A weekend in Wales, Friday

This evening finds us in a nursery gardens near Llangollen, from which tomorrow we can walk down to the hotel where there is a formal lunch with the Swan Whisperer's former colleagues, though quite why here I don't know.

So we set off about noon, and it was the usual slow going out of London. We stopped at Oxford services for lunch, and then it was fast until Birmingham, and then crawled past it, Telford, Shrewsbury, Uttoxeter and really until the turn-off for Llangollen. And people wonder why we prefer motoring abroad.

This is a Caravan Club certified location, very pleasant.  The owner is a Lay Reader and has offered to take us to the open-air service on Sunday morning, which should be lovely.  Meanwhile, the forecast is for it to be cold tomorrow, so we have bought plenty of warm clothes.  Enough, I hope, to do us this time! 

2015 Christmas Trip, final day

It was cold this morning, although the rain had stopped!  We were glad for the heating in the van - the bathroom can get too hot if you aren't careful, but that's not bad when you're showering with as little water as possible. 

The Swan Whisperer went for a walk before breakfast, and then we set off.  We had heard that the queues going into France could be horrendous on the major roads, and wondered whether they might not have blocked off some of the more minor crossings, so decided to compromise and take a main-road crossing.  This meant driving through Belgium, and the Satnav took us mostly on country roads, which was lovely - we love French country roads, but don't often go on Belgian ones.  We stopped briefly in Ieper (Ypres) to see if we could see a bakery, but couldn't, so we moved on an d eventually had rather a late lunch in a services on the A25 in France. 

We were not held up at the border - some cars were being pulled over, but we were just waved through.  And, as I said, we stopped at the next services for lunch, and then drove over to Dunkerque where we got lost!  For some reason Google Maps insisted that the Auchan hypermarket was not where it in fact is, and it wasn't until we asked it for their petrol that it found the right place!  The Satnav never knows one supermarket from another, so it wasn't being much help, either.  Anyway, we got there in the end and did our shopping, and then got petrol, but what that Auchan doesn't sell is gas, and we needed to replace our "Cube" of Butagaz.  So we drove down to the one at Calais, which not only does sell it, but we could empty our grey water there, too, which was useful. 

And so to Eurotunnel, straight through, and a two-hour run home.  And now we have emptied it, and it will be taken home and put back into storage until the next time!

2015 Christmas Trip, Day 5

The weather was lovely this morning when we got up, and we went for a walk down to the river, and then back along the main shopping drag, stopping off at the supermarket to buy bread, milk, etc.

There is a car-ferry that crosses the Rhein between Königswinter and Bad Gödesberg, so of course we took that,

and drove through Bonn, which is fairly uninteresting, before heading out on the motorway towards the Ronquières Inclined Plane, where there is a car park giving specific permission for overnight parking (1 night). We thought it was very dull to go the same way as we came, which was out fault for not having planned the route ourselves (not that there really is much choice), so when the Satnav said it could save us 6 minutes we said yes please, but in fact it was only another motorway. We stopped at services at a place called Jülich for lunch, and should maybe have explored there, it looked quite interesting, but we drove on and it was quite a long way to here. And it is raining!  So we are parked up for the night next to the lift, which is quite noisy.

This holiday has been all about transport - the first night we parked up by the Strépy-Thieux lift, then we had two nights next to the barges and passenger ships on the Rhein, last night was all about the trains, and now it is all about the canal lift again.

2015 Christmas Trip, Day 4

We really had no plans for today, although the SW had vaguely talked of going to Aachen. But we didn't want any more Christmas Markets, and I said shall we go and look at Bonn. But before we got there, we decided to go to Königswinter, where I spent a few days with my school en route to the Passion Play at Oberammagau 45 years ago. The only thing I really remembered was that there was a little train that ran up the mountain to the Drachenfels, with a stop half-way up where there was a café and a little zoo and I first drank Perrier, and was - surprised - by it.  

Our first try ended up in the neighbouring village of Rhondorf, where we found a path that led up the mountain but no railway and, alas, I do not have my trekking poles with me. 

Google Maps, however, proved rather more capable than the Satnav, and when we got to Königswinter, we followed the signs to the motor home parking and found that we could park there free for up to 48 hours. So we decided to stay.

First port of call was to the Drachenfelsbahn, but, sadly, no trains on December weekdays, so we walked into the town and had lunch in an Italian restaurant, which was about the only thing open on a Monday. Then I suggested the SW might walk up the mountain - I remembered there had been a path beside the railway - so he went off to do that while I did some necessary shopping and then came back to the van which was very warm in the sun, so I opened all the windows to give it a thorough airing and enjoyed the warmth while I read and knitted a bit.

The SW came back saying he had had a fabulous walk over to Rhondorf and back, and now we are drinking tea and relaxing. We may or may not go for another walk later, but I doubt it. 

I also hope we sleep - we didn't realise quite how near the main railway line we are, with freight and passenger trains every few minutes. The Boy would love it. 

2015 Christmas Trip, Day 3

Today is St Nicholas' Day, when children in many countries find little presents in their shoes given by the eponymous saint. We, however, are no longer children and our shoes contained nothing more exciting than our feet. 

We had directions to the Park & Ride, and found it at the second try (we went roaring past it the first time and had to turn round). Then we managed to buy an up-to-five-person day ticket with our hoarded coins once we were on the tram, only as nobody asked to see it, not once, I am not sure why we bothered! Still, we try to be honest.

The tram took us swiftly into Cologne, and we got off at the main station and explored the first of the Christmas Markets. I did buy some honey lip-balm, but that was all, although we enjoyed looking at the various stalls.

We then walked down to the Alter Market, where there was another market with since really quite good craft stalls, including a blacksmith. The Swan Whisperer bought me an olive wood risotto spoon as an oddment fur Christmas (at my request), and then we wandered down to the Heumarkt, and the third market. By this time I badly needed to sit down, so we went into a restaurant for lunch, which was a failure as the food - even the salad - was so salty you couldn't taste anything else. The beer was nice, though. The SW said his currywurst was nice, if salty.

After lunch, we looked at the very long and thin temporary ice rink, and the various stalls attached, and then took the tram up to the St Nicholas market at the Rudolfusplatz, where we has gluhwein, which was lovely. And looked at the "Christmas Avenue" across the road, which was dull.

The local public transport authority had been advertising that St Nicholas would be bringing little gifts to children during the afternoon and to look out for him on the trams and buses, and I am delighted to say we saw him as we waited for the tram to take us back to Neumarkt, although I couldn't get a photo. 

Then the market at the Neuplatz, where the SW bought me a skewer of chocolate-covered grapes, which were lovely. But what he wanted was some apfelstrudel, and the only market that sold that was the first one, by the Cathedral, so we went back there and bought him some.  They had some wonderful-looking cheesecake, too, but I was full.

By then we were Christmas Marketed out, and although there were at least two others in the city, we decided to give them a miss, and instead took a tour bus round the city, enjoying the comments of a farming couple from Derbyshire who sat next to us.  When that was over, it was dark and the shops were shutting. I  remember the days when shops in Germany firmly shut at lunchtime on Saturday and did not open again until Monday morning, but those appear to be long past, and everywhere was open and busy today.  We saw an old-fashioned tram several times, which I think was a Christmas Special, probably a charter or something you booked specially.

We caught a tram back to the P&R, and thence back to the camp site, where we are having a quiet evening after a lovely day.

2015 Christmas Trip Day 2

Blissful to wake up in the van this morning and to have a shower in a warm bathroom.  What had been penitential in October was lovely in December!  Actually, it was lovely being able to read in bed last night without having to use a book light. The new lights are much better - I couldn't actually see to read with the old one. 

After breakfast I needed to stretch my legs, so walked up to the visitor centre, now sadly closed until April, across the canal, and down the other side to the bridge and so back to the van.

Lovely. Then fell asleep - Belgium is not the most beautiful of countries, especially on the motorway. We went past Courcelles, and I could only think of Walter Blythe, who was fictionally killed there. And on past  Aachen, where there was a bad hold-up. We thought this was at the border so refused the sat-nav's kind offer to take us a marginally quicker way, but in fact it turned out to be road works - the border between Belgium and Germany is as unremarkable as ever.

We arrived in Rodenkirch easily enough, although too early for Reception, so we had a late lunch and checked in once it had opened. Then, when we had parked up and plugged in the electricity, we set off to see what we could see.

Bus driver singularly unhelpful about buying tickets, but we worked out how in the end, and arrived at the tram station. Disaster! You needed to pay either with coins or with a contactless card, and we didn't have enough of the former, and foreign machines don't read British contactless cards.

So we came away, and decided to do a bit of shopping and to get plenty of change and try again tomorrow. We also walked back to the campsite, to save money - a very pleasant walk but my shoes weren't the best for walking and I was glad to get back to the van and enjoy a glass of wine while cooking supper. We are here for two nights, and as tomorrow is Sunday and the buses, as in the UK, are infrequent then, we will drive to the Park & Ride and get the tram from there. The Christmas Markets are all open on a Sunday; I expect they will be very crowded, but that is all part of the fun. Also, it is St Nicholas Day....

2015 Christmas Trip, Day 1

There is no point in having a motor home if you don't use it. And the Swan Whisperer has changed the batteries, and put LED lights in instead of the old incandescent or fluorescent ones, so we are a lot more comfortable and can have light and heat in the evenings. 

So for what will probably be our last trip of 2015, we have decided to go to the Christmas Markets in Cologne. We couldn't set off last night as I was speaking at an event at the British Library and didn't get home until after 9, so we got up early this morning and crossed at about 10:30 or thereabouts. It said ominously that there were "Perturbations du Service", but if there were, they did not affect us. 

Our first stop was at the Auchan near Dunkerque for food, and then we had lunch before setting off. We told the Satnav to take us to Aachen, reckoning we could change plans en route, and it said there were bad hold-ups crossing the border that way and took us round via Lille, instead, also slow, and queues to come back into France. But they didn't ask to see our passports or anything, just waved us through. 

I then fell asleep, after two bad nights not surprising, and when I woke up, the Swan Whisperer suggested we park up by the Strépy-Thieux canal lift, which we both love, so we did.  And had a cup of tea and knitted and read (I knitted, the Swan Whisperer didn't, I should clarify) until time for supper. So lovely not to have to go to bed and read by torchlight!  And I can charge my phone overnight, too.  The heater is very efficient, it is almost too hot!

Shakedown Cruise

We finally took delivery of our new motorhome on Friday of last week, which was a pain as we should have gone to get it on Tuesday but "it wasn't ready".  So all our plans had to change, but we were eventually ready to set off on Saturday afternoon.  In the interim, I had made the discovery that it is easier to put the duvets in their covers before you take them out to the van!

We ended up spending the first night outside the Daughter's home in east London!  We did try to book into the Lee Valley campsite, but couldn't get an answer from them, and by the time we had filled it with water, installed the gas, discovered how to get hot water, brought the loo into use, and so on, we were exhausted.  So we pulled all the curtains and clambered into what proved to be an incredibly comfortable bed!

We could, of course, have showered in comfort in the Daughter's bathroom, but did she really think we would, the first morning?  Unfortunately, we had set the thermostat to 60 to flush out any lurking bugs, and because it took some fiddling about, we ran out of hot water half-way through my shower.  I was not impressed!  I have now ordered - and received - the kind of shower head which only actually runs the water when you press your thumb on it, so that turning it off while you lather up doesn't mean more fiddling around with the temperature.

The Boys appeared just as I was trying to make toast and eggs - and setting off the smoke alarm, which is positioned just above the door, rather too near the stove - and so we invited them to breakfast.  They sat and ate bread and honey and bananas (and then went back indoors and ate a huge bowl of cereal each) and drank milk, thoroughly enjoying the experience.

After washing up and making sure we had remembered to do all the things - plugs in the shower, wash-basin and sink to prevent nasty smells from the grey water tank, gas switched off, stool inside the van, fridge switched to 12 volt power - we set off to East Anglia to my sister's B&B, where we were to spend the next 24 hours.  My sister had invited us to lunch, and we spent the afternoon and evening with her and her family, watching the climax of the Tour de France and inspecting their delightful garden.  All the vegetables at lunch had been home-grown, and were absolutely delicious.

After dinner, we retired to the van for the night, but I must admit that I did take my sister up on her kind offer of a shower in comfort the next morning!  She runs a B&B, and the room most suitable for disabled guests is just inside the front door, so we were able to use that.  We also had a wonderful cooked breakfast before we headed off.  I usually make myself an egg of some kind, but this was egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes; all the ingredients of a "proper" Full English.

We had decided to go to a "proper" campsite for our final night, and had booked into a Caravan Club site in the Broads, near Ludham Bridge.  We stopped off at a camping accessories shop my sister knew of, but were not very impressed - they were incredibly expensive!  But we did buy a 10 metre EHU cable (this won't necessarily be long enough, but they suggest buying two shorter cables rather than one long one; we have a further 14 metres on order from Amazon), and were able to hook up to mains electricity for the first time.  And cook our first main meal in the van. 

The old camping saucepans have turned out to be very old indeed, and rather too thin, so we are going to replace them.  My "not-bubble" caught rather badly, alas, and the sausages did a bit, too.  I also have a tiny saucepan for boiling milk for the SW's coffee, and a tiny frying-pan for my egg, and my mother has since given me another small saucepan, which may or may not live in the van - we do have plenty of storage space; more, I think, than in our new kitchen!  But things rattle when on the move.... that's another reason for replacing our old camp saucepans, as the strap has perished, so they rattle terribly!  I shall go down to Halford's when I get a moment to replace them.

However it was all very good, and followed by an apple pie from Tesco's that had been looking at us when we went into the branch near Norwich to get milk....  Mind you, after lunch (bread and spreads), I did think a fruit cake would have been a plan!  Certainly if and when we go off for a longer trip than overnight, I shall make one.

In the morning we again showered in the van - I didn't wash my hair, and hoped it wouldn't be running over with small animal life by the end of the day - and took the opportunity to empty the loo and the grey water tank and so on.  And then we drove down to Sussex, crossing the Dartford Bridge, which we'd not done before (a gorgeous bridge in an unlovely area!)

and round rather a lot of the M25.  We let the Satnav direct us and it took us a way we hadn't expected, down the M23, but then coming off at Pease Pottage and joining the A24 at Broadbridge Heath (so we stopped off at the Tesco's there and bought more milk and some cookies as we planned to invite my parents to tea; I also bought some new cutlery for the van, as our old set, again I think dating back to our tenting days, felt cheap and nasty and didn't add to the eating experience.

We arrived in Sussex and showed my parents all around the van; they were very impressed, although my mother said bags her not sleep on the inside of the bed  because of needing to get up in the night!  We gave them a cup of tea, and put the stuff I have been rescuing from their house move (we've all been squirreling stuff, often childhood treasures) tidily in the van to stay there until we can come down in the car to collect it. 

You know what - this is going to be wonderful!  It is blissfully comfortable, and we will work out how best to live in it.  Our first major trip isn't until October, when we will be away for nearly three weeks.....

Best-laid plans....

It was going to be such a lovely weekend!  The Swan Whisperer's niece was getting married on Valentine's Day, and her father (one of the SW's three younger brothers) turned 60 on the Monday, so there was a massive family celebration all weekend.  Then we were going to visit the Titanic exhibition in Belfast before meeting a friend for lunch and our flight home on Tuesday afternoon.

It started so well.  We flew from London City, which we had not done before, and although the flight was very slightly late, we were able to pick up the hire car and drive to the b&b we had booked in Portrush.  The satnav took us slightly round the houses, but not unpleasantly so, and we arrived about 15 minutes before the SW's youngest brother whose wife, sadly, had felt too unwell to join us at the weekend.  Once he arrived, we went out for dinner - I'd done some research, and found a restaurant that sounded, and proved to be, very  nice.

Sadly, in the small hours of the morning what I'd thought to be merely digestive discomfort from having eaten rather too much turned into something rather more ominous, and I was in for a bout of the gastric flu that's going round.  There was to be no wedding for me - I was lying in bed wondering how to keep down a sip of water when the vows were being exchanged!  The SW went, of course, and there were plenty of pictures on Facebook, but so not the same.....

I was still in bed on Sunday, wondering whether I'd ever be able to eat anything again.  My daughter texted me to say her husband had now gone down with it and they'd had a nightmare journey home.  The SW spent the afternoon with his family, and they all seem to have had a pleasant, fairly quiet day.  But on Monday morning it was his turn to feel rotten, and although he took me to the party for his brother, he discovered the hard way that he had reached the stage of not being able to keep fluids down.... fortunately, once this had happened he felt a bit better, and was able to sit and watch the rest of us eat with equanimity.  I didn't eat more than a bite or two, but enjoyed seeing my in-laws and catching up with their news.

The people at the b&b were very kind and let him sleep in his youngest brother's still unmade-up room (youngest brother having moved on by then), and he felt much better in the morning.  As did I, although neither of us had much energy.  I enjoyed a boiled egg with my breakfast, but he stuck with toast.  We were told we didn't at all have to leave at 11:00, but to stay on as long as we liked.  We decided, though, that the Titanic would be pushing it, and we probably ought not to go into public more than we could help, anyway, so we decided to drive to the airport along the causeway coastal route, which is a scenic route, and absolutely beautiful.  We stopped in Cushendun and had a short walk exploring the minuscule harbour and wondering where a track that went under a cliff went to.  One could, if one had had keys to the gates, obviously drive through, although from and to where was unclear. 

Once you "turn the corner" around the north-east corner of the island, the Irish sea is a lot less rough than the Atlantic!  The road quite literally follows the seashore for miles, through little town after little town, mostly deserted in mid-February (I should not care to do this drive in mid-July!) down to Larne.  We didn't go into Larne, as you can never see anything at ports, they are always disappointing because of the security.  The SW said he'd never been to Carrickfergus, which is the next town on from Larne, so we went there (it was nothing very special, but quite pretty) and then it was straight past Belfast and up to the big Tesco near the airport to fill up with petrol before returning the hire car.

We had about an hour to wait for our flight home, rather annoyed at having to go home just as we felt better!  And I had bought a new dress specially for the wedding..... fortunately there is another family party in a few weeks, and I can wear it there.  But so not the weekend we'd planned!

Winter Break, Wednesday

We had - no, I had - a bit of a disappointment on Tuesday evening with our dinner.  Started with half a dozen snails - difficult to go wrong with those, and they were delicious.  But I had chosen paupiettes de volaille with langoustines to follow, and "bland" doesn't even begin to describe it.  Tasted of absolutely nothing, soaked in a floury pink sauce that also tasted of nothing.  The Swan Whisperer had ordered magret de canard sauce groseilles, which he said was delicious, and I wished I'd ordered that!  Then he'd ordered profiterolles, which I think I would have found too much, although they did look good.  I'd ordered the cheeseboard, which was Pont l'Eveque, Camembert and Livarot - just what we'd been watching made earlier in the day!  Which would have been gorgeous, but, alas, they had only just been taken out of the fridge.  So when nobody was looking, I wrapped them in my napkin and took them home to enjoy the following evening.

I think, on balance, that much as I love France, I prefer a country where it is light by 8:00 am, even if it is dark by 4:00 pm.  In France, because they are an hour ahead, but with almost no geographical displacement (Caen, where we were, is almost directly due south of Worthing), it stays light until about 5:00 pm, but of course it doesn't even begin to get light until about 09:00. 

We were hoping to get away by then, and it wasn't much later that we had packed our bags, loaded the car (airing it first, as it stunk of Livarot) and headed off.  As we had plenty of time, we decided to drive cross-country at first, visiting first of all Deauville/Trouville (which I always link with wealthy Brits in the 1930s flying themselves over and going to the casino or the races), and then to Honfleur, which we remembered as a very pretty little harbour, which it was. 

But then it was time for some serious motoring.  I finally worked out how to tell the Satnav to filter its Points of Interest, and to find us a supermarket near Abbeville, which is where we decided to do our shopping, and we set off, over the Pont de Normandie

and up the motorway to Abbeville, where the Satnav found us a Hyper-U and we did our shopping and had some lunch.  Although I had meant to buy some céléris rapés, and a couple of ready-meals for tonight, but forgot.  Got everything else we wanted, I think.  And then on to Calais, up a very empty motorway, and we decided to drive quickly round the town, rather disappointed that it wasn't dark enough to enjoy Calais' renowned Christmas lights (they make Oxford Street look distinctly dull), and then back to the Eurotunnel terminal.  The M20 made a stark contrast with the A28 - no danger of anybody feeling sleepy while driving on that.  We made it home just before 7:00 pm, and got unpacked and so on.   It was a good break, and I should have enjoyed prolonging it a couple of days, but being home and with my grandsons is good, too.

Winter break, Tuesday

A much better night's sleep, but I still have very little energy. We wanted to visit the Christmas markets this morning, and the SW was confident he had parked really near, but it seemed like miles. It was too near breakfast for gluehwein, alas, although they were selling it, and not all stalls were open. We had a potter round those that were, and bought one or two things. Then we went back down towards the car, but wanted to call in at the cathedral where William the Conqueror was buried, next to the town hall

so we found the entrance and went in. First thing we saw was the wonderful Christmas crib. The French do cribs so much better than we do. This one, correctly, had no Baby Jesus and no Wise Men as yet, but it was still lovely:

After looking round the Cathedral seeing the Conquerors tomb,

and, in my case, sitting quietly in front of the Blessed Sacrament for awhile, we came out and walked back to the car, passing the ruined church of St-Etienne, 

destroyed by British soldiers including, I have a horrible feeling, my father, who was certainly here or hereabouts in 1944

Then we drove up to and round the Castle, and up to the Memorial, but it was getting late and there was nowhere to park, so we came back to the hotel, bought fresh supplies in Monoprix, and had lunch. 

In the afternoon, we drove cross-country to Livarot, and found a factory that made the eponymous cheese, also Camembert and Pont L'Eveque. They didn't lay on a factory tour, as such, but you could wander round and there were films and information panels telling you about the dairy herds that produced the milk, mostly Normande  cattle, and then showing you how they made the various cheeses - and you could peep through windows to watch them being made, wrapped, etc. Fascinating and a great gift shop, including local court, so we stocked up. Then a wonderful drive to Falaise cross-country, through the village of Camembert (which also had a museum, but we didn't stop there as we were cheesed out (though not in any way cheesed off!))  

Falaise was lovely, although not much difference between its castle and the one in Caen that I could see.  And so back to Caen, and my insides are telling me it's supper time. 

Winter break, Monday

It is, I feel, just as well that I booked us a twin room, since we kept waking each other up by snoring, and I'm as glad we don't also wake each other up every time the other turns over! Mind you, I was waking myself up with my snoring....

But the hotel breakfast is pretty good. I'm a bit off coffee, but you can have fresh-squeezed orange juice - there is a clever machine that you feed whole oranges in one end and juice comes out the other. I have had at least two glasses both mornings so far.

So we were not out and about very early this morning, either! We had decided to go to Mont St Michel, about 116 km away.  The Satnav kept calling it Saint (pronounced the English way) Mitchell, which was rather irritating of it, but the computer voice does at least give road names and numbers so it is worth the irritation.

I hadn't been too sure what to expect, but it was incredibly impressive, both from a distance and close up. You have to park about a mile away, but there is a shuttle bus that takes you to within 500 metres of the village, with a very cold wind blowing in our faces.

 Once in the village, though, we were sheltered from the worst of the weather, and wandered round the do-the-tourist shops. I bought a pair of gloves, which I needed as I only had one glove with me, and later a slice of kouign amann to have as part of our lunch. When we got to the top of the street bit, the SW went on up the steps and I went back to the shuttle bus.

At which point, of course, the heavens opened and I got soaked to the skin! And frozen. At least the wind was behind me. So I sat on the bus, but the SW, who had not, after all, gone much further, joined me before it set off. He had been sheltered from the worst of the brief storm, and I was reminded of Augustus Toplady, who is said to have sheltered from just such a storm in the cleft of a rock, and then to have written that great hymn "Rock of ages, cleft for me".

After which pious thought, we decided to go on to St Malo, which is not very far away and was gorgeous. We told the Satnav to take us to the town centre, and I'm so glad we did, as this turned out to be in the old, walled city. We found a parking space, and then went in search of loos, but I decided a cup of tea would be welcome and we could use the facilities in the cafe, so we did, and it was! I finally dried and thawed out.  Then we wandered on, and found a place where we could look out over the beach.

We discovered, quite by chance, that we were almost back at the car - how did that happen? - and it was time to head back to the hotel, which we did, stopping for petrol and later for a leg-stretch. I then had time to potter round the shopping centre - not very exciting - and to buy some stuff for this sore throat, which seems to be helping.  

We ate in Hippopotamus, which was ok, I suppose. Not my favourite, but the SW likes it. And when we came back, there was an ancient Robin Hood film with Errol Flynn on, so we watched that, and now it's bedtime. 

Winter Break, Sunday

Unfortunately, although I seem to be successfully staving off a cold, a gang of little men appear to have been slashing at my throat with razor blades, which kept me awake half the night, although a cup of tea and an ibuprofen did help. But I felt like a wet dishrag, and after breakfast I went back to bed and slept most of the morning while the SW explored the town.  Lunch was a piece of fruitcake, after which we set off through the rain to Bayeux, to see the eponymous tapestry, which was marvellous. I'm so glad I've seen it in the flesh - I have seen pictures of it, of course, and my father has a book of it that he bought when he saw it a few years ago.  But the real thing has an impact unlike anything else.  There is a fascinating museum, too, not just about the tapestry, but also about the way life changed in Norman England after the Conquest. And a short film about the events it depicts. Brilliant. And worth the journey, quite definitely.

After this, we drove on up to Arromanches where the remains of the Mulbrrry harbour are all too plainly visible off-shore,

and then along the coast for a bit until it got too dark, whereupon we drove back to the hotel, and after a cup of tea, went out to a "Relais d'Alsace" restaurant, where we ate far too much choucroute, and I had a couple of scoops of sorbet and the SW had a chocolate thing, which I think has given him indigestion.  And an early night. I shall take an ibuprofen, and hope to sleep a bit better.

Winter break, Saturday

We haven't had a holiday since Oberstdorf, and the Swan Whisperer had plenty of leave days to use up, so here we are in Caen for a few days.  We set off from home at 8:25 this morning, only ten minutes later than planned, and had a fairly uneventful drive to Folkestone, getting used to our new SatNav, which is very clever and knows street names, but its French accent is appalling!

We got to Folkestone in plenty of time, but couldn't get on an earlier Shuttle as it was very busy - an awful lot of people appeared to be going on a pre-Christmas booze-cruise. And something went wrong - I don't know what - but we were sat in the holding bays for ages, and didn't actually get off until 11:20, 30 minutes later than scheduled. Not impressed!  However, it couldn't be helped.

Our first stop was at the Aire de la  Baie de Somme, which is a cut above your average service area, although the food was mediocre, and far too much. I didn't even try to finish my potato, onion and cream pie, which I think was supposed to have bacon in it, but maybe one lardon to a pound of spuds. Plus overcooked green beans (which I prefer to the raw ones we get in the UK), and carrots.  But then I had cheese, which was lovely -Roquefort, and a wonderfully ripe Camembert.

The thing I like about the Baie de Somme is the ducks.

And we weren't sure whether these were young coot or young moorhen:

Then we set off again, but needed petrol so came off the motorway at a pace called Totes, where there was a most peculiar Intermarché, which appeared not to sell essential things like coffee and tinned peas, but only fresh and frozen stuff, and non-food items. Luckily we only wanted fresh stuff for a picnic in our hotel room.

Back on the motorway and over the Pont de Normandie and on towards Caen, stopping once more for the SW to have a breath of air, and apart from trouble parking, we arrived safely at the hotel. And have settled in and eaten, and I am in bed, although not ready to snuggle down yet.

One new thing this holiday is that we have invested in a Liber-T pass, now available for British cars, which is wonderful - you just drive straight through the toll booths. It beeps to tell you it's read it, and then the barrier goes up. The T-only lanes barely slow you down.  It takes it out of your bank account by direct debit, and send you an invoice when you get home again.

A weekend in Weymouth

The Swan Whisperer renewed his annual Gold Card (season ticket, basically) at Clapham Junction station this year instead of, as he normally does, at Redhill.  And, to his delight, South West Trains sent him a reward of 6 free train tickets, each of which could be used for a day's travel at weekends (including Fridays) on South West Trains.

So as we have a major wedding anniversary on Monday, we thought we would treat ourselves to a weekend away.  And settled on Weymouth, as neither of us had ever been there, and I booked us into the Riviera Hotel.  I thought it would either be delightful or disastrous....

It's a long train journey down to Weymouth, nearly 3 hours, so we set off early afternoon, and arrived shortly after 6:00 pm.  The room absolutely stank of damp and mildew, and the door didn't fit very well.  I hadn't worked out how to use the key by the time it was time to leave!  And it was either too cold or too hot until we found the radiator thermostat (which helped get rid of the smell by the second day).  No toiletries were provided, although they did give us a handful to take back to the room when we complained. And quite the worst is that there were no individual switches for the reading-lights - really, why do they think people are going to want to snuggle down at the same time?  One switch controlled both, and is why I've given the hotel such a scathing review on TripAdvisor.

We had decided to eat in the hotel restaurant because the hotel itself is quite a long way out of town, but we wished we hadn't bothered - the food was mediocre and the service appalling.  I was quite ready to go back to London next morning!

However, after a bad night's sleep because I was so cold, we discovered that the towels they provided were huge and luxurious, which is always nice, and the breakfast was delicious, copious, and adequately staffed!  So we felt different.

We went out after breakfast and walked along the beach into Weymouth, which was a lovely walk on a very windy day.  Usually nothing is sadder than a seaside resort out of season, but the sea was actually full of kite-surfers, which were great fun to watch.  There were a couple of sailboarders, too, by midday, but most people were doing kite-surfing and having enormous fun.  We stopped in a random café for a cup of surprisingly good (slightly weak!) coffee and a sit out of the wind.  Then we walked on, and found the shopping drag (I needed tissues after all that wind!), and pottered around for a bit, until we found a café to have lunch, which was a crab and salad sandwich which would have been nicer if thicker, and if the bread hadn't sat out for half an hour too long!  But it was good.

Then we found a bus back to the hotel, which, improbably, turned out to be free!  And then we explored the swimming-pool and sauna/steam room complex, which was very good.  To have been perfect, they should have provided shampoo, but they did provide more of those lovely big towels.

There was no way we were going to eat in the restaurant again, so we walked half-way back into town, up a huge hill and down again, to a pub we'd noticed en route that advertised a carvery, which was very popular and deservedly so.  Very good food!  But I was exhausted by then and insisted on a taxi back to the hotel!  They had changed the towels when they did the room, despite our having hung them up, so I used the clean bath-sheet as an extra blanket and was warmer.

This morning, after another delicious breakfast, we decided not to linger as there was a possibility of seeing my parents (which didn't happen as the party they'd come to Town for finished late), and we knew there were engineering works.  So we caught the 9.15 bus into town, marvelling at how different the sea looked now the wind had dropped, and there was just time to buy a paper before the train arrived.  We had to change at Bournemouth on to a rail replacement bus for a rather pleasant drive through the New Forest to Southampton Airport Parkway, where we caught a train to London, and thus home.  I slept most of the way on the trains and then again when we got home.... An early night tonight and I might just have caught up with myself!

Sunday and Monday

We had ordered breakfast for 09:00 on Sunday morning, so that we could be away in good time, and were away before 10:00.  We needed petrol, but Madame in the hotel didn't seem to know about any 24-hour stations at supermarkets (French petrol is far, far cheaper in the supermarkets than anywhere else, even a service station across the road from the supermarket), but said there was one open on our way out, so we filled up there (and of course found a plethora of supermarkets on our way out of town, so typical).

We were on our way to a little town called Lezay, where we were to meet a very old friend - in the sense that I have known her for over 40 years, not that she is particularly elderly - who lives in that area, and had recommended this restaurant called l'Assiette for lunch.  We had plenty of time so decided to drive on the N and D roads, which are, of course, a lot slower, but arguably more interesting - although on the outskirts of towns one does get a little bored of the endless supermarkets and "zones industrielles" lining the roads, and the satnav's endless instructions to "Cross the Roundabout; 2nd exit".  However, we also went through some beautiful countryside on what were archetypal - or did we mean stereotypical, we couldn't decide - French roads, very straight with trees either side.

We arrived at the restaurant shortly after our friend, and after a good meal we went back to hers, where we were spending the night.  We took the dog out for a walk, rejoicing in the lighter evenings, France being an hour later than we are (although it doesn't try to get light before 08:00, which must be thoroughly depressing when you have to go to work in the dark for three months of the year).  And watched a bit of British television, and ate supper, and then talked and talked and talked until the wee small hours, just as we had done forty-odd years ago!

All too soon we had to leave next morning.  The hotel had very kindly telephoned us to say that the Swan Whisperer had left his alarm clock behind, so we had to call in there en route.  We also wanted to go back a slightly cheaper route than we had come, which had cost the best part of €50 in motorway tolls, so we went via Chartres, or the outskirts thereof, which is arguably slightly slower, but very much cheaper as there is little or no toll motorway, but quite a lot of dual carriageway.

The journey seemed, to me, practically endless!  We ended up with plenty of time to shop in Auchan and then a quick bite to eat in Buffalo Grill before getting our planned Shuttle home, but that last two hours.... oh dear.... and I wasn't even driving!  I love to see my friend, and if we go to Tours again it does seem silly not to go and see her, when she is only a couple of hours away, but it does make for a very, very long day's driving home.

Long Day

The competition started at 08:00, but as we were not involved in the first session, we ordered breakfast for 8.15, and didn't get to the rink until 09:00. To find, of course, that things were running slightly late, but they always do, and the delay wasn't bad. We also found that we were the only foreigners, as the Austrian couple who had planned to give the Masters skates a run for their money had withdrawn.

The Swan Whisperer was skating after the break, doing Bronze solo dances. We realised when he was warming up the 14-step that he was fairly obviously the weakest skater in the group, and he duly came 5th out of 5. However, his European was good, for him, and another skater had a disaster trying to make it one lobe instead of the two everybody else had sensibly settled for. So the SW was Not Last, which, considering he is at least 20 years older than any of his competition, was very gratifying.

Lunch was provided at the rink, and after it we went back to the hotel for a break. I fell asleep and then had indigestion caused by Too Much Cheese at lunch (well there was a fantastic cheeseboard), so stayed in while the SW went for a walk. Finally it was time to go back to the rink and get ready to skate out free dance.

We already knew we had no competition, but we wanted to see what sort of marks we would get, with a view to skating at Oberstdorf if we scored about 8 or thereabouts, which is normal for us. The ice was hard and fast, and I found it scary and didn't think we skated that will. We fluffed the spin, and I rushed the highlight after the step sequence, and didn't even try to be on one foot while the SW did his spiral. So imagine our delight when the scored were announced - not the 5 or 6 I thought it deserved, not even 8 or - wildest dreams 10 - but 14·32! A personal best by a mile! Oberstdorf, here we come!

After that, there was (a stiff drink and) a lot of hanging about until the presentations, after which we got changed and went to find a restaurant that would do us a meal after 10:00 pm, and fortunately there was one just found the corner from the hotel. Not exactly cheap, but seriously worth it - I had the most delicious fish, and a beer. And so back to the hotel, and bed. And trying to wind down from an exhausting day.

First trip of 2014, Day One

I'm sure I've already used the heading "A weekend in France" and if I have not, I might want it again. So today was the start of our long weekend mini-break to compete at the Coupe de Druides, which this year is dance-only and is being held in Tours.

This meant getting up early to leave by shortly after 7:00 am, not helped by an attack of cystitis, fortunately not severe, but enough to wake me several times in the night. We made our booked crossing, which always feels slightly like a failure, as it feels we've won if we get on an earlier one. But we had 20 minutes to wait in the terminal, enough to buy a new road atlas and for me to discover where I should have bought a new travel hairdryer - the one I bought on Amazon is practically full-size.

Smooth journey, stopping three times, and arriving at the hotel about 6:00 on. Hotel is really lovely, just the kind of place I like. Very warm welcome, large, comfortable beds, and somehow very French. Also cheap!

After a cup of tea (not provided but I brought my trusty travel kettle), we went out for a walk and found the rink, and then looked for a restaurant. Found a very nice one called L'Entracte, not far from the hotel, and had a delicious, if meat-heavy, meal.
Then wandered back to the hotel and a relatively early night.

Overnight booze-cruise

As we hadn't been to France yet this year, we had run out of all sorts of things that we normally buy there, either because they are cheaper (coffee, wine) or difficult/imposisble to get here.  And when I discovered that I could use my Tesco vouchers to get up to £30 off a Shuttle crossing, it was a bit of a no-brainer.  You can stay overnight for the same price as a day-return, so we decided to do that and have a mini-break.

Due entirely to my own innumeracy, we left slightly later than we meant.  The drive was not very pleasant, as it had been raining, and then the sun came out, which was in exactly the wrong place as it dazzled up from the wet road, and cars and lorries were sending up clouds of spray and the sun was catching them, too.  We were thankful when it went behind a cloud again!  We just made it to the crossing we were booked on - no time to go into the terminal, or even to stop in the loading queue!  The train left earlier than we expected and we arrived in France at about 11:45 local time.

First stop was at the garage just off the exit, as we wanted to buy yet another holder for our satnav, the one that the Swan Whisperer bought to replace the broken original had, in its turn, broken on our way to Folkestone (yes, we do know the way; the satnav in this instance is mainly for traffic purposes - it knows when there is a mega hold-up and will send you round a quicker way, if possible).  That  duly bought, plus coffee, we set off cross-country to St-Omer, where we found a random restaurant to have lunch in.  The SW had pork, chips and salad, and I had an omelette with chips and salad - massive amounts of chips and almost no salad, but never mind!

We drove to Arras and parked in the town square, which was very beautiful.  It was, I think, rebuilt after the first war, but not sure what was destroyed in the 2nd.  We were beginning to need petrol, so I cleverly programmed the Satnav to take us to a petrol station in a shopping centre en route to our hotel - last time I'd asked it where the nearest petrol station was, it had taken us to one in the opposite direction to where we had wanted to go, which was totally my fault, not its.  But I thought there must be a way, and there is - you click on "Browse maps", and then "Find" and one of the options is POI en route, so you click on that to find petrol or hotels or whatever that you want.  It also cleverly tells you how much of a detour, if any, it is, and then you click on "Navigate to" and it takes you there!

The hotel, however, turned out to have been a mistake.  It was a Campanile - we had so loved the one we stayed at in Luxembourg last year, we thought it would be nice to stay in one again, and given the price I was able to get, it was just about worth it.  But we were greeted by a very unfriendly young man at the check-in, who grunted something in French - I can usually follow well enough, but he mumbled!  Eventually realised that the reception and restaurant were in a separate building from the rest of the hotel, which was a kind of barrack-block across the car park. 

There was a kettle, which was nice, but no tea-bags, only sachets of instant coffee and tisanes of various kinds, and disposable cups so you could only use them once.  Fortunately I had brought my own stash of teabags and our travel cups!  In the bathroom there were no hand-towels, and nowhere to put your used towels - there was one hook, but it was obscured by the notice telling you to hang up your towels if you wanted to re-use them.  There was no hair-dryer, either.  There were no heavy curtains, only net ones and shutters (I hate shutters), and although we were not overlooked, people probably walked past.  And being on the ground floor your couldn't have the window open overnight, either, and I couldn't see if there was air-conditioning or how to make it work.  Not doing that again!

We ate in the hotel restaurant; the starter buffet looked a bit meh, so we ordered the plat du jour, which was blanquette de veau.  Quite nice.  Then we had the dessert buffet, which was lovely, and the SW had coffee. 

Breakfast next morning was good, although I could have wished for a hard-boiled egg with mine. Still, bread and cheese and ham and stuff like that.... not bad! 

We set off at about 09:00 and first went into the centre of Douai, being amused by how very quiet everywhere was once people had gone to work or school or wherever.  The centre was okay, but we didn't linger.  Instead, we drove to Cambrai.

Now, that is a lovely town!  I should have liked to have done more of the tourist-walk they provide (we picked up guides from the tourist-office), but my leg isn't up to much walking.  We did see the old belfry, one of the city gates and the cathedral, though.  The cathedral is not the original cathedral, not built as such, so it is as small as Southwark cathedral.  Apparently the original was torn down during the French revolution!  And the present building was all but destroyed in both wars.  Sigh....

We discovered too late, too late that it is free parking on a Monday morning!  Still, that came in handy when, just as we pulled away, we saw signs for a public loo, so we were able to park again and use it before heading off to Lens.

Lens was a very disappointing town after Cambrai, so we didn't bother to linger but headed to the nearest commercial centre for shopping purposes.  And bought up most of Cora.... which didn't have any harissa or buckwheat flour, so we had to go to Carrefour in Cité Europe to get those, what a hardship!

We had a rather late lunch in the local Flunch (mistake, really, as lunch was obviously Over, and they had very few choices left, although we had a very nice steak), and then it was time to head back to the coast.  As I said, we popped into Carrefour and bought the last few things (and some more wine!).  We had wanted to go to the Tesco there to get some wine, but it had changed hands and is now a fairly posh wine place.

We had half an hour to spare in the Eurotunnel terminal before our shuttle, which we spent eating ice-cream and relaxing, and then home.

But, tragically (well, not really, but sad, anyway) when we got there we found that somehow the rhubarb tart the SW had bought for himself, and the strawberry tarts he'd bought for me, hadn't come with us!  Nor, alas, had the cream cheese.... oh well, don't know what happened, they must have been left at the checkout.  But what a waste, and what a sad ending to a pleasant weekend!

A Weekend in Paris - Sunday

Neither of us wanted to get up on Sunday morning, but we had booked practice ice for 08:30, so we had to!  It felt like an ordinary patch, as I grabbed some coffee from the hotel before we left, and then we were there with bananas, coffee and our music!  Not too many of us on the patch, which was nice, and Hana found out how to use the music, so we were able to have one run-through to the music and then practice bits that weren't working too well.

Then back to the hotel for breakfast, after which the Swan Whisperer went down to the rink to watch the first half-hour of competition, and I stayed in the hotel to bling up and dress.  He then came back and we checked out of the hotel, and went down to the rink.  Emma won her free dance class, deservedly, although she didn't feel she'd skated very well.  We didn't have any opposition, so it was a performance, and despite missing the spin - we can DO that bloody spin, why can't we do it in competition???? - we were gratified with a season's best.   If only we'd got another 1/2 revolution on the spin it might even have been a PB.  Ah well.  The step sequence wasn't called, but they never are at Bronze.  And looking at the video, I am horrified by how wide apart my feet tend to be, and how straight my knees - you can tell how badly I skate compared to the Swan Whisperer, who is very good these days.  But oh dear, quote of the century from him: "It's all that work we do on edges!  You would think a straight line would be faster, but actually, it's faster if you're on an edge!"  It's only taken him eighteen years of skating to learn that..... !

Anyway, after the Silver and Gold free dances, always a treat to watch, it was time for the "Creation", highlight of which was Axel's rendition of "Gangnam-style", which was a hoot!  There were some good performances in the women, too, notably Lisa's air-hostess.

Once everything was over, and we had changed back into street clothes, it was nearly 3:00 pm, and our train wasn't until 19:13, so we went back to the café and had the simply enormous brunch they serve at weekends for €20 a head - coffee and fruit juice and bread and jam or croissant, followed by a huge plate of scrambled eggs with a muffin or bagel, cheese, vegetables, salad, plus either smoked salmon and taramasalata or (our choice) bacon and sausages.  As if that wasn't enough, you then got fruit salad, carrot cake and a chocolate cake - we couldn't face the latter, so the Swan Whisperer wrapped them up and we had them later.

Then we took the Metro into the city centre and sat in the sun on Pont Neuf for about half an hour until the quais underneath reopened to traffic and the peace and quiet was over, whereupon we got a bus from Chatelet up to the Gare du Nord, and it wasn't too early to check in.  Train home not as nice as it could have been due to a stag party coming home - honestly, if they wanted to spend the whole weekend getting and being drunk, as they obviously did, why bother to go to Paris?  They could have done that just as well at home!  Anyway, they were relatively harmless, and I fell asleep so they didn't intrude!  Then an uneventful trip home on the metro and bus.  And unpacking, a bite to eat, and so to bed after a lovely weekend.

I don't think we'll be going away now until our big trip in June, but you never know....