After a great day out at Culzean Castle (highly recommended but a cache free zone!!) we headed home via the shops at Heathfield in Ayr to pick up something for dinner. Whilst Super Girlie and Mrs SC were in ASDA myself and Super Kid went in search of Hanging Around in Heathfield. This was a really simple find right next to the ASDA car park and aside from a nice little home made cache container there's not much more to write about.
Sunday 29 July 2012
Saturday 21 July 2012
Pollock Park
We had some pleasant weather for a change yesterday so decided to head up to Pollock Park in Glasgow to have a look around, visit Pollock House, and of course to find a few caches.
After a stop for the kids at the playpark and an ice cream we took a wander along to Pollock House stopping along the way to collect Trolls in The Woods. This was easy to find and an ideal one for the kids who did the finding, and replacing by themselves.
Pollock House itself wasn't really worth the visit but since we're National Trust members entry was free anyway. We did enjoy a little treasure hunt they've set up for the kids and the staff were excellent. Afterward we took another wander to find a few more caches.
EagleXtreme 3 - Reach for the Cache was one which we'd expected to be difficult and indeed we spent a while looking in all the wrong places. Finally Super Kid found it in a place I'd already looked and took great pleasure in rubbing it in!
Next up was the 8th in a series but was the next closest cache to us. 8.Finlay's Pollock Park Trail was off the path a fair bit and down a slippery slope so as usual Daddy was despached to risk life and limb going down to find it. Once safely down the slope I soon spotted an obvious place which matched the hint and sure enough that's just where the cache was hiding.
Last of all we had a look for the 7th in the same series of caches but despite a really good hunt we couldn't find it and came away empty handed. There's plenty more caches in the park so we'll be back.
After a stop for the kids at the playpark and an ice cream we took a wander along to Pollock House stopping along the way to collect Trolls in The Woods. This was easy to find and an ideal one for the kids who did the finding, and replacing by themselves.
Pollock House itself wasn't really worth the visit but since we're National Trust members entry was free anyway. We did enjoy a little treasure hunt they've set up for the kids and the staff were excellent. Afterward we took another wander to find a few more caches.
EagleXtreme 3 - Reach for the Cache was one which we'd expected to be difficult and indeed we spent a while looking in all the wrong places. Finally Super Kid found it in a place I'd already looked and took great pleasure in rubbing it in!
Next up was the 8th in a series but was the next closest cache to us. 8.Finlay's Pollock Park Trail was off the path a fair bit and down a slippery slope so as usual Daddy was despached to risk life and limb going down to find it. Once safely down the slope I soon spotted an obvious place which matched the hint and sure enough that's just where the cache was hiding.
Last of all we had a look for the 7th in the same series of caches but despite a really good hunt we couldn't find it and came away empty handed. There's plenty more caches in the park so we'll be back.
Friday 13 July 2012
Europe 2012 - Ypres
Ypres is a lovely little town and our hotel, the Novatel, was right in the heart of the town centre. We only had one night here so after getting our bearings, checking into the hotel, and a bite to eat, we jumped into the car and headed straight for the cemetery. Our visit was a surprisingly emotional one but I'm very glad we made the effort to go. The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission do such an amazing job and treat these special places with such care and attention. This was an hour of my life which I will never forget. Afterwards we decided to go and find a local cache to mark the occasion, but the closest we could see which had instructions in English we could understand was some distance away. Undetered we went for a look and found Heuvelland 3 : Redmond just outside another war cemetery.
Back in town and we joined the 8pm gathering at the Menin Gate to hear the last post being played by the local fire brigade. Apparently they started doing this on 1st of July 1928 shortly after the Menin Gate memorial was completed and aside from a four year break between May 1940 and September 1944 during WWII when Ypres was under German occupation, they have played every evening since the 11th of November 1929.
After the ceremony we took a wander around town and went looking for Fish Market (VisMarkt, Ieper / Ypres). As it's name suggests this was locate in the old fish market area of the town. Today this is filled with bars and clubs which appeared to be where the local youngsters hang out. The cache wasn't too difficult to spot but a bit of stealth was required.
This concluded our holiday and the next day we drove home. In all we cached in France, Luxembourg, Germany, Holland and Belgium and collected 22 caches.
Europe 2012 - Brussels
After our brief stop in Holland, we pushed on into Belgium and went looking for a campsite in Brussels. Second attempt and we found one after the first which claimed to be a campsite had a sign up saying it didn't admit any campers (both tents and caravans!). The site we did find turned out to be fine despite some resident Irish tinkers living at one end with about a million little brats.
We found three caches in Brussels all in the same area near to the European Parliament buildings. The first of these was just outside the Museum of Natural Sciences where we had a great visit. The museum is a little too big and by the end we were struggling but their collection of huge dinosaur skeletons was brilliant (even if they stuck most of them together wrongly!!). The cache, aptly named Museum was located at the bike stands and was found by the kids.
Next up was a cache called Dark Eye which made sense when you reached the GZ as there was a big sign with an outline of an eye draw on it in black indicating that the area beyond it was under surveillance. Finally and the best of the three was a cache located right next to the main Parliament building in a small garden. This garden contains a section of the Berlin Wall which was brought here after the wall came down. We hadn't expected to see this and had no idea it was even here so finding it was purely thanks to this cache, Le mur de Berlin.
After this we caught the underground into the city centre and although we had a quick look for one cache, the place was simply too busy to do any proper hunting so we decided to just enjoy the atmosphere, and of course the waffles!
We found three caches in Brussels all in the same area near to the European Parliament buildings. The first of these was just outside the Museum of Natural Sciences where we had a great visit. The museum is a little too big and by the end we were struggling but their collection of huge dinosaur skeletons was brilliant (even if they stuck most of them together wrongly!!). The cache, aptly named Museum was located at the bike stands and was found by the kids.
Next up was a cache called Dark Eye which made sense when you reached the GZ as there was a big sign with an outline of an eye draw on it in black indicating that the area beyond it was under surveillance. Finally and the best of the three was a cache located right next to the main Parliament building in a small garden. This garden contains a section of the Berlin Wall which was brought here after the wall came down. We hadn't expected to see this and had no idea it was even here so finding it was purely thanks to this cache, Le mur de Berlin.
After this we caught the underground into the city centre and although we had a quick look for one cache, the place was simply too busy to do any proper hunting so we decided to just enjoy the atmosphere, and of course the waffles!
Tuesday 10 July 2012
Europe 2012 - The Netherlands
Travelling from Frankfurt to Brussels we'd noticed that our route may go via the little knobbly bit at the south of the country. In fact, our satnav decided to take us around this so we decided to ignore it and headed into the land of bacon and tulips (we didn't see any though!).
Our aim was to find a single cache, just one to log that we'd cached in the country but almost every cache we checked online was either a multi, a puzzle or was written in some unrecognisable language (Dutch maybe?). Finally we pulled off the motorway to have a better look and by pure chance discovered we were about a hundred meters from a cache, Raywaver, and it was at the side of the road we were sitting on! Result! Five minutes later we'd found it but it was high up out of reach so Super Girlie was lifted up and just managed to grab it.
The name of the cache referred to some strange contraptions which are supposedly the next big thing which will replace windfarms. Can't see it myself.
Monday 9 July 2012
Europe 2012 - Frankfurt
After a few days in Luxembourg we decided to head west to Frankfurt Am Main in Germany. Frankfurt can be summed up quite simply as a medium sized city with a few nice bits. Ok, probably an over simplification but that's how we saw it.
Unfortunately we visited the town on a Sunday and almost everything was closed or deserted. One place we did find interesting was a funky modern building which had a hole through it. To us it looked like a huge greenhouse gone wrong (in a good way) and was really cool on the inside too. Well worth a wander around but everything inside was closed!
After some lunch we visited the Romerberg square (which was the only place in town which was busy as there was an iron man competition going on) and the cathedral before catching the train back to our camp site.
We had planned to do some caching in town, however our phones were dead as the campsite we were staying at had no electricity for tents and our converter plugs wouldn't fit the odd German sockets. We did manage to grab a couple of caches in a shopping centre we visited (as well as a pizza!). The first of these, NWZ Shopping Cache was on the top floor of the centres multistorey car park. In full view of the security cameras we discovered our first German cache and in the process forgot to leave a Geocoin I'd carried all the way to Germany to help fullfill its mission. In hindsight the location probably wasn't the safest to leave a coin so maybe it was for the best.
The second cache, Abenteuer Nordwest was actually just outwith the shopping complex and on the route back to where we'd parked the car. We hadn't intended to go for this cache but spotted that we would be walking right past it.
Unfortunately we visited the town on a Sunday and almost everything was closed or deserted. One place we did find interesting was a funky modern building which had a hole through it. To us it looked like a huge greenhouse gone wrong (in a good way) and was really cool on the inside too. Well worth a wander around but everything inside was closed!
We had planned to do some caching in town, however our phones were dead as the campsite we were staying at had no electricity for tents and our converter plugs wouldn't fit the odd German sockets. We did manage to grab a couple of caches in a shopping centre we visited (as well as a pizza!). The first of these, NWZ Shopping Cache was on the top floor of the centres multistorey car park. In full view of the security cameras we discovered our first German cache and in the process forgot to leave a Geocoin I'd carried all the way to Germany to help fullfill its mission. In hindsight the location probably wasn't the safest to leave a coin so maybe it was for the best.
The second cache, Abenteuer Nordwest was actually just outwith the shopping complex and on the route back to where we'd parked the car. We hadn't intended to go for this cache but spotted that we would be walking right past it.
Friday 6 July 2012
Europe 2012 - Luxembourg
The second stop in our short tour of Europe was Luxembourg. We've been there before and really liked it so we had to go back for another visit.
On our way across from France however we stopped at a motorway rest stop and after a spot of lunch noticed that there was a cache. The problem was however that the GZ was on the opposite side of the road. After a quick investigation we discovered that the service station had a bridge over to the west bound side so over we went. Once over the find was a simple follow the arrow (we had no maps!) and it was soon in hand.
Once in Luxembourg we arrived at a small (and very expensive) holiday camp next to a village called Nomern. Upon checking for local caches it turned out that the camp site and the village each had their own caches, however both of these were multi's! Undetered we tackled the campsite cache Hexelee over the course of an evening stroll with the final location on the next day. This was a nice short multi with some information gathering to locate the Hexelle which turned out to be a witches cave high above the camp site in the forest. The cave wasn't very large inside but it was occupied by a family of spiders... very large, very scary spiders. I don't like spiders!
The other multi started in the village itself and introduced a number of interesting locations before heading up the hill and again into the forest. It wasn't until we were puffing and panting (almost crawling) up this hill that we realised that the cache name Kniebrecher, translates as Knee Breaker! Aside from the climb this was a really nice walk which we all enjoyed. It also took us into the forest (where we probably wouldn't have ventured had it not been for the cache) so we saw another interesting part of the country.
No visit to Luxembourg would be complete without a visit to the main city of Luxembourg. This is a nice small town which can be navigated on foot. There's plenty of parking, but unfortunately there's also plenty of cars! To mark our visit we tackled a few challenges but also found the PrintzRischard cache. This was an easy find and only a stones throw from the main squares and grand palace.
On the way back to the tent we picked up a further two caches. The first LTPES Mersch was under a bridge in Mersch. This was easy to spot but not so easy to reach and in the process I got soaked in the rain and stung by nettles. We also found Vue iwwer Noumer which was the smallest tupperware style container we've ever, or are ever likely to see. The size of a nano!
On our way across from France however we stopped at a motorway rest stop and after a spot of lunch noticed that there was a cache. The problem was however that the GZ was on the opposite side of the road. After a quick investigation we discovered that the service station had a bridge over to the west bound side so over we went. Once over the find was a simple follow the arrow (we had no maps!) and it was soon in hand.
The other multi started in the village itself and introduced a number of interesting locations before heading up the hill and again into the forest. It wasn't until we were puffing and panting (almost crawling) up this hill that we realised that the cache name Kniebrecher, translates as Knee Breaker! Aside from the climb this was a really nice walk which we all enjoyed. It also took us into the forest (where we probably wouldn't have ventured had it not been for the cache) so we saw another interesting part of the country.
On the way back to the tent we picked up a further two caches. The first LTPES Mersch was under a bridge in Mersch. This was easy to spot but not so easy to reach and in the process I got soaked in the rain and stung by nettles. We also found Vue iwwer Noumer which was the smallest tupperware style container we've ever, or are ever likely to see. The size of a nano!
Monday 2 July 2012
Europe 2012 - Disneyland
Believe it or not there are caches in Disneyland and so we just had to bag some.
Our first attempt was for a traditional cache hidden in a hole in one of the large artificial rocks. The cache details made this sound simple but upon reaching the approximate location the GPS signal was all over the place and the entire place was artificial rocks full of holes. We hunted for a short while but we were wasting good time which during which we could have been queuing so we went and did that for the rest of the day instead!
On our second day in the park we did manage to bag a couple of caches, albeit one was a virtual and the other an earthcache. The aim of the first cache Le Roi Arthur was to get a photo beside the sword in the stone and to send the cache owner the inscription. This actually proved harder than it sounds and I was ready to strangle some ignorant kids who kept jumping the queue (but of course I didn't) and to shout at their parents who didn't seem to care. We eventually managed to get photos, the inscription and approval from the cache owner to log a find.
The Earthcache, Butte - Hoodoo Voodoo - DP/EC56 was a bit tricky and I'm still not sure we got the answers correct but what we sent the cache owner must have been acceptable as we got permission to log our third EarthCache (I thought we had more than that!).
After these we were happy and spent the rest of the time in the park doing what you of course pay to come here to do... we queued!
Our first attempt was for a traditional cache hidden in a hole in one of the large artificial rocks. The cache details made this sound simple but upon reaching the approximate location the GPS signal was all over the place and the entire place was artificial rocks full of holes. We hunted for a short while but we were wasting good time which during which we could have been queuing so we went and did that for the rest of the day instead!
The Earthcache, Butte - Hoodoo Voodoo - DP/EC56 was a bit tricky and I'm still not sure we got the answers correct but what we sent the cache owner must have been acceptable as we got permission to log our third EarthCache (I thought we had more than that!).
After these we were happy and spent the rest of the time in the park doing what you of course pay to come here to do... we queued!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)