Long Weekend in the Cotswolds - May 2007 (by Adam)

Saturday, 26 May 2007

We picked up our hire car soon after 8am and were in the Cotswolds by 10.30am. It was an overcast day, but dry, and our rumbling stomachs (or "Rumblin Tums", to use the name of one restaurant that we passed along the way) dictated that our first stop was Burford, "The Gateway to the Cotswolds" (unfortunately, I have just accidentally deleted the photo that I took of Burford, so you'll just have to take my word for it!). We had [a pretty ordinary] breakfast at a cosy little restaurant in Burford, and then browsed the various art and craft and antique shops along the high street. It was then back in the car, and we took our time meandering through the Cotswolds countryside, with a stop at Stow-on-the-Wold, where we browsed more antique shops and the tourist information centre (where I purchased a book called "40 Great Cotswold Pubs", which, as you will see as you read on, would prove to be invaluable!).

Stow-on-the-Wold

We then had a late [and delicious] pub lunch at the Horse and Groom Village Inn (http://www.horseandgroom.uk.com/home.php), in the village of Oddington, before making our way to our accommodation for the weekend, the Mill House Hotel (http://www.millhousehotel.co.uk). It was a nice little hotel, set in 10 acres of gardens, and just outside the village of Kingham.

The Mill House Hotel

The view from our room at the Mill House Hotel

Our room at the Mill House Hotel

Cat cartwheeling at the Mill House Hotel

Cat climbing a tree at the Mill House Hotel

After dumping our bags in our room, we headed off on a walk to the next village, Churchill, which was a couple of miles away. It was a really fantastic walk - partly along the gently winding road between the two villages, and partly through the fields.

Views along the walk between Kingham and Churchill

Cat on the swings in Kingham

Cat walking through the fields between Kingham and Churchill

Cat on the swings in Churchill

Cat with a new friend in Churchill

Cat seeming undaunted by the warning of farm livestock

Cat daunted by farm livestock

We had a [delicious] 3 course dinner at the hotel that night.

Sunday, 27 May 2007

We had breakfast at the hotel and then spent the morning meandering through the north Cotswold countryside. Unfortunately, the rains had arrived overnight (and would not abate until we were back in London), but if you're going to be anywhere when it's raining, then you could do much worse than being in a well-heated car meandering through the Cotswold countryside - taking refuge in cosy little pubs along the way, with wood fires blazing. We passed through postcard village after postcard village, as well as the more substantial market towns of Moreton-on-Marsh, Chipping Campden and Chipping Norton. Our favourite village was unquestionably the village of Blockley, and we are already thinking of returning there for Christmas with Doug and Helen.

Blockley

Me in Blockley

Chipping Campden

We had yet another [delicious] pub lunch, this time at the Noel Arms Inn (http://www.noelarmshotel.com/hotel/index.shtml), in the stunningly preserved town of Chipping Campden. We spent the afternoon much like the morning, meandering through the countryside, stopping from time to time, including in the town of Broadway (and at the nearby Broadway Tower).

Cotswold Countryside

Broadway

Broadway Tower

We drove through Stratford-upon-Avon, and up to Warwick in the hope of visiting Warwick Castle, but given the heavy rain, we couldn't justify paying the admission price of 17 pounds per visitor, so we headed back to our hotel. We returned to the hotel at about 5pm, and had a bit of a rest in our room before heading out for a [delicious] pub dinner at The Kings Head Inn (http://www.kingsheadinn.net), in the nearby village of Bledington. It was a particularly warm and cosy pub - made to feel even more so by the very cold, wet and windy conditions outside. I managed to leave the car's lights on while we were at dinner... but fortunately the car started first time when we left the pub a couple of hours later. Could have been a disaster...

Monday, 28 May 2007

We attempted to have breakfast at the hotel, but they were woefully understaffed, and in the end we decided to cut our losses and have breakfast on the road. We checked out and headed for the beautiful town of Bourton-on-the-Water, where we had a [delicious] scone breakfast.

Bourton-on-the-Water

Cat, thrilled to be having her photo taken outside this store in Bourton-on-the-Water

While in Bourton-on-the-Water, we were lucky enough to stumble across the town's annual duck race. People draw numbered plastic ducks out of a container, the ducks' numbers and their owner's names are recorded, and once all ducks have been allocated an owner, they are dropped into the river that runs through the town. The winner is the person who's duck is the first duck to cross the finish line about 100m downstream. Naturally, Cat and I each invested a duck, and Cat's was in 2nd place for a good portion of the race (mine did not trouble the leaders), but the race was ultimately won by a run away duck, who finished about 10m in front of the chasing pack (quite a margin, given the size of the competitors).

And they're racing...

Mid race

The run away winner

We contemplated going to see the famous cheeserolling race near Gloucester, but there was a lot of traffic headed that way, and so we opted to visit Gloucester Cathedral instead, which was very impressive.

Gloucester Cathedral

We then had the last of our Cotswold meals - a late [delicious] pub lunch at the Fosse Bridge Inn (http://www.fossebridgeinn.co.uk) - "40 Great Cotswold Pubs" therefore finished with a perfect strike rate of 4 from 4.

We then headed back to London, having had a really fantastic few days away.

Cricket at Wandsworth Common - May 2007 (by Adam)

Saturday, 12 May 2007

On a cold, showery and blustery Saturday morning, I headed south towards Wandsworth Common with my old friend, Edward Fall. Ed and I went to school together in South Africa in the early 1980s and have caught up with eachother on a number of occasions in the intervening years.The reason for our journey was to play in the annual Lewis XI vs Bucke XI cricket match. From what I can understand, Jon Lewis and Adam Bucke are old friends and every year for the past 5 years they have each assembled a team to contest the much coveted Lewis-Bucke shield. Ed and I were playing in the Lewis XI, Ed having gone to uni with Jon.Despite a few breaks in play courtesy of some passing showers, it proved to be a really great day of cricket. The Bucke XI batted first and made a very respectable 176 off their 30 overs. The Lewis XI then chased down that total, with 2 overs to spare. For me, it was a quintessential day of English cricket, with the game played in very gentlemanly spirits, and complete with cucumber sandwiches and an assortment of cakes for lunch. For the record, I bowled 5 overs and took 0-15 (although I would like to point out that 8 of those 15 runs were scored from snicks through the slips cordon) and managed to hold onto a catch down on the boundary at fine leg. I then batted at no 3, and put on a 50 run partnership with Ed, which really was a lot of fun. I retired on 30, having heaved a couple over the quare leg boundary. Ed was caught on 29 (trying to emulate my efforts over square leg). A few photos from the day follow...

Wandsworth Common...

The marquee...

Me at the crease...
Ed and I, rehydrating after our time in the middle...

Winners are grinners....

Long Weekend in Paris - May 2007 (by Adam)

Saturday, 5 May 2007

After getting to bed pretty late the night before (having seen the excellent "Wicked", at the Apollo Victoria Theatre), the sounding of my alarm at 4.45am was not greeted with much enthusiasm by either of us. That said, the prospect of being in Paris in just a few hours' time was enough to stir us from our slumber and within about 20 minutes we were showered, dressed and excitedly embarking on the 10 minute walk to Baker Street station. Cat seemed particularly pleased that her suitcase came with wheels, and she towed it the length of our journey. Less appreciative, no doubt, were the residents of Marylebone who were unfortunate enough to live on the route that we took - the suitcase wheels were not particularly well lubricated. From Baker Street station, it was a quick tube ride to Waterloo station, and soon afterwards, we were on the Eurostar to Paris, arriving at Gare de Nord station less than 3 hours later. The trip was so easy, and Cat managed to get a bit of much needed shut eye along the way (at this point, I would like to point out that I snapped an excellent photo of her asleep on the train, but have been forbidden from uploading it here). From Gare de Nord station it was a short metro ride to Tuileries station, and then a short walk to our hotel. We stayed at the Westin (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=1729#photo_section_0Link), which was just fantastic and in an absolutely perfect location, overlooking the Tuileries gardens and less than 5 minutes walk from the Louvre. A photo of our room appears later in the post.

We dumped our stuff at the hotel and set off to explore Paris. Knowing that explorers could not possibly succeed on an empty stomach, our first stop was a little cafe near the hotel, where we both had a croque monsieur and a cafe au lait. It was my first croque monsieur and it was definitely a case of love at first bite. We then walked through the Tuileries gardens to the Louvre, where we descended into its famous glass pyramid.

We spent a couple of hours having a look at just a fraction of the works that are housed there. Obviously a couple of hours is not enough to go even close to doing the place justice, but we reconciled our brief visit with the need to get a taste of Paris' many treasures rather than just gorging ourselves on one or two. We did, however, see some of the Louvre's more famous works, including the "Mona Lisa" and the "Venus de Milo". We also made great efforts to find the works of Hieronymus Bosch, which Cat recalled seeing and enjoying on her last visit to Paris, but sadly our efforts were to no avail (although in the process, we did find a bunch of Rembrandt's and Van Gough's which we might not otherwise have seen, so it wasn't exatly a total loss!).

We left the Louvre and headed towards the Il de la Cite. We refuelled with a serve of crepes at a cafe that overlooked the River Seine. I had mine topped with chocolate and banana. Not surprisingly, Cat was more pure, topping hers with banana only. We then crossed Pont Neuf...

...to the Il de la Cite, and headed first to Notre Dame Cathedral...

...which was great, although very crowded inside. We then moved onto Saint Chapelle, which really blew us away (Cat claims that on walking into the main chapel, I blurted out a very audible "whow!", which is definitely a possibility). For anyone who has been there before, they will know that the photo of the stained glass below does not do this place justice, but it's the best I can do here. These sorts of windows encircle virtually all of the chapel.


We then walked back to the hotel via Les Halles and the underrated Saint Eustache, where we saw a child being christened...

We then rested some pretty weary legs (especially Cat, with her poor knees) back at the hotel. Below is a shot of our room - www.expedia.com really came through with the goods.

After a powernap for Cat and a bath for me, we headed out to dinner at a great little restaurant / wine bar near the Royal Palace by the not-so-French name of "Willi's Wine Bar" (http://www.williswinebar.com/). It had been recommended to us by our friends James and Charlotte and it was without doubt the best meal that we had had since leaving Oz... and by a significant margin.

Sunday, 6 May 2007

We followed up the best meal that we had had since leaving Oz with the best sleep that we had had since leaving Oz and didn't get out of bed until about 10.30am. We would have got up closer to 10am, but found ourselves captivated by the De La Hoya vs Mayweather fight on TV, so didn't get up until Mayweather had been declared the new champ.

The weather was absolutely perfect - a cloudless blue sky and a temperature in the low 20s. We found a great little cafe across the River Seine, in Saint-Germain, and I had a pain au chocolate while Cat had a croissant - the healthy-eating divide was starting to narrow. We both washed down our pastries with a perfect cafe au lait, and watched the steady stream of Parisians (including some particularly French ones, who would have been right at home in a "Petit Miam" commercial) who passed by.

From there, we headed onto the Musee D'Orsay (although I must confess to having had an eclaire along the way), which we both loved. I was particularly taken by Monet's "Londres, Le Parlement" (http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/london-houses-of-parliament.html?S=0&cHash=318607ba81), while Cat particularly liked Renoir's "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette" (http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/dance-at-le-moulin-de-la-galette.html?S=0&cHash=550e8ac95d).

Again, we left after an embarassingly short period of time, but again, our reasons were the same. We walked through stunning and sun-drenched Parisian streets to the Eiffel Tower...

...although we didn't go up the Tower as the queues were just too long (at least a 45 minute wait just to get to the first of three platforms). We did, however, have a couple of baguettes (mine with salami and cheese, Cat's with ham and cheese) and a mineral water in a lovely little park, right next to the Tower. It was simple but delicious food enjoyed with one of the truly great vistas - for both of us, it really was a moment to remember.

We then walked up to the Trocadero...

...then on to the Arc de Triomphe...

...before heading down the Champs-Elysees...

...to the Place de la Concorde. For both of us, the Champs-Elysees was a bit of a disappointment. It was very crowded and touristy, and maybe the fact that it was a Sunday robbed it of some of its usual appeal (most of the shops were closed). For us, it was a bit too much like Oxford Street back in London, which we have probably seen a bit too much of recently. We would prefer to have a coffee on a quiet back street, rather than right there on the main drag.

After a brief pit stop at a great little patisserie near the hotel, we again had an evening rest back in our room. Cat had another powernap, while I watched Arsenal draw 1-1 with a 10 man Chelsea, thus handing the Premiership to Man U.

We then headed out for another 3 course dinner, this time at a fantastic restaurant in Saint-Germain, named "Le Christine" (http://www.restaurantlechristine.com/rue-christine.html). It too had been recommended to us, this time by our friends Dan and Amanda. It really was superb - even better than the night before, so it now has the mantle of providing the best meal that we have had since leaving Oz (and, arguably, for sometime before leaving Oz). Below is a photo of Rue Christine and a photo of Cat and I at the end of our meal.

After the meal, we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed seeing various sights from a night-time perspective. Cat obviously enjoyed seeing the Louvre by night, as the photos below show...

As we got closer to the hotel, we found the streets lined with gendarmes (many clad in full riot gear) and with tear-gas equipped trucks at the ready. They had been amassed in anticipation of rioting against the results of the presidential election, which was being fought out that day between the right-wing Sarkozy and the socialist Royal. We saw no incidents. We did however hear pumping music coming from the Place de la Concorde, which was only a couple of minutes walk from our hotel, so we walked over to see what was going on. We found thousands of people enjoying a free concert, and we listened to some bloke (who may or may not have been Ricky Martin - we couldn't quite tell from where we were) belt out a couple of tunes in French. Not being particularly big Ricky Martin fans (or fans of people who sound like Ricky Martin), we decided to call it a night. When we returned to our room, we flicked on the TV to see if the predicted rioting had in fact eventuated, only to see Sarkozy addressing the very crowd that we had just left. It would have been nice to have stayed there to hear the crowd belt out "La Marseillaise", which they did at the end of Sarkozy's acceptance speech, but, c'est la vie.

Monday, 7 May 2007

We got up a little earlier than the previous morning, checked out of the hotel and then caught the metro up to Montmatre for breakfast in a lovely little cafe. I had yet another pain au chocolate, while Cat had a baguette with butter and jam. Once again, we both washed things down with a cafe au lait. We then ascended the many stairs that take you up to Sacre-Coeur...

...which was really beautiful, despite the crowds, many of whom seemed unable to follow the "no photos" edict, causing constant rebuke from the church staff.

After taking in the views back down over Paris...

...we walked through the cobbled, narrow streets of Montmarte for a while...

...absolutely beautiful. We then caught the metro to the Pompidou Centre...

...and had a good look around there (relative, as always to our brief time in Paris). We particularly liked some of the works by Miro(including the sculpture above), Picasso and Kadinsky.

We then had our final meal in Paris, at a great little restaurant looking back on the Pompidou Centre...

After lunch, we swung past the hotel to collect our bags, and within a few hours we were home in London (although I must admit to having suffered an unfortunate snoring incident along the way, which must have just about shaken the train off its rails... and certainly alarmed the girls sitting in the seats opposite Cat and I).

It really was a brilliant weekend - one of the best we have ever had - and we are now such fans of Paris. Being able to visit places like Paris with such ease is, of course, one of the main benefits of living in London, and we will make sure that we make the most of it as often as we can...