Cornwall

On the recent Bank Holiday weekend we got up at stupid o'clock and jumped on the motorway and headed south and west to Cornwall to meet Bel, Andrew and William, and Seeph and Michelle.

We'd hit some traffic trouble on the way down (which meant it took closer to 6 hours than 5) so we arranged to meet the rest of the crew at the Eden Project. The Eden Project is a series of Biomes located in an abandoned quarry, filled with plants and trees from ecosystems ranging from the UK, through Mediterranean, all the way to Amazonian and African rainforest. The setting is incredible, like something from Mars, and the environment in each Biome felt like you were really there...

This was all once a bare abandoned quarry - about 10 years ago, in fact...

Now there are towering biomes filled with tropical and mediterranean plants

The girls in the gardens

The boys facing off with a monster representing all of the waste that they would produce in their lifetimes...

From there, we headed back to our hotel in Mevagissey. The other guys had warned us that we were staying in a pirate village...we'd thought nothing of it, but every shop had pirate flags flying and we began to wonder. When we got to the harbour, there really were pirates - or at least people re-enacting pirate lifestyles, lead by Captain Deadeye Jack (who even had his own shop). The town was hosting a pirate festival, the pubs had pirate karaoke and the restaurants had special pirate menus. But even without the pirates, Mevagissey was a great town, with great seafood and a really nice vibe, and our B&B (Tregoney House) was a great base.

Pirates on the waterfront at Mevagissey

Sunday dawned as perhaps one of the nicest days we've seen in our time in the UK, and we made the most of it. Our first stop was the fort/abbey at the top of St Michael's Mount, which was accessible because we'd timed it right at high tide. Half of every day it is an island, the other half it is joined to the beach by a narrow causeway. It has been like this for nearly a millennia, and as a result has had an interesting history and a big part to play in many of the wars which have taken place in this part of the world over the years.

Bel, Andrew, William, Seeph, Michelle, Sarah and Stephen at the top of St Michael's Mount

From here we travelled further round the coast (past Penzance, where we resisted the urge to tell the world about our aptitude as a modern major general) to the Minnack Theatre, an open-air theatre which has been carved into the cliff-face. The shows there were sold out, but we were fortunate enough to stumble on the rehearsals for their performance of Evita so we settled in for a while to watch.

I stole this photo from their website because we forgot our camera - imagine this, but with even fewer clouds, and an amateur theatrics society doing Evita on the stage

But we couldn't come all this way just to turn back, so we moved on to Land's End, the South-Western-most part of Great Britain. There isn't much here except for a rather tame amusement park and a sign which points to New York and John O'Groats (the Northern-most point) - but it is nice to say that we'd been.

We travelled back to Mevagissey via the B3306 - which "Whats on South West" calls one of the most romantic spots in Britain, and was certainly a stunning drive - all rolling hills, cliffs and exposed rocky outcrops. It was a bit hair-raising at times, as well, since there really wasn't room for two cars at once in some places...I was very grateful that Seeph was driving.

We spent that night back in Mevagissey, dinner and then drinks with the whole crew (including William - although he slept through most of it)...but it couldn't be too late a night since we wanted to get an early start the next morning to beat the traffic.

Cornwall is a beautiful part of England and well worth the visit...and we would have loved to have more time there - if we had the chance we wouldn't have just gone there for the three days but instead would have stretched it longer, since 5 hours each way is a long way to go for a weekend!

London Marathon

This weekend saw the London Marathon wind its way through the city's streets, including a large swathe of Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs. It even went past our street, so given that this is the first year we've been in town for it we got some prime viewing positions (it wasn't too far to carry our folding chairs, which made the contrast with the sweaty hordes even more ironic). A few choice photos below:

The lead men - who were all running faster than I could run 400m, let alone 42km

What you can't see is that she is talking on her mobile phone inside the suit

These guys were all roped together - i guess that is one way to stay motivated (spot all the empty bottles on the ground...we were next to one of the water stations

A lot of the guys in costumes were fundraising

I wanted to go give these guys a donation, but it looked heavy enough as it is!

These were easily my favourite fundraising couple - they must have been 50 at least but still going strong

Carcassonne for Easter (with Kylie and Anthony)

We've had a long break between holidays, but Easter finally arrived, and with it (plus a couple of extra days) a trip to the South of France (which always sounds exotic to Australians, but a little ho-hum to English people - go figure!).

Kylie and Anthony (friends of ours who we first met in Australia) picked us up from Carcassonne airport on their way back from a few days in Biarritz and San Sebastian and together we went to our rented house in the village of Pexiora. Pexiora isn't much to look at, to be fair (there are only 500 or so people in the village - but it does at least have a grocer and a boulangerie), but the house was great inside, and we were welcomed with a basket of bread, cheese and ham, along with a bottle of Blanquette Limoux, a local sparkling wine which claims to be the original (Dom Perignon stole the recipe on his way to Champagne).

Enjoying some sunshine in the back garden of the house

On the day of our arrival (Thursday), the sun was shining and the weather was warm, so we decided to rent some bikes and make our way from Bram (the closest large town) along the canal as far as we could in the few hours remaining. We managed to get 2/3rds of the way to Castelnaudry, where the canal opens up into the only large marina on its length from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, before having to turn back. It was a beautiful, relaxing ride in late afternoon sun, and a great way to kick off the holiday.

Bram port, our starting point for our ride

Action shot - Tour de France we weren't

Pausing to enjoy the view

Our finishing line - there was a house like this at every one of the locks (there are 65 all told on the Canal du Midi)

Friday dawned a little greyer, and prompted us to take to the car for a day's exploring to the South and East. We started in the town of Limoux to visit the market, and pick up fresh food and cheese for the night's dinner. From there we wound our way down through 'Cathar country', hilly terrain near the border of the old kingdoms of France and Aragon where the Cathars (a group of religious heretics) had made their last stand before being wiped out. Their legacy is in a series of dramatic ruined hilltop castles (although technically they didn't build the castles and the ruin is more from the passage of time than from any battle that took place there). We climbed Peyrepertuse, one of the castles, and were rewarded by spectacular views and a real sense of history.

Entering the castle

Kylie and Anthony inside the castle (not that anywhere was really inside, because none of it had a roof)

A shot from the most distant corner of the castle looking back

On the way back we stopped off at a few of the vineyards that we passed - and picked up a great selection of wines for dinner and, since it seemed to be the speciality of the region, wines for dessert (which went down very well over great food and great conversation that night).

Unfortunately, on Saturday the weather rolled in - as our landlord put it when he delivered more firewood, beau temps pour chiens (good weather for dogs). Fortunately we were able to put that firewood to good use, and spend the afternoon playing 500 (boys vs girls) and finding a good restaurant in which to celebrate Sarah's birthday. In the end, we settled on Domaine Gayda, a fantastic restaurant attached to a vineyard about 20 minutes from where we were staying. We initially got lost looking for the place, but once we got there and enjoyed about four hours, seven courses and some fantastic (and cheap!) wine from their cellar we felt that Sarah's birthday had been celebrated as it deserved.

Outside the restaurant

Kylie and Anthony at dinner

Cheers! (with local wine, no less)

Sunday the weather was still bad, but since it was Kylie and Anthony's last day we braved the rain to visit Carcassonne, a World Heritage listed site which has housed a fortress since around 500 A.D. (although the current site was built around 1250 and re-constructed in the 1800s). The site featured in 'Robin Hood, Prince of Theives' and, even through the gloom, was breathtaking in size and completeness.

The girls taking refuge from the rain

Inside the walls, Carcassonne could have been any other medieval town

But from the outside it would have looked impregnable

We dashed from cover to cover to miss the worst of the rain (made easier by the fact that it is more of a town filled with shops and restaurants, than a defensive fortress), and made our way into the inner bastion, which had great views back over the rest of the castle and the cathedral.

Monday, Kylie and Anthony headed off to Paris and we went for a drive to Toulouse (which was almost a ghost town since Monday after Easter is the big French public holiday, and since I'm pretty sure no locals will read this - was just another European city). We then headed south towards the Pyrenees, ending up in the town of Foix. Unlike the area around the Dordogne, where we visited last year, this part of France felt quite tired and industrial - the towns looked a little greyer, and the landscape less lush (more like the parts of Spain that we have visited). Around Foix, as we started to get into the foothills of the Pyrenees, the lush green began to return, and we felt that it if we'd continued then it would have begun to become beautiful, but the failing light made us turn back.

Stephen outside the Capitol building in Toulouse

The town of Foix, with the castle up above

Unfortunately, that marked the end of our French adventure. It was great to be out in the countryside, enjoying the 'real France', where a bit of the language and a lot of sign language was necessary (rather than everyone speaking English) and where we could savour the fantastic local produce (not to mention the sightseeing).

Natalie's Visit

Reflecting back over what we have put up on the blog I have realised my slackness and that I did not write a post for when Natalie came to visit late last year (just prior to Croatia). During this time we enjoyed being tourists in London before heading over to Paris on the Eurostar. Below are a few of the best photos - but as you can imagine we did everything from seeing Buckingham Palace to climbing the Eiffel Tower. I think we have both taken away some wonderful memories from the trip and the photos below just show some of the highlights.......

Natalie at Big Ben in London

Celebrating with Phil at his birthday party (yes it was a dress up party)

Visiting Belinda and Baby William

Meeting up with Jess and Pete just after they got engaged

Retail therapy at Harrods

Visiting the Queen

London Eye and the Embankment

Leeds Castle

Oxford

Eiffel Tower

Louvre

Sacre Cour

Houston

Following Prague I found myself travelling to Houston (Texas) for 3 weeks for work. Although we did not have a huge amount of free time I did get to an ice hockey game (the entertainment throughout the game really added to the atmosphere) and also hit one of the big shopping centres to do my bit to prop up the economy. The other highlight for me was some of the food – one South American restaurant had meat cooked on a spit that they walked around and offered you. Absolutely delicious!!! Sadly did not make it down to NASA this time around however as I know that is somewhere Stephen wants to do too I am sure we will make it back at some point……

Prague

Wow – hard to believe it is already April and gosh we have started to get slack with blog entries! It is definitely not because we have not been active, but rather the fast pace of life has been taking its toll.

Reflecting back since we last wrote…I have had a wonderful long weekend in Prague with Belinda. It was about 2 months ago now, so right in the heart of winter, but that did not stop us from having a great time. Some of the main highlights were:

• The castle in Prague. Very fairytale like sitting up on the top of a hill looking down across the rest of the city. We also went to classical music performance while we were visiting the castle which was very relaxing.

Prague Castle

One of the cathedrals within the Castle

• A walking tour of the city. The architecture in the centre of city was beautiful and area around the river very pretty. We loved stopping in at all the toy stores (with these amazing wooden puppets) and the bohemia crystal stores (although shame about the weight as we saw lots of things we wanted to buy but would have cost too much to get home). We also stumbled across some interesting pieces of art.

Belinda on our walking tour

The view of the city

The interesting artwork

• We stayed in a very good hotel which was a short trip on the (very efficient) metro into the centre of town. We had a great time using the indoor heated pool (with a lovely view of the city) and sauna.

• The cuisine. As well as finding some lovely patisseries, we also sampled a number of dishes (e.g. goulash and dumplings). Yum!

Suffolk for the weekend

Life has been kinda crazy here in London since we got back from Australia...Sarah has had a trip to Prague with Bel (a subject for another post) and has also had a work trip to Texas, so when we finally got a weekend together with nothing else planned, I seized the chance to plan a weekend away in the countryside.

To avoid the chaos of crossing London, I looked to the east of England, and found that Suffolk was a green, countryside county full of quaint medieval villages - sounded perfect.

We started our trip at Ickworth, a National Trust property created by an eccentric, wealthy Earl-Bishop featuring a huge central rotunda and sweeping curved galleries filled with marble columns and artwork - a most intriguing design.

Our photo is out of focus, so this one is courtesy of National Trust

Next stop was Bury St Edmund, which was named after the King (later Saint) Edmund who was buried here after being martyred by the Danes. The abbey founded in his honour was eventually pulled down (during the dissolution of the monasteries), but the area it once occupied is now a park and a beautiful garden. The scale of it is immense; the town's rather large cathedral (which is fascinating as it is in a gothic style, but the tower only went up in 2000 and the cloisters still arent finished) only fills one small corner of the Abbey's area.

Our final stop was Lavenham, where we were staying. Lavenham was once one of the 20 richest settlements in Medieval England, but appears frozen in time (except for the cars and tarmac, of course). The wool trade which sustained it dried up, and as a result it remains a town of half-timbered tudor buildings plus a beautiful (but perhaps over-sized for a town of 2000 people) church.

The Greyhound in Lavenham - a picture-perfect pub just around the corner from the B&B

In one of the (slightly less wonky) half-timbered buildings is the Priory B&B, which has five individually decorated rooms, all with four poster beds, exposed beam ceilings and the feel of an earlier era (but the comfort of the modern one!). We loved it...

The painted chamber, our room at the Priory

We'd had all sorts of plans of doing something else touristy on the Sunday, but it was sunny outside and we were so relaxed that we just sat in the park and read - it really is great to get away from it all...