Walking and sitting down

We've been back for a week, during which we've been doing all the things that hadn't happened in our absence. On Saturday, we (well, frankly Mr L - I have no sense of direction) led a walk from Dunblane, which is a pretty little town where you'd never expect anything dramatic to happen. Horribly, it was the scene of an appalling gun crime in 1996. But happily it's now more famous, in Scotland anyway, as the childhood home of Andy Murray, in whose honour the pillar box is painted gold (for his Olympic gold medal). 

It was a fairly easy walk, most of it like this, though there were a few ups and downs (literal ones). 

On Sunday we went up to see Son and the Unbloggables. We went for two walks: one in a wood, with bikes,

and a rope swing;

and the other up the hill near their house. Small Grandson for some reason decided to bring a chair with him and had a bit of a rest from time to time. Good plan. Our walking chums are mostly getting on a bit, like us, and when we stop for lunch and often have to sit on the ground, getting up again isn't so easy as it once was. Maybe we should all carry chairs with us. You think?

 

Cities

We have been away - first in Budapest, which we liked a lot,

though after the first (much too hot) day, the weather was a bit overcast. 

This is their extremely fancy Parliament building. 

One reason why it's so pretty and unspoiled-looking, we discovered, is that a lot of it got bombed during the war and has only recently been rebuilt. So it's pretty, but in some ways fake. But still, it's not too big and very walkable, which we liked. 

Then we went on to Vienna, where it POURED. This is the little lane leading up to our hotel. The umbrellas were a portent. 

It turned out that we had timed our visit to coincide with Storm Boris, which caused major floods and several deaths in Austria, Poland and Czechia. So it seems churlish to complain. But we got soaked, several times, and it was also really quite cold. This, above, is the Schoenbrunn Palace, which was very impressive. 

We took refuge the next - which was the wettest - day in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, where we arrived sodden, but which was amazing - a very very elaborate building with lots of Old Masters, including Brueghel's Hunters in the Snow, the star of many a Christmas card. I had always supposed it to be rather small but it's in fact very large, and it was thrilling to stand in front of it and admire all the detail. 

One has heard about the Habsburg Jaw, the result of marrying one's cousin over too many generations, and here you see it. 

I wonder if it was actually worse than the sculptor dared to depict it? If so... hmm.

Then we went on to Prague, where it was again Very Wet. We splashed our way to the Technical Museum, which made Mr L happy. There were trains. 

However, on our last day the sun came out, hallelujah, and we wandered around the Old Town and then went up to the Castle, where we took pretty pictures. 

And after 10 days we came home and have since been busy doing this and that. It was an interesting holiday and we enjoyed it, but there's nowhere like home, really. 

 

Doing things

My baby boy turned 40 a few days ago. How did that happen? I certainly won't be around to see him turn 80 but I hope to stick around till his 50th, when I'll be 84. We'll see... He was a very sweet child, a bit shy, as he looks here. Now he's a GP, husband and father - and lives at some distance, sadly. However, we're going up to see them on Saturday. 

Life's been very busy (when is it anything else?). We had some lovely weather, and Biggest Granddaughter and I had fun blowing bubbles in the garden. 

Then our American visitors arrived for a few days. 

A few months ago I got an email with the subject title "Hello from your American cousin". It wasn't a name I recognised, so I was intrigued. It turned out to be from Jane (under her married name). She and I share a common ancestor who was born around 1800 - my 4xgreat-grandmother, who is also her 3xgreat-grandmother - so we're not exactly closely related. However, Jane's great-aunt lived in Edinburgh and was my lovely Granny's mother's cousin (are you following this?), and we knew her, and through this connection, various members of my family, including myself in 1970, visited Jane's parents' house in Kent, Ohio between the 50s and early 70s. Jane was 11 at the time of my visit. Jane's mother, grandmother and sister also stayed with my parents, I think in the 60s and 70s. Our mothers kept in touch but there really hadn't been any communication between the families after Jane's mother died in 2006.

However, it was lovely to see Jane and her daughter Chelsea. Chelsea is technically the same generation as me, but she's in her thirties - the generations have slipped somewhat. They were visiting Scotland, and finished with a few days with us in Edinburgh. We did the usual tourist things. On Monday, for example, we went to the Castle in the fog and slight drizzle - not ideal for the views of the city from the Castle walls, but we'd pre-booked our tickets so we went. 

On Tuesday we went to Rosslyn Castle, which is now a tourist destination (and on our Americans' list) thanks to The Da Vinci Code - which I have neither read nor seen. Mr L read the book and declared it to be piffle. However, piffle or not, the book and film have been wonderful for the chapel, which featured in them. Previously, it was leaking so badly - and the Earl and Countess of Rosslyn couldn't raise the money to fix it - that a huge plastic roof was erected above it to keep the rain out, and thus it remained for 14 years. In those days, one could just wander in, say ah, yes, and wander out again. 

But now - the chapel gets so many visitors, who pay to visit, that it's all been fully renovated, including the roof. There's now a very nice visitors' centre, with a cafe and shop and various displays, and you have to buy a timed ticket which includes an excellent talk about the history. Amazing! Good old Dan Brown. 

The inside of the chapel is very, very ornately carved, though no one really knows why. It was begun in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, who planned a cruciform church but only got round to having the choir part built before he died, so it was closed off and remains today as a small church. There is the famous story of the apprentice who carved very fancy spirals on a pillar while the master carver was away researching how to do this, and when the master returned, he was so jealous of the beautiful carving that he killed the apprentice. I don't suppose it's true but it's a good story. The chapel was attacked at the Reformation, but remains mainly intact. 

The outside carvings have suffered with weathering over the past 600 years, but are still interesting. 

We also did other things, such as walking up the river and through the Dean Village. The sun shone that day!

So it was lovely to see them, but I now have Things To Do.