archbishops with unpronouncable German names!  One of the most striking things though was what we *didn’t* see:  relatively recent reconstruction from WWII.  According to some photographs we saw in local shops, the cathedral emerged relatively unscathed compared to the rest of Koln.

After soaking in all the gothicness and lighting another candle for my mom (4 countries, 4 cathedrals, 4 candles – the woman should live forever!), we wandered through town to find the Schokolade Museum and factory.  Yes kids, we were off the see Charlie and there was even a glass elevator!  The museum was very well done; it outlined the entire production of chocolate from the growing of the cocoa trees (including a mini-tropical rainforest with live trees) all the way to how chocolate has become such an integral part of our culture.  There was even a mini-theater showing commercials for chocolate in German.  We got to see a miniature production line showing how chocolate bars, hollow molded chocolates and truffles are made.  And of course, there was a gift shop in the museum selling every possible chocolate thing you could image! The main brand that would be recognizable is Lindt which I can get in the Safeway down the street from the house so I wasn’t overly tempted – but we did walk out with a few “samples”!

Of course, while we were in the museum, the sun came out and was now blazing down although large black clouds still threatened.  We decided to wander to a craftshop in the aldstat (old town) where I got the most wonderful wooden moose for my collection!  Since the sun was still out, we wandered back to the cathedral to see if it had brightened up in the sunshine.  On the way in, we realized that we had neglected the belfry and the draw to climb to the highest thing around.  Even Frank ventured as far as the bell in the bell tower (just in time for it to chime the half-hour – what a din!) then the three of us headed to the top of the spire to see an amazing view of Koln and the Rhine.  Duncan actually filled up the memory card in Frank’s camera taking pictures before we headed back down.

I’d like to see what the cathedral area is like on a really nice day because the square outside will forever be known by my family as “The Square of the Incredible Wind” due to the 30+ mph winds blowing across the open platz.  The fountain was blowing water horizontally!  We saw more broken umbrellas today than Chicago gets in a week!

Since Koln is the home of Kolsch beer, similar to how alt bier is a Dusseldorf  product, we felt that we had to sample the local wares before heading back.  We ventured to the Kaufhof Galleria (department store) to eat in their cafeteria which was another adventure.  They had an entire “salad bar” of different cooked vegetables along with lots of other types of food so I was in heaven!  I actually had half a kilo of veggies for my dinner – the first in nearly a week I think!  The food was excellent – and fairly cheap – and we sampled the local brew as well and found it to be satisfactory if much lighter than last nights alt bier.  Back in the car, we told Helga to take us home and now we’ll enjoy the take away bottles that we purchased before leaving Koln….

/san/

[Pedometer: 18,561 or about 9 miles – most of it in gale force winds]

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Posted in Germany

Day 32: The EU…. round two

Posted on July 23, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 23 –

My watch alarm went off at 4:30 this morning which should be illegal if you aren’t going to work!  We got the kids up and the car loaded and took our leave of the Bargh family and of Scotland.  Luckily Prestwick airport is only 10 minutes from Kate’s house so we had no problem getting there in plenty of time to check in for our 7:15 flight.  We dropped off the rental car (which we completely forgot to fill up first so heaven only knows what *that* will cost!) and were the first in line to check in.  The boy behind the counter, who I swear couldn’t have been more than 14, pointed out that we were way over our weight limit on all our bags but he wasn’t going to charge us since it would cost a fortune (about 5 pounds per excess kilo or about 80 quid in our case!).  We thanked him profusely, went through security and found ourselves ready to board by 5:35!  Unfortunately, Ryan Air wasn’t ready for us to board so we had our last Scottish breakfast (another egg and bacon roll for me!), bought some reading material (the new Harry Potter book!) and waited.

Ryan Air is the Scottish version of Southwest:  cheap but no perks.  They have open seating and even the water on board costs money.  We got seats together (with a spare seat in between no less) and weathered the hour and a half flight just fine.  All the luggage came through okay, the kids and I got new stamps in our passports and we were off.  (Frank is most displeased that as he has an EU passport, he hasn’t gotten a single stamp in it yet….)

We headed out to pick up the rental car and noticed that there was no one manning the Europcar desk.  We wandered around trying to figure out what was up, asking at the information desk and even the Avis desk next door before giving up and phoning the number on our reservation slip.  Which was promptly answered by the man at the Avis desk in front of us since we were supposed to get our car from Avis and not Europecar!  I blame lack of sleep…  After a good laugh was had by all, we got into our brand new Mercedes C class (the one that apparently isn’t available in the US yet), changed the language on the navigation system and headed out.  (And yes, Frank was chucking gleefully the entire way!)

We got to the hotel in Düsseldorf only to find out why it was such a good deal:  it’s a business hotel near many of the industrial and trade sites but no where near the city center!  Undeterred, we wandered off in search of the nearest tram stop to figure out how Düsseldorf public transportation works.   Luckily, there was a trinkhallen (kiosk) at the stop we went to and the unbelievably nice guy working there not only explained how to buy a family day pass from the machine outside,  he ran across the street to a waiting bus to buy one for us when we discovered the machine didn’t work!  (Won’t say anything unkind about the Germans now!)

We got to the Altstadt (old town) and wandered all over looking in shops, admiring cathedrals and having lunch… all in a nice soft German rain.  I believe if I look back over these entries,  I’ll be able to count no more than 2 or 3 days where it hasn’t rained.  I really am beginning to take it personally!  While we did encounter many folks who’s English was far better than my 6 words of German, we felt the pain of not being able to communicate fully so we found a bookstore with an English section and bought a German phrase book.  (And I could have gotten the new Harry Potter book in English for cheaper than I bought it this morning but such is life!)

After we tired of wandering past shoe shops (I counted no fewer than a dozen in one 1/2 mile span!), we headed back to the hotel and got directions to a local German restaurant.  We are definitely not in tourists country because no one in this place spoke English and the new phrasebook got put to good use!  We managed to order two different kids of schnitzel, a pork steak in Hollandaise sauce and a Gyro entirely in German (with a healthy dose of pointing!)  It was absolutely delicious!  A quick stop at the trinkhallen of our new friend for some takeout beer and ice cream and it’s off to a (relatively) early bed.  We are thoroughly enjoying the local alt bier (Schlosser alt) which is brewed here in Düsseldorf.  We just need to make sure we don’t enjoy it *too* much!

/san/

[Pedometer:  24, 515 or just over 12 miles, the majority of which was again done in the rain.]

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Posted in Germany, Scotland

Day 31: On sunshine and hangovers…

Posted on July 23, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 22 –

Let me explain what too much wine and too little sleep mean…. well you probably know. After finally getting to bed at around 3 a.m., I was unable to stay unconscious past 10 a.m. and got up to deal with the chiddlers. I was in far better shape than my cousin and my spouse and after we finally had bacon and egg rolls for breakfast at noon, we showered and changed and looked out the window to see glorious sunshine. Apparently, the west coast of Scotland was the only part of the U.K. not completely underwater and we took full advantage of that fact!

Duncan, Andrew and Gordon, the best pal from across the road, walked into town to go to the beach. They actually swam in the Atlantic at approximately the latitude of Craig, Alaska! We wandered into town later on and caught up with them jumping off the rocks by the Ballas Bank. We got some great photos which I’ll upload when I have a better wireless connection. We spent the afternoon climbing all over the rocks, counting dead jellyfish (Michael says we were up to 123!) and trying to ignore the random topless bather that was perched uncomfortably on the rocks.

We got some chips at the Marina cafe which is still being run by the Corti family. Unfortunately, Lorena wasn’t in when we were there but she did get to ooh and aah over Duncan earlier in the day. Lorena and I were both the bestest buddies of my cousin Fran and we’ve known each other since we were 15 but I haven’t seen her in years. Unfortunately, it will have to wait a little while longer.

Since we were worn out from the wandering and the previous nights revelry, there was no big BBQ on the agenda; instead we resorted to the dinner of the weary – Chinese take-away! I regularly marvel at the differences in “Chinese” food in various places. What we get in Fairfax is different than what I remember growing up in New England which is different yet from what I had in Southern California. We are collecting Chinese food adventures wherever we go and I can now say I’ve had it in Spain, the Bahamas, Scotland, England, Wales, France, and Switzerland. We’ll add a few more countries on this trip as well. The best thing about UK Chinese food has got to be prawn crackers. They’re kinda like shrimp pork rinds but not as gross as that sounds. I don’t know why we don’t get them in the U.S.

So we sat outside in the beautiful sunshine eating our Chinese food and when all were finished, a football game broke out. There are three males in the Bargh household and that is a quorum for officially being football daft. Andrew is also a golf fanatic – which explains why I not only know who won the British Open at Carnoustie today, I saw the final round and the playoff! (Garcia totally choked!) After the Open was over and dinner was finished, all the children large and small played a game of football in the back garden while Kate and I (and Amy who wasn’t really interested in anything besides finishing her Nancy Drew book) watched and video taped. There are a few shots that might actually be worthy of submitting to one of those silly TV shows!

When all were exhausted, we set about to finish our packing since we had to leave at 5 a.m. the next day for the airport and our flight to Germany. It was a group project since Kate and Stephen had flown Ryanair, the low cost airline we had booked on, and knew all the tricks. For example, they charge for each checked bag (a fiver!) and each person is limited to 15 kg of weight for their checked bag. We were *way* over that for each of us so we spent a great deal of time rearranging belongings and fidgeting with the neighbor’s bathroom scale. We weren’t able to do much except cross our fingers and try to get some sleep. I headed to bed at 10:30!

/san/

[Pedometer: 9015 steps or about 4.5 miles in beautiful sunshine. Frank and the kids probably doubled that during the football match!]

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Posted in Scotland

Day 30: Another transition

Posted on July 22, 2007 | 1 comment

July 21 –

Today we start to close the Scottish chapter of our adventure. We packed up and got the flat ready to vacate. We have accumulated a few too many souvenirs of our trip so we packed up two large boxes with things to be shipped home. They weighed 14.5 kilos each (!) and cost £117 pounds each to post home! It would have been cheaper to buy an extra plane ticket! But sometimes you have to do what you have to do….

We said our teary goodbyes to the Cannon clan and then hopped in the car and headed west to see my family. I think that Kate and I are officially 2nd or 3rd cousins which makes our kids 3rd or 4th cousins but it doesn’t seem that way. Duncan and Andrew are only months apart and within minutes of our arrival, they were off to Ayr on the train to go bowling (Duncan won!). Gillian and Amy are about 18 months apart but still get on well although sometimes it seems that Gillian has more fun chasing 6 year old Michael around than anything else.

My cousin Susan came by with her two kids: Emily is just 2 and Matthew is 4 months. I got to play with the baby and then hand him back when he started to fuss – my favorite part of being the Auntie! We had a lovely BBQ – even though the rain chased us inside – and consumed much wine, beer, whiskey, etc. I think it was the early hours of the morning before we were finally off to our beds.

/san/

[Pedometer:  8333 steps or about 4 miles.  I refuse to admit how much was stumbling…. ;-)]

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Posted in Scotland

Day 29: Family business day

Posted on July 22, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 20 –

Today was set aside to take care of family business.  I still couldn’t go a run in the morning because it was raining (again? still?) so I did some work at the coffee shop before dragging the whole family out of bed.  My job today was to help pamper my mother-in-law – tough assignment!  Frank and Duncan were tapped to help move and rebuild two sheds and Gillian got to help Auntie Therese and Leah do some shopping before they go on holiday.

So my tough job was to get a pedicure while my mother-in-law got a manicure.  I’ve never had a pedicure outside the US so this was a real experience.  No large massage chair and chattering Vietnamese women; just a small foot spa and lots of personal attention.  A masque for my feet (!?!) and some reflexology made for a lovely outcome.  And mum thoroughly enjoyed her manicure – hand massage and all.

Then we had lunch in a little cafe and did some shopping before she headed to the fancy spa for a facial using the voucher we gave her for her birthday.  I got a short run in before Frank returned to pick me up and take me to the family homestead for our going away meal. 

We had a lovely family meal of homemade lasagne courtesy of my brother-in-law Jim and enjoyed a few drinks and many laughs before heading back to our flat for the last time to pack up and get ready for the next step in the adventure.

/san/

[Pedometer: 9452 steps or about 4.5 miles]

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Posted in Scotland

Day 28: We wander north… a bit

Posted on July 20, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 19 –

I couldn’t get in my run this morning due to the persistent rain and drizzle (very Scottish weather this morning!) and there was nothing crucial on the agenda for this morning so we were all fairly lazy.  I am becoming a regular at the coffee shop down the road (where there’s wifi!) as I seem to be incapable of sleeping past 7 a.m. no matter how hard I try!  Once we got everyone up and about, Frank and I made arrangements for his mum to use the gift certificate we gave her for her birthday.  So tomorrow my mother-in-law and I will get our nails done in the morning, then have some lunch before she goes for a facial in the afternoon.   Very posh!

Once those details had been worked out, we bundled up the nuclear family and four of us headed north to go to Drum Castle just outside Aberdeen.  Unfortunately, we got a very late start and somewhere north of Perth (Blairgowrie actually) we abandoned that plan and headed west toward Pitlochry.  These are the single track winding roads of which my spouse is so fond!  At several points, we came across fields where there was no fence to keep in the sheep so they were wandering all over the road – I’ll need to upload some pictures from Gillian’s camera.  There was heather everywhere and the clouds were actually low enough to touch the hills around us.  Talk about raw, stark beauty.

After some serious driving for Frank (I heard several “wheeeee”s escape his lips), we came across the Edradour distillery – the smallest one in Scotland.  So we went in for the tour.  Although we’ve toured distilleries before – we visited Talisker on Skye last time – this one was different because of its size.  They have 3 men who work there to make whiskey and 17 tour guides!  Their annual output is about 90,000 litres whereas the largest distilleries produce more than 10 million!  The entire process is done by hand in one building.  It really was fascinating!  Frank succumbed to the charms of a 12 year old cask strength aged in port wood.  Now we have to figure out how to get it home!

Then on to Pitlochry  to wander about a bit more and have some ice cream before heading home the long way… the A827 along the shores of Loch Tay which is really beautiful especially when the sun is out.  No such luck for us today but still it is a breathtaking drive. We stopped briefly in Killin – one of our favorite places because of the Falls of Dochart – but the menu at the restaurant we were contemplating was a bit too fancy for the kids.  (Duncan didn’t like the look of the the smoked wood pigeon on the specials board!) So we pushed on to Callendar and had a “normal” bar supper at the River Inn:  roast beef for Frank, gammon steak for Gillian and I, chicken and mushroom pie for Duncan.

Frank went for a night out with the lads – I don’t know any details and that’s fine with me. The kids and I had a quiet night in – I have the new Jasper Fforde book to work on before Harry Potter comes out in a day or two.

/san/

[Pedometer: 12,540 or about 6 miles]

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Posted in Scotland