We're off to the Lake District for a week in September. Nothing else arranged yet as we are having building work done. We have spent the last few years going to some of the more out of the way places in the world to see the way the people live, and lived, there. I hope that we can manage to carry on doing it
We went to Padstow for the day and did touristy things such as had an ice cream. Our builders keep going abroad we must be paying them too much :D
we are going on holiday to Exmouth in Devon in July for 1 or 2 weeks, we will be camping in a tent with our 18 month old daughter
Went snowboarding in Austria in January. No plans for much this summer - got to fix the mortgage deal today! John bought me a day at Donnington racetrack with Honda, so got that to plan! Other than that, like Celia, it's the odd ice cream with the emmets! :D
Hi T. Oasis. We're looking to go to Sharm Next year. (Just love snorkelling!) Any tips? While we're there we would like to do some trips ( Masada, Petra etc), is this possible from there? Thanks in advance
HOLIDAY, Whats one of them, Haven't had one for 12 years or more. But if i could find an hotel that took me, hubby, 2 dogs, 27 chickens and 16 ducks, with no extra charge for the animals, I may just consider going. But i wouldn't settle, i'd be worried too much about the plot. :D
We went on a 2 night mini cruise from Dover to Guernsey in the Channel Islands last week. The main point of the exercise was to find out why everyone we meet says a cruise is such a great holiday. We still don't know why people like it. Firstly, we found out too late that this cruise had been advertised in the Sun newspaper, and there were many Sun readers from North Kent there. Not our sort of people. Secondly, and the main reason for our misery was the fact that we could not get away from noise. Every bar or shop had music of some sort playing, none of it to our taste, even the corridors had muzak playing over the tannoy. The messages over the ship's tannoy went on forever, but didn't give useful information, it was just irritating. At night the air conditioning mixed with the sound of the engines made it impossible to sleep. I was walking around the ship at 4 a.m. Had it been a hotel I would have checked out in the morning. Every bill had a 15% tip added automatically "for your convenience", personally I didn't find that very convenient. In England most people give tips for excellent service not just for a guy doing his job. Finally, although Norwegian, everything on the ship was aimed at the American market. Everything was priced in $ and even things like breakfast were done American style (sweet egg in bread), really ****py thin streaky bacon with 90% fat and American beers. They had Bass by the bottle, but couldn't find one they hadn't put in the fridge. Chilled Bass is not good, but better than Michelob, Coors etc. They kept running out of tea bags except for those horrid flavoured teas which they couldn't give away. All in all, it was miserable, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I tried to fill in a customer satisfaction form, but got fed up that there weren't enough spaces for phone number, postal code etc. I put on the form that if they only wanted comments from Americans why didn't they say? The highlight was finding Candie Gardens in St Peter's Port. Here are a few pictures. The Norwegian Dream (or nightmare, as I preferred to call it). Brugmansia in someone�s front garden Rhodos Bog garden Pond, masses of zantedeschias Does anyone know what this blue flower is? Note the leaves have three prongs. (solanum of some sort perhaps? Part of the Channel Islands, Herm The island of Sark.
Rich, sorry your cruise was not to your taste but your flowers are lovely. The blue flower is a Solanum laciniatum from Australia. I'm pleased to see the yellowing leaves as I had yellowing leaves and contacted the Australian National Botanic Gardens to ask for advice and their answer was they wished theirs had yellowing leaves and would die because they consider it a nuisance plant. Mine did die! :( They are all over Ventnor (IoW) Botanic Gardens (where mine came from) but kept trimmed they make a beautiful shrub.
Domestic holiday this july --- Northumberland --- will pack our winter clothes! Have just booked next year's in the States, Canyon tour and San Francisco
Sorry about the cruise Rich,having trouble trying to get my wife to cruise no chance now that she has seen your post :( . I second what LOL said about the flowers ,at least some good came from your trip. Not long for me now,Spain here we come! .
We're off to Spain in September. I could never see the point of cruising anyway. Who wants to spend a couple of hours walking round the dock areas of towns just to say you've been there.
Off touring around scotland for three weeks in a week or so. I am really looking forward to it. There is so much in this country that is lovely - and now I got the time, I am determing to see it - as well as revisiting some of the gems I know from the past.
Hi Rich I used to work on cruise liners. Some are fantastic and some are the pits. Unfortunately, if you don't know what to look for in a shipping company or what questions to ask you can end up with rubbish. You shouldn't let your bad experience put you off. There are plenty of websites that give advice on how to pick the right ship for you and I'm always happy to give advice to anyone on GC on how to look for the right kind of ship.
I like that,very amusing :D :D . Shiney is right in saying that one bad experience shouldn`t put you off. Probably be a long time before you consider doing it again me thinks
