4 January, 2012 · 3:56 am

Scotland Day 3

Our last full day in Edinburgh we thought we should head back to the shops, as I was starting to think about all the pressies I needed to buy! Our first week in the UK wasn’t really conducive to the purchasing of pressies for people back home, as we were either with family, or in places where there weren’t a lot of souvenir shops. We’d been tossing up the idea of going to The Playhouse which was directly opposite the hotel, to see We Will Rock You, but decided against it in order to support the more commercial enterprises of the city.

Souvenir shops are something the Scots seem to do very well! I was looking for a few things in particular, and went into heaps of different shops, and they all seemed to have these things (I won’t mention what they were – it’s a surprise!) at exactly the same price! I ended up buying the stuff I wanted mainly from a place on the Royal Mile, because it’s got the cachet, right? Tshirts, woolen items, dodgy coasters, they all went into my bags, which were very heavy by the end of the day.

R on the other hand, was in his element, because the other thing the Scots do well in the tourist precinct is whisky shops! We chose a few 50ml bottles of interesting and different single malts for pressies as well as R picking up a bottle for himself.

We also stopped into a pub for lunch just off Princes St after wandering down in the bracing (bitterly cold!) wind. I chose my lunch off the “Light and Healthy” section of the menu – a Baked Potato with Bacon and Brie! Not the healthiest thing I’ve ever eaten, or the lightest, really. A bit of an understatement. The potato was about the size of a human skull, with some bacon slices (not just bacon bits as I’d expected – slices!) and chunks of brie shoved inside. Yum! I suppose it did come with a side salad, rather than chips…

The entertainment over lunch was watching the traditional New Year Edinburgh Derby, where one section of the pub would roar at something, then the other half would roar at something else. We left before it finished, but not before each lot of supporters had roared for a goal.

We did find a Middle Eastern restaurant just off the Royal Mile too, in case anyone is looking for a break from haggis and neeps. Unfortunately we found it just after we’d had lunch, so we couldn’t sample its wares. It does look a touch out of place next to all the “ye olde” woolen mill shops and kilt factories.

After a long day of souvenir-shopping, R decided he wanted an evening of a couple of wee drams of scotch over a traditional pub meal for his last night in Scotland, so we headed up the street to our “local”, the Conan Doyle. They lived up to expectations, providing a couple of scotches R hadn’t had before, and my new favourite cider, Aspall, on tap. Again, I tried to go for a slightly lighter option for dinner, starting with a nice grilled field mushroom. However, as you can see below, it was Scotland-ised, being served with another slice of bacon, smothered with cheese and swimming in a cream sauce! At least there were a few sprigs of greens for garnish. Thank goodness Edinburgh has a lot of hills, otherwise I don’t think I would be able to do up my jeans anymore!

Then for main, I ordered grilled seabass with rocket mash and vegetables. Hmm, rocket mash, I thought. Must be a wilted bed of diced rocket or something. No, they were missing a comma in the menu, and the lovely fish arrived on a mountain of potato mash with a pile of peas and a few more sprigs of rocket. Sigh. I tried. You really get your money’s worth with food here!

Off to London in the morning, so an early night after packing up our stuff and squeezing as much as we could into our bags. Too much pressie shopping!

 

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2 January, 2012 · 5:37 pm

Scotland Day 2

After the frenetic night that was Hogmanay, things are much quieter here on New Year’s Day!

We slept in and missed the dubious delights of breakfast at the hotel, so trundled up to the Conan Doyle pub for a Scottish Breakfast (or part of one for me- no Cumberland sausages or Haggis) and giggled at the lads up early looking for a drink, when the bar didn’t open until 12.30. Kind of strange that nothing else was open (not even the Tesco Expresses) but the pubs were!

We found this out in great detail after breakfast as we’d hoped to get some washing done and so walked down to the nearest launderette, a km or so down Leith Walk. We got there, only to find they are closed until Tuesday. We hadn’t figured on this, since most launderettes at home are unattended. This one apparently is not, so we huffed and puffed our way back up the hill with the same dirty clothes in our backpacks.

Lunch was the next mission on our list, and finding something relatively GF that wasn’t pub grub turned out to be more difficult that we thought. I was a bit sick of heavy meat meals, so we kept walking until we unearthed a Pasta Fresco cafe near the Royal Mile which among the Italian dishes, did baked potatoes. I had mine with Coronation Chicken, a combination which sounds weird but tasted great. The waitress told us she’d had a big New Year’s too, but had managed to turn up for work with a huge (manic?) smile.

We checked out a couple more souvenir shops on our way back to the hotel, but didn’t find those elusive perfect gifts. More shopping tomorrow hopefully – even though it’s a bank holiday, most of the tourists will have headed home so there won’t be as many crowds.

The rest of the day consisted of an afternoon nap – the first I’ve had since Chefchaouen! Then we wandered out again for dinner, this time another Italian place called Jolly, for the hugest plate of chicken and king prawn risotto I’ve ever seen. So much for a slightly lighter meal! I can’t wait for London where we might be able to get smaller meals like sushi or salads occasionally – I don’t think my tummy’s been empty ever since we landed at Gatwick!

We finished the day with another local delicacy – a deep fried Snickers. I’d wanted the classic of the Mars Bar, but the chippy had run out, presumably with the influx of the world’s 80,000 biggest party animals the night before. It tasted pretty good though – just like a hot melty Snickers bar, really!

Maybe it’s the comedown from New Year’s, but I’m starting to get a bit homesick now, and missing family and friends. Plus, having to go out for every meal is fun to begin with, but it would be nice to just have some toast and a cup of tea now and then! It’s three weeks since we left home, which so far has been my travel limit. Another week and a half before we head back to Australia though, and moving down to London tomorrow will probably help. The frequent moving from one place to another, which is unfortunately our modus operandi in order to fit as many things in as possible, is taking it out of us and it’ll be nice to be in one place for a week.

 

 

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1 January, 2012 · 11:49 pm

Hogmanay 2011

Hogmanay was amazing! Princes St and a lot of the surrounding streets were blocked off to make the street party, and there were thousands and thousands of people wandering around between the stages and the bars and food stalls.

There were about 5 different stages with various bands playing – pop, folk, electronic and rock, and the two separated “extra ticketed” areas were the Keilidh (traditional music section – I could hear bagpipes) and the gardens section where the rock concert was.

I was a bit unsure about this at first, as the crowds in the street party were huge, with thousands of teenagers drinking. Think a cross between the Big Day Out with the Royal Show and multiply it by a hundred! Not really my scene, these days. Nevertheless, we had a great time. We watched a few of the smaller stages for a while before heading to the gardens section, as you couldn’t come back in if you left. Once we’d gone in there, there were a few less teenagers, but still thousands of people! The Princes St Gardens is on an incline looking down into a slight valley, facing Edinburgh Castle where a lot of the fireworks were coming from.

We wandered in quite late, so the best spot left was behind a tree (at least it was a deciduous one so we could see through it!) People were pushing to get through quite a bit, mostly because they were all getting pissed and didn’t really notice, I think! There was a no glass policy, but people were bringing in all sorts of things and the portable bars were doing a roaring trade. No bins either, so people just dropped their rubbish where they stood. By the end of the night it was quite literally a sea of plastic bottles and other rubbish.


Our spot under the tree got quite muddy quite quickly, as it’s been a bit drizzly for the past couple of days and it was on the hill. We ended up moving back slightly to a temporary barricade right at the back of the gardens which we hung onto and helped people get past without too much slipping, but a lot of people refused to take a hand and took a tumble instead! So many people were so drunk they hardly noticed, or bounced back up, only to slide again. Our boots were sodden with mud by the end, but we managed to not cover ourselves completely in it.

It was quite a sideshow, watching people trying to get past without slipping over. One guy managed to make it right to the top while balancing three open cups of beverages, without spilling a drop!

The concert itself was great. I’d listened to Primal Scream a bit before, and they really got the crowd moving (even though dancing in the slippery muddy slopes was a bit scary! We dug our heels in and wiggled where we stood for the main part.)

We got to talking with a couple next to us, a Scotsman and his Scandanavian(?) partner who had seen the band before and were really into it. They wished us a happy new year with a swig from their hip flask and helped us give a hand to those affected by the slipperiness.

The fireworks were amazing – they had a small show on the hour until midnight, when they were going off for a good six or seven minutes, from the walls of Edinburgh Castle, and all along the ridge of the Royal Mile. They were so close I thought people would get burnt from the debris, but they had it perfectly measured I think.

The band continued for most of an hour after midnight, even though it was raining by this point. It’d held off except for some drizzle for most of the evening, but started raining more heavily after midnight. Thank goodness I’d swapped my slightly warmer coat for my raincoat, and thank goodness again for my layers of Icebreaker merino!

We left just as Primal Scream was just finishing the last song, Rocks. The security staff had started taking down the barriers at the back (and some had fallen down, too – that’s how muddy it was) so we were able to clamber up the back bank rather than attempt the slide down the long muddy gauntlet we’d been watching people fall over in all night. This was was still very slippery, but at least there was a tree and a couple of the barricades to lever ourselves up with.

It was a relief to get back to the hotel and have a hot shower – we were both aching from the cold and from walking and standing bracing ourselves in the mud for 5 hours or so. The chippy around the corner from the hotel was doing a roaring trade, so we stood in the queue to get our own. Pretty terrible chips, as they were cooked really quickly to get then out to the customers, but at least they were hot!

So that was Hogmanay! A definite experience, but I don’t think we need to experience it again.

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1 January, 2012 · 10:59 am

Hello Scotland

After packing up, driving two hours and dropping the car back to its owners Thrifty in Wolverhampton, we hopped on the train and headed north to Edinburgh. The train was a bit squishy and quite warm, and although the booking page had assured us we were booking two window seats facing each other over a table, in reality we had two window seats one behind the other. We nabbed one of the aisle seats so we could sit together, and I sat there holding my breath at each stop waiting for someone to tell me that was their seat, as people seemed to be doing at every other seat!

We arrived at Waverley Station as it was raining (of course) so we hailed a taxi to take us the short drive to the hotel. We’re staying at one of the Holiday Inn Expresses, and it’s very boring and anonymous, but still it’s kind of nice to be in somewhere boring after all the “character” hotels we’ve stayed at! The outside is lovely anyway, as the building is an “historic” one. There was a moment of panic on check-in, as they couldn’t find our reservation, which I had dutifully carried out on their website, and prepaid! Thank goodness I had the reservation confirmation with me, as apparently their reservations department hadn’t passed it on. Only eight months of notice, thanks guys! We managed to get a room at least, and they gave us a drinks voucher, which was nice.

As we were settling in, there was some noise out on the street, and noticed they’d put on fireworks, obviously to welcome us to town. Yay!

There are the occasional creaky “character” floorboards we’ve come to expect, and breakfast is a bunfight (almost literally) as there is nowhere near enough space for everyone booked into the hotel to eat breakfast. Wonderful shower though – awesome pressure and nice and hot.

After checking in we wandered out into the chilly evening to find some food. I was craving something not hearty or traditionally British or Moroccan after the huge servings of meat we’ve been having so far on this holiday, so we were looking for Thai or Chinese or something similar. We found the No. 1 Chinese Restaurant a couple of blocks from the hotel, and set on combination stir fry with gusto! Yay for crunchy vegies!

This morning after the breakfast skirmish, we wandered around to the Royal Mile. Because it’s New Year’s Eve, there were thousands of tourists wandering around. We walked up to Edinburgh Castle, but were put off by the huge crowds.

We had a look in some of the souvenir shops, and contemplated tartans, but R already has a traditional kilt from his last trip, and my family doesn’t seem to have any affiliations. I’ll pick up a few souvenirs before we leave though. We did see dog kilts, which would be a hoot next Christmas on the family doggies, but the largest size they had as for Scottish Terriers, and all our dogs are much bigger than that!

After wandering down the Royal Mile to see Holyrood Palace, we started walking up it again in search of lunch.

After popping into a whisky shop to R could taste a couple of new and different expressions (the shop had a resident dog, Maggie), we ended up stopping at the oldest pub on the Royal Mile, which was first opened in 1740-something. Not bad! Unsurprisingly, they had some “traditional” Scottish food, so R had a lamb hotpot, and I explored the “Stovies” – basically potato and beef, mashed together. Imagine cottage pie mooshed. Tasted pretty good, but bland and salty at the same time.

After lunch we wended our way through the ever-increasing crowds, through a shopping centre (and over a scarily see-through pedestrian bridge – my fear of heights was on full alert!) and back to the hotel to prepare for our Hogmanay evening.

 

 

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30 December, 2011 · 6:08 am

Wales Day 2

We spent today driving around Wales some more, taking in the amazing scenery, soaking up the cold (uhh) and exploring some of the sights in search of somewhere to say a final goodbye to R’s mum.

We began with a hearty breakfast, of course! I had the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, and R chose the big Welsh breakfast: eggs, bacon, tomato, black sausage and laver bread (boiled seaweed. hmm.)

This breakfast of champions took us hundreds of miles through Snowdonia National Park to find where the Mt Snowdon Railway started. The railway is closed for winter, but we thought it would be a good spot to view the parts of Snowden which aren’t currently obscured by low-lying cloud. On the way we also saw a hydro-electric plant, which looks pretty amazing, and drove up and down a mountain including some nice sharp turns on cliffs in the rain (not really one of my favourite things to do, as those who’ve been reading the Morocco posts will know, even if this time I was driving!)

We passed by a lovely spot on a hillside with a view of a river, rough-hewn mountains, cliffs and rolling hills, and R thought that would be a nice place to scatter some of his mum’s ashes. We’ve been carrying them with us for such an eventuality, as she had been on holidays in Snowdonia when she was a child and had liked the idea of living on there after she passed. We stopped and waited for the other tourists to finish taking photos, but they seemed to be hanging on forever, so we just ignored them and did what we’d come to do. I’m sure she will find peace there.

 

Then we turned slightly and headed towards Portmeirion, the strange village where The Prisoner was filmed. It’s quite a bizarre place, with vividly coloured buildings and random monuments here and there. It looks like a place designed by kids – colourful, lots of different shapes, and statues and monuments with not a lot of cohesion. I think the producers of The Prisoner took advantage of the atmosphere that was already there, rather than the other way around! The gift shops there have quite a few Number Six souvenirs, including the fabulous bubble chair! You can even get your own blow-up weather balloon to re-enact those terrifying chase sequences!

Then it was back to Tyddyn Llan to recuperate before dinner.

I’ve never eaten at a Michelin star restaurant before, but I think I was expecting a little more. The food is pretty good, but not more than any of the “pretty good” restaurants at home. I’ve eaten at a lot of Australian restaurants which are equal or better than this one to my taste, like Neil Perry’s Rockpools, or any of the Made Establishment‘s places in Melbourne. This place is such a study in contrast between the lovely food and the good but not great rooms, that it’s a bit hard to quantify it while staying here. We’re in a “standard” room. Maybe the “superior” ones are better, but you’d still have the incredibly noisy creaking floors and not-great water pressure, even if the rooms or beds are a bit bigger and with nicer furniture. Rather then recommend it wholeheartedly, I’d say definitely come for dinner if you’re in the area, but otherwise don’t go out of your way to stay here unless you want to have a few drinks with dinner. Maybe it’s just that Michelin don’t cover Australia! The panna cotta with figs and lavender honey is pretty amazing though, and there was a much better spread of hors d’oeuvres that were gluten free, tonight! Another yum dinner!

 

 

 

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29 December, 2011 · 6:32 am

Wales (and food)

We left Bath this morning after another large Full English brekky. Tummies full, we wended our way through the backstreets of Bath at the command of the GPS, who I swear has homicidal tendencies (or at least a sadistic sense of humour). We may have also managed to scratch the doorhandle of the hire car. Good thing we went for the extra insurance!

After many winding roads and venturing in, then out, then back into Wales, we made our way to Tyddyn Llan, a Michelin-star restaurant with a hotel attached, in Llandrino, near Snowdonia National Park. We had decided that since we were going to only be in Wales for two days, why not make the most of it and go for some nice food!

The hotel/restaurant is in an old building whose floor creaks terribly, and has a pronounced list in the staircase. Even tiptoeing down the corridor produces a series of creaks and groans from the floorboards – but hey, the food is good!

When we were shown into the lounge to have nibbles and a drink before dinner, I was quite worried at the difference in the “gluten free” starter and the normal one. Mine’s the one on the right. Hmm. Not a good start. However, they picked up extremely quickly, letting me know which dishes were GF or able to be made GF, which only knocked out a third of the menu, and presenting me with a gluten free bread roll fresh out of the oven. Now that’s more like it!

I started with the Scottish scallops, which were divine. R’s game terrine was pretty amazing too (hmm, might have that tomorrow night). We followed those with turbot on a bed of leek risotto (hey, we’re in Wales: must eat leeks!) and monkfish with mashed potato. Nummy. Then I had the pannacotta with fresh figs (not locally sourced unlike most of the other food, I would imagine!) and R devoured the ginger steamed pud with custard. Ahh…

We tried to tiptoe upstairs, but may not have been terribly successful. The hotel cat, who had barely lifted a whisker in greeting earlier, looked up in disgruntlement as we trundled past its sleeping place after dinner.

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28 December, 2011 · 5:45 am

Bath

Bath is a gorgeous town, in muted shades of sandstone cream and pinky-beige. Even in the rain, it’s very regal (or is it just that I’ve read too many Regency romances set here, which are all about the peerage, or at least the upper vestiges of Society?)

The B&B is another gorgeous one, situated in a terrace along one of the main roads into town. Lovely rooms, full English breakfast delivered to your room in the morning, not too noisy even considering the road, and it boasts free parking up the back for our large beastie of a hire car. Yes, it took about 10 mins of inching backwards and forwards to the sound of the parking sensors beeping in an ever-rising crescendo to get it parked, but it’s there until we leave tomorrow morning.

The English brekky this morning was yum, especially as our hosts had kindly sourced GF bread and sausages to add to my plate, as well as the welcoming biscuits yesterday afternoon.

We set off to visit a few of the must-dos of Bath (or at least, the must-dos for us. Or me, anyway…) The Roman Baths complex was our first stop, and we were amazed at the well-managed and organised centre. There are free audio guides to listen to as you wander around (multiple languages, for adults and separate ones for kids, plus Bill Bryson doing a couple of commentaries at a couple of exhibits as well), as well as info beside most exhibits, and video reconstructions of Roman life and people, plus a couple of actors looking pretty cold out next to the pool in their Roman costumes. Definitely worth a look for anyone heading to Bath.

We paused briefly for a snack at the very poshe and very famous Pump Room. R had the Georgian Elevenses: a cup of hot chocolate with cream, a glass of The Bath Waters, and a Bath Bun with cinnamon butter. Yum! I fortified myself with the waters for wusses: Bath Waters mixed with either lemon or strawberry (mine was strawberry), and gluten free scones with jam. More yum!

Bath Waters taste kinda like you’d expect: very mineral-y, and warm. Too warm, but not hot. Just… strange. Not an experience I’ll pay for again!

Next stop was my Mecca, the Fashion Museum. Housed in the old Assembly Rooms, the Fashion Museum has huge amounts of stock. The exhibits show a select few, and have cupboards and racks full of other items behind them!

This is the Silver Tissue Dress, which is the oldest complete dress they have. It’s about 350 years old. I don’t think I’ll get that long out of any of my garments!

They have corsets and crinolines to try on for adults, and children’s replica clothing for them, too! I loved the corsets, as each was made almost like an abseiling harness – webbing and connectors and canvas, with instructions like this one: This way up, and Front and Back written on them!

I especially loved the “behind the scenes” section, which showed the nineteenth century in clothes for each decade as if they were in the storage areas, with annotations discussing the various changes to the female silhouette as society’s attitudes changed, and the variations in materials and fabrication as England moved into the Industrial Revolution. Very, very, very cool.

The twentieth century exhibition was also exhaustive, showing a diverse range of designers and shapes as the century went on.

The Assembly Rooms upstairs were also really interesting. I could picture the heroines of some of my favourite Regency-set stories there, peeping at their heroes over their fans, hoping to be asked to dance.

Our next destination was the Jane Austen Centre, which many, many people have looked pained at the idea of. Actually, as we were standing on a corner checking our map, a pair of locals asked us if we needed any help, and were a bit disapproving of the idea when we told them what we were looking for, saying “that’s not my favourite place”! It turns out the museum was opened by a couple of pub owners, and it’s got a very strong reputation as a place to rip off tourists! (Especially, I might add, as Jane Austen didn’t like Bath at all!) In any case, I was after some souvenirs, so we wandered up and visited the gift shop at least, purchasing various Austenish tatt, and taking a picture with the Jane statue and the (real) doorman.

We stopped at this point for lunch at The Salamander, a pub around the corner, starting with local brews of cider and porter, and pigging out (hur hur) on pork sausages and mash, and pork belly with black pudding and mash, respectively.

Once we could walk again, we waddled up the hill to the Circus, and on to Royal Crescent, an imposing semi-circle. Number 1 Royal Crescent, a house restored to Georgian gorgeousness, wasn’t open, so we satisfied ourselves by watching other tourists taking photos of the vista and wandered past the Royal Victoria Gardens (spying a squirrel on the way) and back to the B&B for a refresh before heading out for dinner.

We went to the Garrick’s Head Pub for dinner, which was great. R had the chowder for entree, oxtail for main, and I went straight for the steak with salad and thrice-cooked chips (yum). We both had homemade icecream for dessert before waddling (again! I’m sensing a theme here) back to the B&B to pack up before hitting the road again tomorrow, this time to Wales.

 

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27 December, 2011 · 2:04 am

Charlton Horethorne for Christmas

After a bustling present-giving and receiving on Christmas morning, the four of us bundled into our hire car (along with our luggage it was a tight squeeze) and headed to Dorset to spend Christmas with Aunty J’s extended family. This means they’re cousins of mine of some description, but none of us can work it out properly. Nevertheless, they were amazingly warm and welcoming, giving up their bedrooms to us and sleeping in their lounge room for the night!

As we were leaving Plymouth, we stopped at what we think was called The Block House, a ruined building on top of a hill where we had a great view of the town and port.

Then it was the drive to Charlton Horethorne (I keep wanting to say Charlton Heston, but no…) We’d heard the story of last Christmas, when the family was shovelling ice off their driveway (it’s incredibly mild this year – no snow!) and they saw Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz coming out of the village pub. We were quite interested to see who the visiting celebrities were this year, bt they had to make do with us!

The Christmas lunch was unbelievable – a huge turkey and ham, potatoes, tiny baby carrots, leeks in white sauce, Brussels sprouts with bacon bits and chestnuts, parsnips, sausages wrapped in bacon, gravy, bread sauce, free-flowing champagne, wine, cider and beer. I think I’m still digesting, a day and a half later! Everyone loved the Australian teatowels and Moroccan Babouche keyrings we’d brought them, and we received some thoughtful and lovely gifts in return. We even watched the Queen’s Christmas speech together!

S set a fire up in their summer house out the back, and we sat around that for a while, drinking champagne (from New Zealand, would you believe) and watching the kids set off a Chinese lantern/hot air balloon thing, before heading back inside for more food! Dinner was slightly smaller but not by much, consisting of tapas-style dishes. Yum.

H had given her room up to us: the attic room, with a snuggly soft bed built into the A-frame of the house. It was difficult to get our cases up the ladder-style steps, but it was so worth it!

Boxing Day started with panetone for breakfast (I had marmalade on GF muffins) and then we set off on the traditional family Boxing Day Walk. They wanted to show us the remains of the Hill Fort, believed by many to be the remains of King Arthur’s Camelot. We walked up a very muddy, steep track (everyone else had wellies, but we were wearing our walking boots, which suffered from mud somewhat) and came out on a huge mound overlooking the Somerset Flats. Fantastic views.

We trooped back to have yet another meal, this time of leftovers and salad, before saying a sad farewell, amidst many promises on both sides to visit. Then we headed off to drop Robbie in Bristol to catch a flight to see his friends elsewhere, then drive to Bath to spend a couple of days.

Although we’ve had a wonderful few days with family, we’ve missed our family at home, too. It’s good to get back in internet contact to hear that everyone seems to have had a wonderful Christmas.

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25 December, 2011 · 2:46 am

Plymouth

We spent Christmas Eve navigating the shops at Drake Circus in Plymouth to find a couple of last minute gifts (and a UK-AU adaptor plug – why did I think that my AU-Europe one would work in the UK??) Lush is just as fabulous here as it is at home (although filled with about 40 people. Way too many for that small shop!) I had my first encounter with the fabulous Marks & Spencer, finding some socks for R. We didn’t have much time, so I didn’t get a chance to plunder the ladieswear, but the brief glance as I ran past looked intriguing!

We battled the traffic to race home to have an amazingly huge Christmas lunch with Aunty Judy’s friend and next-door-neighbour, Di and her friend Else, who cooked up a traditional Xmas dinner with all the trimmings -starting with smoked salmon hors d’ouevres, turkey with TWO stuffingses, vegies, gravy, bread sauce (??), bacon rolls and sausages, followed by Christmas pud (flambee’d of course) and then some local cheeses and fruit. Woaahh. We took the Westie terriers out for an evening walk as the sun set (at 4.30pm!) and then all passed out on the couches.

Tomorrow we’ll be having our third installment of Christmas lunch with some cousins I’ve not met yet!

Have a merry Christmas, or a happy Hanukkah, or season’s greetings to you. Have a lovely day, and I hope you have your family and/or friends around you.

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24 December, 2011 · 7:05 pm

Goodbye Morocco, Good morning Britain!

We left Riad LaCroix Berbere reluctantly, especially as they had made R French Toast for breakfast this morning! But our driver arrived to take us to the airport, and off we went.

The traffic was incredibly quiet as we were driving. Obviously 9.30am is still the middle of the night for Marrakech!

The airport was quiet, too, and we had to wait 10 mins for our checkin to open. Since we’d paid for Speedy Boarding on EasyJet, we had only one person ahead of us in the queue. Our bags were perfectly weighted – 20.1kg for me and 18.9 for R, so we did the perfect amount of shopping! (or “souking”, as the girl behind the counter told us).

The Marrakech airport is quite small, with 8 departure gates, and none of them have skybridges: it’s a walk out to climb the stairs to board!

Again, our small investment in Speedy Boarding paid off – we were the second in the queue to board, and snagged the front row on the right hand side, with noone sitting in the third seat. R was able to stretch out in the middle seat, and we hah easy access to our hand luggage and the loo.

I’ve heard some horror stories about EasyJet, but they were great on this trip. We left and arrived almost exactly on time, our luggage arrived in a timely manner, the staff were pleasant and they had enough food (granted, we only asked for a packet of chips and some water). Although there were gusty winds enough to make for a bumpy approach to Gatwick, the landing itself was really smooth.

The airport itself was pretty painless. A long walk, then a short queue for the non-EU/UK residents (although it moved a lot more slowly than the residents’ queue!) and a 20 questions game from the passport control lady (Why wasn’t I staying with family if I say I have family here? I have family here but it’s only my first trip to the UK? Hmm…) Locating the car rental place was a bit more challenging, and of course it started to rain while we were waiting, so we got very wet trying to find our car in the incredibly early darkness. 4.30pm and it was pitch black!

We met my cousin Robbie there as he’s travelling with us for Christmas. He’s been doing a course in Germany and is wandering around visiting friends now, so we met up for the Christmas weekend!

The car is a medium-sized VW, brand new and full of magical devices such as the windscreen wipers coming on automatically when it showered, and lights that turned on and off with a sensor. Wow.

The drive was thankfully pretty uneventful, after I worked out some of the incomprehensible road signs. The GPS is making life much easier. The big even was hitting Sainsbury’s once we reached Plymouth, and finding a Mecca of gluten free goodies – Christmas cake, English muffins, even bagels! I’ll have one of each, please!

We reached Aunty Judy’s place around 10.30pm, and were greeted at the gate by the security men with “So you’re the Australians then! Go on through.”

It was lovely to see Aunty Judy again – it’s been about a year and a half since she was last in Australia I think, and she’s such a wonderful lady! (If you’re reading this, I hope you’re blushing!

Christmas is well and truly a shock over here! Every radio channel is playing Christmas carols, and every shop we drove past has decorations. After Morocco where it was a non-event, things are very different!

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