Today, it’s more of the same – taking in the local sights and sounds of Seville. Last night, having discovered the benefits of the electric window shutters in our room (they cut out all the light and sound), this morning we discovered the DISADVANTAGES. As we woke in complete darkness, a casual glance at my …
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Category:Holiday
Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 1)
Not surprisingly, after yesterday’s adventure, we slept well. If anything, it was too warm here even with the AC on ‘min’ (never satisfied, that’s us!). Sleepy Seville A lazy breakfast in the Hotel just after 9 was the first order of the day. It was a good restaurant with a wide variety of brekky items …
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Costello Curry
We got together at ours tonight with our good friends, the Costellos – Trish, John, Sean, Conor and Conor’s girlfriend Shantalle. No special reason except a perfect opportunity for one of our legendary Curry feasts! Ann excelled with three different curries – Cod, Lamb and Chicken, whilst my contribution was a much simpler (and always …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 6) – Final Day
It’s our last full day here today in Cider Country – and there’s a storm a-comin’! The local forecast paints a very (very) wet picture of this area JUST after lunch. So, with welly weather in mind, we’re going to cram in TWO properties before the wet stuff hits us. On a more positive note …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 5) – Birthday Boy!
Well, here we are – In Somerset for my 61st. It was good to wake up and (when I eventually got a signal) to see all the good wishes via social media. I think for the first time, there were more ‘happy birthdays’ via the ‘interweb’ than by traditional cards. The main event for today …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 4)
First job of the day, was to ask NT to retrieve the monkeys (the brass ones) from all the rooms and sort out the complete lack of hot water. We managed to get through to them on the phone, but they were a bit lack-lustre, and even by the time we got home, we weren’t …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 3)
Today is a cultural marathon, where we’ve planned to take in the following locations. In fact, we squeezed in an extra one, so read on, loyal reader… Muchelney Abbey Somerton Lytes Cary The Royal Naval Fleet Air-Arm Museum They’re all fairly local to here, so we’re not planning to drive further than about half-an-hour from …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 2)
A slightly later start to the day as we realised that the travel clock we use for holidays was an hour behind the rest of the UK. I suspect it wasn’t changed the last time the clocks went forward. No matter, our mission for today is quite simple! – drive to Honiton and then grab …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Day 1)
After a good night’s sleep and leaving the laptop on overnight to download the photos we’d taken yesterday, I discovered that the router was still at it, having spent all night downloading just TWO! (shown below). For the biggest router I’ve ever seen in my life, it certainly lacked speed! After a hearty breakfast, we …
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Barrington Court – Arrival
Ahh, what a quaint property! No mobile signal and almost non-existent wi-fi (in spite of having the dwelling’s router right next to me). This week looks like it’s going to be fun attempting to post blogs! Sorry reader! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – …
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Holiday: National Trust’s ‘Strode House’ (Arrival)
Barrington Court Estate (Click on the image for a larger view) So, here we are for the next week, about three hours from home at the National Trust’s ‘Barrington Court’ estate in Yeovil – an empty Tudor manor house, beautifully restored in the 1920s with some rather posh accommodation nearby called ‘Strode House’. But first, …
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80-70-40!
We were on holiday when Chris and Pete had a Party to celebrate Pete’s 80th, Chris’s, 70th and them both being married (to each other!) for 40 years! Quite a milestone!, so it was good that we could invite them over to ours for a celebratory meal. As always, Ann worked her socks off in …
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Return to The Old Victoria
Another day and another Summer’s evening in a Pub! This time, it was to meet up with our friends, Richard and Pauline – returning to The Old Victoria in Burton Latimer. The food and service was, as usual, excellent!I have a feeling that my “£1-a-Day” event is going to be a lot tougher this year! …
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Belcanto Concert
A very pleasant evening tonight in the company of Belcanto – the choir that Valerie belongs to. Tonight was the launch of their debut CD at the Citadel in town where they performed a number of tracks from the Album. As a bonus we also enjoyed solo performances from Susannah Sturman on violin, and Edward …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 5: Bye-bye Vancouver!
Weather permitting, it’s Queen Elizabeth Park (directions HERE) and Vancouver’s Botanical Gardens (directions HERE) before we close the suitcases on Canada for good this time round, and fly home. As things turned out the weather was much better than the forecast above showed – perfect for our last day here! It was a short SkyTrain …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 4: Last Full Day in Vancouver
A lazy start to the day – we couldn’t even be bothered to walk downstairs for brekky! An excellent spread! Earl Grey Tea, Coffee, Waffles, Banana Pancakes – all with extra berries (and fat-free too!)…. Maybe!The weather looks a lot better today, so we’re off south to the town of Steveston using a mixture of …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 3: Return to Vancouver
Well, the weather is certainly better than yesterday, but apparently nowhere near as hot as home – Kettering is up in the the high 20s/low 30s at the moment!!What to do? Fly home early? Maybe not!Actually, as things turned out, neither of us felt ‘100%’ today and we didn’t get much sleep. We therefore decided …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 2: Return to Vancouver
The weather is not looking so good, so we’ll probably stay fairly local today. On a more positive note, our forced re-location to Vancouver probably means that the roads are now much safer without me in Whistler!Bye-bye Room 1335! After a good night’s sleep thanks to the Fairmount Hotel’s bed (about half the size of …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 1: Was Whistler now Vancouver!
Suitcases – check… Passports – check… Mobile phone – check… Laptop – check… Guide Books – checkDriving Licence – err… In spite of planning every stage of this holiday to within an inch of its life, we overlooked packing my Driving Licence. So, after landing at Vancouver International Airport with the plan of picking-up our …
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24 hours in Anchorage
Well, not quite 24 hours, but almost! I wasn’t expecting to post again until we got to Whistler, but the weather and various locations along the way today made it a great opportunity for some extra photos. We got off the Ship in record time for exiting a Cruise and were soon sitting in the …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 7: Hubbard Glacier
This is probably THE event of the Cruise – a visit to the Hubbard Glacier. It’s the largest tidewater glacier on the North American continent – and LARGE is the key feature! 11000 feet above sea level, 6 miles wide and 76 miles in length – that’s a big chunk of ice! According to the …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 6: Skagway
Well, here we are, 100 miles north of yesterday’s soggy visit to Juneau, the capital – we’re now in Skagway, home to just 1000 locals. This town sees almost a million visitors a year and became the largest city in Alaska once gold had been discovered in the Yukon back in the 1890s. 7am: History …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 5: Alaska’s Capital – Juneau
The short overnight sailing meant we were in Juneau in good time, docking by the time we woke up. Compared to yesterday’s ‘return to the wilderness’, this place is sophisticated – cars, buildings… and people! (and hopefully, no bears!) On the stroke of 7am, the captain announced we’d been ‘cleared’ – and by 7.01, hoards …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 4: Icy Strait Point, Alaska
Today the Ship docked at Icy Strait Point. By air, it’s about 50 miles west of the capital, Juneau, 60 miles north of Sitka, with Hoonah the nearest city. This isn’t your normal cruise destination as the landing area is completely man-made where many of the buildings have only been built in the past few …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 3: Ketchikan, Alaska
We arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska around 7a.m. – and a cool 10 degrees! There were two other Cruise Ships also moored alongside us – and the town was clearly ready for the expected increase in trade with their shop doors wide open and the vendors offering plenty of words of encouragement to sample their wares! …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 2: Alaska Itinerary
We’re all at sea today, so that gives us plenty of time to get our head around the itinerary for Alaska. Sunday (tomorrow): Ketchikan (bottom right on the map) Monday: Icy Strait Point (not shown, but just left of Juneau) Tuesday: Juneau (Alaska’s capital) Wednesday: Skagway Thursday: At sea – the highlight will be sailing …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 1: Heading for Alaska
We checked-out of the Apartment around 11am and booked a taxi to take us to the Cruise terminal. Luckily for us, there was only ONE Cruise Ship in port today – ours!, so our ride was able to drop us off without too much time queuing. In spite of the mandatory fingerprint requirement (of all …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 4: Thursday in Vancouver
What a deterioration in the weather compared to all the other days we’ve been here! ‘Chucking it down’ doesn’t begin to describe the amount of rain falling! So, the perfect cue for a ‘Plan B’ of some sort! – somewhere that’s going to put us INSIDE, in the dry, rather than outside! As it’s our …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 3: Wednesday in Vancouver
Neither of us slept too well and consequently, we were awake early – drinking tea at 5.30am! On the positive side though, it meant we were one of the first down to breakfast at 7am which meant we got first pick of the pastries! Today’s weather forecast… Scorchio! Given this rather excellent forecast for today …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 2: Tuesday in Vancouver
We slept well and by morning, we were fully refreshed and ready to take on the Apartment’s continental breakfast! We arrived just as they were refreshing the stocks of pastries – and I’m pleased to report that they lived up to expectations! After breakfast, our first stop, was a bit of instant retail therapy – …
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