I've just booked next year's summer holiday. We'll be staying in a tiny electricity free cottage
here on "
Eilean Shona" (Shona Island). It's a tiny privately owned island with no cars, bikes, shops or even pubs. Instead there's rocks, trees, wildlife, peace and quiet and amazing views. I found out about the place from The Hat who stayed in a different cottage on the island a few months ago.
We will either have an amazingly relaxing experience, or will go irrevocably insane. Either is fine I think.
Labels: holiday
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:32 AM
This cold weather is all the more noticeable when the previous week you were sleeping under a single sheet, swimming in an outdoor pool or eating al fresco. That's exactly what me and Liv were doing last week at a villa in Tuscany. The holiday was essentially an extended get together for Liv's University of Limerick friends - 19 people in total, me the new kid. The villa was perfect. You might think that cramming 19 people into a villa is a recipe for madness, but the villa somehow managed to be spacious enough to house everyone in comfort without ever feeling cavernous or impersonal. Remarkably at no point did it ever feel crowded, even when we were all squashed around the dinner table. I think this is because there were plenty of places to slope off to have a quiet moment by yourself and get some rest, and enough people there that you were never missed if you did.
Most people's days broadly followed one of two routines:
1) Get up, have breakfast, relax by the pool, have lunch, relax by the pool, have dinner, have a drink, go to bed.
2) Get up, have breakfast, go on a trip, have dinner, have a drink, go to bed.
It is hard to decide which was the more pleasurable itinerary. The views from the villa, set amongst a vineyard, where fantastic. The Tuscan villages and towns were fun to visit. And as you might expect in Tuscany, the food was great regardless of whether it was cooked by ourselves or served by a waiter.
Good food + good surroundings + good company + good weather = a great holiday.
The pictures are
here, my personal favourite being
this one showing the view from our bedroom window. The view out of the window right now couldn't be more different. There's also a group photo
here.
Labels: holiday
Thursday, September 27, 2007 5:15 PM
I've just uploaded the photos from the tower holiday in Wales. We had a fantastic time, the building really lived up to our expectations and was pretty remote, meaning for a really relaxed week. The main activity was walking, the tower sits in the Cwm Pennant valley just south west of Snowdon and you can walk all day in the hills without seeing another soul. Everyone else is too busy climbing Snowdon it seems. We had planned to do that originally, but in the end decided we'd be much happy away from the touristy crowds.
You can see the photos
here. Slideshow
here. Note, I couldn't be arsed to carry my camera about towards the end of the week, so switched to camera phone. Note also that the tower appears in more photos than you might realise, for example you can see it in
this photo taken from the top of a hill we climbed on day one. One question I've been asked from everyone who's seen the photos: Did you have the whole tower to yourselves?? Answer: Yes!
Here's a quick review of the week, which will out some of these pictures in context:
Friday - Lunch at Artisan; they do 2 courses for an incredible £12 at lunch times, so was a great place to start the holiday. What followed was a tortuous crawl of a journey in the rain. It took us 5 hours, but was well worth it. It was really exciting driving up the track to see the tower slowly reveal itself through the heavy mist.
Saturday - Walked to the top of a hill that overlooks the tower to get a feel for the layout of the area. Then chilled out. Saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker from the kitchen window. Not seen one of them before.
Sunday - Sunday lunch at a nearby Michelin starred restaurant for a bargain £18.
Monday - Went to Portmerion, which was really cool, better than I was expecting really. Tip: if you go, get lunch at Castell Deudraeth first, as it's a nice meal in a nice place and the meal includes entry to Portmerion. Bargain. I like a bargain, me.
Tuesday - Went on the Ffestiniog Railway to see some slate mines. The railway was fun but the mines were a bit dull and really touristy. Tip: If you ever go on the Ffestiniog Railway, don't bother going all the way to Ffestiniog, get off a couple of stops before and go for a walk.
Wednesday - Went for a long walk
Thursday - Went for a long walk. Happened across the track bed that will have carried slate from a slate quarry out towards the sea. Then found the slate mine too, all derelict. Great view of Snowdon from the top of the hill we climbed. I inexplicably forgot to take a picture.
Friday - Left for home. Windscreen wiper on car broke in the pissing rain outside Chester, so decided to stay there for the night and wait for the rain to clear.
Saturday - Finally made it home.
Labels: holiday
Monday, July 30, 2007 4:37 PM
When on the train to Scotland, I've often thought that Berwick-Upon-Tweed would be a nice place to visit. There's something about the way that after rushing past a few miles of craggy cliffs you slow down and sweep around the town and its estuary up on high that I always love. I mentioned this to Liv when we went to Scotland in January and so as a birthday suprise she booked us a weekend there.
We stayed in
a really nice B&B on the edge of town (which isn't nearly as twee as it looks on the website!) which was a great base for milling around the town for a couple of days. We weren't really sure what there was to do there, but I was happy to find a leaflet advertising
The Lowry Trail. The artist was apparantly a frequent visitor to the town and painted it many times. The trail covers the whole town and has the occcasional information board which shows you how
the view inspired his work.
The weather had been a bit grey on the Saturday but was much nicer on Sunday, so we went for a walk along the beach and then along the cliffs. And that's it. It was a really nice relaxed weekend. If you are happy to spend a couple of days pottering about, Berwick is a nice place to do it.
You can see all the pictures
on Flickr.
Labels: holiday
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 7:56 PM
This Friday, me and Liv are off on our holidays. We're going to Snowdonia to stay in our very own
tower. The tower is a
once derelict folley built in 1821 by Sir Joseph Huddart to commemorate his knighthood. It has been nicely
restored by its current owners.
It's a great location too, close to Portmerion, Snowdon, some great walks, great beaches and some interesting history. We are just keeping our fingers crossed for the weather now.
Labels: holiday
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 9:43 PM
Well, it's taken me a while, but I've finally uploaded my photos from the Cromer trip
here. I full report will appear in good time. Suffice to say, I enjoyed it a lot and I really enjoyed the cycling, and am still cycling now it's all behind me.
Phil
also has pictures. Jim, Tim and Charlotte also had cameras, but I don't yet know if they will be uploading them to the internet. I hope so, I want to see them!
Labels: cromer, cycling, holiday, photo
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:00 PM
My Cousin: Lee's family have booked the honeymoon for us. All I know is that we're going somewhere that begins with the letter C. I hope it's not Cromer.My mate Phil's friend's Gran: Don't go to Cromer, it's rubbish.My mum: Did you know that there is no land between Cromer and the North Pole? You don't want a northerly wind when you're in Cromer.The Rough Guide to Britain: An hour or two in Cromer is probably enough.So, anyway, I'm going on holiday to Cromer for a week at Easter. And as you may have noticed from the last few posts, I'm cycling there, with Phil & Jane. I'm looking forward to it actually, though think it will be quite hard. Here's the distances:
Day 1: 35.08 miles
Day 2: 36.49 miles
Day 3: 25.51 miles
Day 4: 34.19 miles
Total: 131.27 miles
A bit daunting, but should hopefully be good fun.
I'll next blog when I'm back. Be good.
Labels: cromer, cycling, holiday
Wednesday, April 04, 2007 6:49 PM
In a three weeks time, I will be cycling from Lincoln to Cromer, with Phil & Jane. Yesterday lunch time myself and Phil had a planning meeting where we identified some key items that have as yet been overlooked.
1) I don't have a bike. This was identified as a Level 1 issue.
2) I've barely done any cycling in the last 15 years. This was identified as a Level 1 issue.
3) Cromer is actually a fucking long way away. This was identified as a Level 1 issue.
4) We haven't booked anywhere to stay en route and it is the busy Easter weekend. This was identified as a Level 1 issue.
5) I don't have any lycra cycling trousers, like Phil does. This was identified as a Level 3 issue.
Desipte those issues, I'm actually looking forward to it.
Labels: cromer, cycling, holiday
Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:02 PM
As I mentioned a few posts ago, the weekend before last I went with my family to Marseille to mark my parents' 60th birthdays.
Here are the photosLabels: france, holiday, marseille, photo
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 4:41 PM
It was Rach's 30th this weekend, and she thought that she was going to have a quiet romantic weekend with Nick in Pitlochry, whereas in fact he'd secretly arranged for all us mates in Sheffield to go up too. It was great fun; I thought Rach was going to pass out when she saw us all stood there. Rach has already described the weekend in full
here, so I'll not re-hash what she's already said (except to say yes, we really did have breakfast with Ronnie Corbett, and yes, we really did go to the National Poultry Show).
After leaving Linlithgow we caught the train into Edinburgh and had a really relaxed day. After a quick visit to Waterstones, we sat in a café for a couple of hours drinking coffee and reading the paper, then went for a fantastic lunch at the
Mussel Inn, then went and sat in the Café Royal pub for a couple of hours and read our magazines, and then chilled out on the train home. It was great and about as relaxed a day as possible.
Labels: chickens, food, holiday, linlithgow, pitlochry, scotland
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 1:40 PM
