The Angkor Story

So I'm off to Cambodia today and just wanted to let you know that I will be blogging at: www.theangkorstory.blogspot.com

So drop by and see what I'm up to for the next 3 weeks.

Adios!

Nary

Sunshine in the Deen

It's been a beautiful week or so in Scotland; perfect time to have visitors!

Sam & Mickey made a quick trip up here from London after visiting their brother. I love seeing familiar faces here and we had a great time. Gerald took off work on Thursday and we drove them out to Glenfiddich Distillery for some whiskey tasting, and smelling for Mickey =) Afterwards, we stopped off at Balvenie Castle for a bit of exploring. They both came prepared for some rain, and got what they wanted while visiting the castle. Despite the beautiful day, there was a short, hard down pour that we were caught in. At least they got to experience rain in Scotland...haha. The next day, I took them to Crathes Castle and Garden and we did a bit of shopping around town. Overall, the trip was short and sweet and I'm so glad we got to share a bit of our experience with them.

Turns out, we had a surprise visit from the Scott's as well. I worked with Don & Kristen at CVX, Bellaire for a few years and Don was in town for an audit, Kristen, visiting. We did a bit of hanging out Saturday night with their first Indian food experience and even had smores in Scotland at a friend's place. Sunday, I took them out to see a bit of the countryside to Pitmedden Gardens and Tolquhon Castle. We found a field of rapeseed and did a little photo shoot as well. It was an unexpected visit from them but I'm glad I got to show them around a bit. We even saw loads of sunbathers out at Aberdeen Beach! 

The weather couldn't have been any better for our visitors. I'm looking forward to our next group of visitors in June and August! I love playing tour guide.

Well, that's me for the month of June, just about. I'll be heading to Cambodia for 3 weeks this coming Thursday and will be blogging on a separate blog about my trip. As soon as I get the new blog up, I'll post it so ya'll can follow that if you want as well.

Hope all is well with everyone and looking forward to sharing my Cambodia trip with you!

Laters baby!

Salzburg

I'm continuing my post on our trip to Austria....

After a couple of days of exploring Vienna, we took the train down to Salzburg, for none other, than the Sound of Music Tour! Upon arriving in Salzburg, Gerald and I watched The Sound of Music on the iPad on our 2 1/2 hour journey through the countryside of Austria.

The train was quite interesting as all the cabins had 6 seater "pods" with a door. See below.

We thought we were going to have to share earphones to listen to the movie but we had our own private pod, all for the price of a 2nd class ticket! With our bottle of wine, snacks, and The Sound of Music blasting, riding through the Austrian countryside was fantastic. I would describe the tour for you, but since I'm short on time, I'll let the Panorama Tour group do it: http://www.panoramatours.com/salzburg-Original-Sound-of-Music-Tour.aspx

Here's a short clip of our Sound of Music Tour through the countryside of Salzburg:


Although the tour was fun, I was a bit disappointed that the tour didn't allow us to stay at each of these locations longer, but overall it was great and I recommend it. Make sure you get a window seat =)

We spent the rest of our time in Salzburg exploring the old town: visiting Mozarts home, going to the shops and cafes and visiting the Salzburg Castle. Salzburg is a very charming city in a beautiful setting. It's small with not much to see or do, but that's just what we needed.

That is all for now, so I shall say "So long, farewell, it's time to bid good night!"

Austrian Love

Gerald and I recently visited Vienna and Salzburg for a long weekend, which was just the right amount of time. We didn't feel rushed and we didn't get bored. Unlike most other trips, we didn't have an idea of what we wanted to do in these cities. The only thing I was looking forward to was The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. So that left us with 3 days to fill. I'll start by telling you a bit about Vienna.

We started off in Vienna and after checking into our hotel, we immediately went to the nearest sausage stand.  Kasekrainer sausages are the local ones and they are mighty fine. There's bits of cheese in the sausage and you eat it with a piece of bread and some mustard - nothing fancy about it. After grabbing the bite to eat, we wandered around the city to see what was out there, not knowing what to do or where to go. We ended up buying tickets to a Mozart concert for the following night while wandering about. At this point, we thought it would be best to look some things up. Gerald saw that the original "Kiss" painting was in a museum called The Belvedere so we decided to go ahead and check it out. It was a beautiful painitng, I must say. Below is a picture of it. I didn't know much about Gustav Klimt's work, except from the movie "This Means War,"and I really appreciated it.

After spending the the majority of the late afternoon/early evening at the museum, we rushed back to the hotel to change for our dinner at Plachutta.  My friend Tiffany recommended the restaurant to us and it didn't disappoint. The restaurant is known for their different ways of cooking every part of the cow you can think of. The most famous in Vienna - the boiled beef. The boiled beef was served in thick slices with beef broth with root veggies, sauteed potatoes, and some yummy garlic sauce. Thanks Tiffany for the rec!

I forgot to mention that a few days before leaving for Vienna, I looked up bike tours and found one that went through the Wachua wine valley! We booked the tour and spend all of Friday out in the beautiful country side. We met a few Americans and Aussies as well. Bikes, wine, and good company made for a great day despite the lack of sunshine. We biked in total about 20 miles and my butt was sore afterwards...haha. 

Upon returning to Vienna we both had a quarter of a pizza each for only 3 euros! Best deal in town as Gerald calls it. We didn't have time for a proper dinner as we had to rush to the Mozart concert we booked the day before. The concert was fun and something to see, as it was listed on the 1000 places to see before you die list, but our seats were not the greatest so I couldn't see most of it. Oh wells, the sound and venue was pretty though. 

After doing all this in Vienna, we still had a whole day before heading to Salzburg and decided to just spend it exploring the city. We started off at Hunderwasser apartments, then off to the Schoebrunn palace, which was located a little outside the city. We wandered back into town and had a stroll along the shopping areas, stopping at Central Cafe where I had my first Viennese coffee! We didn't want to end up in Salzburg so late, so ended up taking the 7 pm train and on our way to the home of the Sound of Music =) I'll update about Salzburg a bit later....