Tag: family

Portugal & Southern Spain trip – Day 15-18, May 24th-28th….The Algarve & Home

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We woke up to gnats/fleas everywhere…horrible…we sprayed again, choked on the poisonous fumes and realised the apartment was infested. After a quick breakfast we drove to Santa Eulalia Beach. With a carpark and hotel on the edge of the sand, it looked lovely. We pitched our beach chairs on the edge of the soft sand and the firmer wet sand. Here we took up residency, on the narrow strip. A few people were in the sea, which according to their squeals was very cold and it was also a steep drop so we decided to enjoy the sun in the dry…….That is until a big wave came and we both jumped up rescuing handbag and camera bag from the surf!!!! What a pair of muppets we are as we made a hasty retreat a yard or two higher up the beach.

As it looked as if we were going to be sat in the water again, we returned to the car and headed to the apartments hotel swimming pool. It was wonderfully empty with some good shaded sun-loungers…a lovely afternoon.

In the evening we headed back to the Golf resort across the road again. This time I had Grilled Veal…..or so it said on the menu, actually it was a really nice sirloin steak, with sweet potato fries and roasted vegetables, all for €18 . John had grilled tuna with sweet roasted potatoes and a tomato relish for €13.

Over the next couple of days we did much the same, sleep, sunbathe, eat and repeat. We had a drive into Albufeira and we found a nice ice cream place on the beach. We ate at the same place each night….alternating between sea bass, tuna and steak, we shared a different salad as a starter each night ….it was a really pleasant restaurant….even though I managed to trip up an unnoticed step and skid seal like along the mosaic floor on my boobs !!!!!! Ouch !!!! But it didn’t deter us from going, the service was good, the food was excellent and the price was reasonable….we couldn’t have asked for more.

Our apartment continued to cause anxiety. The window which had given us a nice view was now violated by the apartment opposite having major building work which started at 8.00 am each morning. The tip for the builders rubble was directly below our window so the noise and the dust was a constant intrusion to our peace and quiet. The gnats/ fleas never stopped being present and it took 3 days for the company it was booked through to get back to us…by which time we only had one full day and two nights left …so it was all too little too late ..

On our final morning we were packed and ready to leave by 10.00 am the time we had agreed to meet the owner/ ground agent to give her the keys and to get our €100 deposit back…..the time came and went….at 11.30 I tried to phone her no reply, I WhatsApp her no reply. At 12.00 I tried phoning on WhatsApp and got a reply. As she spoke no English the conversation was difficult but I think she understood “ now, now” At 12.30 she arrived and gave us our €100 back. We showed her all the gnats and the builders skip etc, she just shrugged and couldn’t have cared less….after all she had, had our money. A little later she WhatsApp me and said please don’t say anything bad about the apartment….wow! Was she joking or not……we certainly wouldn’t want any other tourist to spend their hard earnt money or holiday time in such a noisy infested place….all we can say is steer clear of Sun & Serenity at Balaia Da Mar holiday resort…the rest of the resort is fine.
We headed off to the airport in Faro. Dropped the car off. We only had £40 to pay for the cross border fee and all was good. We found where the EasyJet baggage drop was and although our flight drop-off desk number wasn’t displayed yet we stood in the queue. When we got to the front, an hour later, we were told we were 15 minutes too early and stood aside to wait. Sure enough in 15 minutes time we were allowed to drop our cases off. We went through to departures and the security scanning was very fast. However when we got to immigration there was only one desk open for non-EU and as the majority of tourists were from the UK we queued for an hour and three quarters…..we had to let some people go ahead as their gate was closing…it was mayhem, eventually another desk opened and everyone cheered. Phew at last in the departure lounge only to find out out 8.50 pm take off was delayed until 10.30 pm….oh well…time for a Burger King as it was that or a sandwich.
Our flight took off about 10.40pm and was uneventful landing at 1.20 am. It took forever for the baggage to come through…the carousel started turning at 2.00am and our bags were fairly quickly retrieved……one of our brand new cases has once again got a huge dented corner…..what a nuisance… We had been going to get the train home but we were both exhausted and it was so late that we grabbed a taxi….at that time in the morning it cost us £81.00….hey Ho, we were home and ready for a great sleep in our own bed.
What a great holiday we had had….superb apartment, beach and restaurants in Luz……a wild experience in El Rocío, a great time in Seville and good sunbathing and nice food back in the Algarve…a lovely 18 days spent relaxing and exploring.

Thank you for once again following us…we hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did.

Caribbean Cruise 2024 – Day 7 – Antigua

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21st November 2024….a very special day….it’s our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We had a lovely day which started with us giving each other a card and gift… John gave me a gorgeous diamond eternity ring which fits perfectly below my two other rings. I gave him an engraved tin containing cuff links with J&J on … So I went for the traditional 10th anniversary gift-tin and John went for the modern-diamond.
After breakfast before going out on the beautiful island of Antigua we decided to reflect on our 10 years of married life so we made a list, in no particular order, of all the countries we’ve visited together … England, Wales, Scotland, St Kitts & Nevis, Tortola, St Maarten, St Thomas & St John, Grand Turk, Trinidad & Tobago, Martinique, Antigua, Grenada, Dominica, St Lucia, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Bahamas , Cayman Island, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, USA & Alaska, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam , Borneo, Bali, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Gibraltar, Madeira, Monaco , Portugal, Vatican City, Italy, Morocco , Malta, Gozo, Gran Canaria , Lanzarote, Tenerife , Las Palmas, Cyprus, Egypt, Hungary , Croatia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe , Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Oman, Umm Al-Quwain, Fujairah, Greece… quite a list 75 countries in total.

Around mid morning we ventured out ….it had been raining but the sky showed promise of a beautiful day. Wandering up the main terminal shopping area we noticed two ladies with a tour board. We asked if they were waiting for booked customers, which they were. However it turns out the customers hadn’t turned up so they asked what we were looking for. We had already decided to go up to Shirley’s Heights and the Block house on Dow hill so we could see the magnificent sights, and a little sight seeing around the island. One of the ladies said she would take us for $40 each and we would need to pay an entrance fee of $15 each to go up to Shirley’s Heights and the block house. We agreed and off we went. Auntie P was a very knowledgable, fun loving person and we were soon installed into her very comfortable air conditioned 7 seater SUV. We then embarked on a quick tour of St Johns with Auntie P pointing out all the sights. Passing the cricket ground and the Hero’s board we headed into the countryside towards Nelson Dockyards.

As we traversed the beautiful island of Antigua Auntie P pointed out lots of the different vegetation, including coco pod, sugar apple and Ackee. The later is poisonous if eaten before it is fully mature and if it’s not cooked in the correct way. Auntie P said they eat a lot of it in Jamaica and many a wife incorrectly cooks it if she finds her husband is unfaithful …or so the stories go !!!

We enjoyed meandering through the villages. Coming across a taxi with the driver flagging Auntie P down we stopped. They had broken down and our kind driver offered the 4 French speaking Canadians from Quebec a lift to Nelson Dockyard so they could get a taxi from there back to their ship. We were pleased when they got out as they were very noisy and we couldn’t hear what Auntie P was telling us about the island. We stopped on the way to the Heritage site dockyard to take a photo of Clarence House on the opposite side of the harbour. This is where the Queen Elizabeth II had stayed. However due to the rain the photo didn’t really do the area justice. We didn’t go into the heritage site as we had done this on a previous visit to the Island. We passed by many disused windmills which would have been on sugar cane plantations in the olden days…we also experienced a variety of domestic animals roaming freely by the roadside.


When we got to Shirley’s Heights and Dows Hill we went up to The Block house first of all. This is where the soldiers monitored the southern Atlantic and Caribbean approaches to English Harbour. The remains of the ammunition store and the barracks are still clearly visible. The view is magnificent. The white building was built by Eric Clapton and is a rehabilitation centre.


After this we went up to Shirley Heights. This was first used as a lookout and a signal station since the days of the war of American independence in 1774. The sentry would spot approaching ships and use flags during the day and guns at night to spread the alarm across the country…evidently the whole island could be on alert within 10 minutes. Today it’s regarded as offering the finest view of English Harbour and the dockland. Unfortunately the rain didn’t do the views any justice in the photos.

On we continued to Curtain Bluff and Tamarind Cove before getting to Fryes Bay. Here we stopped for a complimentary drink. While people watching we saw a Monarch Butterfly which Aunty P told us were quite rare these days.

We returned to the ship past Auntie P’s house and the primary school she had attended. Auntie P was a preschool teacher and had also had her own day care centre prior to becoming a tour guide. Her love for children still means that she does occasional supply work in the local school. She was a really interesting person who shared her knowledge of the island and island life generously with us….a wonderful tour. We can recommend her to you… . You can contact her directly either by email or phone her email address is kidsplace63@hotmail.com phone number (268)770-9195

Once back on the ship we rested a little before getting ready for supper and our photo session. We were gifted a complimentary photo session by Princess Cruises so we got ready for supper early and went up to the photographic studio…. Tomorrow we’ll see what they turn out like. We had booked a table in the Crown Grill restaurant -which you pay to eat in, unlike most the restaurants on the ship which are covered within your cruise fare.
We had a lovely meal of crab cake starter, surf and turf, both the fillet and lobster were cooked to perfection, I then had sugar free ice cream and John had caramel creme brûlée. A perfect meal to end a perfect day….

Thanks to everyone for making our Anniversary an extra special day.

New Forest – Day 7 – October 3rd 2024

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Yesterday we had a train related day. For those of you who don’t really know 2 J’s you might not realise that John is a prolific highly knowledgable, train enthusiast, who has over 26 books published by Amberley Books. The books are on various train lines, areas, locomotives around the country and each contain 180 of Johns own photographs. So!! Just occasionally!!!!!, when we are in the UK having an adventure we have specific train related days and yesterday was one of them.

Today we awoke to blue sky with a few white fluffy clouds…Yes!!!! We had been waiting for a good day so that we could visit Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway. None of us had ever been before …so it was a real excursion….
Exbury Gardens…although personally we think it should be called ‘Exbury Gardens and Arboretum’ is a 200 acre / 81 hectare of informal woodland garden. It is home to a large collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and many, many beautiful flowers, shrubs and amazing trees.

The Gardens are just east of Beaulieu. They are well signposted from the A326 Southampton to Fawley road in the New Forest. Their place in history dates them as Grade II listed gardens. In 1919 Lionel Nathan de Rothschild purchased the estate, and tried to emulate his fathers London Gunnersbury Park , by creating a massive very ambitious garden. The neoclassical mansion, Exbury House was built in 1920. It is seeped in history, having been commandeered by the Admiralty during WWII. It is not open to the public and seems to be having a lot of renovation work going on at the moment.
The gardens are open to the public, costing £13 per person plus £6.50 for the train trip. You can buy the tickets on line but we choose to get them at the ticket office, due to the unpredictable weather at the moment. A delightful lady served us and said it was fine to go out to get dads scooter after we’d been on the train. They also hire mobility scooters for a very reasonable £5 for half a day, £10 for a full day.

We had arrived in good time to get the 11.00am train. Please note…it’s quite a long walk (approx a little over quarter of a mile), from the entrance to the train station. We should have taken the mobility scooter with us, as there was plenty of room on the station, inside a locked fence gate, for pushchairs and scooters. We sat on the plentiful seating and watched them prepare the steam narrow-guage train engine and the diesel shunter.

At 10.50 we were invited to board the train…each compartment had bench seats opposite each other, so Dad and I sat facing forwards and John sat facing backwards…..we were soon on our way….our 20 minute trip was delightful. Not only did we go through beautifully landscaped areas of woodland, small lake and colourful shrubs but there was also many metal woodland animals and other creatures along the side of the tracks.

When we got back and disembarked we watched the engine being turned around on the turntable ready for its next trip.

We quickly went and got Dads mobility scooter from the car and set off to walk the rest of the gardens……it was really beautiful …beautifully laid out….the pictures speak louder than words…


When we got to the Five Arrows Gallery there was an exhibition of colourful Nerines….the gentleman explained all about them to us…he was from Zimbabwe and explained that the indoor Nerines were native to Cape Town in South Africa……We loved the way that they look as if they have glitter on them….in the UK they grow inside and are happiest on a windowsill all winter, flowering and growing leaves, then during the summer they should be kept dry and they are dormant…it was very interesting.

We continued our walk down by the lake before circling around back to the car.

What wonderful gardens…it was a splendid day. We had a late picnic lunch down at Hythe Marina watching the shipping coming and going before traversing the Forest, spotting the ponies on our last afternoon on our way back to the house….tomorrow we go home…a truly lovely last day of our holiday.

New Forest – Day 5 – October 1st 2024

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Yesterday we visited our relations who live in the area and joined them for coffee. It’s hard to say the exact relationship and I fear my sister will correct me because I am bound to be wrong…but I think…my mothers maternal grandmothers sisters child’s, child …I might have missed a generation out but they’ve always been known as Cousin Simon and Sheila to me and Simon is the son of Great Aunty Lily…although I don’t think she was an aunt, I think she was perhaps my grandmothers younger cousin !!!!! Regardless, they’ve always been family and it was lovely catching up with them…thank you for the coffee.
Today we headed off into the forest…a grey day with the sun occasionally breaking through, and thankfully no rain. We went through Sway to Horseshoe Bottom Carpark. Where we sat and enjoyed the views… plenty of horses….. there was also a man wandering about with a takeaway coffee..what a strange thing to do we thought. He kept bending and picking things up from the short grass, occasionally kneeling and once or twice sitting and still picking things up and putting in his pocket…..we watched him for some time. A car pulled up further along from us and a couple of men, father and son age, alighted. We were interested to see that they strapped a two wheeled contraption on to one of their dogs and we soon realised the dog didn’t have the use of its hind legs….. they set off across the grassland for a walk ….they stopped at the other strange man and conversed …out of his pocket came another open coffee cup and he showed the newcomers what he had been collecting… They all moved off and ‘curiosity was killing the cat’ , so I hopped out of the car and went to see what the man had been picking up….tiny mushrooms…I suspect magic mushrooms …my Miss Marple’s sleuthing had it all worked out!!! I was pleased when a New Forest Parks van pulled in and he disappeared..after all he was corrupting this sacred place where nature, heaven and earth are all at peace. We had coffee. Enjoyed watching the ponies and dog walkers traversing this area of outstanding beauty.

We decided to go deeper into the forest and continued on new routes until we crossed under the A31 again and headed towards Bramshaw . This time we didn’t see any pigs. Although we did see a lot of ponies and we went through some great villages with shops, the names of which really appealed to me !!! We stopped for our lunch and watched a pair of Wagtails and some Meadow Pipits playing in the puddles.

Deciding we would head for home we turned down another very narrow lane in the direction of Nomansland…. What a wonderful surprise …firstly a pig with two piglets and then another huge pig…as we went around the blind bend there in the road were about 10 really young pink piglets and their sows foraging in the hedgerow. Beyond them was a herd of donkeys blocking the road……what a lovely sight. As we could go nowhere, due to the road block , we spent several minutes watching and enjoying these animals freely eating and snuffling and grunting…it was superb.

We eventually had to move as the livestock moved onto the verges. Our return continued and we took the beautiful route past the Rhinefield Hotel and back through Brockenhurst….John got his train ‘fix’ as we waited at the level-crossing.

We got back to the house in time to put the supper in the oven. Another really lovely peaceful day, we saw 223 ponies wandering freely and 5 with riders …….Nature at its very finest.