Insomnia

Posted on 29 May, 2007 by Matthias Scheler

I hate it when this happens: I’m tired, in bed and my body is nevertheless refusing to go to sleep. Instead my mind keeps bombarding me with thoughts and I can’t relax. After an hour I finally gave up tonight and got up before I woke up my wife.

I’m not sure what causes this sleep disorder. My best guess is that it is stress related. And of course it happens at the worst possible time. In this case at the end of a bank holiday weekend which means I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. With only a few hours of sleep it will be a great day. 🙁

Well, at least it is the perfect time to listen to Insomnia by Faithless.

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Tales of French Chocolate and Scottish Hills

Posted on 10 May, 2007 by Matthias Scheler

On our last morning in Edinburgh we decided to skip the breakfast in the Hotel and instead go to a cafe. My wife suggested to visit the Plaisir du Chocolat, a french style tearoom near Canongate. Because I’m a huge fan of chocolate it wasn’t very difficult for her to persuade me.

And it was indeed all about chocolate. Besides offering a large variety of (mostly) chocolate cakes they had a dozen different kinds of hot chocolates on their menu. They differed in the kind of cocoa beans and (often alcoholic) extra ingredients. Being a bit cautious I went for a Chocolate chaud a plain hot chocolate which tasted exquisite nevertheless. Refreshed and in good mood we started out to Holyrood park.

Both having a cold we only wanted to have a look-around. But the landscape up there in the hills is so beautiful.

Landscape in the Hills

And in the end we climbed up much higher than we initially wanted.

Up On The Hills

We didn’t make it to the top of Arthur’s Seat unfortunately. But we are determined to come back one day and try again when we are both fit.

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Edinburgh Castle

Posted on 9 May, 2007 by Matthias Scheler

As I was feeling much better this morning my wife and I decided to resume our original plan and visit the castle today. Instead of walking up the Royal Mile we approached from Grassmarket. This provided us with an impressive view of the castle from below.

Edingburgh Castle

After climbing up a lot of stairs we reached the Esplanade and entered the castle via the drawbridge. We went up the mainroad inside the castle to the gallery and were overwhelmed by the view.

View over the City

We spent many hours in the castle, observed the firing of the one o’clock gun, …

One O'Clock Gun

… admired the architecture, visited all the museums and exhibitions and finally took a look at the Honours of Scotland.

We had a really good time and can only recommend visiting the castle.

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