With the close of August, and the windy reminder that summer is fast giving way to fall, I thought I'd do a little recap of the many trips I filled my summer with, lest I forget.
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April 2-5: The Drive up to Lake District and its tranquil vicinity-
Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Coniston Grasmere, Keswick, Ullswater, Penrith. And then the drive across to Leeds, and back down to Peterborough and Cambridge.
Love travelling with Si - always pleasant, easy-going, relaxing. She drove more than half the time, and even climbed up Cat Bells fell (pictured above), with a broken knee. It wasn't exactly summer yet, nay, not even Spring actually. There was still snow on the hills and it was actually cold. This was also a trip with she-who-must-not-be-named, not pictured.
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April 30 - May 4 & 5: Amsterdam, Keukenhof, Antwerp, Brussels
Amsterdam on Queen's Day, 30 April 2010, when the entire city turns ORANGE and orange people fill the streets and the canals. This was the trip I was tricked into doing all the planning when there were already bigger plans in place... We even flew in in style, via LCY instead of a budget airline - what was I thinking!
Keukenhof Bulb Fields, Lisse, Holland. Revealed: the location.
Brussels: The big fight after, the luxury chocolate stock up, and missing the eurostar back to London. And then having to walk all over brussels to find 2 beds for the night. Rushed straight to work from St Pancras the next morning. I will always check train timings properly from now.
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May 27-30: Paris & Versailles, île de France
Finally, I kept my promise from back in 2002, and brought him to Paris. One of the best trips we've been on, in a different way because we didn't rush at all but still managed to see a lot. Also checked out Versailes and the Roland Garros. Too bad Federer was on centre-court then, and the walls were slightly too thick.
It was also amazing finally being back here to one of the places I remember the most from 2002 with the same great friend I had first come here with :) Si was again a fantastic host, and I especially loved chatting away every night till 2am and not being able to wake up the next day till 11am. <3
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June 12-13: Stonehenge, Bath, Bristol, Wales
(Cardiff, Breacon Breacons National Park, Three Cliff Bay.)
Reunited with the 2 sisters, and the whole family. I nearly didn't make it for this trip because it was the 1st weekend ever I had to work - thanks to B.P. and their oil spill. Nonetheless I went anyway and it was a mad trip going to so many places in just 1 weekend! Finally visited the stones but once was probably enough...!
Stopped over in Bath for lunch and for a quick look-see around the pretty town. Most memorable thing was probably lunch at Sally Lunns, the oldest house in Bath. Also went to Bristol after and had another quick walkaround for an hour or 2.
One of the most iconic pictures of Wales, and the little massive trek we did to get to the Welsh sea, and the three cliff bay. Also had dinner in Cardiff and a drive around the Breacon Breacons National Park and stopped by a few places amongst the sheep. Not forgetting the one night super cheap stay at Hilton Newport which was an experience in itself!
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June 18 - 22: Ireland- North and South
Northern Ireland was especially green and blue, and all the colours and sounds of nature. Rope Bridge (Carrick-a-rede) above. Beautiful is an understatement. We rented a car and drove around Derry, along the northen coast to check out the amazing rock formations at the giant's causeway (pictured below), to Belfast, and down to Fermanagh to check out some marble arch caves. Oh, not forgetting a titanic boat tour - loved their caption "She was alright when she left here!" Ohoh, and we checked out Carrick Fergus castle too. Also we went to chruch where everyone was dressed so nicely, hats and all :)
And then we took a bus down south to Dublin, the capital of Eire. Leprechaun alert! We were not too enticed by the city, to be honest, but we did spent the nights watching the world cup in the wonderful hostel! In a country that ITV has honoured by calling France, Ireland in all their games, until they got knocked out anyway...
And again, just to reinforce the point about the bluest blue and the greenest green, and some people very intoxicated with the beauty of nature at its finest :)
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July 18- 25: Spain - Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla
Strolling down La Rambla, the main tourist street in Barcelona, where we had our all-you-can-eat Tapas and nearly died eating. Barcelona is also where the quirky buildings were, which we did check out but couldn't be bothered to queue to get in. Not forgetting the day trip to Montserrat which was quite nice but the ticket we bought was nowhere near value-for-money.
Arriving in Barcelona via a horrible overnight train experience, this is Puerta del Sol, the centre of Madrid and of Spain, an amazingly varied country. Temperatures were rising, and it was about 38 degrees. Sleeping in a non-airconed hostel was quite an unpleasant but it wasn't a bad place overall. We walked around the entire city in the sweltering heat, taking a few siestas too many in between. It's the only way to survive the heat. I never felt so glad to step into a supermarket.
This is Sevilla, capital of Andalucia, southern Spain. This time we arrived in style, via speedtrain, in the 1st class carriage (on 2nd class fare, heh). This is the bullfighting arena. Temperatures shot up to 45 degrees, and there was no respite even in the shade. Thank God for the overly cold aircon in the hostel. Alv also fell in love here, with Sangria. Travelling with them is quite fun - kinda reminds me of how I was like just a couple of years back, so eager to chiong everywhere. loved the Moorish architecture and the orange trees everywhere, and cheap tapas. oh yes, we saw a record number of weddings in a day too, and most of them started past 9pm at night. I think I almost qualify to become a Spaniard with my night owl sleeping habits. Eating and sleeping at all the wrong times. If only I could actually speak the language, and that would have taken more than a semester of Spanish at university. I'm definitely going back to Spain one day, but not in summer!
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Aug 14: Legoland, Windsor
Suddenly we became giants from a foreign land, even the pigeons looked bigger. It wasn't the best day weatherwise because it just kept raining all day, but that didn't stop me from being amazed in miniland, where landmarks from many european cities were built out of lego and put on display, complete with mechanisms in the pieces to make the buses and people move. The level of detail was mind-boggling, but more about that in my post on legoland, sometime soon. Also, meet my friend, Naomi, pictured here at half the height of the Canary Wharf tower. Unfortunately, my other little friend, Lucy, was in a terrible mood that day, but maybe we can go again in about 5 years. I should also add that the started with a little dinner party the night before and a stayover at P&N's. We had the most hilarious time playing UNO, and Smartass (a trivial board game), as well as comparing accents. I also had to sleep with a giant spider stuffed toy hanging over my head... who on earth buys SPIDER soft-toys!?! But I was too tired to notice Itsy Bitsy anyway.
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So there, a selection of little adventures throughout the summer of 2010. Not to say that the rest of the weekends were not fun. They were all pretty packed. We also went to Bicester, Oxford, did a London walking tour, played paintball, and a host of other things.
Ironically, also never worked so hard all year till summer, when everyone goes away on holiday and all my names starting with B refused to leave me alone.
Now that summer is over, what will Autumn bring? I know! It's not a question of what, but who... and the answer is, someone special! :)
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