Forget about cheese and chocolate, the latest fondue craze is ice! First you take a piece of fruit, cake or marshmallow and dip it in a topping like chocolate or cream. Then you submerge the entire thing in a bowl of liquid nitrogen for 5 seconds to create an icy treat. Currently, ice fondue is available at several restaurants in the Netherlands and Belgium. Check out their website for more info and locations.

icefondue

This month Will and I are going to visit Vienna, Austria. Will can’t wait to drink a ton of coffee and I’m looking forward to the pastries and chocolates!

In Collinsville, Illinois, just 12 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri you can find the world’s largest catsup bottle. It’s actually a 170ft water tower that was built for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant in 1949. Although it was set for demolition, it was saved and restored to it’s former glory by a preservation group in 1995. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and gets visitors every day…it even has it’s own fan club!

World’s Largest Catsup Bottle

Visit My Adventures to read about our trip to Edinburgh, Scotland and check out pictures on my Photos page or by clicking into the album through one of the images posted.

Date of trip: August 2011

Will and I had airfare credits that we had to use over the summer and we wanted to go somewhere close, but out of the country so we chose Edinburgh. After booking, I was horrified to learn that August is festival month and the population effectively doubles for the celebrations. I was nervous because I hate crowds but, except for a bit of trouble finding a place to eat on Saturday night, it wasn’t an issue.

Highlights:

-Edinburgh Castle is unique because it is literally built into the city. It is the most famous and most popular attraction in Edinburgh and the line to get in has grown so large at times that it has set the record for the longest line in Europe! We bought our tickets online and visited right at opening. There was already a crowd but it was very manageable since the castle is so big. There is a ton to see at the site including a chapel, great halls and apartments and the crown jewels. There are also dungeons which I found the most interesting because they held Americans during the Revolutionary War who carved messages into the walls that are still visible.

-One of the most well known Scotsman is Sir Walter Scott, author of Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. The Scott Monument is a 200ft sandstone and marble tribute to him. Visitors can climb over 200 stairs to a viewing platform but, even if you decide not go up, the giant, Gothic sculpture is impossible to miss.

-I was pretty surprised to learn that Edinburgh has a volcano. It’s called Arthur’s Seat and it’s been extinct for hundreds of millions of years so there is no need to worry about an eruption. It is a very popular hiking trail and, while it’s fairly steep and challenging, you’ll be rewarded at the top with beautiful, panoramic views of the city. Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official Scottish residence of Queen Elizabeth, sits right at the base of the hill and is open to visitors as long as the Queen isn’t home.

-When most people think of Scotland, they picture the rolling highlands and crystal clear lakes. Edinburgh is quite far from the countryside so it’s not possible to see very much in a day trip but you can get a taste of it. We booked a tour with The Hairy Coo company that took us out to Forth Bridge, Stirling Castle, a couple of Lochs (lakes) and through parts of the Trossachs National Park. We also visited Doune Castle where many scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed. On the way back, we stopped to feed some hairy coos (highland cows), as they inspired the tour company’s name.

-It’s no secret that Will and I love wildlife, especially birds, so we had to check out the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick. It takes about 90 minutes to get to North Berwick from Edinburgh by train with departures about once an hour. The Centre itself has a few small exhibits and wildlife cameras, but the main draw is it’s boat tours. We took the seabird Seafari rubber boat out to Bass Rock where we could observe the largest colony of gannets (seabirds) in the world. From far away, it looked like a giant, white rock but as we got closer, we realized it was covered with over 150,000 white gannets! It was an amazing sight! The types of birds you see on Bass Rock depends on the time of year you visit as different species nest and migrate at different times. Even though we visited in August, it was freezing cold and the water was very choppy. We were given special waterproof jackets and pants to wear over our clothes and we definitely needed them because the boat got drenched!

I was so impressed with Edinburgh! London and Dublin are typically more popular with tourists, but Edinburgh really is just as nice. Despite the cold and rainy weather, the people are cheerful, the food is great (although I found the vegetarian haggis a bit strange, I appreciated the effort!) and there was so much to see and do!

For more pictures, please visit my Photo Gallery or click on any of the photos posted above.

Edinburgh Links:
Edinburgh Official Site
Edinburgh Castle
Palace of Holyrood House
The Hairy Coo Tour Company
Scottish Seabird Centre