On Saturday we carried on North and up into the Highlands, arriving at our accomodation after a leg stretching walk around Loch an Eilein. We are self catering in a very nice house towards the Northern end of the town. A view of a snowy topped Cairngorm can be found from the kitchen window.

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary and we spent some of it near the top of Cairngorm where we found some snow!

After wandering around and taking photos we grabbed a warming cup of hot chocolate & coffee before heading back down. In the evening we enjoyed a very pleasant meal at The Old Bridge Inn – it even started snowing whilst we sat enjoying our food. Proper big flakes of snow. Bliss. I enjoyed scallops to start – they were served in a light sauce flavoured with lemongrass and honey. For mains, I thoroughly enjoyed braised monkfish served with asparagus and seasonal vegetables. Anthony sampled some bruchetta followed by a venison steak (no photos again sorry!)

Yesterday we drove over to Aberdeen. If I am completely honest it was a miserable day weather wise. We kind of wish we hadn’t bothered with the 2 1/2 hour (each way) journey. You live & learn! On the positive side, we came back via the scenic route & literally came face to face with the most magnificent deer, possibly a stag. It was huge. I had put the camera on the back seat but was too slow in turning round to get it!

Today we ventured out for another walk, in the drizzly rain. After stopping off to get Anthony some more water resistant trousers. We climbed from Glenmore up to the valley in between
Creagan Gorm and Meall a’Bhuachaille. The views were beautiful. Lake Morlich shining in the grey light, snowy topped mountains and pine trees. By the time we reached the top the weather took a turn, the wind got up, the drizzle turned to hail and there was nowhere to shelter so we did a quick about turn and started back down the same route we had walked up.

Through the valley…
Views from near the top…

After getting back to the car we travelled a few miles back down towards Aviemore and stopped at the Ord Barn for a heart warming Parsnip & Honey soup served with homemade bread and a hot cup of coffee. Delicious. If I was to open up a cafe it would be something just like this… hot drinks with lots of homemade soups, sandwiches and cakes. Mmmmm.

Was a lovely one. We went away for a few days this weekend for a bit of r&r.

Hotel – QHotels – We’d never heard of them until I came across what appeared to be a cracking deal on a website I simply fell upon – activehotels.com (I would recommend this website, it gave us a much better deal than expedia would have). Back to the hotel, it was fab, gorgeous, comfy, friendly. I haven’t a bad word to say about them at all. Room was very spacious, very modern, bed was very comfy & the bed linen lovely & soft. The bathroom was also spacious – a bath with shower over and a stand alone shower. It gets a full 5 stars from me.

Nottingham – it was surprisingly large and very nice. We spent most of Saturday morning wandering around and came across a shop called Chocolate Utopia (they do mail orders!) where we sat in with a coffee and mocha and sampled some of their delightful chocolates. Mmmm. We came away with a milk chocolate bar & small dark chocolate bar for us and a dark chocolate bar for a gift. Including the chocolates & coffees I think we spent about £8 in there – much better value for money than Hotel Chocolat (which is where we were going to buy the gift) & just as delicious.

The first night we ate at the hotel which was tatsy. We had taken up a bottle of champagne as it was our official ‘getting together’ anniversary. Very nice.

On the second evening we went to the Hard Rock Cafe! Not our usual dining experience but we’d never been to one and finding myself with the chance to sample some of Joe Perrys Mango-Peach Tango hot sauce, how could I resist?

The grub was your usual American fare & being a fussy meat eater I nearly always choose the veggie options – I did however, have to have the Chicken Quesadilla to sample Joe Perrys sauce.

The dish consisted of chicken & pineapple (of which I’m not a big fan) – but I have to say I actually quite enjoyed it. For the main the only veggie option was a burger. It was huge, even by my mammoth portions and I never seen so much cheese!

Again it was tasty but I actually think I enjoyed the Quesadilla slightly better. Washed down with two glasses of wine I was a happy but very full bunny.

Coming back home on the Sunday we took the scenic route via Bakewell & picked up some of their traditional puddings. Mmmmmm.

Here’s some other pics from our weekend…

Robin Hood

The Ducks enjoying the warm sunshine in Bakewell