Blogs from United Kingdom, Europe - page 13

What is it with English pillows … and showers? Actually, the pillow thing is not just English, it’s European. Everywhere that we have stayed while we have been away the pillows look lofty but, as soon as you put your head on them, they squish down to nothing. Haven’t they heard of memory foam in Europe?! So, after yet another night on a flat pillow I was looking forward to a decent shower this morning. Um, no, that was not to be. In addition to the smallest room award The Plough earns the distinction of offering the absolute WORST SHOWER OF THE HOLIDAY!! Honestly, we could have got wetter being spat on by a butterfly. And, of course, I needed to wash my hair today. Should have done it yesterday! Breakfast is not included in the ... read more

Days 22-26 We left Cockermouth headed for Muncaster Castle on the western coast of Lake District National Park, however on arrival we discovered it did not open till midday, lack of planning on my part, so we kept driving to Holker Hall & Gardens on the southern end of the Park. This was a terrific find, the old mansion & gardens are immaculate, hosting many Queen's, Lord's & Lady's through the 17th Century, a lovely morning tea of scones & tea before leaving for our next destination of Sedbergh & Hawes (again) through the top half of Yorkshire Dales National Park, once again, narrow country lanes across the top of the mountain with plenty of roadside sheep & cattle to dodge. Fought the traffic into Ripon and onto Harrogate for the night. A Friday night in ... read more

This morning Kath made a cooked breakfast for us all. We kept asking what we could do to help, but she insisted that she had it all under control. She did at least let Bernie juice the oranges. While we were waiting for breakfast we tried to share as many tips as we could think of about Lisbon, Sintra and Porto as Robin and Sandra are off to Portugal on Monday. They are doing a tour but are travelling to Sintra independently and may have some free time in Lisbon and Porto. Hopefully we have given them some information that may prove useful to them. After breakfast we packed out bags to head off to Northumberland for a few days. We are trying to wring the last little bit out of our holiday before we fly ... read more

We had another very lazy day today. We slept in … again, well, it was a very late night/early morning after our epic card playing session last night! After a late breakfast we drove down to the bridge to pick up some supplies for a BBQ tonight. Aargh, it took us ages to find things in a strange supermarket. I’m sure we circumnavigated the store several times before we found all the items on our list. Just when we thought we had everything we needed, we decided we should buy some dips for starters/nibbles tonight but … could we find them?? Around and around the store we went trying to find some dips. Eventually we asked and we were directed to the fruit and veg area where we found the dips … right beside the prepared ... read more

Bernie washed some clothes this morning. It was safer for Bernie to do battle with Kath’s washing machine. It has been playing up a bit lately, refusing to finish its cycle, so I didn’t dare touch it with my history with household electrical items!! I did not want to be held responsible for finishing it off completely. As per usual, Bernie proved to have the magic touch and the machine completed its entire cycle without any problems. With the weather looking promising for drying clothes the clothes were hung out on the line. Albert collected Kath from the hairdresser and we packed the car to head over to Bakewell. Bernie was talking about Bakewell tarts a couple of days ago so we decided that seemed like a good enough excuse to driver over to Bakewell … ... read more