Sunday - Up Black Crag

Up early again and breakfasted before leaving for a relatively short walk around Tarn Hows and up Black Crag.

The walk was good and, despite the instructions being slightly wayward, we made it to the top where we were rewarded by fantastic views. It was very blustery and it looked as though the weather was going to turn a bit nasty, so we began our descent.


It started a bit slow as Alicea's dicky knee was playing up, but we made it and by the time we got back to the B&B the sun was out, so that shows how good our weather forecasting skills are!

We showered, changed and then drove into Windermere for lunch, which we had at Francine's, the place we stopped for coffee yesterday.

From there we went to Bowness on Windermere where Alicea bought a Paddington Bear that she'd had her eye on. We then went back to the B&B via the ferry.

This evening we went for dinner at the Drunken Duck. The meal was really good, although Alicea said the venison she had for her main course was overcooked. That aside, we both enjoyed the evening and returned to the B&B where we watched the Big Sleep with Robert Mitchum before falling asleep.

Saturday - Two go a-wandering

We were up fairly early as breakfast is served between 8 and 9am. I slept reasonably well - we had both wound down last night by watching Withnail and I on the DVD player in our room as the TV signal is really week. The B&B has a pretty good selection of films etc to choose from.

Anyway, after breakfast we got all our gear together for a walk, including me changing into the new shorts(!) that I'd bought yesterday. Then we were off, firstly heading into Hawkshead (about a mile away) and then a round trip to Latterbarrow, one of the hills in the area. It was a reasonably steep ascent to the top, but once we were there, the view was magnificent.


We made our way down and after some difficulty finding the right path to continue, we made our way into some woodland. Here, amongst the pine trees, I discovered some Cep mushrooms growing. It would have been wonderful to have been able to pick and use the, but they would have spoiled by the time I'd got them home.

Once back in Hawkshead we had a sandwich and a coffee and then walked back to the B&B stopping again en route for some more refreshment. We calculated that we had walked around 7 and a half miles.

We sat in the lounge while our room was finishing being cleaned, then we showered and got changed and drove to Ambleside for a wander around and to see if we could find somewhere to eat. In the end, we ended up in an Italian restaurant in Windermere.

From there we drove back to Hawkshead via the Windermere ferry and once back at the B&B, we watchedthe Long Good Friday before going to sleep.

Friday - In the Lakes

We drove up to Manchester last night and stopped in a Travel Lodge just outside Altrincham. It was a long trip as the traffic was really slow so I'm glad we did it then rather than driving the whole way today.

This morning we breakfasted in the Little Chef adjacent to the Travel Lodge and then made our way ever northwards.

We stopped in Windermere to have a coffee and a look around and went to the Beatrix Potter Centre.

We then left, heading for Hawkshead and the B&B we are staying at for the next few days. On the way we stopped at the Drunken Duck Inn where we had a lovely lunch in their restaurant.

When we arrived at the B&B there was noone to greet us and our keys were left in an envelope with directions to our room. And a very nice room it is too with a fabulous view.

After settling in we took a drive down to Hawkshead, which is a very quaint and pretty village, where we wandered around the shops, stopped at a pub for a drink and eventually went to another pub for dinner where I had veggie sausage and mash.

Tomorrow, weather permitting we are going to go for a walk up one of the hills. Fingers crossed!

On the way home

I'm currently sitting in the departure lounge at Brussels station waiting for the Eurostar.

We got up and breakfasted early(ish) and a taxi took us to the station in Bruges where we were to catch the train to Brussels. The train was on time and the hour long journey passed quite quickly.

Brussels Zuid and Brussels Midi are the same station, which is worth knowing as none of the timetables showed Midi when we were checking the times in Bruges.

We had time in the station to grab a coffee and get a Subway to have for lunch on the train. Then it was through security and passport control to wait for the train to arrive.

On your bike!

We breakfasted in the hotel before wandering into the city centre where we were going on a bicycle your for the morning.

The city centre was pretty empty which gave us some great photo opportunities of Markt and Burg squares compared to the busy crowds yesterday.

There were about eight or ten of us on the tour, from the UK, US and Australia and we were led by Jos. He was a great tour guide, very knowledgable and very funny.

The tour was great, very relaxed and very entertaining. We ended up at the oldest pub in Bruges for a drink with the group before returning back to where we began. If you're in Bruges then I definitely recommend this tour.

After leaving the group we went for lunch at a small Greek/Turkish restaurant where Alicea had lamb and I had falafal. My falafal was really nice. However, Alicea didn't enjoy her lamb. I also tried one of the local trappist beers, which was 9% alcohol!

In the afternoon we went to the Groeninge Museum where they have a large collection of paintings by Flemish artists. It was quite good and as a bonus, we got a discount by showing our hotel key.

We also sat and listened to a busker playing some clasical music in a nearby park and bought his CD.

For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant which wasn't bad. Then, we wandered around before returning to the hotel where we sat in the garden and had a drink before retiring.

In Bruges

We were up early to drive to Ebbsfleet to catch the Eurostar to Brussels. It was on time arriving but arrived in Brussels about 15 mins late. We then found the train that would take us to Bruges. It was packed and we had to stand the whole way (about an hour).

Once in Bruges, we caught a taxi to the hotel where we booked in and dropped our bags off before going off to explore the city.

Bruges is a very pedestrian friendly city and nothing is too far away from anything else. The hotel is on one of the canals and we followed the canal into the city centre. We stopped for a bite to eat at quite a nice café - we had a baguette and a drink each - and then went for a wander around some of the local tourist attractions, starting with St Janshospital, a large building that used to be a hospital in the middle ages.

We then went to Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, which has one of the few Michelangelo sculptures outside Italy. It also has some excavations showing graves beneath the church. From there we went to the Basilica of the Holy Blood, where they have a phial containing the dried blood of Christ.

We went back to the hotel and up to our room. Its okay, but its certainly not a four star like we're used to, and if its a superior room, I'd hate to see a standard one.

Shortly after we went out for something to eat - Bruges isn't a great place for veggies - and we ended up at a café having omellette and chips.

After that we returned to the hotel for the night.

Home At Last

We made our way back to LAX airport, only to find that the flight was delayed again, this time by two hours. We finally took off three hours late and arrived at Heathrow around midday.

American Airlines

So, it appears that my previous blog entry was a bit premature.

Thanks to American Airlines, we have had an extra day in LAX airport, not the most exciting airport in the world to be stranded in.

So, what happened for us to spend this extra time in LA then?

After we were all seated, the plane taxied out of the terminal and then turned around and went back. Apparently there was a problem with the landing gear being out of alignment.

Four hours later we were finally "deplaned" and given some food vouchers. This was after various announcements promising various take off times and during which we were offered a single glass of water - Alicea had to go and get some water for an elderly passenger and found the cabin staff sitting at the back reading magazines. At one point they switched the aircon off too and still no more drinks were offered!

We got off the plane about midnight and the only place open was Burger King. While we were in the queue they announced that the flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for 3pm today.

There was much confusion as the announcement was made above another one so you couldn't hear it properly. The staff were little help either. Eventually by discussions with other passengers we managed to get a hotel voucher and our luggage. We waited ages for a hotel shuttle and eventually decided to get a taxi. The hotel was basic but fairly comfy. However, American Airlines hadn't let them know that anyone was turning up so check in took ages as the guy behind the desk had to contact his boss to find out what to do.

We caught the hotel shuttle this morning back to the airport only to discover on arrival that the flight is already delayed by two hours.

At the moment, American Airlines aren't my favourite airline. They are disorganised and innefficient and the staff we have dealt with have been rude. It remains to be seen what time we will get home...

On our way home...

It's our last day in the USA. We asked the concierge for an idea of what to do today, as neither of us fancied another day of queueing in the hot sun - our original plan was to go to Universal Studios - and he suggested Dana Point about 45 mins to the south of LA.

We drove there and booked ourselves on a whale watching cruise. It was pretty good. In the two hours we were at sea we saw hundreds of flologina an three grey whales. The dolphins were really good. They came really close to the boat. The whales were further out but were still quite majestic as they crested through the water.

After the cruise was over, we had something to eat before driving the hour and a half or so trip to the airport, where we dropped off the rental car and caught the bus to the airport terminal.

So, that's where we are now, waiting for our gate to open to board the plane to take us home.

Disneyland

We were up early this morning and drove to Disneyland to be there when it opened at 8am.

We did pretty well getting on the rides we wanted and managed to do Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and others. The sun was hot and we got sunburned waiting for Space Mountain.

It took us three goes go get on Big Thunder Mountain as it kept braking down. When we did finally make it to the end of the queue, it broke down again on the ride after us!

It was a great last day of our holiday and we finished it by having a really nice meal in Catal in Downtown Disney and then watching the fireworks.

Disney Bound

After breakfast in the hotel, we wandered around Santa Barbara for a few hours before grabbing a Subway for lunch and picking up the car for the drive to LA.

The journey along 101 was uneventful although busy and we eventually arrived at our hotel which is a few miles from Disneyland.

After checking in and dumping our cases, we drove to the Disney parks and. Spent the afternoon in Downtown Disney, looking around the shops.

We bought our park tickets for tomorrow, but thinking about it, we would probably have been better to get a two day pass and spent the evening there as well.

We ate at a Mexican restaurant in DD (more huge portions - we left about half of it!) and then returned to the hotel, ready for our early start tomorrow.

Highway 1

We left Cambria and headed to San Luis Opisbo, about thirty miles south on Highway 1 where we were going to have breakfast before heading on to Solvang and Santa Barbara.

We found a nice little Mexican themed restaurant where I had Huevas Rancheros (beans, poached eggs and salsa) and Alicea had eggs and bacon. The Huevas Rancheros was quite nice, and not too spicy, which was good for brekky.

We left SLO and made our way to Solvang where we parked up and had a wander around. Initially, we were planning to stay here for the night, but decided that we would have some lunch here (including some aebleskivers - a local speciality which are a sort of cross between a pancake and a doughnut) and then make our way to Santa Barbara.

We arrived in Santa Barbara and booked into the same hotel we stayed in last time we were here and then walked down to the quay, where we stopped for some afternoon refreshment. We then wandered around the shops for a bit, and I then left Alicea to do some shoe-shopping while I borrowed a laptop from the hotel so I could check my email and write this blog entry.

We also booked a hotel for the last two nights of the holiday in Anaheim, so we can go to Disneyland and Universal Studios.

Shortly, we'll be popping out for dinner.

Return to Robin's

We went to a restaurant called Katy's Place for breakfast after reading about it last night. It does about a dozen, if not more, different types of eggs benedict and I chose one with mushrooms. It came with three poached eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and middubs all covered in hollandaise sauce accompanied by home fries. It was really nice and we figured that it would keep us going all day.

We then wandered around Carmel for a couple of hours before leaving for the drive to Cambria, our next stop. The drive down highway 1 was great, although in a couple of places, the sea mist made it difficult to see anything.

We stopped a couple of times, for coffee, petrol and to look at the elephant seals that were sunning themselves on the beach.

We arrived in Cambria mid afternoon and booked into a motel. The room is nice, it has a balcony and a fireplace. We dumped our stuff and walked around the shops. Cambria is quite nice with quite a few antique shops as well as the usual galleries and jewellery shops that most of the towns here have.

We went to Robin's to eat. We went there last time we were here and we were hoping that it would be as good. It was! We ended up chatting to the family on the table next to us who were going to Hearst Castle tomorrow. Their two children were chatting to Alicea about her old dogs and were pretty well behaved.

Once we had finished the meal, we left and walked back to the motel.

Highway One

We got up and had a continental breakfast and then drove from Yountville back to San Francisco, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We then took the scenic route through Presidio to the ocean and then joined Highway 1.

We then drove to Santa Cruz and took a stroll along the boardwalk. As we left the car park, there was a big bump on the back of the car. We pulled up and spoke to the guy behind who had hit us. Luckily there was no damage, but his girlfriend who was driving was pretty upset.

From there we drove to Carmel and booked into a motel and then walked into the town. We found a place to have lunch (huge sandwiches!) and did some shopping.

Carmel is a very quaint little town which reminds me a lot of the town in the Truman Show.

We popped back to the motel and phoned Robins in Cambria to book a table for dinner tomorrow night.

Shortly after we took a walk down to the beach to watch the sunset. There were loads of people there and the sunset was very pretty. From there we wandered back into the town and went to an Italian restaurant. We only had a starter and a salad each as we were both still full from lunch.

After that, we went back to the motel.

Perfect Anniversary

We woke early and packed our cases. We had breakfast delivered to the room and once that was finished we checked out.

Alicea was chatting to the doorman and discovered he was from Carmel one of our destinations and he gave us some places to stay and eat while we were there. He also told us of some good wineries in Napa.

We left our cases in reception and walked to the car rental place just up the road. Initially, they gave us a hatchback, which was no good as it had no cover over the boot. While they found is a new car, I went back to the hotel to get the cases and Alicea turned up shortly after in a Ford Taurus.

We made our way out of the city and towards Napa. The traffic wasn't too bad and we arrived in Yountville about 10am.

After booking into the hotel, we had a coffee and walked into the town. There is a food and drink festival here today, and they were just setting up.

We then made our way to the French Laundry restaurant for lunch. Wow! What a meal. The nine (plus various amuses, sorbets and petit fours) course menu was unbelievable and the service was perfect. At the end we got to look around the kitchen and we were given a huge Easter egg and other choccies and biccies.

We then went back to the hotel, where our room was now ready and got changed, before wandering down to the town to partake in the food and drink festival.

We had a tour around the French Laundry vegetable garden and tried various wines. We also won the raffle, which we donated to the staff at the French Laundry as we had such a great time there and we wouldn't be around to be able to claim the prize.

We then went back to the hotel.

Shopping

We went to Lori's Diner again for breakfast and then walked to the Ferry Terminal Building where there are lots of organic food shops. We stopped for a coffee there and then went to Bloomingdales where we wandered around the shops until lunchtime, Alicea trying to get me enthusiastic about buying a new coat, to no avail.

After that, we split up and I went back to the hotel, while Alicea wanted to do some more shopping.

Once Alicea got back we then made our way to Broadway and Columbus which is SF's "Little Italy". Alicea picked a restaurant and we had a nice salad. However, the main courses weren't that good. From there we walked back to the hotel, via more shops...

Haight Ashbury

We had breakfast at Lori's Diner, a great place we discovered last time we were here. It's a real "50's" theme place and the food is great too.

I went and bought a couple of pairs of jeans from the Levi's shop. Amazingly, I've dropped two sizes since last time I was here! I also picked up a copy of the Greens cookbook, which contains recipes from the restaurant we went to last night.

Then we wandered down to Market and caught the bus to Haight where we walked around the shops and grabbed some lunch. We then headed into Golden Gate Park, but came out as the people hanging around in there didn't appear to be that pleasant.

We caught the bus back to Market and headed into Bloomingdales where Alicea bought a ring.

From there we walked through to Chinatown and went to the Empress of China, a restaurant we went to last time we were here.

From there we went back to Union Square and did some more shopping before heading back to the hotel.

Flowers in our Hair

We were up early this morning to get a taxi to the airport. Once there we had something to eat and then wandered around the shops.

I really enjoyed New York and liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

The plane left for San Francisco pretty much on time. It was a six hour flight but seemed longer.

Once we arrived we caught a taxi to the hotel. The hotel looks good and is only a block or two from Union Square.

When we got to the room I called the French Laundry to confirm our booking for Saturday and then called Greens, a veggie restaurant, to make a reservation for the evening.

We then went shopping in Union Square (or at least Alicea did - I found a Subway as I was famished) and then we made our way to Greens. We went to the wrong pier to start with and had to get a trolleybus to nearer the restaurant.

The meal was really good, and the setting was lovely as the restaurant looks out over the harbour towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

When we had finished the meal we caught the bus back and then walked the last little bit back to the hotel.

Sooper Dooper

We caught the subway to Greenwich Village for breakfast and had porridge followed by eggs over-easy, home fries and toast.

Unfortunately the Village doesn't open until around 11am and we wanted to visit the Museum of Natural History, so we caught the subway to Times Square and then to the museum.

The museum is enormous and we spent several hours wandering around the various rooms of stuffed animals, artifacts and models. We also visited the planetarium. Then we made our way back to Times Square for something to eat. We went to an Italian restaurant which was nice, although Alicea left saying that she had eaten too much.

After a short wander around some shops we made our way to 42nd St to the theatre where we had tickets to see Young Frankenstein. It was great and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Once it was over we caught the subway back to the hotel where we booked a taxi to take us to the airport tomorrow before retiring to bed.

Happy St Paddy

Today is St Patrick's Day, and our plan was to walk to Central Park to view the parade from there.

We set off up Broadway, heading towards Times Square. It was pretty crowded, but quite a fun walk. Alicea was pretty impressed that when we got to Times Square, the top ad on the huge video screen billboard was for the Prudential!

We found somewhere for breakfast where I had an omellette and Alicea had scrambled eggs and we then walked through Central Park, emerging to look at the Dakota building, where John Lennon was shot.

We then walked up to the Museum of Natural History, ostensibly to use their toilets and to buy some camera batteries, but we decided that we would try and fit in a visit tomorrow.

We then walked back through the Park, taking in Strawberry Fields, an area dedicated to John Lennon, to 5th Avenue where the parade was due to go past. It was really cold, so we popped into a café in the Park for a drink and then returned to the parade route.

The parade itself was really impressive, with loads of pipe bands, soldiers, marines, police, firemen and local schools represented. Two hours later they were still going past!

Alicea was getting really cold so we decided to get some lunch. We went back to Grand Central Station to a restaurant situated un one of the balconies. From there, we went back to Times Square and booked a ticket for a Broadway show for tomorrow night.

Then we went to Macy's which is vast! I sat around while Alicea went clothes shopping.

From there it was back to the hotel to drop everything off and Alicea then went to get her nails done.

Once she gets back we'll decide what we are going to do for dinner.

Lady of Liberty

We slept okay, but woke early. My phone beeped with a message from my Mum & Dad asking if we were okay as they'd heard there was somekind of accident in New York. We hadn't heard anything so we switched the TV on to see reports of a crane collapsing on the East Side somewhere. I gave M&D a quick call to reassure them we were fine and we left the hotel to head for the nearest subway station.

Eventually, with the help of the woman in the ticket office we managed to buy a couple of tickets from the machine and got on a subway train heading the wrong way... We got off at the next stop and caught one going the right way, towards Battery park, where we were going to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Once we were there, we joined a queue, went through security checks and finally boarded the ferry.

We alighted at Liberty Island and joined the queue to go up the plinth on the Statue of Liberty. After more security checks we walked through quite an interesting museum and then climbed up the plinth.

At the top, you get some interesting views up inside the statue so that you can see the metal structure and the stairs that you used to be able to climb to the crown.

From there we had something to eat and then caught the ferry to Ellis Island.

Ellis Island used to be the immigration processing place and now is a museum dedicated to all the immigrants. We had an audio tour which was really good and quite emotional at times as the immigrants themselves told their stories.

From there we caught the ferry back to NY and then walked up to the South Street Seaport, a collection of shops and cafés on one of the piers. From there we walked to Chinatown and Little Italy looking for somewhere to eat.

Eventually we found a veggie restaurant in Chinatown called the House of Vegetarian. We had a selection of dishes, which were huge! We didn't eat more than about half of each dish, but they were quite nice, especially one called braised broccoli in brown sauce..

From there, we walked back to the hotel, through SoHo, Bolita, NoHo, and Gramercy stopping at a bar on the way where Alicea had what she said was the best g&t she had ever had!

From there, we walked back to our hotel.

So good they named it twice...

So, here we are in the Big Apple. We were up very early this morning to get to the airport to catch the 830 flight. It was all pretty uneventful, the flight was good and we arrived pretty much on schedule.

The queues at US immigration were huge and it took us about an hour to get through. Then we caught a yellow cab to the hotel.

We got a free upgrade to a better room at the hotel, which was good. The room is nice, not huge, but comfortable. Once we had dropped our stuff off we went for a walk.

Firstly we went to Grand Central Station, which is magnificent. The shops in there are pretty good too and there is a great food market.

From there we went to the Empire State Building and took the lift to the 86th floor and then up to the 102nd floor. The view was magnificent and we spent a little while up there hoping that the sun would set and we would see the city lit up. Unfortunately, the sun resolutely stayed in the sky so we made our way back to street level and headed back to the hotel as we were both really tired.

On the way we stopped at a taco restaurant for something to eat and drink before returning back to the hotel.

On the way home

We all breakfasted at the hotel, packed and checked out. We went to wait for the airport bus outside the Radisson hotel, just down the road. We then discovered that the New Years Day timetable didn't start until the afternoon. We went into the hotel and they ordered a taxi for us. In the end, the taxi cost the same as the bus would've done.

Once at the airport, we checked in using the auto check-in and fingerprint technology and sat in a café until our flight was called.

The flight was pretty smooth and once we had landed, we collected our bags and Alicea and I said goodbye to the rest of the group as they were off to Oslo before flying back tomorrow afternoon, whereas we were going to a hotel near the airport to make it easier to catch the plane tomorrow morning.

We caught the bus to the hotel and ate at the restaurant there before retiring for the night.

New Years Eve

We woke and met the others for beakfast and then went to explore the town of Tromso.

It's got quite a nice selection of shops and slices bought herself a coat in the sales.

We went back to the place we went yesterday to eat, and I had the veggie burger again. Then we returned to the hotel for a snooze before meeting with the others.

We met briefly with Steve who said that they'd booked a table in the hotel restaurant for 7pm.

We met up about half an hour earlier for a drink and then went to the restaurant. The restaurant was doing a buffet but we were also allowed to order from the menu and the chef did a mushroom pasta for us veggies, which was really nice.

At the end of the meal someone said that the Northern Lights had appeared so we went outside to look. They were really bright and swept through the sky, across the town and put over the harbour. After taking a few pictures we went back to one of the rooms for some drinks. Shortly after, Anna phoned to say that they were on the hotel roof and the lights were going "crazy".

We went up to the roof, where the hottub was, and it was very slippy. The lights were really good and occasionally rippled in the sky.

Eventually we left the hotel to head up the mountain where we were going to celebrate the New Year.

We walked to the cable car and went up to the mountain top. Surprisingly, there were no facilities up there other than a hut, that is normally a café. From there we could watch the fireworks going off in the town, which was quite amazing. At midnight, the fireworks on the mountain started. It was a really good display, and all the while the green band of the Northern Lights shone behind.

Once the fireworks had finished, Alicea, Caroline and myself joined the long queue for the cable car down the mountain. We walked back to the hotel, got a drink in the bar and waited until the others arrived, about half an hour later, before retiring for the night.