Peeking around the Peak District

Having arrived back in London after the excitement of the wedding and honeymoon we expected to feel a bit flat. And true to form, the weather was cold, grey and January was starting to feel like a very long month. So, armed with the very generous gift Shaun's parents had given us for the wedding we decided to head north to Stoke on Trent to buy a dinner set and while we were at it, do a tiny bit of exploring in the Peak District.

Home for the weekend was a tiny little stone cottage inside the Peak District National Park, with the lowest ceilings I've ever seen (challenging) but with a nice log burner and a separate gas fire which made things toasty - in stark contrast to the chill air outside. Shaun found the kitchen ceilings the most challenging of all - even I had to duck which makes you wonder how those growth hormones have affected the human race over the last few centuries...

There was just enough time to go for a little explore into the hills - nice and muddy and a little bit of clambering involved but good to get outside into the brisk air and make a (token) start on some training for a bigger walk we're hoping to get done later this summer.

M

Kicking back in the sun...

Following the arduous! week on safari it was time to kick back and relax.  First on the beautiful Pongwe beach on Zanzibar for a few days...

and then back off to the Tanzanian mainland via a flight on the tiniest plane imaginable to spend our last 4 days at idllyic Ras Kutani. 

Ras Kutani is a bit more rustic than Zanzibar but our hilltop suite was beautiful, with monkeys playing in the trees every evening and with enough active water activities to do to keep us occupied during the day in between lazing around with a series of books and the odd cocktail or two. 

M&S 

Super Safari

For the first week of our honeymoon we spent an amazing few days on safari in Tanzania. After a marathon flight in from New Zealand, and a day or two recovering in Arusha we were rested, revived and keen to hit the bush. Our first adventure was with our guide Freddy, to the Ngorogoro Crater via Lake Manyara National Park.

(Freddy and Michaela testing out the roof canopy on the Landcruiser.)

Lake Manyara was great - full of elephants, baboons and birds and with a hippo pool in its centre featuring a great host of different animals resting in the mud and the summer breeze.

Next stop it was on to the crater - a vast expanse stretching out towards the horizon on all sides, with an incredible variety and concentration of animals on the crater floor.

The next morning we were up bright and early to investigate what the crater had in store. We weren't disappointed - zebras, lions and a rare black rhino were all on hand together with more baboons and numerous gazelle.

Leaving the crater we woke on Christmas morning for an unforgettable Christmas Day - a drive out to our remote mobile tented camp (which moves to follow the wildebeest migration), featuring a strange mix of luxury and roughing it on the edge of the Serengeti Plains. Our tent was wonderful - even with a flushing toilet!, hot water brought for showers on demand and a daybed at the front of the tent with an uninterrupted view of the plains stretching out as far as the eye could see.

That evening Alex, the owner, surprised everyone with a special Christmas Day feast with dancing by warriors from the local village and a whole roasted calf killed earlier that afternoon.

The next morning we woke up to find the wildebeest had come in on the plains and we could see herds of them stretching for miles into the distance.

In total we spent 3 days at the camp, going on game drives to see the wildebeest and stalking the prey that were stalking them.

What a fantastic place and a great way to start married life.

M & S

18 December 2010

Sun-seeking in Seville

We had been looking around vainly for a place to visit in November that was close, relatively cheap and would give Shaun some chance of a suntan ahead of some wedding pictures in December. Seville was the place!

Leaving London's grey skies and cold weather behind us we made the most of a beautiful sunny Saturday in Seville - wandering the old squares and swanning about at La Maestranza bull ring - one of the oldest bull rings in the world (no fights in winter, but you can go and sit in the stands and conjure up some atmosphere of your own).

The bull ring is a major focal point of the city (view from the bell tower on Seville Cathedral):

We spent a few happy hours getting lost wandering through Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter, on our way to find Seville Cathedral, built in the 1400s and and housing what (may) be Christopher Columbus' tomb - although there is a good deal of scepticism about who may actually be buried there. Nevertheless the cathedral is incredible. While the cathedral was built on the site of Seville's former grand mosque, in other parts of the city its earlier Moorish heritage is still very much on display. The Alcazar, used as a royal palace over the centuries, was originally built as a Muslim fortress in 913. Its gardens in particular are beautiful, as is the intricate stonework in Islamic designs.

Finally after all our hard work wandering around it was only fitting that we tucked into some of the tapas that Seville is famous for. Not entirely sure how authentic this one was but after wide sampling it was declared our favourite - a 'meatball chupa chup' with bacon, strong cheese and mashed potato drowned in a strong mustard sauce. It was so good the cheese stuck to the plate. We had lots.

M

Cooling down in Bruges

We decided to hop on the Eurostar to Bruges for the weekend in late October - avoiding the mad rush out to the airport for once. We'd booked a 'cool down' hotel which we found a little mystifying - it turned out to be a little hotel in a 17th century building on the canals which was a bit hipper than the places we usually stay, but with no shower. I've never had so many baths as my weekend in the cool down hotel! (especially as it was so cold in Bruges- I had to have 'warm up' baths in the late afternoon).

Wandering around the city it really is beautiful - with very friendly locals and LOTS of chocolate - and canals of course! Although the tourists had died down from what are apparently thronging hordes all summer, there were still plenty around and the canal boat cruises were in full swing - albeit with us all rugged up against the cold.

Having not had any big Kiwi mussels for 9 months or so I had also been very keen to test some moules frites in their homeland. Not quite as big as green lipped mussels but certainly a lot better than the tiny little tiddlers that pass for mussels in the U.K...

On Sunday morning we got up and hired some bikes to have a bit of a wider explore - to the Netherlands. Bruges is only about 15km from Sluis - a random little Dutch town on the border - along the canals, with a pancake-flat towpath running the whole way.

Having reached Sluis we only had a window of about half an hour in which to buy a hunk of token Dutch cheese and get back on the bikes for a rendezvous with the train back to London. However, trains, boats and bikes all in all it was a very civilised weekend - we will definitely be investigating the Eurostar's other destinations for more ideas (although I might try and make sure there is a shower on offer at the other end).

M