A wise decision

No, I´m not going to Scotland this summer either, for different reasons. So I can at first dream a little of Scotland...

...and then be happy of what I´ve got at home...

...and the plans of our family vacations in Arjeplog.

 2013

 2009

Amanda i Australien och Skottland

Soon at home again

Väskorna packade inför hemresan,

en sista njutningsfylld blick över Malaga från vårt hotell Don Curro.

Borgen

Vackra Nerja

Efter en flygtur till Malaga tog vi lokalbuss till den lilla staden Nerja, som genast visade en trevlig och välkomnande sida då en stadsbo kom och personligen visade oss vägen till vårt hotell.

Scotland 2014 Hello again, Edinburgh!

(3.6.2014) I felt glad when I came to Edinburgh this time: I knew where to go and Edinburgh felt a little like home after flying from Vasa to Stockholm, Arlanda and then to Edinburgh. I stayed at Motel One Edinburgh-Royal, very nice.

 I met the Duke of Wellington on his horse near the bus station in Edinburgh.

 In 1859 Arthur Conan Doyle was born near this pub. French refugees fled from Picardy in France due  to the edict of Nantes, which declared protestantism illegal. They settled here and gave their new home the name of their province in France and so Picardy place got its name.

Sherlock Holmes stalking in Picardy Place.

 The Scottish landscape is always near, even in the centre of Edinburgh.

I love our red timber houses in Finland. How can I admire these brown stone houses in Scotland? They are so beautiful!

Scotland 2014 From Edinburgh to Luing

  As an early-bird I was at the bus station St Andrew Square early Wednesday morning, waiting for the bus to Oban.

Two important words in Scotland on 18 September: Yes and No. The question in the referendum is "Should Scotland be an independent country?" 

 I like travelling by bus and by train. You can sit in peace and quiet, watching the landscape, reading a book, talking to other passengers and someone else takes the responsibility for the traffic. The trip between  Edinburgh and Oban took us through beautiful landscapes and nice villages.

These bare mountains are similar to those of Arjeplog, which I love so much. Arjeplog is the place for our family holidays nearly every year in northern Sweden. Unfortunately not this year, and I certainly miss it.

A touch of the sea - soon in Oban.

Oban Bay

I didn´t expect so much of Oban - I like countryside more than cities. But Oban was a nice town, as a crescent around Oban Bay.

And what does a teacher do on her holidays?
Of course she chooses to travel by the schoolbus with the high school pupils. But that was only nice. The pupils wore school uniforms, which is quite strange for our Finnish students. Those, who didn´t wear the uniform, wore at least the right colour of their school: Orange ties and black and white clothes. I did not take any photographs, that would have been rude. Many of these pupils had a very long school day: schoolbus, ferry, postbus.

And now at last on the isle of Luing, at the ferry place at Cuan Sound.

 

You can see Blackmill Bay, where I stayed, on the western coast of Luing.

And now I´ve come to Blackmill Bay, my home for a couple of days.