Author: admin (Page 22 of 33)

Euro Tour 3 – Berlin to Prague

3 August 2017 / admin

Tuesday 25 July 2017

It is still raining this morning so we remain in the hotel until our lunchtime departure. The time is used firstly to get an internet connection. Euro roaming is now within my monthly data cap which means I can use my phone as a hot spot. Then using the Flickr app I can upload photos and progress is made! It is not as elegant as the old app on the old phone which could do it direct from the photo gallery app without involving the Flickr app. I probably should investigate another app for the photo gallery; it would be particularly good if the app could load an entire sub directory of photos on the phone straight into an album as I move photos from the two cameras to the phone before uploading.

Our train is electrically hauled (the station in Berlin is dark and the photos cannot be used) and feels similar in some respects to BR mark 2 stock but obviously benefiting from the larger loading gauge. 2+2 seating or three aside in second class compartments (and yes they do still have compartments). I did not go forward to identify the arrangements in first class. Some airline seating is used for half of the coach. The trains are loaded with a lot of rucksack carrying “students” – presumably on interrail or similar.

The area of Germany through which we are passing is fairly flat and agricultural as we head south. Throughout Germany there is none of the advertised wifi on the train; magically once we enter the Czech Republic everyone’s phones connect (much pinging everywhere) and we are all catching up with the rest of the world. The occupants of neighbouring seats (who are also on our tour) appear not to be able to get The Archers as they complain about not being up to date. It seems odd as I believe BBC Radio iPlayer should allow downloads – and certainly my podcast downloads work; I do not admit to having the episodes concerned! One of our fellow tour travellers is listening to operatic music (on headphones) and humming along (slightly tunelessly) to the sounds which emanate to the wider world. It is a pity really as if the opera had not been imposed on us I could have been making copies of The Archers available. I am mean!

Catering on board appeared limited; I think I had the only two sandwiches on the train (which reminds of the situation on the train to Portland last year). As we progress through the first part of the Czech Republic we are following the river Elbe and the scenery is rather more attractive. Then the sun comes out which is more cheering before we are once again passing through wide open farming countryside. It darkens again before we arrive, although it does not rain.

When we arrive I have a brief moment to take photos of some colourful local trains.

The Hotel Diplomat is functional although some of the decoration upstairs might need slight refurbishment. We are a little way out of the main city. However we do have a great view of Prague Cathedral from our window which looks like this:

The hotel does not register a credit card – so it is all pay as you go. At least there will be little delay settling the bill.

Dinner on the first floor is a buffet, for me tomato soup, beef stew, not spicy. Finished off by some local cheeses. It is a decent improvement on the buffet in Berlin as the selection is far more varied. Then early to bed as we have to be away from the hotel at 08:15 apparently.

Euro Tour 2 – Berlin

2 August 2017 / admin

Monday 24 July 2017

Breakfast is a little like dinner the previous night and is inevitably a buffet. It is good on all of the cold options but a little lacking in variety on cooked items. Several styles of egg, but only one type of sausage and no bacon! Good coffee though (but not perhaps damn fine coffee).

This morning is a three hour coach tour of the major local sites in Berlin. Our first stop is at the short remaining portion of the Berlin Wall seeing it from the now decorated eastern side. The decoration is explained here. Although the Wall has been largely removed the route it followed through Berlin is delineated throughout the city by a twin strip of pebbles which marks the space it occupied through the streets.

Moving onwards our next halting point is the remnant of the infamous Checkpoint Charlie – really just a photo opportunity. As the tour continues we briefly move into the former Allied occupied sector (West Berlin) which in the period between 1961 and 1989 saw many of the facilities in the former city become duplicated – two zoos, two opera houses etc. We are driven through the Tiergarten before a stop at the Brandenburg Gate, that great symbol of Berlin. It was here that the television scenes of the people dismantling the wall in 1989 were so powerful as the former East Germany effectively collapsed – along with much of the Communist system as we have previously seen in south east Asia.

We return to the hotel and try to upload some photos but the software on my phone simply does not seem to want to do as instructed. This Lenovo / Motorola has different software to my beloved Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and this is the first time I have tried uploading on it. Another learning curve to reach the right solution. (The right new way of doing uploads was eventually identified!).

The photographs from this morning are here.

Then we wander out the same way as yesterday and find a restaurant selling curry wurst. We share a small portion consisting of a sausage, pronounced dodgy by Jackie, covered in ketchup which has been slightly spiced. Jackie largely eats the fries and sauce whilst I eat the sausage.

Our restaurant was at the rear of the catholic cathedral and from there it is a simple meander into the Museum Quarter which we do emerging by the Opera House, opposite which they have just started rebuilding a former palace which will become the Humboldts Museum.

The photographs taken during this meander are here.

In the evening we again walk over to the TV tower and after some problems with tickets we make it to the revolving restaurant for our planned dinner. Over about an hour we steadily rotate watching Berlin beneath us. It seems that during the sixties many cities believed having a rotating restaurant way up a tower was a very good idea. Only the BT Tower in London seems to fail to appreciate that it remains a good idea! Views across the city are good and we can see down to the Brandenburg gate and the river Spree beneath us is also busy. My photos are here.

This is my rather nice main course of Stone Bass.

When we emerge the promised rain has arrived – but it is only a spattering as we walk back to the hotel and into the ground floor bar again. This time due to a lack of normal seats we remove our shoes and sit in the padded cabin area previously mentioned. Certainly comfortable enough to go to sleep.

Time to move on tomorrow.

Euro Tour 1 – to Berlin

1 August 2017 / admin

Sunday 23 July 2017

This is one of those holidays which has long been on the to do list – a variation on the usual Prague / Vienna / Budapest excursions as our first destination is the city of Berlin with onward travel being by rail. Tour operator is Rail Discoveries – the secondary brand of Great Rail Journeys.

The taxi is with us at home at 05:15 for our journey to Heathrow T5. We manage to avoid the long queue at Group check in as Jackie flashes her BA card and we are moved to a non-existent queue at Club check in (my BA membership has now dropped back to Blue status but thankfully they let me check in with her!).

We head through security and now we wait for the plane. Breakfast is taken at Huxleys which is a new outlet (to us) I think. Then downstairs for a wander through duty free, £20 saving on an iPad does not seem a huge amount, and trade in will provide a better net cost. Even though we are at terminal 5 there is no opportunity to ride the shuttle service as we are going from an “A” gate. I have still not been to the “C” gates.

We board the plane and as it is not full we are pleased to have three seats for the two of us so more comfortable than usual, greatly improved by the delivery of a glass of champagne each from the front of the plane courtesy of Angela and delivered by Mark. Thank you very much BA.

On time arrival in Berlin then a wait for our luggage. The coach loads and we are soon at the Alexander Park Inn and the sandwiches from Boots are consumed once we are in our room on the 24^th floor as a late lunch.

The weather is much better than anticipated. We descend to Alexandersplatz and walk under the adjacent railway line to the bottom of the TV tower which dominates the area. We go a little further to see Neptune’s fountain, the town hall and the old but rebuilt church. During this holiday we will be slightly restricted as Jackie is suffering from bad sciatica which is limiting the distances she can walk. I will try not to mention it again.

The photos of this are here.

On our return to the hotel (Park Inn by Radisson) we head to the Panorama bar at the top of the building for a couple of drinks and to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine. Not an attractive space in itself – but then the building was originally a Soviet era accommodation for Comecon officials. There was a very expensive refurbishment in 2001 to bring it up to modern standards – we are deep in former East German Berlin. However I can get some views of the obviously very flat city which stretches in all directions from this point.

We rejoin the group for buffet dinner in the main restaurant with an excellent selection of starters, the main course is slightly less inspired but the cheese selection was also excellent. This was followed with a coffee in the ground floor bar (which had a very odd soft bed like “compartment” which we did not try) where we chat to some of the others on the tour.

Salcombe – the Jetty – and Home

1 June 2017 / admin

Thursday 25 May 2017

The sun is out again as we again drive down to Salcombe for lunch at the Jetty which is part of the Alex Aitken chain which has appeared out of almost nowhere in the last couple of years. We went to the Jetty in Guildford (it is also in a Harbour Hotel; as far as I know there are no actual jetties or harbours in Guildford) about a year ago and if anything this meal is better.

The sun is beating down and we choose to sit indoors in the air conditioning but the outside tables are fairly well occupied and allow us people watching time – and some possible cases of sunburn (no hat or cream hence our choosing indoor seats). Parking at the Harbour Hotel can be tight – but I think we got away with it!

This is my starter which is a Taste of Salcombe Crab and very tasty it was too. A good start to the meal.

Jackie had this stunning looking crayfish and prawn combination to start. I am told it was tasty.

This is my main course – a nice piece of sea bream on spring vegetables and risotto.

And here is Jackie’s main course of fish and chips which does look rather good.

Food photographs once again come from Jackie’s resourceful iPhone – much better than the two of us both trying to out photograph each other!

Now it is time for the drive home. I follow the road signs rather than have the sat nav telling me what to – so do not take the most direct route (which would probably have been faster). Instead we wind back to Buckfastleigh and rejoin the main road. This twisty bit follows the South Devon Railway which we visited at the start of the holiday and although I hear a steam engine we have no sighting of it! We swap driving duties at Exeter and then again near Salisbury Plain.

However there is another reason for coming home a night early – apart from getting a better night’s sleep. One of our guest dogs is coming to stay this evening and we are at home to greet him rather than our daughter doing the honours.

Distance from home to Salcombe is about 190 miles and we did some driving around narrow back roads (and some main roads) so total mileage was probably around 500 miles for this particular holiday.

Next up is a tour through large chunks of Europe which is largely by train!

Dartmouth

31 May 2017 / admin

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Much brighter and a lot warmer today – so we can have the top down on the TT as we head over to Dartmouth which is on the eastern side of this particular piece of sticking out part of South Devon. We know we have visited Dartmouth several times before, once staying in an apartment which was over an early Easter weekend in March (when I did not have to work, in April it was always year end work) and we used the Dartmouth Steam Railway for a return trip to Paignton. We also had a second visit staying in a nearby hotel when we went to John Burton-Race’s Angel restaurant, now closed. Both trips were with Stephanie.

When we arrive in Dartmouth the main car park is full but we manage to find a parking space on the road – but we are only allowed two hours; we rather hope that the wardens will not be around today. We walk to Mitch Tonks’s restaurant – “The Seahorse” – as our lunchtime destination.

We have asparagus (sparrow grass) to start. Fresh as it is the asparagus time of year with a very nice sauce as shown on the left.

To the right is Jackie’s main course of hake.

I have a whole John Dory which was a nice piece of fish. As usual Jackie asked that I do something about the eye which is watching her eat as it always unnerves her and the lemon was placed over it! The entire fish comes very cleanly off the bone.

Courgette fritti (pictured) and some new potatoes accompany the fish. Knowing we will eat some cheese later we decide not to have a dessert. An excellent meal, well presented in great surroundings.

On the way back to the car I go to the newsagents and try to tell Jackie where I am going but she does not hear me. She then “loses” me as I am in the newsagent (I can see her but cannot shout). As the counter staff are making slow progress serving anyone (I recall a line of pensioners who do not seem to realise that they need money to pay for their purchases!). I dump the paper back on the rack and I am just about back to her as my phone rings asking where I am!

We steadily head back to Challaborough – Jackie is unhappy at the uncomfortable bed in the caravan and we reach a conclusion that we should head home early tomorrow after lunch.

Salcombe

30 May 2017 / admin

Tuesday 23 May 2017

We do not sleep overly well. This is not unusual for the first night in a strange bed – but the bed does not feel comfortable. There is of course the usual restricted space in a caravan around the bed (it is almost impossible to get to the “wrong” side, which is my side) and the thin pillows mean my head is not high enough so my neck hurts. There is however a nice view out of the caravan across the park to the adjacent hillside and to the right we can see the sea as we are quite elevated over the main site. You win some and you lose some!

We are off out this morning for breakfast at the Winking Prawn on the water front in Salcombe. It is found without too much difficulty and we arrive just before the self service breakfast is available – so we have a few minutes wait. A nice substantial breakfast and my third cooked breakfast in less than a week, so it will not help the supposed diet!

Not as bright today as expected so we drive into Salcombe itself, park and find a newsagent to buy a couple of items. Then meander up and down the High Street – and get away before our one hour parking expires. Whilst I have been here before a long time ago I do not really remember the town at all.

There are some photos here.

Our next destination is the Sharpham Estate shop as we plan to buy some cheese. Being lunchtime we have a glass of wine as well as you do. Beautiful scenery along the Dart estuary towards Totnes as we drop down into the estate – which took some finding along some back roads.

Our return route takes us through some more of the outstanding scenery as we initially head towards Totnes and then swing west before reaching the town and tracking back towards Challabrough for a quiet afternoon resting.

We do some reading before we head out in the evening to the Millbrook Inn at South Pool which once again is a little bit of a drive along some narrow roads to reach our destination. The route requires that we have to go through Kingsbridge, then cross Bowcombe Creek, pass the end of the Frogmore Creek (as it is not bridged) and the pub is at the end of the South Pool Creek – all these creeks are part of the Kingsbridge estuary.

The pub dining room has a fire – not too near us – but the room goes from hot (doors closed) to cold (doors open) very quickly. Anyway to the very good food – with Jackie’s photos as usual (I cannot quite bring myself to take photos in a restaurant):

My warm duck gizzard, pigs feet and other nice things!

And we get home in the day light despite the tiny back roads we are using!

Devon and the South Devon Railway

29 May 2017 / admin

Monday 22 May 2017

With the football season over we can take a holiday without missing a match – so this is an inexpensive Monday to Friday break.

We are taking another cheap(ish) and this time short holiday. It is Monday to Friday courtesy of the Daily Mail special offer which including a few extras has cost about £80 for a caravan at Challaborough which is on the coast on the western side of the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, west of Kingsbridge and south of Ivybridge.

Unfortunately we are badly held up on the M3 due to an accident near Basingstoke. Heading west means the dear old A303 and it is a bright sunny morning which is a great start to any holiday but as we were held up we have to move along at the speed limit. As it is on the way to our eventual destination I have planned a trip on what is now known as the South Devon Railway but when I first visited the line in the late sixties it was known as the Dart Valley Railway. When we do arrive Jackie is unimpressed by the catering offering as she gets some sandwiches for us to eat during our rail journey.

The railway looks nothing like that early visit or even a subsequent trip in the early nineties. On that first trip it was possible to walk around the out of use stock and nothing was undercover. Like other preserved railways, it can no longer pretend to be a quiet bucolic branch line as patronage is now, even on a sunny but non-holiday Monday, vastly greater than the passenger numbers pre-closure.

The trains now run to Totnes Riverside and here the changes are even more dramatic; flower beds on the platform and sign posts to attractions as well as clear routes to the mainline railway; I don’t think we even went that far on the first visit. Working of the branch line into Totnes itself proved too costly and the railway retrenched to their own station. My photos of the railway are here.

With the return train trip completed we motor on from Buckfastleigh, more south than west to our destination at Challaborough Bay Holiday Park. This is at the end of some narrow roads so we get quite close to the hedges and with traffic coming the other way keep needing to find reverse gear. And of course sometimes it is walls and not hedges so even more care is needed, especially with a couple of blind corners!

In the evening we dine at the Oyster Shack. Finding it requires travelling along some very narrow roads, one of which is called Tidal Road alongside the edge of River Avon – and there is water across the road at various points.

I started with some breaded whitebait and here is my main course of crab linguine with spring vegetables which was very nice.

Jackie wanted hake but there was none available. In its place she had yummy cod:

And to ensure we knew we were at the seaside here is the ice bucket:

Photos come once again from Jackie’s camera.

We find a slightly different route back with a few less back roads!

Paphos Archaeological Park

12 April 2017 / admin

Sunday 1 April 2017

Tomorrow we go home but first we have a major historical site to visit and it is within walking distance! Jackie came here on a previous visit and was brought by coach – from the Anabel at the other end of the sea front – but did not go via the direct route!

Most of the Paphos Archaeological Park relates to excavations of Roman remains and typically dates from the first century AD when the Roman empire was at its greatest strength.

As the photos show here, as in Sicily and also in recent discoveries at Silchester, the high quality of the floor mosaics stands out. It feels like there was a competition in progress between various rich Romans to demonstrate their individual wealth through the mosaics used in the flooring.

The photos are here.

The overall site is huge and many of the mosaics are covered at this time of year – there is obviously much more here than is on display at the time of our visit as a number of displays have explanation boards but the mosaics are covered by a layer of small stones (probably covering some protective plastic sheeting). Some of the best mosaics are now under cover of buildings and this process will no doubt continue as money becomes available.

The Park is also close to the castle and the restaurants around the remaining port area (commercial port operations have all moved to Limassol). Down in this area someone is playing music loudly which is carrying up to us as we inspect the Saranta Colones castle. We had not really noticed it but then they play “Somewhere over the Rainbow” – a piece we always associate with our daughter Stephanie and which I always feel means she is somewhere close by keeping an eye on what we are doing.

We cover only some of the site – it would take much longer to see the entirety if all of the mosaics were on display – in about two hours during the morning – and we feel a few spots of rain so assume it means it is lunchtime. But in fact all we get are those few spots!

Lunch is taken in one of the many restaurants along the harbour seafront – and there is plenty of choice both of restaurant and then on the menus themselves.

We wander back to the hotel and try and enjoy a little sunshine; although the sun is there it is perhaps not quite warm enough as we might like.

Off home tomorrow so we pack cases this evening. In the morning after breakfast we leave them locked away before heading into Paphos for one last meal before it is time to return to the airport. Elephant are on the case this time to recover the car (the damage from the concrete ball seems to go unnoticed). BTW I did not hit the concrete ball – we merely found it near the car and with evidence that someone had rolled it there – not easily as it was heavy and nor could we identify where the ball had been before it was moved as there were no missing balls!

And we arrive home early on Monday morning. Next up is a short trip to Devon but with more posts than this.

Trip to Troodos

11 April 2017 / admin

Tuesday 28 March 2017

One of the reasons for hiring a car was so that we could do at least one trip to visit the Troodos Mountains which are no great distance from Paphos.

The car has sat nav, there are maps on the internet and there are road signs – what could possibly go wrong? Nothing does go wrong, I am pleased to report and we have an interesting trip.

We take the main road eastwards out of town and after a few miles there is a sign for Troodos Mountains so we take that exit and now the road seems to go uphill from time to time, although a lot of it seems flat. We pass through some rolling farming countryside and not much other traffic so an easy drive.

We follow some signs and we get onto some real back roads, including finding a bridge between two valley roads which really is single track. In accordance with our initial aim we find ourselves in Omodos which Jackie confirms she has visited before on a coach trip. A cup of coffee is needed. As we wander around the village we spy a couple of reasonable looking restaurants but it is a little early for us to take lunch. But at least one of them has rooms so we could come to Cyprus again and stay for two nights eating in both! There are also some interesting looking art shops and so on as we wander round – coach trips obviously stop here.

We carry on reaching Plano Platres at lunchtime where again there are a number of restaurants. We park in the main car park and we are supposed to pay and display. But we cannot get change from the Tourist Information so cannot pay for long enough. We ask a couple of times but are told that the car park only tends to get checked in the peak of the summer season and indeed we do not get a parking ticket. Always makes me nervous though if I do not pay enough for parking.

We have lunch in Skylight which is a huge restaurant – presumably with very heavy demand in summer from coach parties – it also has a swimming pool! As with all meals the Greek salad which comes is almost a meal in itself and we keep forgetting this – we really need to order one to share between us but don’t! Here is Jackie’s picture:

I had a better meal than Jackie. Our waitress (and possibly part owner?) originally came from Leeds but had been in Cyprus for many years.

The car is unclamped when we return to the car park and we head on up to Troodos which is the highest point around here. We pass snow/ice blocks by the side of the road as we ascend – it has not yet all melted at this time of year.

My few photographs of the day are here. Mainly Omodos and the view from Troodos when we briefly stop. It is definitely a lot cooler up here than down by the coast.

The journey from here is inevitably downhill and we are heading in the direction of Limassol as we use different roads to those used on the outward journey. What feels different about this journey is that I can tell we are going down, going down and down and definitely down all the time we are moving. This morning it was not so obvious we were ascending, but this feels relentless – constant use of brakes and so on.

We reach the outskirts of Limassol and then pick up the main road westwards back to Paphos. A very nice day trip. We know we did not see all the sights (missed waterfalls and so on) – but it is all part of an excuse to return here in the future.

One more post to come on our Cyprus trip.

Paphos Cyprus

10 April 2017 / admin

Sunday 26 March to Monday 3 April 2017

A cheap week away in the sunshine. There will be this post on the holiday and then two more – one on our trip to the Troodos Mountain and another on our visit to the Archaeological Park in Paphos.

The holiday is cheap because we travelling on Air Miles (or Avios Points as they are known these days) reflecting a pay back for our trip to Australia. We have merely paid the taxes and the flights are “free”. Jackie has been to Cyprus previously with Veronica and stayed at the Annabel, so she should know her way around and where we need to go.

We are not staying at the Annabel but across the road and round the corner in the Anemi which is a little less expensive. But first we have to get there and Elephant who are supplying our hire car are not waiting for us. A lady from another company enables us to make a phone call and they turn up with the car and we are off. It is now after 10 and we know the hotel locks up at 11. We make it! We do take a wrong turn as the final part is a paved area and it is not obvious it is a road to take. The sat nav then takes us round in a circle to get us to the right place!

The area around the pool is in reasonable order and from the outside it is clear that some rooms in the hotel have been refurbished as the external windows have been changed – and it is equally obvious that the refurbishment work has not yet reached our end of the hotel. It is therefore a little old and a little worn but the owners are obviously re-investing as the funds become available. We are there for B&B only and we have a small kitchen area as it is an apart-hotel. Towards the end of our stay we do establish that the main restaurant can serve a decent evening meal (and entertainment).

To Jackie the biggest surprise is that we can walk out of the hotel and along on to the main strip and there is a profusion of restaurants from which we need to make a choice most days. Although she had been here before she was staying on half board terms and when she left the hotel the coach did not go along the front and so she was unaware of all the restaurants that exist.

A fish restaurant is selected for the first night and a Chinese for later in the week. We have also booked St Georges which has been mentioned in the Sunday Times recently as being very good. One lunchtime we eat in the beachfront cafe of the Almyra which is one of the very upmarket hotels. All good places to eat. Lot of seafood of course!

On Tuesday we are heading to the Troodos Mountains (which is a separate post) and on Friday 31 March we drove along the coast to Limassol which is a big port and the weather is wet, so when we get there it does not look terribly attractive, nor do we fancy wandering around in the rain! Some photos taken along the coast road are here. We head back towards Paphos and then find Melanda beach where Jackie found some prawns in the restaurant:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday are days spent doing very little – mainly finding different places to lie in the sun by the pool and absorb the sun. We also do some observing of the local cat population. The photos around Paphos are here.

During the week we wander along the front at Paphos and have a drink in a few of the many bars. However it is not until nearly the end of the week that we find that there is a further group of restaurants right along at the far end by the castle – we did not go that far initially. Also in the bit of town close to us we have a look at some of the other hotels and apartments to investigate possibilities for future visits. A number of these have not opened up yet for 2017 and at least one is being redecorated in readiness for the main season. So in the full season the choice would be almost mind bending – we had difficulty choosing from the selection that was open!

Generally pleasantly warm it is only the end of March. A nice rest and not too expensive. 1976 miles by air for the single journey, so in total over 4000 miles covered this week. There are other sights and other places to go, so we may well return to Cyprus in the future.