THURSDAY 6/9
Jo had been missing the regular Wednesday/Friday swimming outings with her pals, so I suggested we should take a run over to Tarland and use the leisure facilities there. It seems Jo was fated not to get any swimming as, when we got there, there was a notice saying the pool was closed "due to unforeseen circumstances". We moved on to Ballater and paid a compensatory visit to the newly re-opened tea room - The Carriage - at the former Ballater station. The building had been virtually destroyed by a huge fire a couple of years ago, but royal patronage had funded the rebuilding programme. It's probably the nicest coffee shop in the country now as demonstrated by one of the dining rooms:
That same day we finalised our big holiday next year. Time is marching on and we don't know how much longer we can carry on doing two long overseas holidays each year, allied to which our experience this year with the smoke and fires in Oregon led us to re-evaluate our plans. Perhaps instead of hitting midsummer in both Australia and USA, we could combine the two and do a round the world autumn/spring combination?
It's also my 70th in March, so it would be a special treat too. Anyway, this is the plan, leaving Aberdeen on Mon 18th Feb:
- 1 week in the Cape Town area
- 3 nights in Auckland
- Cruise - our first ever! - down east coast of NZ then back to Sydney
- 2 nights in Sydney
- 3 weeks in Adelaide
- 1 week in Palm Desert, CA
- 2 weeks in Oregon
All in, it amounts to over 9 weeks, with us not getting back home until Saturday 27th April. It'll be our longest ever stay away from home and it means we will be spending a full summer in Banchory for the first time in roughly 20 years - let's hope it's as good a summer as this year's.
Kelly has since added another little jaunt for us when we're in South Australia - she's booked us all a trip up to Cairns/Port Douglas. We're looking forward to catching up with these little tykes again:
FRIDAY 7/9
Had a nice walk up Bennachie again - the second time I'd done it.
MONDAY 10/9
Jo and I flew to Nuremberg, via Amsterdam, for our first ever CAMRA Members' Investment Club (CMIC) outing. From there, we caught the underground in to the central rail station and then a direct train to the beautiful old town of Bamberg - a UNESCO World Heritage site - and also home to an incredible number of breweries.
A welcome dinner was arranged for our party of 40 for the first night at Brauerei Spezial just across the street from our accommodation:
Our hotel was the Brauerei Fassla:
TUESDAY 11/9
An organised trip to Weyermann Maltings, a huge, well-preserved old factory, supplying raw materials to breweries world-wide, rounded off by a couple of hours in their free bar!
The afternoon was free and Jo and I roamed the medieval city, catching up with a few of our fellow travellers on our occasional refreshment stops.
WEDNESDAY 12/9
The warmest day so far - 29 C - and we chose to walk up to the castle on the hill, where Jo posed:
Back down the hill, a pit stop at the town's oldest brewpub:
THURSDAY 13/9
Short break over, it was time to return home. Another ride on the super-smooth and super-quiet Deutsche Bahn (DB) rolling stock, then the Nuremberg U-Bahn to the airport and our 2 KLM flights back to Aberdeen.
FRIDAY 14/9
No sooner was I back, then I was off again. My annual walking weekend had been booked some time ago, but somehow I had made a mess of the dates as I was supposed to leave with the other guys on Thursday. I now had to travel alone - and quickly. I was booked on the 12:30 ferry from Ardrossan to Brodick, but I made it in good time and was soon checking in to my hotel in Blackwaterfoot and then back out again for a short afternoon walk on my own.
SATURDAY 15/9
Visibility was poor - low cloud covered the top of Goatfell, the highest mountain on Arran and our target for the day. 95% of the walk was fairly comfortable, but the last bit nearly killed me. I really struggle when it gets very steep, as it did on the last leg to the summit - but I made it in the end.
SUNDAY 16/9
It was a boat trip over to the Holy Isle and a coastal walk out to the Buddhist retreat there - very nice.
MONDAY 17/9
Time for a morning coastal walk past King's Cave before heading for the early afternoon ferry and the drive home. Full details of our trip are on our hill-walking blog - https://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/
TUESDAY 18/9
Back to the old routine - well almost. Tuesday is our Luca day, but this time it was our first visit to Gary's new home. It's small, as you would expect, but Luca seems happy to spend a few nights there every week, interspersed with nights at Rae Circle with his Mum.
WEDNESDAY 19/9
Time to renew Jo's passport, which we did online - after taking this photo for her new passport:
All it lacks is the prisoner number.
THURSDAY 20/9
Finally, after 18 months or so of prevaricating, we headed in to Aberdeen to sign our Powers of Attorney. Another sign of our passing years.
SATURDAY 22/9
The start of our week at the Lochanhully Resort, Carrbridge. Just Jo and I - for various reasons, the hoped-for visits from other family members didn't happen. Never mind, we'll make the most of it. The drive over was easy enough and we stopped just the other side of Tomintoul to look at a newish structure that had gone up there:
SUNDAY 23/9
A walk in to the village of Carrbridge to the most photographed spot:
Then we decided to do the Carr Plantation trail:
MONDAY 24/9
An early morning visit to the pool, sauna and steam room was followed by a trip down to Aviemore - first stop, the Mountain Cafe and its fine selection of scones and cakes. To work some of this off, we did the trail round Loch Morlich:
That's it so far.
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