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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Category:Holiday
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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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 1: Pre-Cruise, Arrival in Vancouver
Well, this is a big one! There are three parts to our latest adventure and it began with getting the 11.56 out of Kettering – destination Vancouver, Canada! Things didn’t start well! The train was late and after we got to T3 at Heathrow, checked in and boarded the plane, the pilot calmly announced that …
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Short Break: Beaulieu and Brockenhurst
We slept badly. In an effort to give us a different impression of Winchester, just before midnight, some local drunks had chosen the space under our window to exchange words of wisdom. I can’t recall the details, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a replay of the five-party political debate on TV last night! If …
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Short Break: Gin taster, Win chester!
We headed for Winchester today courtesy of Ann’s friend Nicki – and her gift of a hotel voucher. The route there just happened to take us in the direction of the Bombay Sapphire Distillery at Laverstoke Mill (with its own fascinating history). We set off around 9am and pulled into the car-park at Laverstoke Mill just …
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Foody Friday
To say that a lot of my life revolves around friends and food (sometimes both at the same time!) wouldn’t be far from the truth – and today was no exception! A cheeky ‘Chocolate Brownie’ Milkshake First, it was over to Peterborough to meet Alison W (from my days with Nokia). We visited Bill’s – …
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Four go to Iceland – Day 6: Mopping-up (Final Day)
Today is our last full day here, so it’s a bit of a ‘mopping-up’ day covering places that are popular with Tourists that we hadn’t covered on previous days-out. To start with, we’re heading down to the south-west corner of Iceland and Grindavik then maybe the Blue Lagoon (spot the Tourist!) and Viking World. After …
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Four go to Iceland – Day 5: Golden Circle Trail (Part 2)
After yesterday’s very pleasant experiences during our stalking of Tourists, sorry, Golden Circle Expedition, today, it’s more of the same, as we visit some more famous tourist sights of Iceland. We decided to head out earlier, in theory, to beat the rush. So, not much of a lie-in as it was brekky at 8.30. It …
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Four go to Iceland – Day 4: Golden Circle Trail (Part 1)
Today, we’re doing what every tourist does in Iceland – heading towards The Golden Circle. It’s the area north-east/south-east of Reykjavik and promises to take in some grand sights including: Geysers, Waterfalls and a National Park. It’s a mammoth area to cover and so we’re going to pace ourselves and split the trail into two …
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Four go to Iceland – Day 3: Go West!
After yesterday’s southern expedition, today we headed West!. It was always going to be difficult to top yesterday’s experiences where we enjoyed some stunning scenery and kind weather, but we were up for anything that the western side of Iceland had to offer. Initially, we had also planned to finish our day and try and …
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Four go to Iceland – Day 2: Heading South
The focus today is to explore more of Iceland, but further afield than Reykjavik. Obviously, the key ‘event’ whilst we’re here will be to experience The Northern Lights but according to all the checks we’ve made, tomorrow and Wednesday are the two evenings where the chance of experiencing this phenomena are the highest. I just …
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Four go to Iceland – Day 1: Exploring around Reykjavik
After a lazy breakfast including copious amounts of tea, we reviewed the weather forecast and we decided to explore the local area including a search for suitable restaurants for our evening meals. Current temperature was around 4 degrees, but as it turned out, today turned into a ‘game of two halves’ temperature-wise. This morning on …
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