vacation

A busy weekend in Spain

/ Dee / 1 Comment

We spent a lovely weekend in Estepona, an unusual choice perhaps,but we were looking for somewhere a bit different and off the tourist radar.  The hotel Kempinski backs onto the beach and was a lovey place to stay. After a day out and about, it was great to come back to a relaxing spa treatment before leaving later in search of some local food.

The local people were very friendly and welcoming, the food in the local restaurants was amazing.  We had seafood platters ladened down with everything you could wish for, fresh bread and olives, delicious tapas dishes and some very drinkable local wine.

On Saturday we  had decided to visit Gibraltar and whether you agree or disagree with its’ownership, it is well worth a visit.  We joined the long queue of traffic snaking out of Spain waiting to cross into Great Britain (weird) and once we found a car park we set off to epxlore.

The main shopping street was crowded, bustling with people looking for duty free bargains and there were loads to choose from,  Cameras, wine, spirits, makeup, tobacco, electrical goods, practically everything you could think of.

We decided to leave the crowds and head off up the rock.  Before we had gone too far, we found the Barbary Apes, or rather they found us! Stealing crisps and chocolate and running off with their prizes was quite good fun it seemed. The views from the rock were stunning and well worth the climb. If you don’t feel up to the long walk, you can take the cable car to the summit.

On Sunday, we were up early to go up to Ronda. It is short drive north of Marbella and we were last there about 15 years ago. I am glad to say that it was still as beautiful as I remembered it. The drive up to Ronda and view looking back down into the gorge, is incredibly hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t been there.

Ronda was one of the last Moorish cities to fall during the re-conquest of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs.  In 1485, the Crusaders took one look up the cliffs and decided it would be impossible to attack, so they cut off the water supply instead.  Once the garrison guarding the water was taken, the city fell in 7 days. The town is now a must on the tourist trail, but it is so worth the effort to go there.  A truly wonderful place.

Just saying………..

/ Dee / Leave a comment

I feel that I should blog something, but some days it isn’t easy. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say or share but sometimes I wonder if anyone is going to find what I do blog remotely interesting.

We are just back from holiday, so I guess I am still missing the relaxing, warm sunny days spent in Sicily, where we had a terrace almost to ourselves. We sat there most days after breakfast just looking out to sea and the view along the coast to Giardini Naxos. We went there one day in search of the archeological site that the brochure said was on the headland. It wasn’t that simple. We used TomTom (so glad I took it with us, would have been lost without it) and got to most places, except the rather well hidden ancient ruins at Giardini Naxos.

We stopped near some policeman and I got out of the car to ask for directions, in my best night school Italian! It was only when I got back in the car, with full directions, that it hit me that they had been fairly heavily armed! They were just standing there, laughing and talking in the narrow street when we drove past them, perhaps it was their lunch break!

I really enjoyed the food while we were away, I think the mediterranean diet is fantastic. Olives, tomatoes, crusty bread, fish soup, red wine…….I’m not sure that it totally fits in with my healthy eating plan and it isn’t the same without the sunshine.

We came home and the election still hadn’t been resolved, much to my OH’s delight as he couldn’t watch any tv whilst away, we only had CNN and the coverage was awful. So I watched the show unfold from Westminster while everyone waited for Nick Clegg to make up his mind. I had to smile at some of the reports coming in of a Rainbow Alliance and a Celtic Revival; then Gordon Brown catching them all on the hop by going off to see the Queen to tender his resignation. “The Likely Lads” then had to rush to get their act together before David Cameron could go and “kiss hands” with the monarch and accept her invitation to form a new government.

I don’t envy them their task when they have to relay to us the horrors they find when George Osbourne turns the key and opens the Treasury’s equivalent of Pandora’s Box!

I leave you with a couple of photos from my holiday, some wonderful Sicilian lemons which I found in the hotel bar and a view across towards Mount Etna which still had quite a bit of snow on the top. Ciao!

Packing my bags and missing The Election!

/ Dee / 1 Comment

We are leaving shortly to go on holiday and, as usual, it has fallen to me to make sure everything we will need for the next 10 days is securely stowed in the two very large bags we are taking with us. That they have seen better days, is not in question, that they will be replaced any time soon with something new and modern is a question I ask every time I drag them out to start packing. The OH thinks that spending a lot of cash on things you use three or four times a year, if you are lucky, is the eighth deadly sin! This trip he is even more tight lipped about the whole holiday.

I have folded shirts and tops, pressed trousers and skirts, gathered up all the toiletries I can find, spent an absolute age deciding which shoes to take, before chucking in a pair of black strappy sandals for evening wear, a pair of trainers in case we go mad and decided to go hill walking, two pairs of flip-flops, just couldn’t make up my mind which were more comfortable and, of course I couldn’t forget the pink mules because, well……………just, because!

The main issue though, bubbling away just under the surface, has nothing to do with packing for the holiday.  We will miss THE ELECTION and my OH is very miffed. I on the otherhand am quite pleased that I will be away.  I am happy to forgo five nights of political debate by the often rude and self opinionated interviewers, grilling some politician to within inches of doom, whilst seeming to think that is what is required by the viewers, while listening to the OH shouting his comments back at them and getting more and more frustrated into the bargain. 

So, while he is hoping for Sky in our room so he won’t have to miss much, I am hoping for another kind of sky – a blue one with a large yellow sun in it, a seat on a shady terrace with a nice cool drink and a good book.  Cheers!

Down the Nile in style!

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For years we talked of taking a trip to Egypt – it’s been on the list for ages, you know the “let’s write down all the places that we want to visit and see how many we get to”  list.  It had to include a trip down the Nile though, to fulfill all those childhood tales of pharohs and pyramids, of desert and mystery!

After reading lots of brochures, talking to friends who had done similar trips and hearing their tales of things that had gone wrong, we decided to push the boat out (no pun intended) and we booked a holiday with Cox and Kings. We flew to Cairo and had two nights at the Mena House Oberoi hotel in Giza, I was told that I would be able to see the pyramids from there and was disappointed when we arrived to find I couldn’t see anything. “Wait till morning ma’am” said Mohammed our guide,” you’ll see pyramid”.  As you will see from the photos, he was right and then some!

The Mena House is a fabulous hotel, standing in 40 acres of beautifully tended gardens, in the shadow of the great pyramids.  I was proudly told by the duty manager that the hotel had entertained countless heads of state and many, many film stars and, looking around me, I could quite believe him.  I had hoped that we would have a room in the old part of the hotel, but our garden wing room was just lovely.  The staff were kind, courteous and very friendly and were delighted when they saw how pleased we were with everything.

We had a trip to the pyramids and learnt again all the things about them that we thought we already knew; the Museum in Cairo was unbelieveable.  They have more artefacts stored in cupboards, cellars, spare rooms and under benches than they have officially on display. I have never seen so many ancient, beautiful treasures anywhere before. There is no air conditioning, or if there is it wasn’t working the day we visited and because of all the hundreds of people milling around, the place gets very, very hot.  Then on the The Citadel. Standing on top of a limestone crag, looking out over the city of Cairo, the building takes your breath away. It was a governor’s pavillion many centuries ago, built to take adavantage of the cooling breezes that wafted round the hilltop; then Saladdin fortified it to prevent attacks by the Crusaders. Today, it houses many museums and is home to the Mohammed Ali Mosque.  The views from the walls are quite spectacular.

Leaving Cairo behind, we flew to Luxor to join our boat the Oberoi Zahra . We were told that we would cruise the Nile in luxury and we did! The cabins were amazing and so was the freshly prepared food.  There is a spa on board and a swimming pool on the top deck. There are just 25 cabins and 2 suites all with panoramic views of the Nile, the service was outstanding.  An Egyptologist travelled with us and he led the daily excursions to the Temples of Luxor, Karnak, Dendara, and the Valley of the Kings.  For seven wonderful days, we cruised from Luxor to Aswan, before flying back to Cairo for one night and then home. It is one of the best holidays I have ever had, that I would go again tomorrow says it all I think. 

Pyramid from gardens of Mena House hotel

The Citadel, Cairo

View from the sun deck of Oberoi Zahra

 

Row of Sphinx at Luxor Temple

 

View of the Nile

 

Street market Luxor

 

Street market Luxor

The Shambles in York wins Google Street View Award

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I am very happy that The Shambles in York won the Google Street View Awards! My relatives came from Yorkshire and I spent many school holidays visiting the city.

York is an ancient city, the Romans invaded in 71AD, when 5,o00 men marched from Lincoln and set up camp at a place they called “Eboracum”.

Next came the Vikings, invading on 1st November 866 when all the leaders were in the cathedral celebrating All Saints Day,

William the Conquerer also set his sights on York after the invasion, marching there in 1068 when York was still a Viking city.

The Black Death came to York in 1190 and stayed for almost a year, by the time it was over, more than 5,000 people had died

Henry VII defeated York’s favourite Richard III to win the crown in 1485 and visited the city a year later, when the citizens were determined to put on a good impression for the first of the Tudor monarchs.

The Shambles was a street even then, lined with butcher shops with the meat laid out on what now are the window sills.  At some points, if you stretch out your arms you can touch both sides of the street!

There is loads more to the story of York and you can read all about it at http://www.historyofyork.org.uk

Or better still, pay a visit……………

A Tale of Two Bridges (with apologies to Charles Dickens)

/ Dee / 1 Comment

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times………………”

Earlier in the year, it was announced that the toll on the Humber Bridge was going to be increased. The people of Grimsby and surrounding area, reacted to this news by starting a petition against the increase and getting it signed by 10,000 people!  In the face of this huge opposition, the Minister of Transport refused to increase the tolls.

 In October it was announced that the Government was giving a grant of £6m to the Humber Bridge Company, so that they can freeze the tolls until 2011, the grant will be used for necessary maintenance.  In announcing this, the Minister for Transport, Sadiq Khan, said that “the Government is committed to doing everything it can to protect communities and businesses from economic downturn and to help the country recover”

 The news of the grant was met with an angry response by transport and haulage companies on both side of the Severn Estuary. Many companies who operate across this Welsh-Anglo border, rack up tens of thousands of pounds each year in tolls just to cross the river and though the Government’s commitment to reducing costs is very welcome, it should be applied across the board. The Freight Transport Association responded to the Minister’s comments by issuing a press release calling for the same commitment to be given to Wales and the South-West.

 However, it is not just transport companies who are affected, although the tolls they pay are the highest in the UK. Paying the toll has a knock-on effect for every company who use the Severn crossings in the course of their business. It is seen as huge a disadvantage by many large companies when looking at this part of Wales as a possible business venue.

 Both bridges are owned and operated by Severn Crossing plc, but the ownership of the bridges should not be a reason to do nothing. There is a solution to every problem if you try hard enough to find it.

 The Government, in its’ wisdom, decided to add VAT to the tolls back in 2003. The tolls were not increased, so this slipped relatively easily under the radar and they just agreed with the company to extend their term of ownership.  This has meant that the bridges will not revert back to public ownership now until some time around 2016 and we just go on paying………….

So, although age has curbed my former redheaded temper, I just felt that I couldn’t sit on the sidelines on this one.  I feel that the people and businesses of Wales have enough on their plate at the moment; times are tough out there and we need all the help we can get!  After the initial rise in blood pressure, I decided that I too would start a petition, to ask the Government for help for the Welsh economy too. And, in this highly computerised world we now live in, I chose an e-Petition.

If you feel as strongly as I do about the inequality of this gesture by the Government, then please will you follow the link and sign the petition. I am told that if we get more than 500 signatures the Government has to respond.

 http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/helpWelsheconomy/

Thank you!

Holidays

/ Dee / 1 Comment

Just managed to post the map of cities I’ve visited and seeing it up there, set me to thinking about the places I have been to and just how lucky I have been. Years ago, we couldn’t afford to go anywhere abroad and spent our holidays in the UK, like a lot of our friends and relations. We enjoyed caravan holidays in Devon and Cornwall, places I had stayed with my parents when I was a child. I love the beaches of Devon and the ruggedness of the Cornish coast.
I remember once, when I was about 10, my parents sister and I, stayed in a house called Anne’s Cottage near West Portholland, overlooking Veryan Bay. It was a magical place for us children. Friends of my parents and their two children came with us and, although it rained quite a lot of the time, we didn’t care. The four of us spent every morning on the beach, which was only a short walk from the cottage. We searched rockpools for crabs and walked along the shoreline looking for shells. We bought nets from the little shop in West Portholland and told our parents we were going fishing. But it wasn’t until we all went on a visit to Mevagissey, that we actually caught anything.
The four of us went out with a local fisherman, looking for mackerel. I caught 7. I remember being absolutely delighted and there is a photo of me somewhere grinning from ear to ear, standing proudly alongside a smiling, gap-toothed fisherman, holding my catch for all to see. My sister is scowling because she hated every minute.
Another year, we went to Devon and stayed in a caravan near Goodrington Sands, heaven for my sister and I. One day after having a picnic on the beach, we returned to the caravan and my mother started washing up the plates and cutlery we had taken with us. A little while afterwards, she let out such a shout, we all came running to see what had happened. She burst into tears and told us that she had lost her wedding ring and as my father tried to calm her down we set about trying to find it. The search stopped when it got dark, with my father reassuring her we would try again the next day. Looking back, as we had no idea where she had lost it, it was a pointless exercise, but we felt we had to do something.
Eventually after two days searching, my father told her that he would buy her a new ring and we would all go into town and look for a jewellers. We finally found one and my sister and I were asked to wait outside. I remember feeling miffed, I wanted to look at the rings too. After what seemed like ages, my sister started dancing about saying she needed to go to the toilet, so into the shop we went. Just as my father was paying for a new wedding ring and my mother was proudly admiring it on her hand, I evidently announced, in a loud voice, “mum can you hurry up as we need to go to the toilet”. We were rushed outside pretty quickly.
I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we really did have some fantastic holidays.