The Great Glen and the Caledonian Canal

The Great Glen cuts right through Scotland from Fort William to Inverness. For centuries it's been a well used travel and trade route through the heart of Scotland. One (now old but romantic) means of travelling through the Glen is via the Caledonian Canal that links the Scottish east and west coasts. We travelled along the Glen by car but we took some interest in the canal by visiting the lock flights at Fort William (Neptune's Staircase) and Fort Augustus.

Another early morning look at Loch Leven before reaching the Glen

Neptune's Staircase is a flight of eight locks that raise boats 20 meters. Not only did we get to see some boats traverse the staircase lock, but the Lock Master enlisted Samuel as a helper to fill one of the basins and operate the gates.

What does this button do?

At Fort Augustus the Locks were also busy and we also got to see the road bridge open up to let a tall yacht through.

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New York: National Museum of Mathematics

When we first came to New York we all wrote down where we wanted to go while we were here. All of us included the math museum (confirms our status as a family of total geeks) so that is where we headed today. On the way we went to the LEGO shop. There was plenty of great Lego art and some pretty cool sets that Samuel hadn't seen before. The best part was the machine that used a palm print to generate your Lego avatar. Eric: Check out the six pack. Not sure where they got the toupee from though. Samuel is Johnny Depp? Amazingly accurate this one. The famous Flatiron building A nd the math museum? Of course we enjoyed it! It was all interactive with loads of old and new problems to solve. We even got to use maths in an artistic way. Tessellating Samuel and Eric were most entranced by a floor exhibit which changed periodically but had a range of practical problems. The museum was well populated in the morning with ...

Santa Cruz

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Dining in Denpasar

A key part of any holiday experience is food. During the first week of our stay in Bali we had two nice and very contrasting dining experiences. Merah Putih is billed as the best Indonesian restaurant in Denpasar. It was just a few blocks from our Seminyak villa so we prebooked well ahead of time for a visit. The restaurant venue is very impressive - from the inside it looks a bit like a giant greenhouse, including the plants. The food was spectacular. While every dish was good, the Bak Pao Sapi (Beef steamed buns) and Semur Sapi (slow roasted beef cheek) were incredible. Then for Christmas Eve lunch we had booked at Starfish Bloo at W Bali, one of the swankiest Sunday Brunch venues on the island. Sunday brunch buffets are a signature Bali experience with many of the big international hotels putting on all you can eat extravaganzas once a week. Needless to say the meal was jaw dropping. We had a great table close to the beach where we enjoyed un...

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