Page 23 of 33

Abergavenny

3 April 2017 / admin

Friday 3 March 2017

The plan today is for a much quieter day than yesterday. We bumble into Abergavenny and find both the cheese shop and the market where there is of course a cheese stall. A number of smelly cheeses are acquired. The weather is nowhere near so nice today and there is ongoing drizzle and it is not as warm. Burton have had a shop in the town for many years and it is possible to record evidence of the attractive signage that used to be used and its incorporation in the building structure. It makes the current one word “Burton” seem very stark by comparison.

The main plan for today revolves around taking lunch at a place which has been on our “to eat at” list for many years. The Walnut Tree Inn at Llandewi Skirrid has been famous for a very long time. The original owner (Franco Taruschio) retired and sold on and the restaurant had a few bumpy years before being bought by Shaun Hill in 2008 and has returned to good standing. The chef we last encountered in Ludlow when it was the centre of restaurant excellence a few years ago.

We both choose the same starters, a Lancashire cheese souffle, and main courses, confit duck, black pudding and pigs cheeks. Eating the same meal used to be a little more common than it is these days. As we eat the restaurant steadily fills up and the kitchen keeps the meals coming. Here are Jackie’s photos of the two courses mentioned:

With lunch complete we return back to our cottage. I admit to Jackie that the last time we ate the chef’s food it was in Ludlow and we had not been terribly impressed at the time compared with our other meal there. Certainly this was not lacking in any way. I know it was a Friday and the restaurant is just a few miles outside Abergavenny but the place steadily filled up with at least one celebratory party and meals were also being delivered to people sitting in the bar so the team were working very hard. And I have no doubt it is like that most of the time.

Discussing it after the holiday we agree that this was probably the best meal of the week.

Brecon Beacons

2 April 2017 / admin

Thursday 2 March 2017

I had worked out a longish drive today to see some different countryside and for much of the day we are in sunshine and for a period in the afternoon we even have the top down on the TT which is good considering the date.

First we head along the Heads of the Valley Road. This is now a very busy road and has been much improved over the years – although some sections still go up and down the sides of the valleys! Indeed just west of Abergavenny there is still a lot of improvement work going on along this section and so it is very slow moving. Further west it is much improved and we can move along at a better speed, much of the improvement is EU funded according to the signs. We are skirting along the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons because the plan is to cross over them at their western end.

Upper Brynamman is our first target on the sat nav (as satellite navigation system is usually abbreviated these days) as it marks the way onto the A4069, which is known as the Black Mountain road. Jeremy Clarkson is known to get up at a very early hour in London so that he can come down and drive this road when he has a suitable car with little other traffic (I gather it has featured on “Top Gear”). Given the great weather we can drive at a relatively gentle pace enjoying the views as we descend on the far side. We are heading north and there is a small stop so I manage to take some photos.

We drop down the other side into Llangadog and find the Red Lion hotel where we have a very cheap and good quality lunch (liver and onions for me).

From there we head cross country to Lampeter which all looks a little run down and old. So we keep going to Tregaron and I find some toilets. Jackie then finds some much nicer and newer ones!

Now we are on the western side of the Cambrian Hills and there is another tiny (un-numbered road) which is known as the Abergeswyn Pass. Some more lovely driving. We have the sat nav on and we follow its guidance as there is certainly one point where the “track” to take is not particularly clear and we really are in the middle of nowhere. I wonder where we would have ended up had we turned left rather right!

Down the other side and as we wander through the countryside we see a sign to the Lake Country House hotel which we follow. Despite having lunch we both fancy a cream tea plus a break from driving and where better than a country house hotel? The hotel is near Llangammarch Wells. Here is a photo of tea from Jackie Whitbread:

After our break we pass through some more beautiful countryside heading south through Upper and Lower Chapel and then through Brecon and onto the A40 for Abergavenny. The A40 here in Wales is a pale shadow of the road which exists in West London. Quite a few miles today and some lovely scenery, none of which I have covered before that I remember.

Heading to Penpergwm

1 April 2017 / admin

Wednesday 1 March 2017

A new month and time for a holiday. The driving is shared out today – I take the first chunk down to Leigh Delamere services for a quick stop. Then Jackie takes the wheel and we take the old route over the First Severn crossing (now the M48 but of course the original M4) and we continue into the Wye valley through Tintern; this section is all a bit twisty. Then we take the turning for Whitebrook and it gets much narrower. Progress is slower and the sat nav is convinced we have gone past our destination but we do find it and park.

We are at the Whitebrook Inn. It is almost in the middle of nowhere – a pretty, wooded valley. We agree that the starters are good but the main courses are a little bland – we both have the local lamb and it seems to lack taste.

Here is the duck confit and liver partfait starter from Jackie Whitbread’s photos:

Post lunch it is my turn to drive onto our final destination of Penpergwm near Abergavenny. The first bit is quite narrow as I continue west on the back roads from our lunch break – but some lovely views of the local countryside, as we descend from the hills on the west side of the Wye Valley we can see in the distance the Black Hills.

Our little holiday home is small – but should meet our needs for the next week. We are in Penpergwm which is a couple of miles east of Abergavenny and which is in Monmouthshire. For a long time Parliamentary Acts referred to “Wales and Monmouth” as if it was not part of Wales or England – it is now very definitely in Wales with bi-lingual signs and even though the population is not heavily Welsh speaking. It is not an area we have visited previously and there are a good number of decent restaurants to be visited this week which is the prime attraction.

And it is not utterly remote either. As if we were at home Tesco turn up with a delivery so that we have the basics on hand. It saves having to take the large car if we have the groceries delivered when we arrive. Another benefit from the internet I suppose! The owner lives in the main house adjacent – we are in an extension and the chickens are in the enclosure next to us. There is space to sit outside but we are unlikely to use that this week. The cottage has two bedrooms but we use the other one to put our cases out of the way. It has been a longish day!

It all went technical!

2 February 2017 / admin

Sunday 15 / Monday 16 / Tuesday 17 January 2017

The holiday may not have been a huge success – but we had come, we had seen and now we wanted to go home please.

Off to the airport, we all get checked in (and that is a lot of people on a Thomson Dreamliner), go through security and join the many other people waiting for flights somewhere in the terminal. Except in our area people go through gates and depart.

Worryingly we see no sign of anyone to commence loading onto our plane. Eventually an announcement is made that the plane had some error lights showing on the displays when the flight arrived and so they need to sort this out before we can load and fly away.

So someone pulls the master switch and the plane is turned off and then turned on again – it later becomes clear that the computer is the problem in some way. It seems that did not work (and apparently rebooting a Dreamliner takes an hour or so and I thought my PC was slow!). So they are now on the phone to technical support in Luton (Luton?). The conversation was probably along the lines that “no-one has ever seen anything like that before – have you tried turning it off and on again? Hmm, that should not happen, I think I had better get Seattle on the other line”. Seattle of course is the place where Dreamliners are assembled.

After a few hours we are informed that even if it was fixed now we could not go anywhere as the crew are out of hours before we could land and so there will be no flight tonight. We are told they will find hotels and get us all into rooms for the night. And some of us are also checking what the compensation arrangements are as we are bound to be more than three hours late! Turns out that the EU compensation works (at least whilst we are in the EU).

We have to go through arrivals and collect our luggage as we will need it for our overnight stay. Luckily as usual slight over packing means that we have clean clothes.

By the time we get to the new hotel there is virtually no food available but something is better than nothing. Whilst the hotel was not as great as Azul, being older and therefore a little worn, I am amazed that Thomson actually managed to find enough rooms. Check in took quite a while – which was another reason we were late eating as we could not do that until we had checked in.

When we gather in the morning it is fair to say that staff used by Thomson are probably worse than useless. When communicating with a large number of inevitably disgruntled customers some discipline needs to be applied – then make a clear and entirely certain announcement, do not be woolly and do not part reveal the outcome to some in advance of the meeting. Similarly the previous evening passengers were seeking to contact Thomson in the UK who seemed unaware of the problem and where the website was showing revised departure times for later in the evening.

Later we assemble again to go to the airport and through check in and security. Thomson (or their agents) give us a packed lunch as we get off the coaches. Which would be nice except it includes both a bottle of water (which we spot and dump) but also a fruit juice (which we do not spot until the scanner machines do – which means all bags are rescanned after the juice is removed). That really slows down progress through the security checks. Everyone knows that you cannot take liquids through security these days – so why was this not even thought about?

No news Thomson is frankly bad news. And there is no-one on hand to keep us informed. Many hours pass. At no time do we see any crew. Anyone at the gate refuses to make an announcement – why is not clear. Some information is extracted but the absolute refusal to make a proper announcement is baffling.

Information is hard to come by but piecing the bits together later it seems two engineers flew into Cancun with a complete computer rack and the relevant boards (not sure but I assume from somewhere in the USA rather than UK). They replaced board by board, turning the Dreamliner off and on and off for each board replacement but were still getting faults. Eventually the expensive solution was adopted – the entire rack was pulled out. The new rack with new boards were all inserted and the plane turned on. Apparently then it worked and the error lights did not come on. Given that they had the whole lot there they should have replaced the entire kit at one go – it was presumably new and worked. Piecemeal replacement is often a pain in the neck.

However we had been at the airport many hours. Why were we brought into the airport so early at a stage when no-one knew when we might depart? For the mother with no nappies and the others with no funds available being in an airport terminal is not helpful. It would have made more sense to make the transfer back to the airport later as the hotels were meeting food and refreshment needs.

Then they summoned the crew. To give the captain his due when he did arrive he did make a couple of announcements and talk to us all – but it was by now very late and we were now well over 24 hours late departing. And even with a crew we did not board for ages as the flight crew had to go through all of their normal checks and load up stores and equipment. Passenger patience was in short supply. I believe it was close to 10 hours between arriving at the airport and boarding the Dreamliner.

Finally we board and take off not long before midnight on the Monday night arriving back at Gatwick well into Tuesday morning.

The next major faux pas from Thomson was that they delivered a written apology at the arrival gate which advised claiming from our insurers and did not mention their legal liability to compensate us under EU legislation. Come on lads – if you screw up then at least admit you are forced to cough up, provide the right form and tell us what else you might need. Leaving out such information and pointing us at insurers is simply the wrong approach to take. In fact it is insulting in this day and age.

This was not the first time that a Dreamliner had gone technical in Cancun for Thomson – there were one or two press reports about it happening previously. On the outward journey water had dripped on Jackie as we headed towards the ground. So if water can get into the passenger space it seems likely it can reach the computers as well.

We claimed and compensation was eventually paid – but Thomson took their time. Their crisis management was appalling, on the ground, in the terminal and on our return – I have no doubt that someone knew what was going on – but 300 plus passengers need looking after and talking to them should happen.

A really sour end to the holiday.

Mileage – 4959 air miles for a single journey so adding something on for the coach journeys the total trip adds up to over 10,000 miles which is not a bad start for the year.

Chichen Itza

1 February 2017 / admin

Saturday 7 January 2017

During our Mexican holiday we took one trip away from the hotel. There are a lot of historical sites across Mexico but Cancun is very much at one end of Mexico and consequently just about everywhere is a long journey.

Chichen Itza is one of two historic sites to which trips are organised and we decide that it is likely to be the better one of the two. Even so it is still a lengthy journey to the site taking a couple of hours.

There is very little to see on the outward journey as we stick to the main road and it is pretty flat. Apparently we are not much above sea level and due to the pretty thin layer of soil above rock it is not good territory for plant growth with the all pervading scrub on both sides not reaching a great height – 8 – 10 ft at best. So no views. So tempting to sleep and yes I did drift off!

The location was a major city between about AD 600 and AD 1200 for the Mayan civilization. Like the temples of Siem Reap of the same era in Cambodia the site was rediscovered during the Victorian period with documented visits becoming common in the 1880s. Tourists have been coming here to see the sights for well over a century.

We wander around the site which is dominated by the central “El Castillo” pyramid and my photos are here.

I went looking for the observatory – but did not find it. I followed the signs and can only assume I simply did not go far enough; I came across a secondary gate and missed the turning no doubt. Pity as from the photos elsewhere it looks interesting. However it is hot and I do not want to wander too far. We head towards the market outside the entrance but over pushy retailers put us off before we even start looking.

Around lunchtime we move on to a location where the main attraction is the cenote which appears in the photos. A cenote is a sink hole and they often have cool water for swimming. Subsequent research shows it to have been the Ik Kil cenote. Neither of us feel like swimming; whilst I am sure it is safe it is a long way down and whilst it might be nice to cool down it is also time to eat. Lunch is adjacent and so we have a leisurely meal and if I remember correctly some entertainment.

Our return journey includes a visit to Valladolid, but somehow this seems to have escaped my camera, so these photos come from Jackie’s phone.

It remains in the memory as we picked up some local dark chocolate which I can eat.

Mexico

31 January 2017 / admin

Wednesday 4 January to 17 January 2017

This was planned simply as a trip to enjoy some sunshine in the depths of winter and to see if we liked Mexico. As we were not travelling out to see places on a day to day basis I am simply going to do a longish summary posting (this one) with two further posts which will cover the one trip we did take and the saga of our delayed return. The three posts are effectively the bad, the good and the ugly in that order!

Our hotel is the Azul Sensatori, Cancun and is / was described as adults only. Which is true of the accommodation (and in theory the adjacent pool) but not of the entire hotel. The hotel does in fact have children on site and facilities for children on the other side of the central area but we certainly saw them at the “quiet pool” between our room and the Caribbean restaurant. It also has a vast number of Americans which is far from surprising.

What we found was that the hotel was some significant distance from Cancun, or indeed anywhere. Talking to other people who have stayed elsewhere in Mexico they had the benefit of being able to walk out of their hotel and onto the street and have other restaurants available (similar to our experience in Phuket and when we get there in a couple of months time Paphos; I am getting ahead of myself). If we walked from the hotel to the main road at our hotel we would be too tired to walk back! And as we are some distance from a town the taxi cost would not be insignificant (unlike some locations – eg Crete). So once there you are there!

On arrival we are both feeling tired and so head for the restaurant and a bowl of tomato soup. Restorative. Nice room and reasonably well laid out. Photos from Jackie Whitbread.

We head down to the adjacent pool in the morning and only find individual sunbeds so move two together. All is well for about 30 minutes until the powers that be decide we all want to listen to the same loud music throughout the day. Well I want to listen to what I choose from my phone (which might be music or voice) – but cannot because it is being drowned by the delivered music.

During our time here we sample the various restaurants. The choice in the self-service is pretty wide and decently presented. Le Chique is top end and very good. Zavaz (Caribbean) for breakfast also provided some relief from the self service and we used this several times – it was also close to our room. Zocalo was the Mexican restaurant and again the food was excellent but we only used it once as the noise (even after they turned the sound system down) was such that we could hardly hear each other. We dined in Siena – Italian cuisine – several times but the quality of the food never quite reached the heights I think they would like. Pizzza Dude is in the children related area and we did wander over there one day. Nothing wrong with any of them and there is certainly variety.

Except over one aspect and that is the noise. We went to Siena and were placed in the “overflow” room – and initially were the only occupants. I think it took three requests to get the sound turned down so that we could hear the waiter, let alone each other. On another evening we went to a special food and wine evening – but were still only offered red or white wine – and to hear the other people talk we once again had to ask for the music to be turned down. (That evening was also marked by a joke which included a knife being pointed at Jackie; that should never happen even in jest). Zocalo I have mentioned already as well as the noisy pool. I got to the point of downloading a sound meter for my phone to see what decibel levels we were suffering, not illegal maybe but simply inappropriately loud!

Making bookings for the upmarket restaurants required queueing and the system changed whilst we were there – so simply not well organised.

There is an upmarket and more private section of the hotel and Jackie asked if we could use their sunbeds if it was not overcrowded and this request was granted so for the last week we were able to use this area:

Another Jackie Whitbread photo and clearly not heavily occupied at the time.

Doing nothing is tiring and so we often have early nights and do not do much of the entertainment. Both of us suffered from bad colds and feeling grotty through our time here. There were sneezes on the plane and I suspect we both were infected on the outward journey. So feel grotty on top of everything else. Once a week there is a market – which we wandered through but did not buy anything.

During our stay there was a more or less constant wind in from the sea, so not calm. But there was plenty of sunshine.

The real aim was to see if the additional flying time meant that this was a better destination for some winter sun than the Canaries which have tended to be our normal destination. I had expected something labelled “Sensatori” to be concerned about providing something peaceful – particularly as it was adults only (so we believed). Well American adults on holiday like noise it seems. To be honest there was nothing which would particularly appeal to us to make the longer distance journey again.

So a return visit is unlikely. The next post is the good; the final post will be the ugly.

Boston and Homewards

31 October 2016 / admin

Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 October 2016

As is common on returning from the USA our flight home is an overnight trip so we have much of the day free in Boston until late afternoon.

We decide to head out once we have to check out of the hotel, but they will store the cases and we will go and find some lunch and then return to the hotel in plenty of time to be collected for the journey to Boston Logan airport.

We did make one mistake – I had suggested we go and see the Boston Tea Party Museum but in the light of our experiences in Salem decided it would probably be overdone so we agree we would not go there. We later heard that we had missed a treat from fellow travellers – so if we ever get to Boston again we must do it (although that seems unlikely). So if you are in Boston do not miss the Tea Party!

Jackie had previously identified the best place for a proper American burger, which happens to be in the old area of North Boston we visited yesterday, so we know where we are going. We then go back to Quincy Market for a wander around running into some of our fellow travellers before returning to the hotel. This time we walk it in both directions and again the weather is pleasant and conducive to a gentle walk through the City.

Summarising some of the distances we have travelled:
London – Boston is 3272 – so 6544 miles.
Boston – Falmouth return is 154 miles.
Boston – Portland is 106 miles.
Portland – North Conway is 63 miles.
North Conway – Salem is 121 miles.
Salem – Boston only 16 miles.
So known distances total a little over 7000 miles plus the mileage on the trips across to and around Martha’s Vineyard, to the two railways and around the White Mountains. All without difficulties or problems.

Unlike our return from Australia our journey home is relatively smooth and we are back from another long promised holiday. Still many more to go!

Really enjoyed all of this trip. There were more trains than some of our holidays which was welcome – but they were digested alongside some of the parts of the USA which have more history being the first settlers and more recently the Boston powerhouse which drove the Kennedy family to prominence. And our prime aim was to see the famous autumn colours which we may not have captured – but we certainly saw. The whale watching was a bonus after the problem at the end of the Canadian trip! And by and large we enjoyed some excellent weather – warm sunny days throughout most of the trip which always adds to the enjoyment. The tour was well organised and it operated very smoothly.

Boston

31 October 2016 / admin

Tuesday 11 October 2016

A busy day as we set off initially on a coach and then walking to see the City. The first walk is around some of the more prosperous parts of the City to show us how the wealthy and influential citizens live – very nicely too I rather think. This area is adjacent to Boston Common which between 1634 and 1830 was the home cows (only 70 after 1646 due to overgrazing) which provided milk for the city; effectively the development from the dock areas had reached this by 1634. Bearing in mind the first settlers came in 1630 development was rapid as more came. Boston is one of the longest established settlements in USA and therefore has many other firsts to its name – and of course Harvard University.

We then move onto a location near the quays and wander into the older part of town, North Boston, and indeed past the birthplace of Rose Kennedy. She may have ended her days as a Countess of the Holy See but she certainly came from much humbler origins. This area in general has seen much redevelopment and reconstruction but the churches and some other older properties remain.

On this part of the walk we also see the Paul Revere statue and the church from where he commenced his famous ride. The ride itself is best known through the Longfellow poem.

Photos from the morning excursions are here.

We have time (just) to pick up some snacks at Quincy Market and then we head to catch a boat to take us whale watching. The good weather continues but the outward ride is on some pretty choppy water and sadly Jackie is finding it all a little uncomfortable to say the least. When we reach our first stopping point the whales seem a little reluctant to come and see us, but they appear eventually and I get some photos (some better than others to be sure!).

The whale photos are here.

The return trip is considerably smoother and by the time we disembark Jackie is feeling back to normal.

This evening we head across the road to Flemings, a steak restaurant chain, where we have the most expensive meal of this holiday – and I would say it is worth it. Trainee waitress but she does not get much wrong, she is watched very closely by another member of staff. Pretty good steaks to end our holiday and the best restaurants were right on our doorstep here.

To Salem and Boston

31 October 2016 / admin

Monday 10 October 2016

We leave behind the hills and return to the coast, this time to Salem which is infamous for the Witch Trials. The sun is out but it is not overly warm. We wander around and the place is completely mad in the American way of overdoing things! The coach shows us around the town before we stop.

Our first stop is “The Burying Point” where a number of alleged witches were buried following their “trials” and “convictions”. I note that among the “hangings” are also those “pressed to death” which sounds even less attractive.

Just a few photos of the buses and the Burying Point.

We do not fancy visiting any of the attractions but instead find Murphy’s restaurant where we can sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and for once just order a main course. We also have a look at some of the smaller shops looking for anything which might be of interest. Being close to Halloween the pumpkins and ghosts and such like are much in evidence.

This photo from Jackie Whitbread is part of the local witchiness:

Once everyone is re-assembled we head onwards into Boston where we are staying for a few nights at the Revere Hotel, Boston Common – so we are very central.

Dinner tonight is in the very wonderful Legal Seafoods which is conveniently just across the road! Highly recommended for sea food.

Conway Scenic Railroad

29 October 2016 / admin

Sunday 9 October 2016

Today we travel through the wonderful autumn colours once again going over Crawford Notch – but this time making use of the preserved train service. We are in the White Mountains and the area is very busy today – the train is very well loaded and as we later discover so are the roads!

The Conway Scenic Railroad is based close to our hotel in North Conway so it is a short journey to the station on our coach and once tickets have been secured we can wander around taking photos of the other locos and of our train as it shunts. The Railroad has three services, the main one is over the Notch which we shall be taking and two others through the valley but time does not allow us to take part in these.

Later in the day we hear reports that leaf fall has commenced and so this weekend is “peak colour” which is achieved immediately before the leaf fall commences, so despite earlier misgivings it turns out we could not have timed our trip any better than we did!

The photographs of the train and colours are extensive!

We move onto lunch – and it is clear that the entire area is at maximum capacity as the small eating house as just a couple of empty seats at the bar outside, all of the inside rooms being full! Everyone has descended for the colours! We actually eat quite well.

Our onward progress is slow after lunch as we get stuck in a traffic jam. There is a local event on and there is a lot of traffic turning in and out of the location and it takes nearly an hour to get past it. After that our progress is not too bad and our journey back to North Conway is along the Kancamagus Highway. This is apparently the best place to view the colours and it is a good trip.

Towards the end of our journey we take a detour as one of the promised points of the journey is to see one of the covered bridges which used to be very common in USA but less so these days.

Photographs of the Highway and the covered bridge.

Once back at North Conway we wander out to the shopping centre and we go to Applebee’s simply because it is convenient. We go to the bar for a drink but are asked not to sit there and we have to wait in a seating area until a table is free. Nothing wrong with the food – more the quality of the service.