Edinburgh - what a city!

After a 3½ hour train trip from Manchester I arrived in Edinburgh at 9.30am!

After settling into an apartment I started to explore and quickly discovered what a beautiful city this is. The only downside is a tramline that has been under construction since 2008 and is still nowhere near finished !

The ‘famous castle’ dominates the whole city and is a wonderful site. The city still has many of their original buildings most of them have been renovated and restored, in fact the new modern buildings look very out of place here.

I had no idea of the literary & early medical history of this city – it is amazing with so many of early writers such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle & JM Barry - who either lived here or were inspired by this city. It is also home to JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame. There is a huge monument to Sir Walter Scott – it is so large you can pay a donation and walk to the top.

I have certainly played tourist here, there is just so much to see. I have done all the usual sites Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Castle, the Royal Yacht Britannia and used the ‘hop-on-hop-off’ buses.

Other times I have just walked – to see things like Greyfriar’s Bobby via the Grassmarket. The Grassmarket area was originally a market place for grass eating animals and was the place for the people to view public executions!

Many of the streets are named after occupations for example ‘Candle Makers Row’, Baxter Street (or, we know this as Baker).

I have been to the National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery. The Portrait Gallery is amazing, there are paintings there dating back to the 1500’s including one of Mary Queen of Scots mother that was painted in the early 1500’s.

Like most cities there are many old and beautiful churches here – one at the end of Lothian Road (St Cuthbert’s) is the earliest Christian site in this city dating back to the 1100’s. The site is just below Edinburgh Castle. The present church was built in the 1890’s but there were six earlier church buildings on the site. It has a very old cemetery and the grounds have been a mass of colour with flowering blue-bells and other spring bulbs.

Joining the National Trust before I left has paid off – I have been to two NT sites here. One is the Georgian House in the fashionable area of Charlotte Square, the other is called Gladstone’s Land which is an old apartment building located on the Royal Mile.

It is amazing what trivia you learn along the way – many of the sandstone buildings are quite black due to the coal burning fires & smoke from earlier days. The authorities did try to chemically clean the sandstone but discovered the cleaning chemicals were damaging the sandstone and stopped – but the buildings are coming cleaner with time due to the much cleaner air in the city now.

One of the highlights has been the gardens in Edinburgh – the Princes Street Gardens are stunning with spring flowers in bloom and an avenue of Cherry Trees in flower. I have been surprised that there are several ‘private’ gardens in the city, usually located in good residential areas and if you want entry to these gardens you need to pay a substantial amount each year to get a key!

This city certainly has a WOW factor and I now understand why several people told me to spend some time here – I am so glad I did.



The Grassmarket



Sir Walter Scott Memorial

Visit to SI Edinburgh

I made contact with Soroptimist International Club in Edinburgh and was invited to attend their AGM.

This was a very pleasant experience with members warmly welcoming me and keen to know what SI Geelong does especially fund raising and what projects we support.

It was interesting to hear about their club – they meet twice monthly. The meeting place certainly had a much better view than ours – the view from the window was Edinburgh Castle – the view was stunning to say the least!

The 84th AGM meeting started with the President welcoming everyone then a member read the Objects, the President then lit a ‘friendship candle’.

I was especially interested to hear about some of the projects they had done, these included:

·         World Environment Day – pulling out Rosebay willow herb in Holyrood Park (sounds familiar!)

·         Collect baby & children’s clothing for distribution

·         Christmas gifts were donated to residents at a Women’s Hostel

·         Advocacy re “Stop the Trafficking”

·         Support for Marie Curie Centres (similar to our Daffodil Day)

·         They support a club in Kiev and a charity in Romania

·         They manned a stall at a WAGGGS (Girl Guides) convention

·         Supported Birthing in the Pacific

The club numbers are about 28 and they do a club newsletter for members.

I had a really enjoyable evening of learning, sharing and friendship.

Manchester

The decision to arrive in Manchester rather than Heathrow was a good decision. It is a smaller International Airport, no long walks and an easy run through passport control & customs.

I am staying in Salford Quays. The Quays are now very different to what they were 50 odd years ago when it was a heavy industrial area.

Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. It was previously the site of the Manchester Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom following the closure of the dockyards in 1982.
These days you find plenty of hotels, apartments and restaurants here as well as the Imperial War Museum several art galleries, the BBC & theatres in the Quays. There are lots of lovely walkways along the quays.

Manchester has an excellent tram system (similar to the light rail/tram in Melbourne). It is very easy to buy tickets and understand the ticketing system. When I travel I often wonder why Melbourne can’t get their transport system working efficiently!

On the weekend I decided to explore further afield – first I went to 'Bury' a market town. The market was huge and sold everything from clothing, luggage and a variety of fresh produce. I did a price comparison meat was certainly far more expensive, other food products similar to home.

I discovered the ‘East Lancaster Railway’ – this is similar to Puffing Billy & mostly run by volunteers. Their service takes you to the outskirts of Manchester to some of the smaller towns and larger villages. I went as far as Rawtenstall. This was a delightful small town and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around taking in all the sights.

My last day in Manchester was spent with M & D who had recently moved to the Manchester area from Scotland. We met at Wilmslow a charming area in nearby Cheshire. I had my first ‘Pub Lunch” at the Two Tubs Inn – a lovely pub with a wonderful cosy atmosphere, and the food was great too.
Next on the agenda was a visit to the National Trust Property “Tatton Park & Mansion” a great NT property with fabulous gardens and grounds. I thoroughly enjoyed the day that included a drive through several smaller villages – I really enjoyed the drive as it showed me much of the scenery I had come to the UK to see.
The day finished with a welcome cuppa with M & D who were wonderful, hospitable hosts – a lovely day, thank you.

Salford Quays one of te many walks

A great place fo lunch !

Last Days in Dubai

Today is Sunday and is a normal workday as weekends are Friday & Saturday.

Spent time today sightseeing in Dubai – visiting the ‘Dubai Mall’ where they have an aquarium, an indoor skating rink and a Gold Souk! We had morning tea at a cafe that specialises in Middle Eastern food and spices – the smells were wonderful. We sat outside to have our coffee opposite a large lake. All of a sudden music started and the ‘water fountain show’ commenced. The fountains are choreographed to dance to music – what an incredible sight!

We then went to the Madinat Shopping Centre with is like a ‘middle eastern’ market. The architecture gives the whole place a really nice atmosphere and there were dozens of stalls and shops that sold an amazing range of products.

Next stop was ‘Atlantis” – I had seen this place on TV and it is more than I imagined. It is an incredible building with wonderful gardens and a fabulous aquarium. We had not had lunch but instead decided to have their traditional ‘English style’ afternoon tea.

Monday - my last day in Dubai and my friend was fortunate enough to get a reservation to go to a ‘Cultural Breakfast” at the ‘Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding’. This was a wonderful experience and one of the highlights of my visit to UAE. We all sat on cushions around a large square and all the food was in the centre. Coffee was served first followed by dates. The food was self-serve but was what has been eaten by locals for many, many years. There were chick-peas, a noodle dish with egg, a type of bread very much like a French croissant in texture and a smaller type of bread that had been fried (similar to a donut). The bread and donut were eaten with cream cheese and date syrup. During the morning you heard about many of the traditions and customs of the Arab people and there were plenty of opportunities to ask questions. I would recommend any one coming here to consider visiting this centre either for a Cultural Breakfast or Cultural Lunch.

After visiting the Cultural Centre we found our way to the Souks where I had been before but it had been too hot to walk about then. There have been many changes here as well, probably due to the GFC. The spice souk was much smaller and with fewer merchants. It was interesting to wander through both the spice and home-wares souks provided you could get away from the merchants wanting to sell you everything from hand-bags, shoes, tee-shirts and spices of all kinds.

In the evening we went out for dinner to a hotel that had an interesting mix of menu options – everything from local Arab dishes to African style food.

My friend introduced me to a very refreshing drink that I had several of during my time here; it is called ‘lemon-mint’. It is a mixture of lemon juice, chopped mint (lots of it) water and sugar syrup – delicious!

After dinner we walked back to where the ‘water-fountain’ show was. At night time the fountains are flood-lit and this time the music was different – a beautiful finale to my time in Dubai.

In part this has been an emotional time as I did keep thinking about my Mum who would have been amazed at the many new buildings and other changes and she would have loved the Cultural Breakfast – very happy memories of a remarkable lady who travelled here when she was 84.

Off now to Manchester after saying goodbye to my friends, they were amazingly hospitable hosts and great company.



The wonderful Water Fountain Display at Dubai Mall





Cultural Breakfast a wonderful experience.



Exploring Dubai & UAE

This morning my friend collected me from the hotel and drove me to her apartment. She has been living here for about 4 years. Like most ex-pats their apartment is in a multi-story apartment building and she lives on the 29^th floor of a 57 floor building. The view is amazing, you look over the Arabian Gulf (yes, it is not called the Persian Gulf here!). You can see the main road that runs through Dubai and the new train line. The buildings you can see are varied some new and some old. Just below the apartment you could see many smaller homes that would have been built some years ago – they were in a style of what I would call typical ‘middle eastern homes’ and I suspect all faced east.

After spending a lazy day catching up news etc and having another really good sleep the following day we travelled for about one hour to another emirate.

We travelled to ‘Raf Al Kaimah’ – the drive took us through a lot of desert and the sand drifts seem to go on and on. Saw several groups of wild camels and goats.

This emirate is very different to Dubai and is probably what Dubai was 20 or so years ago. My friend’s husband plays golf here most weekends and the golf course is as you would expect here in UAE – very green, lovely gardens, trees and a very nice clubhouse where they make good coffee!

My friend often brings guests to ‘Raf Al Kaimah’ and has got to know a man who owns among other things a guest house and a date farm. The guest house is called ‘Al Dayah’ and we were able to wander around and have a look at the building and the swimming pool. After that we took a walk through the date farm. The farm is very large but there are no dates on the trees this time of the year. The trees were very dusty probably due to the recent sand storm.

The date farm is located in the foothills of the mountains and the mountains were very barren with little vegetation, they seemed to be made up of large boulders all held together with a clay type dusty soil.

There is an amazing hotel that has been built in the middle of nowhere called the ‘Khat Springs Resort’. The resort, despite its unusual location is apparently popular for locals to have weekends away as the facilities are very good. We then went to one of the new and more western-type resorts called ‘Rotana Cove’. This was amazing and would be a great place for a holiday. It is a hotel plus several villas. Many of the villas have been purchased and used as holiday homes by wealthy locals. The location is wonderful the beach front is on the Arabian Gulf and you could see people enjoying the beach lazing on dozens deckchairs under beach umbrellas.

On the way back to Dubai we called into a shopping centre ‘Al Hamra’ and had coffee at an place called ‘Shakespeares’ these are probably owed and run by Indians as the decor is amazing and worth going there just to look at that incredible decor (and yes, the coffee is good too). There are several of these shops located throughout the UAE.

A wonderful day spent with friends – looking forward to another good night’s sleep.

Rotana Cove Resort

Khat Springs Resort !

The journey to Dubai

After a few very hectic days packing, finalising things at work, & saying goodbye to loved-ones I did make it to the airport for my 2.40am flight to Dubai via KL!

It was a long and tiring flight and I rarely sleep on planes, needless to say I am looking forward to a big sleep. But we did get fed well (and the food was good).

One thing I always enjoy about flying overseas is you meet a lot of interesting & diverse people and this flight was no exception. I met up with two young people who were going away for the first time ever.  Both were rather nervous and apprehensive, one young man had finished a film production course in Melbourne at VCA and he was on his way to New York film festival to show his first film!  I should have got his name – he may be at the Oscars one day!

I also met a family from South Africa who had been holidaying in Victoria & SA. They had really enjoyed their time in Australia and they said to me “you are so very lucky living in such a wonderful country”. We sometimes forget what a great country Australia is!

Dubai is shrouded in dust today as there was a huge dust storm in the desert. It looks like a fog hanging over the whole city with city buildings barely visible - in fact you would think you were in China!

It has been 4 ½ years since I was last here and have already noticed many changes in this remarkable city. The train line that was built last time is up and running and apparently getting huge numbers of passengers. There are much fewer cranes; there are not as many new buildings on the horizon now due to the GFC.

After booking into my hotel I went for a walk and discovered I was in the ‘Indian Section’ of the city. I decided to go into a small supermarket and buy some fruit & yogurt and bottle of water – this all came to the huge sum of A$2.50 !! The supermarket staff were extremely polite and helpful and only one person spoke English.

When I was here last it was about 45 degrees, today the temperature is about 31 much more pleasant despite the haze. I had many mixed emotions driving to the hotel as last time I was here I was with my mother who was 84 at the time. Mum just loved Dubai as she found it so different to anywhere else she had been. I know over the next few days I will re-live much of what a wonderful time I had here with her.

Dubai when I arrived !

Before I leave

Whilst I live in a beautful part of Victoria - the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong I am looking forward to starting a wonderful journey that will take me to many places I have not been to before.
My journey will commence on 12 April. My first stop will be Dubai.