Krakow, Zakopane, Polen

Many of you were curious where we were going to move, as my wife's 3-year expat contract expires now in early October. It's back to Stockholm!
It has been amazing 3 years here in UK with its stunning scenery, hiking and animal experiences. Before moving here I did not know that UK would be this incredibly beautiful and had so much to offer. I will definitely miss it.
Anyway the flat is going to be packed this Monday and shipped. Which means that it might take a while before I make another post.

Back to this post now. Couple of weeks back we were off to a wedding in Poland, Zakopane. As you might know its a rather popular ski resort in southern Poland.
We landed in Krakow and had a half-day strolling ahead of us. Very positively surprised with that fantastic city with its old buildings, the cathedral and the main square with the market.
In Krakow we tried tradional Polish dumplings (a kind of small pasties) in a cozy little restaurant just around the corner from the main square. Very tasty but to be fair all Polish food is good :) and one of the favourites is Golonka (ham shank).
Later that afternoon we were off to Zakopane with the bus. Very cheap! As everything else is in Poland, for us at least compared to UK or Sweden. To arrive to Zakopane was like coming to an alpine village with all the nice log house and mountains in the background.
One slightly 'negative' part of it was the incredible amount of tourists. Thought this would be inbetween two seasons, but it seems its always peak season there :)
Zakopane region is famous for their smoked cheese which is really good and salty, perfect with the beer. Of course as the rest of that part of Europe, also everything made of wool is a big thing.

The wedding was amazing. Great tasting food served every two hours, and inbetween having a cold cuts table available with everything you can think of. Nothing wrong with that :)

We enjoyed the trip a lot, and will definitely come back as we unfortunately did not have time to hike even though we took the cable car up to one of the mountain top to get to experience some of the amazing nature there.

Until next time..
                                                                          

                   

Last part of the road trip to Scotland

On sunday morning we left a sunny Isle of Skye to drive towards Loch Ness, but we did not see the Loch Ness monster so we drove on towards the Cairngorms National Park.
We went to Glenmore Forest Park which is located near the village of Aviemore and from there we took the mountain railway up to the mountain cabin which is located at 1024 m above sea level, I was surprised how much snow there was and what a great ski resort it was.
We went up here mostly to take pictures of the view, but my wife and our friend walked the last bit to the top of the mountain, which is also the highest peak in the Cairngorms NP (1309) m above sea level.
I was too thinly dressed and it blew very cold so I stayed near the cabin :))
Lift ticket prices and the like was same as in Sweden, expensive in other words.
Then we drove to Aberdeen that was our last overnight stop. 
But because it still was bright outside, we went to the coast to take photos at a place called Nigg Bay.
On Monday it was just to drive home again, and we also drove through a National Park (Northumberland) but now it was just low hills, and as we have seen everything nice before it felt very boring;))

Loch Morlich and the ski resort in the background

Mountain Cabin 1024m

It is always dangerous with snow