Emirates Stadium - The Home of Arsenal

Over in London, we didn't have much time to do much sight seeing but one thing I knew I had to do was do a pilgrimage to one of the Premier League Club's stadium and in London there is non bigger and better than the Emirates Stadium. Unfortunately as it is now, the team with the bigger better stadium is not necessarily the better team.

Enough of words, for all the Arsenal football fans, here are the highlights of the Emirates Stadium

A very bold declaration in a very understated manner

This is more like it!

Guess who is this fella? No no not that smiling goondu in the green jacket. The statue, the guy with the outstretched hands

Is this all there is to the Arsenal's haul?

A time capsule.  Wonder what went into it?

And finally, the very familiar sights to all soccer fans:

The tunnel to the field

And of course the beautiful pitch. 

I think the fellas from our sports hub need to come here and learn from them how to maintain the pitch.

And some places we don't get to see on the television:

The VIP dining room. There is even a celebrity chef to cook for the guests! Unfortunately we were not considered "guest" so no nice meal for us.

This is the physiotherapy room where the players get their massage and do their recovery

 

 And this is the hydro therapy pool. Only for the home team. Wish I can go soak inside too

The shower room. Why no doors and partition?

The Changing Room. The kitman will lay out the players's attire and everything else here

In comparison, the visitor changing room is so plain.

That's me, ahem, giving my end of game press conference

There is even an Arsenal Museum. 

Those were the days when policemen worn shorts and Arsenal was known as Woolwich Arsenal and playing in Division Two at Highbury.

Anybody young enough to have ever worn wooden soccer boots?

And do you know Arsenal ever had such a colorful top?

And a screen grab from one of the many videos featuring one of the greatest Arsenal star

Last but not least, a giant poster with the very best of Arsenal!

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland

In Edinburgh, we were a bit lost what to do. We had visited the Royal Mile the day before and didn't particularly fancy going back there. We also had no desire to visit castles and museums of which there are plenty.

Then we discovered Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano. But we didn't know that. We only knew there was a hiking trail just 20 minutes walk from our B&B and there was a small hill to climb. After getting direction from the boss of the B&B, we walked and came to this place with this signboard

Alright, we were right on target. No losing the way this time round.

And this was our target or so we thought.

But actually this is just the first of the range we got to climb to get to the top which is this one.

Yep, the pointy one right at the back at the far left corner

The climb up the 250 metres summit was fairly easy and straight forward. We could follow this road 

Or just walk up the side of the hill

In cool weather, the climb up was much easier than climbing our 163 metres Bukit Timah Hill. But even at a miserly 250 metres, the view it offered of the surrounding city of Edinburgh was stunning. 

The view of Edinburgh at mid point

And the views from the summit

Yes we almost there at the summit

 I want to fly up instead of climb up

And we there

Coming down, we transverse another few hills with tracks and trails leading left right centre

This has got to be a trail runners dream training ground. And indeed there were a few runners criss crossing the hills.  How I wish I was dressed for running!

And then there this ruins of an old abbey which overlooks one of the smallest loch in Scotland and a real life Palace!

St Margaret Loch

Holyrood Palace

But all good things must come to an end and so finally we reluctantly made our way down to find lunch. Now who want to join me come here chiong sua?

Glen Nevis - Steall Fall, Scotland

Continued from Glen Nevis - Lower Falls,

In the end we decided to continue on. Why? Because we could see other people driving in so we figured since there are people still going in, it should be fine. And so we walked on the road. We managed to overtake the other couple who was resting by the road side. Thank goodness we are fit as a fiddle:)

The sidekick walking up the single track road.

And finally we came to this sign!

Yes we finally found it. After trekking for almost the whole day, we reached the trail head to the Steall waterfall. It was now almost 5 pm. How far to the fall and how much time do we have? And more ominously, there was this sign at the start of the trail head. 

How difficult was the hike? I didn't seem to recall any bad write up about the journey there though and since we had went through so much to reach here, I wasn't going to be deter by 1 small puny little sign. So off we went.

The initial part was fairly easy and a no brainer. Narrow but flat trail notwithstanding that we were walking next to a gorge the like of which we city folks have never seen before.

Talking about the gorge. We have never seen a real life gorge before except in the movies and this was like something from the movie. Can't really tell from the following 3 photos but this was as close as I dare to get to take the shots without fear of dropping in. It look deep and rocky with water rushing through it. A fall would likely be death - either from hitting the rocks or being swept away into the depth of the gorge.

And if that was not bad enough, we were literally walking right next to it on a small rocky ridge.

But truth be told, it wasn't that bad and quite easily negotiated. And after some walking we finally came out to the open!

And after turning the corner, there it was! The Steall waterfall right at the back of the photo

 A closer look at the Steall fall. Not as spectacular as expected. Supposed can go nearer but to reach it, we have to cross the river. We didn't want to get our feet wet so we were contended to admire it from afar. But there is another way to reach it without getting the feet wet.

And that is by using this rather aptly name Steall bridge. Only problem with this bridge is, there is only 3 wire ropes on it. 2 on top for the hand to hold and 1 below to walk on!

Like what this lady is doing. And we, we chickened out!

But finally after almost 8 hours, we seen the Steall Waterfall and concluded our trip to the Highlands on a high.