I'm a mountain like you said to be

Hello Bloggerinos!

I'm Brandon, many of you will know me as Sarah's husband, brando, hubs, or anything other quirky name my lady has chosen to call me on here. Right now Sarah is in Rome living it up big time, but she'll tell you all about that when she gets back. She asked me/I asked permission to do a post for her while she was away. I usually write about exercise and injuries, you know the really enthralling content that people flock to. not really Today I'm stepping outside my comfort zone and doing a blog post here on the Ocean in your Bedroom.

I thought I would share an outfit post... just kidding! I don't think hobo chic is actually a style, or is it? All of you lovely people would know better than I. I though I would share some pictures and tidbits of information about my biking trip with a few of my friends in the Caringorms just outside Aberdeen. What's that you say, something awesome near Aberdeen? I KNOW! To be fair, there's probably lots of awesome stuff just outside the city, our 2 person fam jam just hasn't ventured out.

The Cairgorms are a mountain range within Cairngorm national park. it's highest peak is Ben Macdhui at 1309m (that's 4294ft for the American readers). Our bike ride took us to Loch Muick, down through to lochnagar, and back to ballater. I'd love to tell you how high we rode, but I can't remember for the life of me.

Warning, photo overload headed your way.




The trip starts in Ballater, which is about an hour bus ride from Aberdeen. Once there you can rent a bike for the day for £16 (about $25). The people at the shop are very friendly and super helpful. They gave us a map and told us the best places to stop for a rest.


This lake was our first rest stop. It's about a 2 hour ride from the bike shop, up some hills, down some others, around bends and through the forest. The trail is very well groomed, so the ride isn't too challenging. There were some more difficult trails to be taken, but that's for another day I guess.
Shortly before getting to the lake there's this little brook/stream that was nice for a quick break and to sip a bit of water while taking pictures.

This was our final destination before returning back to the bike shop. It' the royal lochnagar whisky distillery. It was founded in 1826 and is one of the smallest whisky distilleries in Scotland. We took the time to go on a tour while there for £6 (~$10). About a 15 minute bike ride from the distillery is Balmoral Castle - one of the Queen's residences. Unfortunately, the castle wasn't open to the public at the time, so we weren't able to go see it.


So that was my trip in the Cairngorms. It's remarkable how similar the landscape and topography is the Gros Morne on the west coast of Newfound. It was a lovely, exhausting, and beautiful ride. If you're ever in the 'deen (that's what us cool kids call Aberdeen) then it's definitely worth your time to rent a bike and head into the mountains. Oh, I finally got up close and personal with a Highland cow.


SHAMELESS PLUG: if you're at all interesting in exercise or physical therapy then you might like my blog, Exercise Basics

 Also - all you lovely people who read my wife's blog - follow her, give her some love. She's pretty freakin' awesome, and now that's she's in Rome I can boldy ask everyone to follow her because she's too modest to do it herself. Seriously, if you're a regular reader, let her know. It makes her happy, which makes me happy - and I know you're deeply concerned about my happiness :-)

to put it in a nutshell...

hello happy weekenders!
greetings from sunny Aberdeen. yes, you read that right. Aberdeen was sunny. of course I was at work through most of it, but I'm hoping tomorrow will bring equally joyous weather.

in the meantime, here are some photos of day two in Glasgow!

it was pretty cold on day two, so we spent most of the day doing fun indoor things... like visiting the Kelvingrove museum & art gallery. it's in this big, gorgeous building, and there's lots of interesting art and history and informative exhibits. highlights included the original Salvador Dali painting Christ of Saint John of the Cross (which I have decided is one of my favourites) and learning about the ill-fated elephant mascot Sir Roger ("some soldiers and a man with an elephant gun shot Sir Roger while he ate his breakfast").

after the museum we found this great little cafe called Tribeca, which was New York City themed. hubs claims it's just another sign that we should live in nyc. we had a delicious all-day breakfast, and mine included a poppyseed bagel from heaven; they really need to have more bagels like this one around here. there was also scrumptious cherry coconut cake, and a scone that Brandon just cannot stop talking about.

we topped off the day with an early showing of The Hunger Games before riding the "Glasgow eye" and heading to the train station. it was a pretty great day, although not helped much by the ridiculous train air conditioning that nearly froze my socks off (along with various parts of my body).

Glasgow was buckets of fun (yeah I'm making buckets happen). I would definitely recommend a visit if you're voyaging in the UK. at first I didn't really know what we were gonna do there; it wasn't like other cities I had visited where I had heard of all these things I wanted to see or places I wanted to go. but turns out there's a ton to do, a lot of it is free, and it's generally just a really cool city!

there's great shopping, museums, food, events, and getting around is really easy. we only had to take the subway to get to Kelvingrove, and it was simple and cheap. we had a great time, and only scratched the surface of all the things to explore.

and that, my friends, is our little pre-anniversary trip to Glasgow. in a nutshell.
cheers!

playing: birds of the summer- a fine frenzy

come away with me

aaand we're back!

our mid-week weekend in Glasgow was a lot of fun. it was relaxed and laid back, but we still got to see a few of the sights. for just two days I think we did alright.

on day one we scoped out the city centre, met an old friend of Brando's for lunch, and went to see a show in the Glasgow Comedy Festival (which we didn't know was on until we arrived!). it was a lovely, sunny day and we had a great time exploring the city!

and fyi, the blue police boxes are real things, but they also happen to be the chosen form of the tardis from Doctor Who. hence the several excited photos taken with one. it's not just a police call box, people. to us it's a time-travelling space ship.

that's right.

what I find even funnier than this bit of geeking out, is that people still use these boxes in Glasgow. meaning you can lock a trouble maker in there while waiting for the police to come. I don't think those are bigger on the inside...

this is probably my favourite corner ever. a Starbucks (where I had a yummy mid-morning latte), an American Apparel (where I got a new batch of candy-coloured tights), and an Urban Outfitters on the other side (where I didn't buy anything, but found the prettiest embroidered flask!). 

yep, liking Glasgow at this point.

we didn't really do much shopping, but Glasgow has plenty of it to tempt you. 

a friend of Brando's from his hometown is going to university in Glasgow, so we met her for lunch. we had some great pub food, including a ginormous chicken-jalapeno pizza that I thought was personal sized... it wasn't. but I ate almost all of it! can't go wrong with pizza + jalapenos. 

after lunch hubs and I did a little sightseeing, starting with the Glasgow Cathedral. it's very beautiful and very free and open to the public pretty much all the time, so it's worth checking out if you're ever in the city! cathedrals always make awesome photo subjects. and this one also houses the tomb of St. Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow.

behind the cathedral is the Necropolis, which I thought was a ridiculously awesome name for a cemetery. it is literally like a city for the dead. it's very huge and full of big tombs and mausoleums that look like little buildings. 

it's really funny how people treat grave yards over here; they're very pretty, so people just hang out in them all the time, and it's perfectly normal! people go for walks or jogs, sit on benches, even eat lunch in grave yards. they're kind of like... parks. parks filled with dead bodies. 

I still don't get it, so much. 

there you have it, Glasgow day #1! 

I've got lots more to share, so come back for a visit tomorrow. :)

now if you'll excuse me, the times go ahead tonight, so I'm already an hour late posting this. time for this chick to get to bed. 

hope everyone had a nice actual weekend. my mid-week weekend was pretty great. 

playing: emmylou- first aid kit