Polo, Pretzels, Punting and a four legged house guest

The summer roles on.

On a mild overcast Summer's day (quite typical), we boarded a bus at Earl's Court and headed out to Windsor for a spot of Polo. The Cartier International Polo actually. Pack your picnic hamper, your booze and head out for a day of eating, drinking and an introduction to polo. There was a preliminary game and then the main event, England vs NZ. NZ came close at the end but England ended up coming away with the win.

We were really there for the divot plugging.

The next weekend we headed to Berlin. We met up with Bella's school friend, Michelle, and proceeded to wander around. After dumping our bags at the hostel, the first priority was food. Jadwurst. A massive sausage, a small piece of bread and a lot of mustard. At 1.70 euro it was awesome. Michelle had the currywurst, where they cut the sausage on a plate, cover it in mustard powder and then kill it in ketchup.

We walked and walked and walked. We also learnt and learnt. Lots on the murder of Jews, the rise of the Nazi party, the gestapo, the extent of the power throughout Europe and also the GDR and Berlin Wall story. A violent and turbulent modern history, that is a world away from the modern, clean, architectural city of Berlin. Not that Berlin doesn't have its share of modern day problems, it's just confronting wandering around a city that 20 years ago had a massive wall diving it in two.

We had some awesome weather in Berlin. Pretzels and beer at a beach bar they create on the edge of the river. More photos in the album below.

Oxford (for a second time) was next on the list. But this time with a clear mission. I wanted to go punting. And so we did.

For 2 hours, gliding around the canals surrounding the various campuses. We also made it out to the Thames before we literally were out of our depth (the pole didn't touch the bottom). A relaxing and peaceful escape from London, where I am noticing the constant noise pollution more and more. A great dinner in a local greek restaurant and a few pints in the pub. Oxford is a great escape from London.

Our four legged house guest. Floyd.

This is the fourth cat we have fostered from Battersea Cats and Dogs home since we have been here. We had him for just over 3 weeks. Young and curious is how I would describe him. Explored every nook and cranny of our apartment. He had a strange curiosity of water. Often in the bathroom drinking from a dripping tap or from water in the bottom of the bath tub.

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Polo, Pretzels and Punting

Food

I often write about food. I like to eat.

This time we planned a weekend break purely around eating in a certain village in Cornwall, South-West England. We received as a wedding gift, a voucher, to use for food or accommodation, in Rick Stein's little empire in Padstow, Cornwall. Rick Stein is somewhat of a celebrity chef over here who specialises in seafood and asian cooking. He has about 3 or 4 restaurants/cafes and a number of accommodation options, all in the little fishing village.

We needed to decide how to spend our voucher. I never really feel I get value for money from hotel rooms, and given that the cheapest room was 135 quid and required a 2 night minimum stay, along with the title of this article, you can probably guess what we chose. Yep, we decided to camp and blow the whole thing on food. The camp ground was not owned by Rick Stein.

We tried to book a Saturday night table for two about a month beforehand, but we keep on forgetting this is England, and that's not enough time. The place was booked out. So we opted for a Saturday lunch. This actually suited us better. A nice long lunch on a sunny Summer day.

The entire meal was fantastic and one of the best eating experiences I've had. Here's the list. We started out with some fresh oysters that were accompanied with some spicy chorizo. For first courses Bella had a rich and creamy Ragout full of seafood and I had some Cornish crab and wakame salad. For mains, Bella had roasted Turbot (a fish) with a hollandaise sauce and I had lobster thermidore (a french classic full of butter, wine and creamy goodness). All accompanied with a bottle of Gros Manseng Sauvignon from the south-west of France. Dessert was a chocolate fondant, which we really didn't need, but was superb as well. We also squeezed breakfast the next morning (we didn't need dinner after that lunch) and a few souvenirs from the gift shop out of the voucher. More food pictures below in album.

Apart from eating, we also had a bit of a look around this part of England. We had hired a car so we drove around the tiny country lanes, visiting the tiny villages and beaches, and exploring the bigger towns like Newquay. The beaches were quite impressive. Nice sand, breaking waves, clear water and plenty of willing people testing our their surfing abilities, mostly novices. Quite strange, but no shortage of people willing to overcome the bracing water to attempt a sport that appears so strange (well, to an Englishman, at least).

Cornwall was great as well, but this weekend was all about the food. Thanks to the extended Stevens family for such a great gift.

Food

Sunshine and the sea

We've been excited about this one for a while. A trip in which we were almost guaranteed some sunshine. A week in Greece.

We flew into Athens and headed straight out to the islands the next morning. We were booked for three nights on Santorini, we stayed 5 and could have stayed longer. A spectacular volcanic island with the towns perched on top of cliffs and crystal clear water.

The food was great. Lots of fresh vegetables. Gyros for 2 euro. Not much seafood due to overfishing (thanks to tourists). Strong influences from Italy which I didn't expect. Coffee like mud, which was still good.

We had awesome weather. Nothing but sunshine (except for a 20 minute storm in Athens), and temperatures above 30 degrees. We had nothing to do and lots of time to do it in. Swimming, walking, afternoon naps, eating and drinking. All at a leisurely island pace. Needless to say, it was great.

OK. Enough with the words, on with the photos. Beware there a few.

Grecian Delight

A couple of photos of our quick trip to Germany too. We headed to Frankfurt while Ami (Bella's sister) was visiting for a weekend dash.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=194844&id=538516127&l=29e7e40fea

Green for Grey

IRELAND

Yearning for some greenery, what better place than to head to Ireland. On the advice of some ex-locals, we were encouraged that there is more to Ireland than Dublin. And so there is.

We fly into Dublin and jumped straight in a rental car for 24 hours. Rather than rain, we were greeted with brilliant sunshine and 26 degree temperatures. Positively scorching for Ireland. We headed off to explore the Wicklow mountains to the south of Dublin. 45 minutes after getting in the car we were in some tiny village in the mountains, tucking into some local fare. A welcome relief from London, where 45 minutes will get you from somewhere with loads of people and buildings to somewhere else with loads of people and buildings. I devoured a honey-glazed pork belly with colcannon (some kind of potato and spinach-like mix) with a mustard sauce. While Bella had a sandwich on fancy bread with local goat's cheese. The Irish are very patriotic and proud of what they produce (even more so than the Brits). But then it was off to Glendalough to explore some Irish ruins (religious, of course. Well, monastic actually.) and enjoy some of the sunshine. But not without a drive along some tiny mountain roads. No trees. Just spongey ground covered in grasses and small bushes. Heather and moors. And a single strip of tarmac straight through it.

Some monk (by the name of Kevin) went off wandering one day to consider the world and to appreciate it. He stumbled upon a couple of lakes in a lovely valley. Then he stopped. After around 10 years or so, others realised it was a nice spot and joined him. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by people and had started a monastery in Glendalough.

After appreciating the ruins, lakes and greenery, we stopped off for a required pint of Guiness at the local pub, watched some rugby, bought some local strawberries and headed off to our hostel. Which was about as remote as you get in Ireland. Up in the mountains, at the end of the road. No electricity, no running water. It was a great escape from London. Our hostel is about 200m straight down the hill in the photo below.

We headed back to Dublin the next day. Not quite as sunny, but still had flashes of searing heat (well, for the Irish at least). Below is Bella enjoying it in St Stephen's Green.

We wandered around Dublin. Tried a few pubs, had a look through Trinity College and then wandered in to Temple Bar for some fiddle dee dee music. We also squeezed in a trip to the Guiness Storehouse, which is great. Evidenced below.

Guiness. It's good for you. A marketing slogan that they have used for a long time. Very simple.

More Photos

Emerald Isle

PEAK DISTRICT

Not satisfied with only one weekend of greenery. The next weekend we headed off to the Peaks District in central England. We grabbed our packs and hiked about 50kms over the 3 days (thanks to another long weekend).

We caught the fast train to Manchester and then caught a slow train to the middle of no-where (Greenfield). We then started walking. We only hiked about 15km on the first day and reached camp by 2 or 3pm. But it was still a pretty tough day as we left London at 5am and hiked through rain and wind all day, with the first half being all up and the second all down.

Feels nice and rewarding at the end of the day though when you set up camp.

The second day was big. We were looking at about 25kms with a couple of climbs. Our friend wind, also decided to blow his head off all day. We also discovered the difficulty of navigating through peat bogs. A little hard to follow the trail, but luckily it is all open country, so you just wander until you find where you want to be. Apparently the area use to be covered in Oak trees but during the Stone Age, we began to clear the land. Everything starting decaying and the peat bogs started forming. It's mostly water but consists of mosses and other decaying matter.

On the third day, we had a fairly gentle 10km hike through the White peaks area. The peak's district is broken up into the White Peaks and the Dark Peaks. We spent the first two days in the Dark peaks which is all volcanic rock, moors and peat bogs and is very uninhabited. The White Peaks is the limestone area which is used a lot more for farming and grazing. The Peaks (or hills at only 600m) are also smaller in White Peaks.

We finished off the hike with a pub lunch and a pint. A great way to put some carbs back in. And caught a train to Sheffield before heading back to London.

More photos.

Peak's District

Our next weekend in London was relatively quiet, with Hair in the West End on Saturday night and a Rage Against the Machine concert in a park on Sunday.