Oberstdorf at last!

... But not before a delicious German breakfast with the Niece, who kindly let us make sandwiches out of the leftovers. Away by 11:00 - actually a little before - and an uneventful, if slow (roadworks) run down to Oberstdorf. We stopped once for a "comfort break" and then came off the motorway at Memmingen for shopping and petrol.  We were lucky, as the first exit to the town was closed, but the second exit was right by a supermarket and a petrol station. And then a straight run.

The apartment is lovely - one big bed-sitting room with bathroom and kitchenette, and a bit of garden. When we had unpacked, we went for an explore to the rink, just too late for the accreditation, which closed at 6:00, but meet some friends. Then accidentally crashed the Canadian team dinner on a hunt for beer, which we have now found. Then back to the apartment for supper and an early night.

Another day, another three countries

Actually, one of the countries was Belgium, where, of course, we were yesterday. We had a good breakfast at the hotel, and were away by 8.45, which was far too early, really. We decided to drive via Luxembourg and Trier. And then across the Hunsrück and down into the Rhine valley to Mannheim.

It would have been a pleasanter drive if it hadn't poured with rain most of the way!  However, by the time we got into the Rhine valley it had cleared up and stayed lovely the rest of the day. We stopped at a services to have lunch as we were far too early to check in to the hotel, and to our joy it was a Marché.  We had been expecting soggy sandwiches, but got rösti and ice-cream!

The hotel is very pleasant, although the WiFi is hopeless so I'm using 3G. We had a cup of tea and relaxed for a bit, and at 5.30 the SW's niece, who lives here, cane to pick us up. We went for a walk round the town,

which has some kind of festival on, and stopped in the park for a beer (lovely!).

Then we headed on, past the Niece's flat to the brewery where she had booked us a table for dinner. I had Zanderfilet with asparagus and new potatoes, and we shared a trial thing of six of their best beers. It were lush!

Then we came back to the hotel on a tram, and trams are always good.  And so to bed. Tomorrow to Oberstdorf at last.

3 Countries, one day

We set off at about 07:30 this morning, stopping off at the Youth Centre to vote, and were away by about ten to eight. A very smooth run to Folkestone, where we were given a place on the 10:20 crossing, which just gave us time to eat our picnic breakfasts before boarding. The Shuttle was as uneventful as always, and then it was off to drive across France, past Lille, and so into Belgium.

We stopped at a random services to eat lunch - again, I had packed a picnic, finishing off what was left in the fridge to do so. Then we drove on, passing, to our delight, our old friend the Strépy-Thieux canal lift, and so on to Namur. The hotel is as nice as ever, but there is no remote control for the TV, and they are saying there is nothing they can do, so I am going to try to get a discount. The Swan Whisperer says not to bother, but....

Anyway, I had a much-needed nap, having slept badly the previous night, and then the SW went for a walk, and I read for a bit.  And we found a very nice Chinese restaurant a few hundred metres away, and he had beef with noodles and I had Thai-style squid, and we shared a bottle of very delicious red wine. Too much, really - he is snoring, and I am not far off!  I did upload a picture of the meal to Facebook, but it hasn't synced, so can't load it here.

Bank Holiday Excursions

Well, you've got to do something, haven't you?  Can't sit at home in front of your computer all day, tempting though that is.  So I looked up Free and Cheap Events on Londonist, and found a variety of options.  There were two which appealed to me - an African Market at Spitalfields, and a Spanish Market on the South Bank.

Discussion ensued, and it was decided we would go to the Spanish Market.  However, this turned out to be a complete bust, as it was packed out - you could hardly move - expensive, and generally nasty.  Many stalls sold tapas - but £2 for 1/4 slice of bread with something on top?  I don't think so!  One could have scarcely lunched for under £10 each, plus drink.... and the stalls that had more sensible helpings of food at sensible prices had queues a mile long.  So we gave up and went into Eat, where we bought pulled pork with coleslaw and rice and I had beer and the SW had orange and mango juice, which he said was very dilute and more like squash.  The food, as he said, was not gourmet but very good!

He wanted to visit the Olympic Park.  I've been there often enough recently to know what it is like, and I did want to go to the African market, so we agreed to go to Liverpool Street together and then separate.  So we walked across the Jubilee Walkway, or whatever it's called beside Hungerford Bridge, and through Charing Cross Station, and on to a no 11, which is, of course, a Boris Bus.  Quite fun to get in through the open platform and use the back stairs, as in the olden days, but when we got off we used the middle stairs and middle door, just like any other bus.  The SW got a train to Stratford, and I walked over to Old Spitalfields and the African Market.  This was much better than the Spanish one, far fewer people - or more room to spread around in, one of the two.  And I bought a lovely African-style trouser suit to wear at my niece's wedding, which I had hoped to be able to do.  So a win all round.

I wished the Swan Whisperer had been with me when I saw this poster:

Lamb and rhubarb being two of his favourite things ever!  Although what they are like together I hate to think (I dislike rhubarb, so wasted on me). A koresh, or khoresh, is apparently a kind of stew.

Then I wandered back to Bishopsgate, stopping off at a Patisserie Valerie for an ice-cream, and caught a 35 home.

Meanwhile the Swan Whisperer had seen all he wanted to of the Olympic Park fairly quickly, so followed the Lee Navigation up to the Lea Valley Ice Rink, and then caught a 56 bus down to Barts Hospital.  I would have caught a 48 to London Bridge, but he didn't know about that one.  And then he wandered around and came home about 45 minutes after I did. 

Bracknell Adult Open 2014

Yesterday was the annual Bracknell Adult Open, and as usual, it was a delightful competition, impeccably run, very efficient, very friendly, and a good time was had by all.

We got up at sparrowfart, and left by 06:30, which means we arrived well before 08:00, but you can't leave for Bracknell any time after 07:00 and hope to get there before 10:00!  The traffic simply doesn't work like that.  So there was plenty of time to watch the solo dancers before we had to skate.

I don't think we skated that badly, and the audience liked it:

The judges, however, did not!  In this country, they do seem to judge you as if you were the Kerrs or Penny and Nick..... thank goodness we get better scores abroad.  Another couple also got really poor scores - less than 1 point better than us - so it didn't mean we were crap and everybody else was fabulous!  Still a lot of work to do before Oberstdorf, though, and not much time in which to do it.

The Swan Whisperer did his free programme, not very well, and got a costume deduction for fancy dress.... which is totally our coach's fault as he insisted.  Never mind, we'll know better for Oberstdorf, and he'll probably skate it better there, too.  He still managed not to be last, which is gratifying.

We left before the end of the competition to avoid the worst of the traffic!  I slept in the car for quite a lot of the way home.  It was a lovely day, and loads of thanks to Nicki and the team for making it a great competition, as always.  And thanks to Colin for shooting the video for us.

Being a transport geek

Over Easter week, TfL has been replacing Pudding Mill Station. The old station was in the way of the Crossrail project, so it had to go. So on Maundy Thursday, which was the last day of operations, I persuaded the Boy that it was a good place for trainspotting, and we went there (and on to the ViewTube to look round and spend pennies. Today, he was at nursery, so I was on my own. I set off from Clapham High Street station and took the Overground as far as Shadwell, where I changed on to the DLR. The first train was heading to Lewisham, so I hopped off at Canary Wharf and did the cross-platform change to a Stratford-bound train. Got off at Pudding Mill Lane, but didn't leave the station - it was the station I wanted to see.

It is, of course, very new and shiny and very dull really! But lovely views of the Olympic Park and of the ArcelorMittal Orbit

When the next train came along, I hopped on, and got off in Stratford. Did a little shopping, which I could have done anywhere really, but while I was there... and then came home on a Greater Anglia train to Liverpool Street and a 35 bus! Geeky, or what? But having been to the old station on the final day of operation, I couldn't not go to the new one on its first. I was interested to note - you can't see it in this picture, but I saw it from the train going home - that they have already taken the rails up! They don't waste time.

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!