Euro-Holiday (Part 2)

OBAN. In a word, whisky.
We enjoy a fine single malt almost as much as a big plate'o'Fat Matt's ribs on a fine June afternoon, but there ain't no Fatt Matt's and there ain't really no BBQ in Scotland so we went on the Oban distillery tour instead. The Oban distillery is smack dab in the middle of town and the third smallest whisky producer in Scotland. A mighty tasty product. A synopsis of the tour: whisky, starts out kinda like bread and beer, but ends up quite different, you drink it anyway.

We drove all over southwest Scotland, Melissa navigating, Eric trying his best to keep the VW on the other side of the road while making weak attempts at the left-handed transition from second to third. The countryside there is just marvelous. A fun trip, but if you're on a tight schedule, I suggest avoiding the "roads" that are depicted as dashed lines on the map, no matter what map you have. We spent a couple of days and nights in Glasgow (see Glasgow School of Art at left), drove NW to Oban, spent a night there then spent most of a day on the road back to Edinburgh.


EDINBURGH. Where Kennedys go to get hitched.
Our friends Heather Metzger and Tom Kennedy got married here. A fantastic time was had by all. The rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception were all held at the Melville Castle - this was a heckuva place to get married! It's basically a huge manor converted into a hotel, just outside the city. Of all the digital photos we took, we sadly do not have any decent ones of the bride and groom. We do, however, have one of Melissa hatching an evil plot to take out a section Edinburgh's South side.

Euro-Holiday (Part 1)

Some of you have asked why we haven’t updated this blog in a while. Well, we just got back from a three week vacation in Europe where we visited friends in London, roamed the roads of southwest Scotland, toured a distillery in Oban, took part in a wedding with close friends in Edinburgh, ate ourselves silly in Vienna and relaxed in a thermal bath in Budapest. Yes, it was a busy three weeks, but it felt much longer because we enjoyed ourselves so thoroughly. Why does one go on a trip to Europe when there’s so much to see in and around Australia? Well, the impetus of the trip was Heather Metzger & Tom Kennedy’s wedding in Edinburgh. Seeing as Melissa has been great pals with Heather since their time in St Louis and because Melissa was a bridesmaid, we couldn’t miss it! Also, Eric was able to fold in a work related conference for three days in Vienna which was great to attend (and helped to fund the jaunt ever so slightly). We’ll summarize the highlights of the trip with a few words and loads of pics...


LONDON and old friends.After the extremely long flight from Melbourne via Singapore (about 23 hrs flying time) we arrived in London at dawn to a gorgeously beautiful fall day. I guess we were so excited to be there and since that sort of weather is not generally common for the UK, we decided to put our weariness on hold, forego the nap and head straight out for a wander (after ingesting what was to be the first of many English breakfasts to be had). Luckily, our friend Catherine (from Melissa’s former days at Conners Crawley in NYC) was able to join us in the afternoon for a brief trip into the Tate Modern, a pint along the Thames and curry in Brick Lane to top it all off before we crashed and had a very restful night’s sleep. The next day we took the train South to see Eric’s friend Jenny Tinker, her husband Roberto, their son Jake, and their soon to be new addition (Jenny is expecting in December). Jenny was a VSO in Eritrea at the same time as Eric, teaching in the same school. We were able to see their new house, where they stuffed us full of some wonderful home cooked Italian food. Roberto is a trained chef so you can imagine how yummy it was….you’re getting the idea now, aren’t you? Basically, we spent most of our time on this trip eating and drinking. Speaking of drinking...