Author Archives: dipidydoo
Vienna Vignettes – As Seen From the U1
To our relief it rained, and a refreshing wind blew the heat away. After being unceremoniously dumped by the bus driver, we decided to go for a ride on the UBahn instead. The U1 line has several stations on the islands, and crosses some of the Danube bridges; you can see quite a lot without […]
Horsing Around
Yesterday I fulfilled a long held dream, one held by every little girl who loves ponies. I left Ian behind and headed to the glorious Spanish Riding School, to see the Lippizzaner stallions. In summer, most of the horses are turned out for a well earned break, but some of the young stallions are still […]
ICE-O. Days 1 and 2.
The Ice-O began on Friday with an evening sprint wich started in a local school at 6.00pm. This gave Ilze and I time to explore the Hallgrimskirkja which looms over Reykjavik. It is difficult to photograph as the sun always seems to be behind it. The statue out the front celebrates the Viking explorer Leif […]
Vienna By Night
Just a few snaps from our evening sightseeing tour last night. Will update today’s events tomorrow – still got one more route to cover on the bus tonight before bed. Music is everywhere – Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven. Even the subway buskers sing opera!
Buses and Trains
Day 3 – time to quit lazing around. Our favourite thing to do in a new city (well OK we did come here over 25 years ago on a Contiki tour) is to buy a transport pass, and ride the rails. Having deemed it too hot for anything more than short strolls, we opted for […]
PRACTICALLY PERFECT PUFFIN PICTURES.
Our last race free day in Reykjavik started badly when we found out the Hop-Hop-Off bus tour had been canceled due to a strike. “Would you like to see Puffins instead?” said our helpful tourist information lady. “Is the Pope the titular head of a largely discredited worldwide religious cult with dubious employee vetting procedures […]
24 Hours In Vienna
You can do a lot in 24 hours in Vienna. Or very little. We went for option 2. The flights were unremarkable – the usual squalling toddlers (why do they all do it at 3 am, just when you’ve managed to finally fall into a fitful sleep?) My vestibular system was very happy sitting on […]
“THERE’S A BEAR IN THERE….”
On our last day in Scotland Ilze and I drove to Glasgow via the Trossarchs and found this wee tea-shop with not so wee Highland Cattle. Inside the compulsory souvenir shop wee found this delightful wee bear kitted out in a wee kilt made from Harris tWEEd and she decided she need to come to […]
GRIME TO GEISERS
From Glasgow to Iceland Our time in Glasgow turned out to be a disappointing fizzer. If you’re thinking of spending some time in Glasgow, our advice is DON’T!! The city itself is a bleak and run-down place, once a thriving ship building city employing thousands of people. Now, with the ship building industry gone, it […]
SS6D Days 5 & 6. Goodbye Little Red tent.
And so it’s done. The Scottish 6 days has been run, and all orienteers run ragged. The courses and terrain were difficult. Getting to the starts was even more difficult, with many competitors having more climb and distance to their starts, than their actual courses. Today’s event, the final day of competition, had a remote […]
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