Very British- A Journey to England

A lonely island next to the city centre- Inchcolm   This Saturday we took the ferry and went to Inchcolm Abbey. It's a beautfiul island in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. From Edinburgh we drove only 15 minutes to get the ferry and it cost 16 pounds to get to the island and back. Your first thought is that "Wow. This is quit expensive", but it was really worth going on the island! The tour was guided so the speaker told us a lot about the history of the 2 finished bridges and the one which is still in progress at the moment. It was really interesting to hear all about the bridges the railway bridge is for example now Scotland's sixth world heritage site. Then we arrived at the island which is cared for by Historic Scotland. On the island there is an abbey from the 12th century which was built by King David the First. The abbey and it's grounds are fully open to the public and it was so nice to wander around. There are a lot of birds on the island. It...

Happy wedding day.... the setting (before everybody arrived) The last week (especially the weekend) was filled with lots of activities. We helped voluntary at a wedding in East Leake. It was Jamies and Lauras wedding and they celebrated it in the rectory garden. We started helping at 12 o'clock and finishes at 8.  It was a bring and share lunch so every guest brang something. Our task was to set up tables, prepare the drinks, serve the drinks, clear all the tables, do the washing up and so on and so forth.  It was a looooong day and very stressful but in the end it was very nice and you can be proud of yourself for giving them a good time. the wedding cake I am sitting at the moment in Ediburgh. We are staying in a very nice flat very close to the Botanic garden in Edinburgh and I must say it is really nice staying in a private flat in a huge city like this ! We enjoy our time. On Wednesday we went to Dalgety Bay and had a tour on the rescue boat. It was my f...

  Let's go to the movies In the last month we often went to the pictures. I want to show you which films we've seen and which one I would really recommend you. The first film we watched was “Still Alice” in the Silver Screen in Loughborough. The Silver Screen shows movies for everybody but especially for elderly people which rather like to go to the cinema at 11 o’clock in the morning or two o’clock in the afternoon. They show movies which are a little bit “older” and it only costs 3 Pounds and you get a free tea or coffee. I’ve heard about “Still Alice” when I still was in Germany and a famous German film critique recommended it. It is a movie about which you cannot stop thinking about after you saw it. Julian Moore is (as you all might know) a brilliant actress. In the story of the movie she gets the Alzheimer disease and she, her husband and all her children are really shocked because she works as a linguistic professor at university and lives a busy life. The ...

An afternoon on the river Trent   This day started as every other Friday morning with the coffee morning in church. We helped to set up the tables and to serve tea and coffee and afterwards I helped Margret to get back home. We only had 1 hour at home to refresh ourselves and then J. set off to drive to Nottingham. She had booked a cruise on “The Lady Trent”. That was the name of our boat which had two floors with room for 50 people.  Our boat trip started at 2 o’clock or rather it should have started then. But because Wendy was late we set off at quarter past 2. But that was not a big problem. The crew was ever so nice and we all waited with cold drinks. It was really hot but when we set off the wind blow through the open windows. They served a lot of tea and coffee and one could have as many drinks as one liked. Then they served sandwiches with a little bit salad and tomatoes and cucumbers.  There was a huge variety of sandwiches...

Oxford in two and a half days After staying nearly one week in East Leake (and going strawberry and gooseberry picking), my boyfriend came to visit me here. On our first day we enjoyed the nice weather and tavelled by bus to Nottingham. It was hot but we enjoyed our time and visited the castle, went to see the Lace Market and the Contemporary Museum of Modern Art. It was a very nice day and we came home at 6 o'clock. Judith had invited Pam and Paul and her son Nik came with his family because they were staying with their sailing friends near us. We had a Pasta dinner and a sweet pudding as a desert and we sat outside and talked a lot. It was a very good day. On the next day we packed our bags because at 11:30 we drove by bar to Oxford. Pam, Paul and Judith left us at the Park and Ride and it took only half an hour to get into the city centre. We went directly to the "Cowerly Road" because our "hotel" was there. We had booked at "airbnb" and it wa...