View from the Cliffs Pavillion An early evening view of the estuary. I was incredibly early to see Alison Moyet so popped outside. I think that the last time that I was at this theatre I was either watching the Sooty Show or at a ballet school performance, come to think of it I remember a trip to the Panto as an adult but either way it was a long time ago. I have however seen Alison Moyet in lots of different venues and many times over the years. I have to say that this conce

Cliveden What else does a middle aged woman of a certain demographic do on a Saturday? Yes a trip to a National Trust property. This is one of my favs as it is close to Reading, has a great shop and a lovely Japenese garden. Managed not to get lost in the maze, although it was close, but was nearly stuck in the second hand bookshop. The rain stayed away long enough for a walk around the gardens whilst avoiding the posh peops at the literary festival, however our view of the h

Epping Ongar Railway A ride out on the heritage line starting at North Weald running up to Ongar and then back down the line to North Weald, well actually a little bit further. On the way out the steam engine pulled us with a lovely 'pushticome' noise and on the way back there was a not so old diesel engine, strangely it was this one that the gift shop chose for their one postcard option. The gift shop was an experience in itself with a sweet lady who popped up unexpectedly f

View from the bus Well I am just back from 2 nights in Malaga. I have been wanting to come here for ages and now thanks to Sleazy Jet I can fly from Southend. So much easier than a larger airport and if the taxi does not cancel on you, so much quicker. I stayed just out of the centre and really near to the main train station, so a real bonus. It was warm so I was able to top up my tan with little effort. I arrived Saturday afternoon, picked up some supplies from the Carrefour

Torremolinos Well I was nearby so I had to give Torremolinos a try. As I left the train station I immediately saw the first signs of 'egg and chips land', there were plenty of signs for 'full English' on either side of the busy pedestrian shopping area but there was also some Spanish charm and it got better as I descended the steep and windy steps to the beach. Unfortunately, at the bottom I emerged into a sea of 'wifebeaters' strolling along the coastal walkway surrounded by

Palm Trees Having visited Valencia not that long ago we decided to have a swim onboard and a leisurely breakfast before heading for a walk. We were hoping that the shop at the port would be as good as at Barcelona but no such luck, so we headed off for a walk around. We accidentally turned up at a huge expanse and sand and of course sea. Needless to say we were wearing our swimmers on the off chance that we would swim again later in the day but we did not have anything else w

Sandy Beach So today we woke up to Sagrada Familia in view from our balcony. We decided not to head into Barcelona, mostly due to the heat, but to head again to the beach. This time we ended up on the sandy beach of Sitges, no tiny biting fish this time but still not excellent for snorkelling. I did manage to get some videos with my underwater camera but you really have to look hard to sea the fish. We had to stay in the sea nearly all of the time as the sand was so scorchio

Bandol Beaches Well we got here with a very enthusiatic guide who wasn't even supposed to be telling us about the place, she was pure comedy gold. Another hot day so the beach was packed, obviously not the one in the picture which we found on the way back but the little cove that we climbed up the stairs to get to. There were also tiny little fish who nibbled vicariously at out heals, enjoyable at first but after a while we started to get a little worried that they could be r

Neighbour to Monaco A quaint little fishing village with a very crowded beach. We got the tender from the boat and then headed along the seafront to the train station. After a few hours in Monaco we headed back to Villefranche for a quick dip in the sea before rejoining the ship. No idea where all the people had come from but the beach was chockablock. Not even a space to change out of our wet swimmers but due to the heat that was really not a problem. How have I never heard

Monaco Well we finally got to Monaco, which according to my sister's list of countries is my 60th which is very appropriate for my 60th year. Now the pressure is on to find another 10 countries to visit before I get to 70! We were supposed to be here the year that my mum died so we had to cancel. To be honest I am glad that we were only here for a few hours instead of a long weekend as it may well have bankrupted us and put paid to any future holidays. We had a walk around, l

Another Leaning Tower So we are docked today at Livorno, relatively close to Florence and Pisa, both places that I love but also places that I have been to may times before and really do not think would be manageable for a few hours in a heatwave, therefore we headed off to Lucca. I have only heard of this as my cousins visited recently. What a hidden gem! A walled city with its very own wonky tower. It was hot but the buildings created enough shower to be able to walk around

Livorno Canal First port on our cruise, Livorno, Italy. Never really heard of it before and no idea that it had canals similar to Venice, well not really but it's a selling point! It was very hot so we only meandered around for about an hour before heading back to the ship. There was a very lively market and some impressive little boats but I am glad that it was just a short hop ashore. To be fair our main excursion was booked for the afternoon so I really didn't want to catc

Palma Majorca Actually my second time to Majorca and both times I have only really travelled through the capital. I had every intention of exploring Palma but we checked onboard and hit the free frozen Pina Colados and then our room was ready and the balcony was calling and the rest is history, as they say. So I just lay on my lounger looking out at the cathedral for a number of hours before I changed positions and lay on the lounger next to the pool, sipping a different Pina

Trieste Airport Well this is a funny post because thanks to Ryanair I spent rather a lot of time here. Firstly on the way in when we landed and there did not appear to be any staff at the border control! Once they turned up there were 4 people working and obviously we were divided into the fast lane for EU citizens and the snail's pace lane for everyone else. Yet again they were taking photos and scanning fingerprints, not sure how many times I have done this already but my g

Lovran Harbour What a lovely little trip to Lovran, a lovely birthday treat from an old friend. A great apartment, albeit up a hill but not too bad as there was a supermarket onroute and shade most of the way. Added bonus was that Croatia TV had much better football angles than the BBC so I could see England go out in style. Also meant that they could cook my favourite Slovene dish for several days in a row, too hot to eat much and I actually only get it once in a while so no

Southend Pier So I have it on good authority that Southend Pier is still the longest pier in the world, so I had to blog about it. It is actually more than the golden mile at 1.33 miles in old money or 2.14 kilometres in new money! I did not get the train but walked both ways just trying to top up the tan. As a child there was a laughing policeman at the end of the pier but now there is a coffee shop, much more my pace nowadays. So the pier stretches all the way out to where

Mural for Frida Kahlo I was not sure whether to post about this as I have already posted about the South Bank but this was different as it was all about an experience which is actually what I wanted for my 60th. So the day began with a coffee at the Globe before arriving at the Tate Modern for our allotted time slot. Anyone who knows me knows that I can do art galleries and museums at super human speed, not because of the exhibits more due to my attention span and willingness

View from the Ferry Well the weather went all sunny today which was ideal as we left the train at Wemyss Bay and walked to the ferry over to Bute. After a short coach ride on Bute we headed to Mount Stuart which is the ancestral home of, you guessed it, the Stuarts. It was a very detailed tour of the house, followed by afternoon tea and then a quick ran round the gardens. My fav part was of course the boat, with a close second being seal sighting. Not surprisingly I did not g

Silver Sands of Morar I think we were collected by cars from the train at Spean Bridge but then we were delivered back after the trip to another station in the middle of nowhere, a scary moment when we arrived to an empty platform but not for long. So I did shock my fellow passengers because I went for a quick but refreshing dip in the sea, it had a surprisingly strong current and I did not need to be worried that it would not be deep enough as there was a steep shelf down. I

Commando Memorial Day 2 of the train began with a walk up the hill at 7am, mostly it was dry but not so much on the way back, you can see the ominous clouds in the pic. We left the train at Spean Bridge and could see Ben Nevis in the distance, although the top was hiding, apparently that is not unusual. We only walked for about an hour and strangely later we drove past the memorial later in the afternoon on an excursion to a rewilding walk. I was desperate to ask whether thes