Travurple

On Monday, we walked around St Mary’s Isle, not actually an Isle but a wooded peninsula on the edge of Kirkcudbright. A lovely 4 mile walk with views of the wider bay.

Tuesday, was busy with culture, we went to the Kirkcudbright Galleries, which included a temporary exhibition of the Viking Galloway Hoard, discovered locally in 2014, and a permanent exhibition of local artists (as Kirkcudbright, has been known as the artists town since the early 1900s)

We then visited the Stewartry Museum, which included taxidermy of local animals, after lots of local Victorians donated vast collections of stuffed animals from around the world, including an elephant, the trustees decided to focus on local animals, and gave their elephant to the national museum. There was also the engine from the very first car in the area in 1896.

Then on to Broughton House, the house itself was closed on the day we visited, however the garden was open, a small formal garden with Japanese influences, as the artist owner E A Hornell had visited Japan.

Next was the Toll Booth art centre, originally used for the tax collection and the local prison, now a museum on the history of the building with art exhibitions.

Back to the motorhome, then for a walk in Barhill Woods, just behind the campsite, we heard a woodpecker, but didn’t see it, but did see a Red Squirrel feeding, near a hide, it spend about 10mins feeding on a feeder which had been filled, despite the fact that the hide was still closed due to covid restricitions!

Wednesday, we packed up ready to move campsites again, Nic went on an art walking tour of Kirkcudbright led by Fiona. A super way to cement the knowledge gained the previous day about the history and artists of Kirkcudbright, and to learn more and be entertained in the process. £11 well spent.

Then we headed for Glen Trool campsite on the edge of the Galloway Forest Park, after a provisions stop in Newton Stewart. The area is a dark sky park. We were blessed with a clear sky and the stars were amazing, Rog got out of bed at 2am to see them, Nic didn’t bother!

Thursday, we cycled for the first time on this trip, Nic borrowed her Mum’s electric bike, so was enjoying that until we got to a hilly gravel road, and fell off whilst going up hill – what a talent! No injuries to either Nic or the Bike.

Friday we walked back into the forest park, then followed the Southern upland path, a fabulous walk of nearly 13km. we were planning lunch at a pub, but it was closed, but thankfully it was only 5mins back to the Motorhome, via “The Kindness Path” which was decorated with painted stones.

Saturday, on the move again, this time to Orchard House Campsite near Ayr, after a stunning bumpy drive through the southern uplands, we called on route at the Robert Burns museum and cottage in Alloway. Burns is another one of those writers (like Shakespeare) we could not have given you more than a couple Burns quotes before going to the museum, but as you see/hear all the quotes, you know you know them… for Auld Lang Syne, Tam O’ Shanter, Wee Timorous Beatie etc..

Arrived at the Orchard house campsite, which is a Caravan and Motorhome Club Certified Location (CL) which can only have 5 pitches and this one does not allow Children, quiet with a distant sea view to the Isle of Arran.

We discovered that somewhere on route we had lost the water filler cap!, so ordered a new one with Amazon prime, which should arrive at the campsite tomorrow (Monday).

Caught up with good friends on the Isle of Man, via slightly dodgy wifi connection!

Sunday, a quiet day on site, a short walk down to the River Ayr, and watched the site owner fix the blocked drains, thankfully he is a water engineer and put all the drainage in himself, so knew what he was doing with his rods!

For regular readers, we have an Ryanair update, following the £17 delayed flight to Zagreb, Ryanair have paid the compensation of €400 each ! Hooray!

So after Roger tested negative for Covid, we quickly finished packing, did some shopping, booked a campsite, and headed to the Northwest to Wyreside Campsite & Fisheries. A nice site mainly focused on the fishing.

We picked this campsite as it is near The Fleece Inn near Dolphinholme, a lovely pub we have used in the past, as we were meeting a good friend for lunch who was driving south down the M6, and The Fleece Inn is about 10mins off the motorway.  Lunch didn’t disappoint, Rog had a steak & ale pie, a proper pie – one that has a pastry bottom!. Nic had a fish plater, lots of fish!

Enjoyed a couple of walks around the fishing lakes, but didn’t do much else, just got use to using the motorhome again.

On Friday, continuing our slow trip north, we moved to the Marina Campsite in Maryport, via a coffee stop at Sizergh Castle in the Lake District. Sizergh Castle is a Tudor mansion house with parts dating back to the 1500s, now managed by the National Trust (so free access with our Manx National Heritage passes) and still the home of the “Hornyold-Strickland” family. Notably, Catherine Parr lived there for a time following the death of Henry VIII.

The café was really busy, surely Catherine Parr didn’t have to queue for coffee!

Fish n’ chips in Maryport for dinner, the quietist and slowest chippy we have ever been in, but to redeem it the fish n’ chips were good.

The Campsite was good, however it was very windy. Walked to the lighthouse at end of the harbour to watch the sun go down.

Saturday, decided to booked our next camp site, pin in the map again and we are going to Silver Craigs campsite in Kirkcudbright. Pronounced ‘Kur-KOO-bree’, as a dyslexic Rog loves to hate the English language!

Sunday we drove for 2 hrs and 97 miles to get from Maryport to Kirkcudbright, which is 23 miles as the crow flies across the Solway Firth. Silver Craigs is a community run site, situated in an elevated position above the town, but really close, so we had a walk around the town.

You may have noticed that we did not publish a blog last week… Sorry!

We were back in Pocklington to catch up with family, and to help out whilst a parent was scheduled to have surgery, but unfortunately Covid put a stop to that. As a result we did not do a lot which was “blog worthy”, however we always appeared to be busy, watching some local rugby involving Roger’s nephew, out for a few family meals/coffees, which is always nice, and some local walks.

We managed a trip to the new cinema in York, when we say new not sure how long it has been there, we have not been before and there were still signs up saying “new cinema”, but everyone knows, after they put up signs like that they never take them down again !

We saw the new Magical Beasts film, part of the Harry Potter spin off. Which was good.

We repacked the Motorhome ready for our next adventure, planning to head north/west next week. 

On Thursday Rog tested positive for Covid, so has been self-isolating in the motorhome parked on the drive. Luckily he has had no significant symptoms, only your average “cold’, so has cleaned and repacked the motorhome top to bottom, and developed the travel plans for the rest of the year.

Sorry, no photos on this blog. 

Having arrived in Zagreb late on Sunday night…. Thanks Ryanair, so on Monday after breakfast in the Hostel (£5- ish, which was OK), we set off walking, trying to cover parts of the city we had not managed to do on our day trip to Zagreb, a few years ago. We headed towards the river, past the University. The river appeared very benign and low, however there was a huge flood plain and flood defences, so we assume at times the river can be wild and furious. 

We walked back to the old town for a late lunch at the Kaptolska Klet, a posh hotel opposite the cathedral, it was “Restaurant week” in Zagreb this week, so lots of restaurants were doing cheap set menus, the Kaptolska Klet was doing a very nice 3 course + a glass of wine for HRK 125 (about £13) – we like Restaurant week!

Tuesday, lots more walking including up the hill to St Marks Church (see pic) but obviously something official was happening – lots of police and posh cars, so we couldn’t get close to the church. Our coffee stop today gave us the opportunity to try Knedla, a type of dumpling, which comes in a savoury and sweet version, both of us were happy bunnies!

We then found the botanical gardens to look round, at a very reasonable HKN 10 (£1.10). Beautifully tended and laid out. Lots of spring flowers were out, and there were terrapins in the pond. Nic wanted to come back in a month to see the Iris bed, which has the potential to be spectacular in a few weeks time.

After an evening of watching the world go by, at a street café in Zagreb centre, it was back to the hostel to settle in for the night, it is worth mentioning that every evening the hostel hosted entertainment in the bar, tonight was quiz night, in Croatian, the place was crowded and smoky (as it was every evening!– smoking indoors is still a thing here!), and our room overlooked the bar area’s glass roof, so it was quite noisy until about 11ish when everything would go quiet.

Wednesday, the weather was not quite as good, so we went to the Museum of Illusions, an interesting interactive museum based on optical illusions and puzzles.  Interesting Nic could not ‘see’ some of the optical illusions (i.e. “Count the number of black dots” – Nic “what black dots?”)

Headed to Restaurant Frida, for another Restaurant Week special, which was stunning.

We had three courses. Rog had a Curried Carrot Soup, followed by Shrimp Risotto, then Chocolate Mousse. Nic had an aubergine dish to start stuffed with cream cheese and pesto, then grilled with melted cheese – delicious, followed by pasta with a creamy pancetta sauce- also delicious. Nic’s pud brought envy from Rog (this is unusual in itself!), it was a Lava cake with ice cream, better known as chocolate fondant, with that gooey chocolate centre – Rog was lucky that Nic was willing to share! We also had a couple of glasses of Croatian white wine with our meal, interesting that everywhere served their wine in 10cl measures. Once again the price for the meal was HRK 125, but we did have to pay for the wine.

After an hour or so of packing at the hostel, it was out for a last few drinks, including a tasting tray of beer, and a shared Pizza, before heading back for bed.

Thursday, woken by lots of rain in the night, still falling as we got ready to leave. After a last hostel breakfast, where the lovely waitress remembered my daily order for English Breakfast Tea without me asking for it. Once packed with half an hour to kill Nic continued to read the wallpaper in the bedroom, this was made up of sheets of New York times articles. There was a really interesting article about someone tracing and photographing her half siblings, who were all from the same sperm donor. This meant walking round the room looking for the next page to follow the story! Time to leave and it was still raining, but this was OK as we had a taxi booked back to the airport, they even picked us up right outside the hostel, which they normally don’t do due the tram tracks. 

Zagreb Airport, what a difference from Manchester, we spent about 3 mins in the security queue rather than the 1hr 15 mins in Manchester! Ryanair flight was on time so back to Manchester on time, and thankful we did not have any bags checked in, so we had a little time to kill before our train back to York, the to bus to Pock, through the snow!

Spent Friday, repacking the motorhome for the next adventure, Scotland after Easter. 

So we checked out of our AirBnB first thing Monday morning, and headed for York train station, thanks for the lift Dad.

A Trans Pennine Express via Manchester to visit friends and family in the northwest.

Lots of food, drink and good times catching up! Had a few walks in Cheshire, Chester and Widnes.

After a lift to Manchester airport, security was not as bad as we feared, about 1 1/4 hrs to get through. But then the delays started with our Ryanair flight to Zagreb.. a late arrival of the incoming plane, then there appeared to be nobody at the airport to deal with the plane stairs or the luggage, so in the end we arrived in Zagreb 3 hrs & 39minutes late. Ryanair even emailed me to confirm the delay ! The only plus should be Euro800 compensation for a £34 flight !!!

Due to the delay, we got a taxi to the hostel rather than the bus, a luxury. And yes you did read that correctly a hostel ! We do have a double ensuite room for £30 a night and it’s better than some hotels we have stayed in.

Monday morning in Fuerteventura we woke to heavy rain, but Monday was a day of travel, so no real problem. Drop the hire car off, Ryanair flight back to Manchester, then a train to York. All ran smoothly but it did take all day!

Then we checked back into the AirBnB we used over Christmas, it was nice to be back in Pock.

Spent the week catching up with everyone, and deal with unpacking from our Canary Island trip, but also preparing for our next trip …. See the next couple of weeks blogs for details. Also you may notice that we are blogging from Rog’s phone, rather than our laptop, as we are packing light.

After much frustration on the laptop, with the website, Rog managed to get semi final tickets for Rugby World Cup in France, in October 2023!!

Also watched lots of Rugby this weekend, the last games of the Six Nations and the local team.

Another easy week. 

We met Nic’s cousin, who was in Corralejo on holiday, and as we had the hire car we drove out to El Cotillo (on the north west coast), for lunch and ordered far too much food, including one salad that was so huge it could have probably fed all three of us without anything else.  

We hired bikes 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️, Nic got an electric one and Rog chose not to. We headed south down the coastal plan, starting off as a nice smooth tarmac path and then on to a dirt track. On the first hill the chain on Rog’s bike snapped ! No mobile phone signal ! Nic headed up out of the valley and managed to get a phone signal to ring to bike hire shop, so within 15 mins they had arrived with another bike. We set off again and after a few more hills, Rog was knackered and decided to turn around, meanwhile Nic was really enjoying the electric bike, whizzing ahead and waiting at the top of hills.

On Saturday we watched the England v Ireland 6 Nations rugby match, a ‘good’ game despite England having a player sent off after only 82 seconds, the fastest sending off in international rugby history 😩. 

Sunday  we had a walk down to the port for a last coffee and  some people watching, followed by packing as we fly back to the UK on Monday !

All this not working seems to take up lots of time 😀. This week we have:

Sunbathed;

Been out for one evening for a couple of drinks (Nic had cocktails! ) and then a Chinese meal at the local “centro commercial”, which includes a supermarket, about four bars, including the obligatory Irish one, and a selection of restaurants Chinese, Indian and pizza;

Sunbathed some more;

Walked, most days;

Been to the cinema to see the new Batman film, in English with Spanish sub-titles; and

Done a load of research and booking for our travels later this year – watch this space to find out where we are going!

They say picture speaks a thousand words, and given the above is very short, here are some pictures 

Monday was the final full day of our friend’s visit, so Rog helped out with some IT and travel support, including completing  a UK passenger locator form and an Isle of Man entry permit. Also booking a few flights and trains – it’s all part of the service 😀. 

Tuesday afternoon we did the airport run, it is not far from the villa, so pretty easy. The airport is really quiet and the parking is right outside the terminal and is really cheap, we strolled to the terminal to see our friend off, walked back to the car and the car parking cost 10cents (€), yes, no typo, 10 cents, that’s about 8p (GBP) – take note UK airports!!

Wednesday, we had a storm, thunder and rain, obviously nothing compared to the recent flurry of storms the UK has had, but we did have a little storm, not the weather we ordered 😒 . It brought down a layer of red dust with the rain, onto the sunbeds, luckily we had no washing out!

Thursday – we drove the mountain road to Ajuy (no, we haven’t worked out how to pronounce it either), on the west coast, walked to some interesting caves, marvelling at the geology., and the lack of health and safety on the cliff path! Then we had lunch in a local restaurant.  We shared the fish platter, it was nice, but we are currently both over ordering the fish platter – it’s tasty but very fiddley. 

Saturday, we managed to watch the England v Wales rugby.  A good result, but England were lucky. 

Sunday, was a cloudy day so we decided to drive through the mountains to the village of Betancuria, established in 1404, the old capital of the Canary Islands and Fuerteventura. It is very pretty, and appeared to be full of cafes and restaurants for the tourists. We then drove up “Morro de la Cruz” to a viewing point overlooking the central plane of Fuerteventura, where we watched a stream of tourists drive up, spend 30 seconds looking at the view, then drive off again. 

Monday, a day of travel, packed up and driving back down the mountain, 1 ½ hr down to the coast. Nic needed some new trainers and luckily ‘Asics’, Nic’s choice of trainer, have a outlet store in Gran Canaria, so purchased a replacement set of trainers. 

Got to the airport early for our flight to Fuerteventura, a large airport, but very reminiscent of Isle of Man flights, being at the last gate in the airport, and obviously a local flight, people knowing each other, a small plane, loading from the back.

We managed to spot the our next AirBnB  home from the plane, landed in Fuerteventura,  and the bags were really quick coming through, the car hire pick up was also easy. Still can’t believe we managed to get car for less than £10 per day. 

The AirBnB  Villa is only a few miles from the airport,  we got checked in and met the host. Then we had to ‘hit’ Mercadona (the local supermarket) for supplies. Valentine’s day so a lateish supper of steak and chips for us after that.

Tuesday, a good friend arrived to spend a week with us.

We have had a few days of good weather, with a little bit of rain (nothing serious). 

Saturday we drove to the north of the island, ‘Corralejo’, a large town with a lot more tourists than in ‘Castillo Caleta de Fuste’ where we are staying. Had lunch in ‘Mi Casa’ restaurant, then a drive along the north  coast ‘road’. When we say road, it was on the map, other people were driving along it, but it was a dirt track, and  an interesting dirt track. 

Today, Sunday, we drove to the south end of the island to ‘Morro Jable’ a small tourist town, predominately used by German tourists, as evidenced by menus written with German as their first language. It had a lovely sandy beach.  Had ice-cream Sundaes for lunch. Drove back via ‘Gran Tarajal’ a much more local town, which was nice to see rather than all the tourist settlements. 

We are currently sitting writing this blog, whist it is raining outside ! but nothing like the storms that have hit the UK this week – we hope all our readers are safe!