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Showing posts from December, 2013

Saying Hello To the Queen at Buckingham Palace

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Being a big fan of  Sherlock Holmes , the movie  Eurotrip , British musicians such as the  Beatles , Coldplay  etc, and  British imperial history , I knew that  London  would be the  pinnacle of any European sojourn.  There are just too many places here that I wanted to see! However to have the chance to  visit the city twice in two years  (one with family in 2012, the other for work in 2013), gave me a good appreciation of what this city has to offer. And like any traveler in the good old days, I did what any newcomer in a strange locale was expected to first do upon arriving, and that is to   pay my respects to the Sovereign . *  Buckingham Palace  is known the world over as the  official residence of the British Monarchy . As you can see in the succeeding photographs, there is a  huge difference   between the size of the crowd last year (2012) and this year (2013). When I visited last year, it was about the time that the London Olympics had just ended and for some r

Haggis, Scotch and Bagpipes at Ballindalloch Castle

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As an added bonus to what was already an awesome trip, we were able to visit an honest-to-goodness  Scottish castle ! Built in  1546 ,  Ballindalloch , known affectionately as the  Pearl of the North , is one of the more beautiful and romantic-looking castles in Scotland. Having been continuously occupied by the  Macpherson-Grant family  since its inception, the estate and its grounds are now open to the public as a museum, distillery, public garden, golf course, dog walking park and ranch serving its own renowned Angus beef. * Driving by  Lord of the Rings-esque   landscapes  on the way to the castle. I'm pretty sure that there are orcs / barbarians / vikings hiding in that forest.