I had spent something around 25 years in Asia and much had happened in those years. Neal was born in S’pore and he and his big brother had gone to school there before they went to boarding school.  Mark still thinks of S’pore as home! 10 of those 25 years were with Ann when we lived in Jakarta and Beijing and were married in Bali.  The last time we had been in S’pore and Australia was in 2002 prior to our transfer from Beijing to Washington DC – 15 years is a long time and we were not quite sure was we would find.

I have never been big on returning to a place where you have previously lived and worked as the place and yourself have changed yet you carry all those memories that can never ever be replicated.  After living in S’pore from 1973 to 1986, I had returned a number of times on business and even working there for about 18 months in ’93-’94 before moving to Jakarta.  Each visit had been totally different but still enjoyable because I was back in S E Asia.  However, the changes to the city, your work, and personal life make it strange and unsettling in many respects.  Change is inevitable, but many of the changes to Asia’s cities are quite mind-bending and in most instances not for the better. It saddens me to see so much history, culture, and beauty lost in these “changes”.

This year-long trip through S’pore, Bali, Australia, NZ, and Tahiti was going to be different, mainly because we were retired and were doing a leisurely, nostalgic trip visiting places and people we had not seen for a long time.  We knew we would see lots of changes in our travels, but the people would be the same – older but the same!

Singapore Airlines from SF to S’pore was 16 hrs non-stop. When I saw this I thought it strange as I had memories of similar trips in the past on those beautiful 747s taking less time; was it my memory?  On checking it turned out our new, faster, jets only fly at 70% of their capability for environmental reasons.  Yeah, right!  Rant time!  Airline services have been on a steep decline since the 70s and longer flying time is now served up as their conscious of the care of the planet, rather than we can save money on fuel and charge more because you don’t have choice!  But, hey we were SA Business Class so our 16 hrs of travel would be in comfort with the best food and booze as everyone knows SA Business is better than First on many other airlines. Comfort turned out to be so-so as SA’s new seats were very strange.  In order to get your flat-bed configuration you had to get out of your seat, flip a latch on the back, and fold it down!  No neat little button on your arm rest that did the work for you, and then when you were flat you lay at angle as your feet had to go to one side in order for you to fit in your bed.  OK, but……… Just came across as a cheap way to make a flat-bed configuration that was not particularly comfortable, well at least not for a 6′ 2″ 225 lb old fart like me. (Made in China?)  One thing that hadn’t changed was the SA service level – our crew were great and the food and wine excellent.  Must admit the flight zipped by and we were soon looking down on the city and the huge expanse of new construction for Changi Airport as we came into land. As always with Changi by the time we had got through Customs and Immigration out bags were on the carousel – yes!  How different from good ‘ole Charleston where they have 1 terminal with 2 luggage carousels and you still wait anywhere from 30 mins to 1 hr to get your bags.  When I first landed in S’pore it was at the old Paya Lebar airport where you disembarked down the mobile stairs to be enveloped in that damp Asian air infused with island’s life on your walk to the cubist arrivals hall; memorable and wonderful! Not quite the same as Terminal 3 Changi! We had a BlackLane car waiting for us – my newest, favourite car service – which whisked us through in luxury to the house of my oldest Asian friend, Peter Rogers.  Peter & Jane were actually playing golf in Scotland and had generously given us their house for our stay in S’pore, complete with Gemma the maid and Bugsy the vegetarian dog!  Their house is almost next door to my old black & white in Malcolm Road where I had lived for the last 2-3 years prior to departing the island, and turned out to be one of the few places in S’pore that had not changed.

The next day it was off to the National Museum, which is now in a different building and supposed to be quite something.  What a disappointment!  It was not a National Museum it was a Childrens’ Museum. There were exhibits throughout the building showing the various years of S’pore’s development that were simplistic, disingenuous, and gave such a general view as to be almost meaningless.  We decided to revive our spirits with dim-sum at the Orchard Hotel, which is still rated as one of the best in Asia.  Must be, as we couldn’t get in despite there being vacant tables!  So it was down to the coffee shop for Laksa and Anchors – good Laksa and ice-cold beer – but expensive lah!  Then it was on to the new National Library which was mind-bending, even for a non-librarian! 16 floors of steel and glass complete with a drama centre and various gardens.  Ann bonded with some of the librarians who knew her colleagues of the past, while I hit a couple of exhibitions.

Back at Peter & Janes’ we put our feet up on the veranda and had drinks while we tried to figure out where we had actually been and what we had seen in our taxi rides.  The names of streets and buildings were familiar, but the roads had changed from two-way to 4 lane and the addition of new buildings in what was supposed to be familiar areas left us in a complete daze.  On top of that the traffic was horrendous!  We had been offered Jane’s SUV to get around town, but after our initial day in town there was no way I was going to drive, and  apart from the driving there was the parking aspect!  There were plenty of taxis and Uber worked, so transport was covered and we could sit back and watch S’pore at work and play in our travels.

Next day we headed off to Jason’s – the upmarket supermarket that had come to S’pore while I was still there, but was now in the new ION shopping complex – as we needed to stock up on booze so as not to deplete Peter’s stocks too much.  We had dim-sum for lunch in a very modern hawkers centre, part of ION’s two-floor food court!  Quite amazing in many respects, but also typical S’pore hawker food, really good and cheap! Then we found one of the old Chinese barbecue pork shops that was originally out on East Coast Road and queued to buy their chilli and original pork.  That stuff is addictive!  We bought enough to last us for the next few days!  Then it was on to Jason’s – a fraction of the size of the old shop but we found everything we needed.  Jason’s have a delivery service so we planned to have everything delivered, but it turned out only certain things could be delivered!  Anyway, we managed to get the bulky/heavy stuff delivered and then lugged the remaining bags down to the taxi rank for our journey home.  Dinner that night was barbecued pork and with a good bottle of Pinot Noir!

Our next trip was to the SCC (Singapore Cricket Club) my home from home for many years.  Checked in at the front desk and was recognised by the ladies manning the fort – quite amazing.  Reactivated my absent membership in a heart beat and was told I had a S$68.30 credit – just love it – still in credit after 15 years!

The view of the SCC has changed.

The club had had a mega overhaul a few years back and there were a number of changes, the main one being the Men’s Bar had been moved from its premier spot on the main veranda to the basement and was no longer a men only drinking haven.  As I said, some changes are not good!  Not that I was a big Men’s Bar person, I suppose it was just the history and that hangover from a long gone and different era that I missed.  I fondly remembered the old teak notice board with its gold lettering that said “No women, children, or servants beyond this point” that guarded the door to the bar.  In fact, I was one of the instigators that opened up the Men’s Bar to ladies on New Years Eve so they could drink champagne from rugby boots and bar dive.  Not a total misogynist!  Anyway, it did mean I could take Ann into the bar and show her the photos of my rugby career with The Tankards that still hung on the wall.  Nostalgia at its best!  Had a very good lunch in what used to be the Men’s Bar and then it was off to explore the new S’pore.  The old government buildings on the river across from the SCC had been revamped and one was now the Asian Civilisation Museum.  Absolutely stunning – a fabulous museum of Asian artefacts complete with the Tang Shipwreck wing.

The Tang Shipwreck Exhibition.

Then it was on to the Paranakan Museum housed in what used to be the Tao Nan School, one of the first Chinese schools in the colony and still and an active school when I first arrived in S’pore. It was another super museum in a beautiful old 1900s tropical style bungalow configuration with the central courtyard, showing the full Paranakan culture and life style, a culture that produces the most amazing and delicious Asian food.  Then it was a taxi home to once again mull over the transition S’pore had made over the years.  In order to give Gemma a break from cooking us dinner, we went online to order food only to find out we couldn’t use our US CC’s as they didn’t fit local ordering format.  Ann then came up with the brain wave – she would order via Uber Eats as they already had our CC on file – really?  It worked and 20 minutes later a nice young man rocked up on his motor cycle with bags of delicious Indian food – yes!

One of our old friends had been with the US Embassy back in the ’70s and had asked us to check out his old house, which he had heard was now part of the Saudi Embassy.  We decided to walk – good exercise and a chance to get up close with the changes in an area we had once known well.

After crossing over the mayhem of Bukit Timah and Dunern Road we walked past a mile or so of construction work for a new metro line.

Bukit Timah & Dunern Road.

Then later found more metro construction in the middle of Nassim Road – the heart of S’pore’s diplomatic quarter with a metro stop – unbelievable!  Tom’s old residence was still a splendid colonial house, however a very dilapidated old house a few doors down had a sign stating the Saudi embassy had moved.

Some things hadn’t changed.

The British Ambassador’s residence was still the same and brought back memories of a couple of Queen’s Birthday parties and the lowering of the colours for the Gordon Highlanders as they departed the island – the last British regiment to leave the old colony.  We saw a lot of changes on our walks mainly with the development of large blocks of luxury flats and the construction of multi-million dollar residences.  While walking back we stopped to buy glasses of lemonade from a little girl manning her stand outside her house.  She was raising money for her fathers cycling club! We started talking to her mother about our walk and the years we had lived in S’pore and the region.  Her husband was a banker and they had live in S’pore for 8 years and loved it, despite the traffic and constant changes.  We certainly wouldn’t want to live in S’pore again, but then we were encumbered by the past.

The next day we were on SA to Denpasar to start our 3 week stay on Bali to view more changes and no doubt rant about those changes and the passing of the good old days!

Departed Santa Lucia and went back to London to spend a few days with Neal, Georgia, and the Grand brats before heading off to Charleston.  We checked in to the Hilton in Kensington so we didn’t displace the au pair and disrupt life at Railway Cuttings too much.  We had brought a bunch of goodies from Spain – Iberico Jamon, 3 different types of Tuna, 2 different cheeses, and Force 12 Nespresso capsules.  Had a fun time and it was good to be with the children.

Then it was 1st Class on BA back to Charlotte and then AA into Charleston.  The BA tickets were done through our Russian friends in San Francisco who do discounted business and first class tickets, and they came up with a deal on BA.  Mind you can only get these deals as a US resident, so we had to provide BA with proof that we had US passports and were US residents before we got our tickets! The new BA First check-in and customs set-up at LHR is amazing and we breezed through in a matter of minutes and headed for the Concorde Lounge to have some booze and snackies.  Beautiful and spacious lounge where you could have a full English cooked to order – definitely the way to travel. A great flight with excellent food, wine, and service, which felt really good as we were not paying full whack by any means!  It was a daylight flight; taking off at 12noon UK time, but there were still people climbing into their BA jammies and burrowing under their duvet as soon as we reached cruising altitude. Why do they do it? Are they sleep deprived or addicted to BA jammies? Always amazes me that people go into this “must sleep” mode as soon as they get on a plane. Bet the crew love it!  I mean we were due into Charleston at 11.00pm – great timing for a night-cap, bed and straight into the local time system.  Super flights and into Charleston bang on time, only to wait over an hour for our bags to appear!  Always, the same in Charleston, you always wait an age for your bags – really annoying to say the least.  Had booked a car to meet us, but the driver was really nice and didn’t seem bothered by the wait.  Big tip time!  We had arranged to stay with Debbie at Park Circle for a week or so before we moved into our Mt Pleasant condo for 3 months.  However, Matt, Maeve, and Mira, of EVO fame, were homeless after their house burnt down one night when they were all out to dinner, and Debbie had taken them in until their rental house became free.  Debbie put us in her suite downstairs while she camped in the upstairs study.  Fabulous house and it didn’t feel like 6 people, and 2 dogs, were all living together, but still we wanted Debbie to get her bedroom back and managed to get into our rental a week earlier.

Marky drove me around to sort out the tax and new plates on the Nissan in order to get it out of storage and back on the road.  My truck was immaculate thanks to LaRonne’s tender care while we were away.  Great to be back in my SUV after all those small European things I was forced to drive in England & Spain!  We moved into our little condo in Village Creek Lane in Mt Pleasant which backed onto Shem Creek and were pleasantly surprised to find we had a large Publix, Post Office, Library and about 6 restaurants all within 5 minutes drive.  Ann joined the local water aerobics centre with BB and I joined the Pivotal gym, plus we had a good jolking/walking route around our neighbourhood, so good to go as they say.

We planned to stay in Charleston for 3 months as that was the time needed to write the basics of my book with the help of the ghost writers at LifeBook in the UK. I did recorded interviews with Helen, LifeBook’s lady in Charleston, which were sent to the UK for transcribing/editing and returned to me for editing and approval.  It was evident by session two that the transcribing was not working!  I then agreed with Tom, my project manager in the UK that he would send a word document and I would rework it and return for the book development process.  It basically meant I was writing the book, but the interview process and chats with Tom concentrated my thinking/writing and that coupled with my editor-in-chief keeping the literary workings in shape meant things progressed at a steady pace!  However, it did mean hitting our storage units in Hanahan to dig out photos and diaries – oh joy!  Everything was just as it had been dumped into storage by our manic movers when we rented the house, which meant we didn’t know where anything was!  Arranged with our storage people to hire a couple of their workers and literally take everything out, sort, and repack.  We thought we were in for a 2-3 day slog but our workers (off duty fireman from the station next door) were amazing and we had everything done in about 8 hours.  I sorted through dozens of albums to select photos for the book, plus put all the slides Lis had left me onto disc, which was fascinating, distracting, and brought back a lot of memories.

This was all going on while we visited, our doctor, dentist, optician, lawyers, accountant, and financial advisor and caught up with all our friends.  This was kicked off by Scott & BB having us round for ribs on the big green egg just after we moved in.  It was a hectic time catching up with everyone plus spending as much time as possible with Marky, but enormous fun.  Charleston had not improved in our time away and really cemented our decision to sell 108. We were not alone in this and Scott & BB were selling their house to move to Greenville – everyone was leaving!

I also had to renew both my US and UK passports before we took off to Asia, plus get 6 months visas for Aus.  That in itself is a saga!  My UK passport which had to be renewed at the passport office in UK was completed and returned in 10 days – impressive!  But, my US passport was a different matter and I couldn’t find out what was going by on-line tracking or talking to various muppets with DoS on the phone.  I then decided it was lost and reported it as such and asked for a new passport.  At that point I received a call from a super lady in the “lost” department who said that they had confirmation it was delivered to the specified address and that I should double-check and get back to her.  I then found it sitting in reception at Marky’s flat as no one had bothered to let Mark know it was there!!  Anyway, then once again in the good to go department, or rather the good to try and get my Aussie visa.  The standard visa is for 3 months and everything is done on-line, but it still took three phone calls to the North American passport centre in Ottawa to find out what type visa to apply for and what the requirements were.  Nothing in your passport these days – approval was with Border Control in Aus and all you had to do was rock up and present your passport!  The digital age still leaves me with a strong feeling that so much can go wrong it is not funny – we shall see.  Australia was our only visa hurdle – all the other spots like Singapore, Bali, NZ, and Tahiti we were all under the 3 month limit which seems to be the norm these days.

Then it was off to Texas.  Scott & BB and we were scheduled to spend 4-5 days with the Bethels in New Braunfels – talk about and eating and drinking outing!  We duly ate and drank too much, which started off with Chicken Fried Steak at the Antler Café – truly the best Chicken Fried Steak there is – and I always start the meal with the Garlic Frogs Legs; all accompanied by “dressed” Modelos.  Texas is a great country!!

Then it was back to Charleston to continue work on the book.  It was apparent that my book and photos would exceed the normal book size for a LifeBook publication, but agreed with Tom that it should be done.  Turning out to be one expensive publication!  At this time 2 gentlemen in the UK who were writing the history of 1^st Cambridgeshire Regiment for the 100^th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele/Third Battle of Ypres contacted me to ask if Richard Wing was my grandfather.  As he had won the MM, been mentioned in despatches, and specifically named by the general commanding the 1^st Cambs in his history of the regiment, it seemed that Granddad was going to have a prominent place with the regiment’s history.  I was sent all the documentation they had on Dick Wing and I found out he had been a stretcher bearer, had won his MM in the Second Battle of Ypres, and was killed in the Third.  Even though I lived with my Grandmother for years, and knew my Grandfather had received the MM, I never knew he was a stretcher bearer for the last 3 years of the war.  I took photos for them of his MM and campaign medals that would be included in the regimental records.

Ann’s good friend Riley had arranged a big party of Ann’s workmates and friends at his DC house.  Ann had a few days playing catch-up with Riley and Abdul before I rocked up for the party.  A large gathering with amazing food prepared by Abdul – quite an event!

Then it was off to Alabama for a family gathering of the Hollands at the Guntersville Yacht Club, all arranged by Bill and Beth.  We got into Birmingham in enough time to have dinner at the Hot & Hot Fish Club – just amazing food – but this time the service was terrible!  Still a good dinner!  Guntersville was fun with 3 generations of the Holland Clan bonding over food and wine for 2 days!

Got our rental dates and flights screwed up so we ended up spending a night at the airport Hilton before flying out to San Francisco.  Shortly after we checked in Marky rocked up on his bike to take possession of the Nissan so he could sell it for us – no sense of putting it in storage for another year.  New truck when we get back in 2018!

Good flight into San Fran where we spent a couple of nights at the downtown Hilton before catching Singapore Airlines to the city where I had lived for 15 years – S’pore.  We hadn’t been to SF for about 20 years and its becoming a “refuge city” had really changed things!  We intended to walk to the museums, art galleries, and restaurants we had listed and received routes from the concierge that would avoid the large pockets of vagrants living on the streets.  We clipped the edges of some these areas in our wanderings which was apparent by the stench that pervaded the streets. Disgusting and dangerous, what a great combination. The Museum of Asia Art was just stunning and well worth the effort.  Had lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf for old time’s sake and then it was time to start the first leg of our travels through Asia and the Antipodes.

We got a call from AnnieB asking if we would care to join a group of them who were having lunch at Txoko?  Annie had told us about a great chap who cooked on a farm that was about 20Km from where we are staying, and would do lunch for a group at Euro50 a head.  A txoko is a Basque cooking club and Clemente has started this one in the ruins of a 17C village.

Clemente, is a Basque who started life as an architect graduating from the University of Idaho, where he lectured for about 7 years.  His wife and ceramist, Irina Larious Fernandez de Cordoba actually owns the village and the 40,000 hectares of farm land that surround it!  Seems her family is one of the original 5 families of Spain, but she just wants be an artist.  Their house is in the old estate village, as is her studio, which they are slowly restoring as a B&B/artist resort.

The girls with Irina in her gallery

They obviously have some way to go, but what a setting!

Txoko dining.

Had a super meal – starter was Loin of Roe Deer marinated in sherry and cooked with Iberico chorizo, then Bacalou with Cannellini Beans & Fried Potatoes, and a tomato salad; dessert was his preserved peaches with whipped cream (a rarity here in southern

Clemente cooking venison in his 17C oven.

Spain).  There were 9 of us and the conversation was carried out in Spanish, English, and French – sometimes all at the same time.  What an amazing experience.

We made a quick road trip to Tarifa – the windy city of the Costa de la Luz – and therefore the kite boarding and wind surfing centre of Spain.  Tarifa is also the jumping off point for N Africa, with Tangiers just a 40 min ferry ride and Ceuta an hour.  Originally the Roman town of Mellaria with the present castle built in 960 by Guzman the Great and remained a Muslim stronghold until 1292 when it became part of the Kingdom of Granada.

Tarifa castle.

It has been through enumerable battles and sieges, but remains in really good condition despite its military history.  The old quarter of Tarifa is relatively small with the normal narrow streets and alleys.  The castle was interesting and the information provided was quite comprehensive. It even had glassed-in sections where you could look down into the excavated Roman foundations.  When we got onto the battlements we could only just keep our balance because of the gale force winds.  Not sure I would want to live in an area that has over 300 “windy” days a year.  Had an OK, but nothing special lunch, before heading back down the coast to visit Baelo Claudia, a Roman town dating back to the 2nd century BC and renowned for its salted tuna and garum (fish sauce).

Baelo Claudia with N Africa on the horizon.

It was a huge site in a spectacular setting and excavations have revealed the most comprehensive remains of a Roman town in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, with monuments such as the basilica, theatre, market and temple of Isis.

Baelo Claudia.

A super museum though we had to use Google translate on most of the exhibits. This one was quite well sign posted!

At our Txoko lunch I asked one of the guests, a local art dealer who knew Annie quite well, where was the best paella restaurant in the area?  I was told with zero hesitation it was El Nautico de Conil situated in the port area of Conil.  Consultations with our culinary guide came up with what – where?  Gary said he would start asking around and see if we could get in for lunch.  A couple of days later Gary said we had a 1.00pm reservation to get ahead of the rush as it appeared to be quite a small place, but he had to make a special request for paella as they only serve it on a Sunday.  It seems the request was supported by our being important Americans only visiting for a short time. etc., etc. On the day we were ducking and diving through small roads and sandy lanes, with a couple of stops to ask directions, before we arrived at the gates of the port of Conil, where of course there were no signs for El Nautico.  We then spied what looked to be a double portacabin with cars parked around it off to the left, with a bunch of sail boats in the background, so off we went down another sandy track.  It was El Nautico!  A small sign attached to the white portacabins confirmed it was in fact El Nautico.  In we went in and were met by two ladies, one of whom turned out to be the Chef. We were escorted to our table on a small veranda overlooking the tiny port area and the Conil yacht club.  Totally amazed to find the menus in Spanish & English!  We started with Salmorejo – a winter gazpacho – of which there was a choice of beetroot and standard – and I of course had the beetroot much to Ann’s disgust!  Outstanding – never had a chilled soup like this before – literally, thick creamy deliciousness with just a hint of beetroot.  Then it was on to a plate of grilled Gambas – really big prawns beautifully cooked.  And finally the paella!  A pile of dark saffron rice packed with prawns, clams, fish, squid and chicken was served to us individually – just what you imagined a paella should look, and taste like!  As we cleared our plates the chef came out and said they still had some more in the kitchen – would we like to finish it?  So we all had another plate of paella – a little smaller than the first – but just as delicious. When we paid the bill we were asked how we liked the paella and when we raved about it in English and Spanish we were surrounded by the chef, manager, and waiters all grinning like Cheshire cats with many gracias!

That evening Lindsey and Matt came into Jerez from Madrid by train and we had Lolo do the meet and greet.  They were only going to be with us 3 nights before heading off to Sevilla and back to Madrid to fly home.  We had arranged they attend an AnnieB sherry class, so after breakfast at El Toro we had Lolo drop them off in town.  Seems they had a whale of a time with most of the guests – 2 English couples plus Lindsey & Matt – getting pretty sloshed!  During this sherry bonding Matt arranged a round of golf with one of men for the next morning.  When Matt returned from golf we did a road trip to Zahara de la Atune, stopping at Cape Trafalgar for a beer, and then went on to Antonio’s for lunch, a high-end restaurant with views of the ocean.

Lunch at Antonio’s with Lindsey & Matt.

Matt was impressed with the Costa del la Luz and said they would return.  Next morning Lolo took them off to Jerez to catch the train to Sevilla.  Lindsey had things organised to nth degree to say the least – quite a girl.

The next week was a Gary road trip to the Grazamel highlands with a stop at Arcos for coffee.  Gary did a loop through the mountains to Grazamel where we reached around 4,000 ft and were shrouded in mist and rain with an outside temperature of 3’C/35’F!

Grazamal highlands.

We still had our winter gear with us, but it was still a tad chilly cheese and chorizo shopping!

Looking down on Zahara de la Sierra.

Then it was onto Al Largo in Zahara de la Sierra for a restorative lunch, where the Chef/owner Stefan Crites, is an American and a friend of Gary’s.  Considering the weather I went with Onion Soup and Wild Boar, while Ann stuck to her favourite food – tuna, and Gary went with Lamb Couscous, which he said was amazing – huge portions as

Wild boar at Al Largo.

well.  What really surprised me was how much more flavour and punch the food had compared to that from a Spanish chef.

The next week found us on another road trip with Gary. This time an overnight trip to Banaojan with stops along the way in the mountains. First was a visit to more Roman ruins at Acinipo, a site with no guard on duty and no admission. We just climbed over the fence and walked around.

Amphitheatre at Acinipo.

We continued through the mountains to Ronda for a mooch around the old town, purchase leather jackets, and have coffee overlooking the gorge.

Ronda.

We stopped at a Jambon shop where the proprietor was carving slices from a Iberico black footed pig.  I went in to ask if I could take photos and was immediately given a slice of ham.

Blackfoot Iberico ham.

Amazing, the best I had ever tasted with the nutty back ground taste you get from acorn fed pigs.  He was very friendly and spoke good English so I asked him about the Iberico ham rating (runs from J to JJJJJ) and how that worked.  He said it was basically a marketing scam and a way for the authorities to raise money.  He said you had to know where the animals came from, how they were raised, and whether they had had a diet of 100% acorns, but the quality control was pretty lax.  He said the black foot Iberico ham he sold came from pigs he had raised, butchered, and cured himself so he stood behind his products.  We tasted more ham, but of lesser grades, and you could certainly tell the difference.  We loaded up on Iberico and also bought wine as he had a great selection of local wines. Because of the massive gorge that runs through the centre of town it is a popular tourist destination and the town was thronged with touroides of all nationalities.  What was funny was the people who had obviously come up from the Costa del Sol as they were dressed in polyester shorts and t-shirts! I mean   this is March in a town that is over 3,000ft with the temperature running around 10’C/50’F and a stiff breeze blowing – obviously no one had engaged brain before dressing for the trip.

We stopped for lunch in Setenil de Las Bodegas which carved into the side of a mountain.

Setenil de Las Bodegas.

We ate at Bar la Tosca. We had the Mushrooms, Cheese Tarts, Cod Croquettas, and the Pork Knuckle. The Mushrooms and the Pork Knuckle were way above average for tapas, with the pork being fall off the bone delicious. On a bed of french fries – excellent. We ordered and extra mushroom so we would get 2 each, and said we would pay for it, but our waiter just laughed and said it was not a problem they could handle the extra one! Made us enjoy our food even more! Cheese tarts had different types of goat cheese in them with one being quite a strong cheese – yummy.

Onto Banaojan and the Molino del Santo Hotel owned by Gary’s buddies Andrew and Pauline Elkin who had been running the hotel and restaurant for over 20 years.

Molino del Santo Hotel.

The hotel was a converted mill, which had once been powered by the river running through the village.  Stunning setting with the roar of waterfalls and river being heard in most places.  Our king sized room with a balcony was overlooking the river so we went to sleep that night to the sound of the river.  Quite magical.

We had a very good dinner, all fish dishes, but the standout was a starter of Broad Beans & Motilla with fresh mint – a brilliant creation!  The chef is a local lad who cooked in Barcelona for a number of years before coming home.  I think his time spent in Ferran Adria country certainly paid off. What really surprised us about the hotel was that it was packed, even off-season, and all the guests were either English or American, not a single Spaniard! Fabulous breakfast and then off across the mountains via Ubrique, where our leather jackets were made, to the village of Villaluenga del Rosario, the home of Poyoya cheese. We had grown to love Poyoya cheese, which is made from goats milk, sheeps milk or a blend of the two, and has different lengths of ageing.  The aged Poyoya is like a creamy Parmesan – use some of that in a Cauliflower Cheese and see how it turns out. (which  I did – yes!)  Needless to say we loaded up with cheese to go with our Iberico ham. There’s no control going into the UK so we thought we would donate some of our goodies to Neal & Georgia as we couldn’t get them into the US.  We asked why you never saw Poyoya cheese in the US and the reply was – ask the Spanish cheese marketing board! The good old EU at its best!

As we were literally days away from leaving Andalucia we did a LuggageForward shipment of our cold weather gear, hiking boots, etc., to Scott & Lisa in Charleston.

Gary then called and said there was a restaurant in the woods above Barbate we had to try – known for its game dishes – and he had never been.  Also, he invited us to lunch at La Vista and to give us a guided tour of his town before we left.

So that Saturday it was off to Venta Luis in the coastal pine forest above Barbate. Lolo came along as our farewell treat.  Relatively early but the place was heaving!  A group of riders, horses tied up outside, were into the sherry, and in the large room off the small bar restaurant area a confirmation party was going full-bore, with much toasting and singing.  Gary, Ann, and I were the only foreigners in the place.

Lunch at  Venta Luis.

It was Venison Stew for me while the boys tucked into huge steaks, and Ann had fresh fish.  Everything came with home-made chips – yes! Gary had reserved a few bottles of Photos a Ribero de Duero which was their best red wine, and damned good it was, and went well with our hearty country dishes.  Ann stuck to sherry!  When we left they were setting up tables and chairs in the street!

Then the day before we were due to leave it was off to Medina Sidonia.  Gary was a super host and showed us round the village, including the Roman ruins that are below the village. Once again no advertising and unless you have some knowledge of the town you would never know they were there.

Town square Medina Sidonia.

The lobby of major’s office on the town square is graced by 10ft tall marble Roman statue, that really should be in a museum.

View from Medina Sidonia castle out to the coast.

Did the castle while Gary went off to arrange lunch, which had stunning views of the coast from Cadiz to Tarifa and back up into the highlands of Grazemel. A really fun day, and super lunch, but sad to say farewell to Gary, who had become a firm friend and totally made our time in Andalucia special.

On the day of our departure from Santa Lucia Lolo came to say good-bye, another part of team Gary that we had grown to love and admire. We gave him all our Spanish/English dictionary’s and phrase books together with some Euros and my wristwatch. He was in floods of tears and said he was going to miss his new friends!  Wow!

Ann was seriously considering jumping ship and never leaving Spain and it was only after I assured her we could come back whenever we wanted and Gary would look after us that she got in the car.  Checked the car back in with Mr Hertz and the nice man at the Iberia desk finally got our seat assignments sorted, which I had been unable to do, on-line or on the phone with either Iberia or BA, and BA owns Iberia!  So farewell Spain and off to London to see the kids before getting our 1st Class BA flight back to Charleston.

On-On as they say!

In our research we came across AnnieB’s Kitchen – a Scottish lady who had moved to Vejer to run Spanish cooking classes, sherry tastings and tours.  Sounded right up our street so we set up a sherry tasting class.  It was off season which meant we had AnnieB to ourselves for our class and what fun that turned out to be.  We had been advised to taxi in and out of town as driving was not a good idea after a sherry class!  AnnieB runs everything from her house in the centre of the old town – a 3-4 story building dating back to Moorish times. She has a swimming pool and a roof terrace that looks over Vejer and out to the North African coast. Annie has expanded her “home” over the years by buying rooms from adjoining properties, so she now has 7 rooms for people to stay for her

cooking school. Having consumed quite a bit of sherry over the years our sherry class was not a steep learning curve, but tasting ice cold Pedro Ximenez served with a wedge of orange and slices of the local almond nougat was a delicious new twist!

We had such fun and really liked Annie so we booked a cooking class for the following week.

The weather had turned pretty shitty with heavy rains and the start of the Levant. Temperatures were quite cool in the evenings so our wood pellet stove was a lovely flickering warming addition.  After dinner we would put our feet up and watch our Roku shows in front of the fire.  We were pretty much limited to NetFlix, but we did find a fascinating Spanish soap called Mar de Plastico with a Guardia Civil special investigator in the lead role.  Set in southern Spain around Tarifa and featuring the clash between the local and illegal African immigrants working farms of plastic covered vegetables – all in Spanish with English sub-titles.  We did actually pick up some colloquial Spanish that we then tested on Gary!

One of my diabetic drugs is temperature sensitive so not easy to travel with.  After my supply from England was getting low we went to the Farmacia in Vejer, which had an English speaking pharmacist. I showed him my subscription app from Roper St Francis. He said he was not familiar with the drug, but he would check it out. A few minutes later he said it was fine and he would have the subscription filled by 5.00pm.  Now that’s service!  All he asked was that Dr Cain send him a confirming email; which he did.  Super nice people and the cost cheaper than the UK.

Cooking class with AnnieB arrived and she picked us just before 10.00am and said we would have breakfast at Beca del la Frontera which was a tiny bus stop village that we passed through on the way to Barbate.  Looked like a real bus stop / truck stop place so we had never thought to try the restaurant, but Annie said it did one of the best breakfasts in the area.  So it was Tostada, ( where we learnt of the different types of bread your could order for your toast!) Tomate, Lomo Mentecca, and coffee to start our cooking adventure.  Then is was off to Barbate market which is a fish, meat, and vegetable market right in the centre of town.

We learned the local etiquette for queuing – you have to ask who was the last in line so you knew when it was your turn.  Also, no touching!  The vendor is the only one who can touch the produce so you rely totally on what he gives you.  No knocking or smelling the melons before you buy!  I suppose it is such a local market that the vendors can’t afford to mess with their customers as the word would soon spread.  We loaded up on prawns, fish, fish roe, and vegetables – all at great prices!

On our way back to the car Annie took us to her favourite bakery, which had an amazing array of cakes and pastries.  While she was buying bread for our lunch I discovered a section of “diabetico” pastries. It seems Andalusia has a high rate of diabetes and just about every bakery produces sugar-free delicacies.  I loaded up on a selection of their pastries, which turned out to be seriously good.  Just love Spain and her food!

Then it was back to AnnieB’s to prepare and cook lunch with Annie’s assistant Pepe.

Fried and marinated anchovies, garlic prawns, picadillo with fish roe, sea bream baked in salt, and an orange almond cake (an easier version of Ann’s awesome almond and orange cake made from our orange tree in Charleston) all served with sherry and a local chardonnay.

What a meal and what fun. We rolled out of cooking class with bags of food we hadn’t eaten and took another taxi home!

We added further supermarkets to our list with Mercadona in Conil and Carrefour in Chiclana.  Carrefour was the only place I could buy chilis and Mercadona had the best Nespresso capsules – you could get a Forte strength 12 – a real morning eye opener.  None of the coffee capsules were made by Nespresso and were a fraction of the price and just as good as the so called genuine article.

Gary said his ex now runs their restaurant, La Vista, in Medina Sidonia, another pueblo blanco about 15kms north of Santa Lucia, and did a great Valentines dinner – would we like to attend?

So Lolo drove us to our romantic dinner!  What a setting – on a clear day you can see just about see the whole of the Costa de Luz – and at night we could see the lights of Cadiz through to Tarifa.  A very pleasant dinner, with a heavy expat showing, where we met Gary’s ex, Kirsty.  Our bonding over food with Gary, a professional chef in his former life, developed into weekly trips to restaurants in the area that we would never have found on our own. This is where 15 years of local knowledge is so good, plus Gary’s Spanish fluency with menus and specials was a big assistance as most of the places did not have English menus or speak English. It also helped us attune to the local Spanish and its food. It was tremendous fun and it was a joy to travel with Gary. Plus Gary got to visit a few restaurants he had heard about but never had the chance to visit.  In the midst of our culinary tours we found out it was Lolo’s birthday and agreed with Gary to go shopping for suitable presents.  He had told us how Lolo had been laid off from his job of running boring machines for roads and railway tunnels for medical reasons and his pension was tiny.  Gary said clothes would be the best presents for him as he had a limited wardrobe and really didn’t have the money to buy nice clothes, so it was off to the Chiclana mall. Between us we got him a shirt, trousers, a belt and shoes – all at a very reasonable price. Of course when we finished shopping – Ann needed a new belt – it was lunch time and off to a new restaurant – Bodegas El Carretero.  It was a restaurant in a sherry warehouse in the port area of Chiclana – another great experience.  We agreed we would take Lolo out to our local restaurant – El Toro – just up the hill from our house on his birthday.

Lolo’s Birthday Lunch

Their speciality is ham, eggs, and potatoes, but the ham is Iberico Jamon, and the eggs fresh from their farm!  All washed down with sherry, wine and beer!  Lolo was stunned by his presents and burst into tears while giving us huge hugs.  A memorable lunch to say the least.

Then it was off to Sevilla and Cordoba.  After research and checking with Gary we booked the Hotel Amadeus la Musica, once again in the heart of the old quarter so we could park the car and walk everywhere.

And once again it was blocking the lane to unload our bags and getting instructions to the garage, which this time was in a municipal/private underground car park with 2 different security barriers; but we made it! As you will have gathered there was a distinct music theme to our hotel and the rooms were packed with musical instruments, but well run and comfortable, and great breakfasts (included) on the roof garden of the hotel.

Wandered the streets of the old town, and saw the cathedral, complete with horse ramp tower, the Alcazar with its stunning gardens, and  visited the Archaeological Museum in the exposition park built-in the 1930s, as well as the Jewish Museum and a synagogue that had been turned into a Catholic church.

The Alcazar, Savilla

Much to our dismay the town was crowded with visiting school/university groups, many of which were American, and worst of all Leicester Football Club yobs over for a league match against Sevilla.  As they were loud, intent on getting drunk, and all wore the same blue poly-something shirts we were able to avoid them most of the time.  Another eye opener was the dining scene!  We had located an Italian restaurant close to the hotel that had great reviews so rocked up at 8.30pm for an early Spanish dinner only to find the place rammed!  Full of bloody touroides who had rushed in as soon as the place opened – we got the last available table!  Our waiter was super and spoke very good English, and we asked him was it always like this?  Yes – tourists in early and then the locals come in at the normal 10.00pm dinner time. Super food and we had 3 courses – sharing each course – old people dining on the road!

Our next dining experience was a 1* Michelin restaurant about 15 mins walk from the hotel, for which we had an 8.30pm booking! We ambled through the streets of old Sevilla and out into the modern section of town, and realised we were going to be early so looked around for a drinking spot and and found one of those modern cafe/bars that are everywhere in Spain.  Fronted up to the small bar and ask for finos, which started a bottle hunt through the fridge, no fino, but there was manzanilla!  Started chatting with the lady serving us, who soon switched to English!  She was the owner of the bar and came from Chile with her husband and two children as they felt they could have a better life in Spain.  Charming, amusing, and a delight to talk to.

Rocked up at Abantal a tad late, but hey it was Spain.  Fabulous restaurant with chic ultra-modern decor and well spaced tables.  We had the 7 course tasting menu, but without all the different wines and sherries, and got our sommelier to recommend a wine that would go with the menu.  A Spanish Pinot Gris would you believe – an excellent wine that worked well.  Our 7 courses actually turned into 9 or 10 with the add-ons that kept coming out of the kitchen.  A stunning meal!

We left Sevilla in the pouring rain and headed for Santiponce about 6km north of Sevilla and the site of Italica.  Italica was the home town of Trajan & Hadrian and we had seen most of the striking finds from this site in the Archaeological Museum in Sevilla.  The amphitheatre seated 25,000 people and was the third largest amphitheatre in the Roman empire, but of the 3 guide books we checked only 1 briefly mentioned Italica.

Italica

A huge site that we briefly visited due to the pouring rain.  We were continually amazed by the amount and size of Roman ruins in Andalusia but they were never advertised or promoted and only appeared on the radar when you saw a small brown sign with a Roman name on it!

It had just about stopped raining by the time we arrived in Cordoba and found our hotel – Los Casas de le Juderia – just inside one of the gates to the old city.  No hassle parking this time as they had valet parking – yes!  Fabulous hotel with the rooms set around a series of courtyards with the reception and lounge in a converted stable block. Our room on the third floor had a huge balcony over looking the swimming pool and the old town.

Hotel Las Casas de la Juderia, Cordoba.

The room itself was really grand with 25′ vaulted ceiling and an extremely large bathroom, and not expensive!

The Mesquita, Cordoba

Visited La Mesquita Cathedral and the Alcazar of Cordoba, and the Mesquita is absolutely stunning – takes your breath away.  This huge mosque was started in 786 and expanded by later Muslims rulers until 1236, when Christianity returned and it was converted to a church, but the building totally overpowers the catholic parts and still remains to all intents a mosque, though inactive.  The Alcazar was interesting but did not come close to the Mesquita.

Cordoba Synagogue.

The old city has one of the 3 remaining original synagogues of Spain – the other 2 are in Toledo – small but well preserved.  It is also the home town of El Cordobes, the 1960s bull fighter who was known as the Beatle of the Bull Ring, and was making a name for himself when I saw him fight at Mijas in 1965!  We really liked Cordoba and our visit was far too brief – it really is a lovely little town.

Headed back to Santa Lucia with a stop of at Carrefour so we could hunker down for the weekend as it was a 3 day Andalusian holiday, which basically meant everything would be closed.

Following the long weekend we went out with Gary to a restaurant just down the coast from us – Mar y Monte – which is renowned for its aged Retinto steaks.  As you walk in the restaurant there is a chiller on your left that houses sides of the said Retinto beef. Gary had booked us a table so we could see the butcher preparing the beef and it was poetry in motion with this chap.  Behind and to his left there was huge wood burning grill that would handle the steaks – yes!  We started with grilled vegetables which included wild asparagus and mushrooms – all smothered with Parmesan.  Ann copped out and had a huge tuna steak while Gary and I went with off the bone rib-eyes.  We watched as the butcher deboned our steaks, which were about 11/2 inches thick, and held up for our approval before being thrown on the grill.  Totally amazing – one of the best I’ve eaten.  Gary found a local red we had never heard of let alone tasted, so another amazing meal with our chef on wheels Gary Biston!

The weather continued being a mixture of beautiful days followed by heavy rain – a little chilly but not cold – and considering it was just the beginning of March certainly a lot better than England!

December 29 and we are at LHR on our way to Jerez de la Frontera to start our stay in southern Spain.  It had to be better than January, February, and March in the UK – right?Did not start well as there were control tower issues delaying flights, including ours.  The 2 hour delay meant we missed our connection in Madrid resulting in our eating and drinking in the business class lounge in London for 2 hours, Madrid for 4 hours, and getting to our hotel at 11.30 pm.  I called the hotel to let them know we were going to be really late, but they were sweet and told us not too worry, our room would be waiting for us.  So not all bad.

Plaza del Arenal, Jerez.

After a good night’s sleep and a really good breakfast at our hotel, it was off exploring Jerez.  It was a beautiful day – about 16C and sunny – and we both agreed this was the sort of winter we liked! Jerez is a big sprawling city with a population of about 220,000, but like most European cities still has the old centre packed with all sorts of historical stuff and is a joy to wander around gazing at the old buildings.  Our hotel was just off Plaza del Arenal so we could walk to everything, and had a number of good restaurants within a few minutes of the hotel.  The Spaniards take winter seriously and there was a plethora of fur coats, suede jackets, scarfs and hats. The street life was immensely entertaining with the bars and cafes busy with people eating and drinking out on the street, while the bakeries and pastellerias were doing a roaring trade.  All very European and so much more colourful than the UK.  After checking out the exterior of the cathedral we were faced with the walls of Bodega Tio Pepe so we followed the wall until we found the entrance – a big place.  All tours, of course, so we selected a tour that was followed by a tasting of their sherries.  Our tour was in English and German and as a result took twice as long as it should, plus all the silly questions that are asked.  It appears people actually do not engage brain before they open their mouths!  The Bodega is huge and there are little trolley car trains taking you from building to building.  There are thousands of casks stacked 4 high in the solera system of making sherry, with the bottom cask being where the wine is taken to bottle, but only 30%.  This is then topped up from the layer of casks above until you get to the top layer where the new wine is put.  Amazing smell from the barrels and sherry, plus to see them sample the wine with a thief and tip it into a sherry glass is brilliant.  Wonder how many gallons of sherry end up on the floor before they master the process?

One in a series of cellars was where there were casks put down for royalty and celebrities including The Queen and Winston Churchill.  Not impressed with the tasting – both the service and the wines.  Their fino is quite good, but that’s it!  Just as well we liked the fino as it turned out to be the standard pouring brand for 90% of the bars and restaurants we visited while in Spain.  Somebody is doing a good marketing job! After that it was lunch – about 1.30 pm – comparatively early for the Spaniards, but it did mean we didn’t have to fight for a table.  We ate at a Tapas Bar called La Cruz Blanca on a small square which was also a busy pedestrian area; what a great start to Andalucian food! Sitting in the square sipping our cana (small draft beer) while eating mixed fried fish, ox tail, and croquettes. Super food in the sun after a sherry tasting – we like Spain!

The only down side was our timing as we were now at the start of the New Years weekend and a lot of places were closed, so we made no attempt to go out on New Years Eve and stayed in our room with some ham, sausage, a selection of cheeses, sherry, and a 20 year Spanish brandy for dessert.  Watched the New Year in on Spanish TV’s coverage of the early spots like NZ and Aus before going to bed to sleep in the New Year.  Not that dissimilar to seeing in 2016 in our hotel room in Palm Desert, CA with PF Chang’s take out.  Hey, it’s the oldies good life!  January 1 was our final night in Jerez and we celebrated by dining at La Carbona a 1* Michelin restaurant in an old sherry warehouse in the back streets of town.  An amazing meal with the highlight being their steak tartare, made from local Retinto beef, washed down with a bottle of local wine – Taberner Merlot/Syrah blend running at 15.5% – a huge wine.  Dessert was glasses of 30-year-old Noe Pedro Ximenez! The wine was so dark it was black and had a lovely dry finish – a totally stunning wine.  This Spain thing was just getting better & better.

January 2 we took a taxi out to the airport and picked up our car from Mr Hertz.  Super lady who gave us an upgrade and would you believe full insurance cover at a half-assed reasonable rate – which we took.  We had received detailed driving instructions from Gary Biston, the owner/manager of our villa, which conflicted with Elsie the GPS; so we went with Gary’s.  Proved to be accurate but still missed the tiny road off the N-340 that goes to Santa Lucia.

Casa Lucia.

Anyway, made it to Casa Lucia, found the keys, and unloaded/unpacked and settled in to our home for the next 3 months.  Santa Lucia is a small village of about 3-400 people that dates back to Roman times and has 3 good restaurants in walking distance of the house.  Just across the valley is the town of Vejer del la Frontera, one of the pueblo blancos of the Andalusian coast, and the main reason for picking this area of Spain. The view of Vejer from our villa was spectacular and it was a constant delight to see in the changing light and weather conditions.

Vejer de la Frontera.

The next day it was off to Barbate, about 7.0Km from Santa Lucia, to get the basics from Lidl and Aldi which became our local supermarkets for the duration.  It should be explained that Barbate is one of the Almadraba tuna ports, the drug capital of Andalusia, and Franco’s favourite summer seaside resort.  Shall we say a working town rather than a tourist resort.  Ann had found a local restaurant for lunch, so we had another early lunch – 1.30/1.45pm – before shopping.  It was truly local with construction workers, fireman, and truck drivers packing the place.  Ann went with the set lunch because it was paella, but then found out that was just the starter, the main course was fried fish, vegetables and chips.  It turned out that Ann’s 3 course set lunch, which included a beer and coffee totalled 9Euros/$10, where as my ala carte order of shrimp fritters, tuna & chips with a couple of beers was double that!

Over the next few days we explored Vejer del la Frontera.  It was mostly narrow cobbled streets and lanes most of which dated back to Moorish times, or earlier, and was very much a living town with butchers, bakers, market, bars, and shops that covered just about all needs. In the early days we got lost every time we went into Vejer despite maps and google maps, but it threw up photo ops at every turn so we were happy bunnies!

Plus there were restaurants and bars on every street.  Surrounding the north east of the old walled city was the modern portion of Vejer, where the post office, hospital, and sports centre was located.  We located the swimming pool for Ann but found out they just swam, no water aerobics.  We also found the local gym, a small facility that was closed on our first visit, and the manager/receptionist was not in attendance on our next 2 visits.  Found out from an older gentleman at the gym that the person in charge basically opened up and then disappeared to the local coffee shops. Guess what, we never joined!  However, we did sign up for a 1 week immersion course of Spanish at La Janda language school in the old town.  So each morning for a week we parked in the main car park at the entrance of the town and hiked up the hill and through the tiny back streets to La Janda for our lessons with Professor Maria.  What a delightful, funny, informative teacher she was, and we loved our lessons.  She covered the basics of what we needed for our stay in Spain and we finished with a 3% proficiency in Spanish; all most fluent!  It really did help and made life that much easier.  Plus Google Translate with its photo application meant that we could decipher most things, though some of the English translation often had us puzzled!

When visiting Fran on our Norfolk trip we mentioned that we had a 3bed/3bath villa on the Costa del Luz and she was welcome to stay.  Anyway, the initial few days moved to a week, and then 2 weeks as Fran worked out there was so much she needed to see!  Fran came through Madrid to Jerez without a hitch and we had her picked up by Malolo, aka Lolo, Gary’s driver/maintenance/fix-it man.  Lolo is one of life’s good guys – charming, always smiling, and would do anything for you.  Just super!  We introduced Fran to Vejer, and Correderra 55, a super restaurant managed by a fabulous Scottish lady, Elly.  Then it was off to Cadiz for a few days.  One of Fran’s must see places, which was also on our list. We stayed at the Hotel Argantonio, bang in the centre of the old town.  Getting through the extremely narrow streets was an experience, but we it made OK, and then blocked the lane while unloaded our bags.  We’d picked the hotel because it had parking, which turned out to a tiny underground garage across from the hotel.  A lady from reception was sent to open the doors and direct me to our slot.  The entrance was so steep and narrow that even after backing and froing I scrapped the front getting in! (glad we had that Hertz insurance)  Then getting into our designated slot took another 5 mins of shunting to fit in between pillars and other cars.  Had to grin at the thought of a standard American vehicle doing the same thing!

Hotel Agantonio down on the left.

It was then off to walk the old city!  Navigator-in-chief Ann had the 1 1/2 hour walk that would cover the highlights of old Cadiz mapped out so off we went.  First it was lunch at a local restaurant recommended by Gary.  Black foot Jamon hanging from the rafters and packed with locals – we were the only foreigners – always a good sign. Fabulous garlic prawns, and ham with sauteed potatoes – all at a great price!

Cadiz.

The walking tour took something over 2 hours while we took photos and soaked in 5000 years of history.  A short rest at the hotel and then it was off to Atxuri a Basque restaurant that was rated as one Cadiz’s best and had been in existence since the early 1900s.  Didn’t open till 9.00pm which had Fran chuntering a bit, but the food was amazing. Fishcentric, being Basque, and we all had different fish dishes which were fabulous.  Some English spoken so we got through the menu and wine list OK. However, one of their specialities, which had been recommended by the receptionist at the hotel when we sorted out directions, was in Spanish and couldn’t be translated.  After ordering our main courses we asked our waiter what it was.  Turns out it is a pouch of meat found in the throat of a certain fish – clarification obtained!  10 minutes later a dish of this delicacy was brought to our table, compliments of the chef!  A super delicious, very delicate meat, in a light sauce – just amazing.  Really, really liking Spain and its cuisine!! As we staggered out of the restaurant around 11.00pm the place was really busy with the locals in for dinner.  The streets were still busy as we walked back to the hotel with a number of shops still open.

Breakfast in the Hotel Argantonio was where we first encountered one of the standard breakfast dishes of the region – Tomate – grated fresh tomatoes, some times with a little garlic.  You pour olive oil on your tostada and then add liberal amounts of tomate – quite delicious. Soon became a favourite of ours that I often made at home.  That and Lomo Mentecca makes an outstanding breakfast as far as I’m concerned.

Lomo Mentecca.

Of course I now have to explain what the other Andalusian breakfast delicacy is!  It is basically drippings on steroids, and as I grew up with drippings on toast for my breakfast as a young child living with Grandma Kate, it is my sort of food.  To make it, you take a rack of Iberico pork ribs and cook with rendered pork fat until the meat falls off the bone then put the meat-fat mixture into tubs and consume.  The recipe is made with and without paprika and each butcher’s product is slightly different, but I have to say I did not come across a lomo mentecca I did not like!  Should probably mention at this point that southern Spain in not big on seasoning, to the extent you will not even find pepper on the table in restaurants, so most of their food relies on its natural flavours.  We found this strange as you could see North Africa from Vejer, and you could be in Tangiers in 3 hours – door to door – by car & ferry from Santa Lucia.  However, north African/Moorish food was popular and you found restaurants in all the towns.  Go figure as they say.

Back to Cadiz and and our continued exploration of the city.  It turned out Fran had had a restless night that involved changing rooms due to smoke alarm lights, and that she was still recovering from our previous days wanderings, so agreed we would meet later. First it was was the Cadiz Museum which was rather a mish-mash with Roman antiquities mixed in with Gothic and modern art, but some stunning Roman gold and glass exhibits. A quick stop at Cafe Royalty for hot chocolate for Ann (well it is winter) and Cafe Cortado for me.

Hot chocolate at Cafe Royalty.

Cafe Royalty is a beautifully restored cafe/restaurant dating back to 1912 – a “grand romantic cafe” of the period does not cover the totally OTT decoration of the place; but it works!  Checked out the dinner menus and decided we had found tonight’s eating spot.  Then it was on to the cathedral – a baroque monstrosity filled with Catholic bling, a huge organ and lots of saints.  Obviously there were construction issues as the whole of the cathedral had nets suspended below the ceiling to catch falling masonry.  Almost next door was the Roman museum and excavations complete with a small amphitheatre.  Very well done and a fascinating window on the Roman city of Gades. Something there is a lot of in Spain we were soon to find out, but not really a lot of it publicised because there literally is so much of it!  Made the mistake of grabbing lunch in Plaza San Antonio, Cadiz’s main square, and a beautiful spot to sit and watch the world, but obviously geared to the tourist trade and the worst meal we had in Spain – by far! Then we found the small Oratorio de La Santa Cueva, tucked in the back streets near our hotel, which is renowned for the three Goya panels in its upper chapel – almost overpowering in such a small space.  Then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner! Found Fran who was still exhausted and would not join us for dinner.  8.30-8.45pm saw us back at Cafe Royalty for an early dinner!  We had the choice of the formal dining room or the tapas/cafe area, but the cafe was doing a roaring trade so the Maitre ‘D asked us to wait at the bar for a table.  We perched at the bar with finos admiring the murals, paintings, and watching the patrons – just super.  Two sherries in and we had a table. Had 3 tapas dishes that were all amazing and moved from fino to manzilla through the meal.  Shared desert with Irish Coffees decaffinato to round off dinner.  One of the best meals and the most fun we had in Spain.

The next day it was back to Santa Lucia, but on the coast road via Cape Trafalgar and Barbate so Fran could see something of the sea and beaches of the Costa del Luz. Beautiful day and Cape Trafalgar was stunning!

Cape Trafalgar.

Surprised at the lack of information on the Battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Nelson – must hold a grudge!  The restaurant we planned to have lunch in in Barbate was closed for some reason – really unusual as every restaurant in Spain is open for Sunday lunch, but it was January?  While standing around on the beach front discussing what to do an attractive girl sitting near by told of us of another restaurant further along that was OK.  Her immaculate American was to do that she now lived in the States and was back home on holiday – just love the world’s travelling population.  Anyway, sat outside in the sun and watched Barbate’s families eat and play.  OK food, better than our tourist trap in Cadiz but with the portion size and price you couldn’t really complain.  Then on-on to Santa Lucia so Fran could re-pack and catch the 7.00am bus to Seville, with Lolo driving her to La Barca de Vejer bus stop.

We knew Andalucia was going to be pig heaven because of the Iberico black footed pigs that are traditionally fed on acorns.  What we did not know was the Costa del Luz was the world centre for tuna, and still has 5 almadraba fishing ports that catch the migrating tuna in a net system dating back thousands of years.  Shops and restaurants have charts showing the cuts of tuna and you literally purchase the cut you want – belly, loin, head, etc.  Tuna is packed in jars and tins with olive oil and bears no resemblance what so ever to the tinned tuna found in England and the US.  Just after we arrived a tuna caught in Barbate was air freighted to Japan and sold at auction in the Tokyo fish market for $500,000.00!!  Our cost of fresh and preserved tuna was very reasonable to say the least and we did eat a lot of it.  One of the tuna specialities we came across was cured/dried tuna loin which came in foil vacuum packs.  This thinly sliced and eaten with a glass of manzanilla turned out to be a super new eating experience.  While on this steep tuna learning curve we headed off to Zahara de la Atuna, a small coastal village about 30Km from Santa Lucia, and the heart and soul of Spain’s tuna industry for over a 1000 years. It still has the remains of a castle built in the 10thC which was constructed to protect their tuna fishing and to process the tuna for shipment to other parts of Spain.

Castillo de las Almadrabas.

Typical of “old stuff” in Spain this was not considered to be of any note and was not even sign posted in any shape or form.  We actually identified the site after driving all around town and finding a couple of ancient walls right next to the church.  We parked and walked through and old gateway into an open area about 200 metres square that had walls in various states of disrepair, complete with a group of ruined buildings which now appear to be the local disco!  We walked straight through and out onto the beach where the tuna was once brought in for processing, but is a now a mass of villas and hotels.  Only one restaurant in town was open, but they did very good food.  Fish soup and a plate of mixed cuts of grilled tuna, with of course a few glasses of sherry.

Had a farewell lunch for Fran at La Tejea, one of our local village restaurants.  Their terrace is fabulous with great views across the valley to Vejer, and really good food. Minimal English, but with our amazing Spanish and Google Translate we always have fun as well as good food.  Carpaccio seemed to be the dish of the day as Fran had Gambas Carpaccio while I had Carpaccio de Pulpo – yep, octopus carpaccio!  It was amazing and another first on my food list – I mean how do you get to 74 and still find dishes you have never, ever, tried?!  Anyway, a great meal rounded off by Ann asking for a doggy bag in her immaculate Spanish to our waiter who looked a little puzzled, but then broke into a broad grin.  In English he then asked Ann why she wanted to take a shower?!  Hilarious! Ann got her doggy bag without having to take a shower with the waiter.

Fran’s return to the UK brought a close to our first month in southern Spain, as well as some heavy rain.  Still beautiful though a little soggy!

This time last year we were in Sedona, AZ where we stayed from October through December and had fabulous weather.  We really liked Sedona but could only get our house for 3 months, not the 6 months we had planned.  Instead of engaging brain and looking for another rental in Sedona we decided to just move on – duh!  This resulted in a very wet time in Tualatin, Oregon, but we did have a fun being with family & friends.  Now it is England through to the end of December. We had decided that this would be our time to catch up with Neal, Georgia and Grandbrats, hence August in France en famille, and then Christmas in London before heading to southern Spain. At least we would be out of the UK for January and February and be far dryer than Oregon!

Herefordshire’s October weather was not too bad and we carried on our exploration of the border castles and pubs.  Sarah Morrison – our host in Florence a few years back – and her sister Jo came to stay for a week.  Jo was pursuing her family tree into the wilds of Herefordshire and Somerset, while Ann and Sarah were more into old stuff, food and booze!  Anyway, a fun time and good to catch up with Sarah.  Just after our American buddies departed we had the London Hendeys overnighting at Daffaluke on their way through to visit Georgia’s Welsh relatives.  Luckily, Jenny & Maxs’ rental in the main house was free so we had Georgia, Neal, Silas, Lizabel, Arthur, and little brown dog across the courtyard from our cottage.  Really neat arrangement!  They arrived in good time for a long country walk before dinner, and we all did an hour and half through the lanes and fields of Glewstone.  A good hiking stick was selected from a beech thicket by Grandpa Tony for Silas , while Arthur found a suitable branch for his use!  We all went off to the Red Lion for dinner, which involved Neal following us through the tiny back lanes in the Land Rover! Fortunately we only met one oncoming vehicle, and that was at a cross roads so there was no backing up for 1/2 a mile in the dark.  Always a fun experience!  I think the kids were impressed with our remote country location?!  Neal handled the production of bacon and egg sarnies for breakfast the next morning, which was then followed by a cross-country hike before they set off for Welsh Wales!  A great stop over and so good to see the grandbrats having a fun time in the country.

Being in England in the Autumn means rugby and I was looking forward to watching the Saturday and Sunday games, plus the Autumn International Series was on with England looking seriously good for the fist time in 20 year!  It seems the days of good old BBC covering everything had gone and all rugby was now split between Sky and BT Sports, which of course you have to pay for!  After long chats with Neal went with Sky as they had all the internationals covered.  Jenny & Max graciously agreed to the installation of the Sky dish on the cottage chimney, so it was rugby heaven – at a price!  However, being in England meant Ann was not able to watch The Tide in action this season – a great disappointment.

Then it was Clocks Back!!!  This horrible event, dreaded by all, means it gets dark at 4.00pm.  If the weather is good it is just about bearable, but when it is cold and wet and the gloom starts moving in at 3.00pm it is not nice.  Ann is now truly understanding why I left the UK as soon as I could!  We had a Victorian fire-place in the living room, and a supply of logs and coal in the outhouse across from our front door, so the evening ritual of chopping kindling and getting the logs in for the night quickly set in. It was cool misty mornings and colder days as we moved into November. Ann quickly starting producing Hot Cider and Mulled wine in the evenings, which was rather nice I must admit, and went well with the roaring log fire.  We had found a super wine merchant in Monmouth, Fingal Rock, run by Tom Innes, who delivered free of charge to the cottage.  If we were not going into Monmouth I would ring Tom and we would put a case together over the phone, then he would drop it off in the evening.  Brilliant!  We had some amazing French & Italian wines at very reasonable prices.  Tom’s wines, supplemented with Bordeaux’s liberated from the London cellar, meant we drank very well during our stay.  Plus of course we had an unlimited supply of fantastic Pork Pies, Pasty’s, Scotch Eggs, local cheeses, clotted and double cream. Ann produced amazing very low sugar apple pies using the Bramley apples from the kitchen garden, which went so well with the creams we always had on hand!  All in all, life was not all bad.  The gym and my jolks around the lanes meant I was holding my own on the “fitness” front, though whether Doc Cain will agree is a different matter.  Also, Ann was doing her water aerobics and quite a lot of walking (with a knee brace) on our trips to castles, cathedrals, and churches.  Mind you the cold, gloomy mornings when we headed into Ross to go  to the gym were not that much fun!

Glewstone Court, our local hotel, bar, and restaurant did an Italian wine dinner which we attended.  Great event, though we thought Tom Innes’ Italian wines were somewhat better, but there was masses of really good food, and the old country house hotel was a lovely setting for the dinner – all very English – and all very enjoyable!

Next on the visitor’s list was Fiona Peffers, an old friend of Ann’s who now lives in Liverpool. She came to stay for a few days and the castle / pub tours continued unabated. Fiona was delightful and it was fun having her visit; I never had to say a word as the girls reminisced over past events and people!

Then for a change we went to White Brook – a 1* Michelin restaurant with rooms in Monmouthshire. We did their mid-week deal which was dinner, a night in a lovely king bedded room, and breakfast; all for $200! Deal or what!  White Brook is remote to say the least and is situated on a good sized stream called White Brook in what had been a series of old farm labourers’ cottages and buildings.  Arrived a little early so were given tea in the lounge while they checked our room – good start. Drinks before dinner and then it was in to the dining room where we had a choice of the standard menu or the 7 course tasting menu.  We have never been big on tasting menus – too long, too many different wines, etc., so we had the standard 3 course dinner, which was actually 5 if you count the amusee bouche and sweet goodies at the end. An excellent wine list and before discussion with the sommelier we were already short listing some expensive bottles of Burgundy.  However, the wine man was good and said we should go with an unknown, and less expensive Burgundy, as he said it was an amazing wine, and he was right. Anyway, a super meal and Chef Chris Harrod obviously deserves his 1* ranking.  Amazing service with the waiters being super efficient and witty!  Rather added to our a bill by consuming a number of seriously good decaf Irish Coffees after dinner. Breakfast was outstanding and apart from all the normal breakfast goodies there was a choice of the Full English onwards, but we both had their own smoked Haddock with a poached egg – delicious!  Just love the restaurant with rooms concept.

Georgia May had said we should do a Thanksgiving dinner so the children got a feel for the American side of things while we were here, and they had American friends who would join in and help.  Up to London on November 26 – this time we thought we would do the A40 route – mistake.  Road works and lots of traffic and being a Saturday probably didn’t help.  Ann of course found books on the Thanksgiving story, and bought Indian and Pilgrim costumes so the grandbrats would get a vague idea of what it was all about, as well as making her famous cranberry relish. An amazing meal with Neal producing a wondrous turkey – definitely one of the best Thanksgiving meals we have had.  And in England!

We arranged to spend another night in the south and visit my sick buddy Peter, but he was not good, so we headed back to Ross after speaking to Gill, this time via the M4!

At the end of November it was getting damn cold with temperatures dropping to -7C at night, getting just above freezing during the day, all mixed in with days of rain! Oh joy!  In order to keep our spirits up went for lunch to another 1* Michelin restaurant, the Walnut Tree, also in Monmouthshire. Chef Shaun Hill is my age and started cooking with Robert Carrier in his first London restaurant. This is his third restaurant where he has achieved 1 & 2* Michelin rankings, and came out of retirement to put the Walnut Tree on the map. An amazing menu which made it extremely difficult to choose.  We had drinks in the bar first and were given pork scratchings with pulled pork as an amusee bouche – just brilliant! Totally delicious meal, but completely different from White Brook, and in many ways better food.  Probably because we both just started in the Robert Carrier way of cooking (my first ever cook book) and I loved the old school twist on his food. Also, his portion size was not your standard Michelin helping!

Stratton Hotel, Swaffam.

As we were into December and had not caught up with our Norfolk friends,, we decided on a road trip to Swaffam, where we booked into the Stratton Hotel right in the centre of town for 3 nights.  Mind you we still had to call the hotel and get instructions to find the tiny alley that led to the hotel after driving around the town square 3 times! Swaaafam as the locals say was equidistant between the Coultens and Frances so that way we could spend time with both of them.  Had a great lunch with Paul and Lowrie at their local, The Bedingfield Arms in Oxborough and lunch with Fran at her Thai restaurant in Beetley. Great fun and so good to catch up with old friends.  We also found that Swaffam had some reasonable restaurants within walking distance of the hotel.  One was a fish & chip shop rated in the top 50 in England, and the other was a Russian restaurant called Rasputin!  We tried both!  Good fish & chips and Rasputin was excellent.  Owned and run by a young Russian couple who produced some stunning mushroom blinis. So we had an evening of blinis, and vodka while chatting to the wife about living and working in Swaaafam!  Not and easy run Ross to Swaffam as it is a series of motorways and A roads.  Coming back was a nightmare as were driving into the sun on the M6-M5-M50 on wet roads in heavy traffic and my windscreen washers were not working!  We were really glad to get “home”.

It was countdown to the end of our stay at Watchmaker’s Cottage and all sorts of things were happening.  We had drinks with Mike & Dulce Constable at their house in Howell Hill – a tiny village in the hills above Ross.  Mike and I worked out at the gym together and bonded being in the same age bracket.  Then it was a lunch with Humphrey Stanley, Glewstone’s resident artist and our drinking buddy at the Yew Tree.

Sausage & Cider Night at the Yew Tree.

He had lent us books on the Welsh castles and given us lots of advice on local routes and places to visit.  Super character. Finally it was the carol service at St Mary’s Church in Ross, which turned out to be just what you want from your local church, but very rarely experience. A really good turn out and the choir and organist for a small town church were outstanding – they truly rocked the rafters.  Beginning to feel quite Christmasey!

We packed up bags and sent them off to the owner of our villa in Santa Lucia so we had the minimum of luggage for our flight to Spain, stocked up on eggs, sausages, and a large pork pie from Cornwall’s, our fabulous butcher in Ross, for Christmas in London, and departed Watchmaker’s Cottage.  As usual, time had flown past and there was still stuff we hadn’t done, but On-On as they say.

Our room at Railway Cuttings was not free until December 22 when Matilde, the nanny, departed for France for the holidays, so we had arranged to spend the night at the Castle Hotel in Windsor, which was right next to the castle and had a Marco Pierre White restaurant. Just fabulous – a lovely king bed room overlooking the castle, and a super dinner in Mr White’s place, where we met 2 ladies from NZ who waxed lyrically about our having a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc with our Fritto Misto starter!  Then it was a very good Chateaubriand for our main course – good meal.  Followed by some good decaf Irish Coffees in the bar – well it was Christmas! An excellent hotel breakfast on a foggy morning really gave you the feel of England in the winter.

Into London – unload the car and then run it back to Sixt Car Hire in Sheppard’s Bush – and so ended 3 months UK motoring.  Must admit I still miss the Nissan Pathfinder! The next day Marky arrived from Charleston  to make up the Hendey Christmas gathering. Then it was wrapping the masses of Christmas presents for the kids and trying to stack them under the Christmas tree – almost impossible – and all the last minute bits and pieces before the big day.  In the lead up to Christmas we had found out what Silas and Lizabel wanted and had done our online shopping.  However, we had failed to get the required info for Arthur, so I sent of an email saying we would enroll him in the Chocolate of the Month Club and buy him a drum set if we didn’t get any better suggestions.  Georgia replied drums would be good as it would fit with Silas learning the guitar and Lizabel the violin!  Before sanity could return to the parents I bought the new Ringo Starr a 5 piece drum set!

Christmas was fabulous mayhem and Neal & Georgia produced amazing dinners for our stay as well as a superb Christmas dinner.  Must admit Neal is a dab hand at roasting turkeys.  What was really impressive was Georgia May assembling Arthur’s flat pack 5 piece drum set in about an hour, working from an online instructions on her laptop! Following which Arthur let rip on his drums – the boy shows promise!  Once the the drums were installed in the boys’ bedroom we were given a concert of our grand childrens’ musical talents. Quite something.

Mark had bought tickets for the Harlequin’s v Gloucester game at Twickenham, so on December 28th 3 generations of rugby playing Hendeys took off to watch the Mighty Quinn in action at the home of English rugby – just brilliant!   In should be mentioned at this point that of the 3 generations only Silas has played at Twickenham, for his club Ealing, and is also the only Hendey to score a try at Twickenham! Quite an achievement at his early age. Not sure how long that record will stand now that Arthur has started mini-rugby!

December 29 brought our English travels to end as we flew off to Jerez de la Fronterra to start our 3 month stay in Andalucia.

On our various trips to England Ann had seen London and East Anglia so I thought some where in the west would be good for our 3 month stay.  As a teenager I had spent summers riding with family friends who ran a large B&B outside Ross-on-Wye.  Those summers of riding the Welsh border and canoeing the Wye had made an indelible impression, and not much could have changed in 50 years – right?  Some researching actually confirmed the Ross area had remained largely unchanged – quite amazing – and reassuring.  This area of Herefordshire was the land of the Welsh Marches and liberally scattered with castles and houses dating back a thousand years.  Fertile ground for Ann to explore and also continue her research into cider!  Our creed of locating near a small town in order to have the blend of countryside with all necessary facilities close by was achieved with the cottage we found in Glewstone, 4 miles from Ross.

Watchmakers Cottage was the original coachman’s house in the stable block in the grounds of Daffaluke House, which had become the home and workshop of the local watchmaker, before being turned into a holiday rental by Jenny & Max Clark.  This little cottage was to be home for the next 3 months until returning to London for a family Christmas.

The Wye valley at Symond’s Yat.

It was a great location with the views from our windows onto the walled kitchen garden and across the fields dotted with sheep and horses.  Also, there were two good pubs within minutes of the cottage through really narrow country lanes, one of which made its own cider.  Ross-on-Wye is a neat little town which had an excellent gym and water aerobics centre, good super markets, a fabulous old school butchers, and expensive parking!  Also, the biggest collection of charity shops we had ever seen, but a user-friendly town.

We had literally just settled in and only done one castle and a couple of pubs, before we received an email from our friends Kathy & Wishart Robson telling us they had rented a huge villa on Corfu for a week and would we care to join them!  Well they did ask – and we did accept!  BA did direct flights our of LHR so we secured some business class seats, booked a car, and were set to go.  We told Jenny and Max that we were off to Corfu for a week at which they said their friends who lived two fields over had gone to Corfu on holiday for years and they would have us all round for dinner so we could get the local info. We duly rocked up to the big house for an amazing meal of roast rib of beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes; the works!  Super evening where we received some really good info on what to do, and not do, on Corfu together with a map of the island.  So, well equipped for our Greek jaunt we drove up and stayed the night at the Hilton Heathrow. It’s minutes from Terminal 5, and they had a great deal for staying at the hotel on your way in and out, and leaving your car in their car park. After a great meal at Mr Todiwala’s, a seriously good Indian restaurant in the hotel, we left the next morning for the island of Corfu. BA business class was basically the same seat configuration as economy except the centre seat was a table – I’ve had more leg room cattle class on Jet Blue!  Anyway, the food and booze were good and the flight trouble free.  Corfu airport was a step back in time as there were no jet ways and you were bussed to and from the terminal, but the weather was warm and sunny and immigration a doddle.  Met by the car hire guy and whisked off to the Olympic Car Hire office just outside the airport, where we were “greeted” by a girl who said we couldn’t have a car unless we had an international driving permit!  A short argument about them letting people know about this requirement before getting the driver to take us back to the airport. 20 mins later we driving one of Mr Hertz’s nice cars through the streets of Corfu town on our way to Villa Thalia on the north-east of the island.  We had received detailed driving instructions on how to get to the house and those and the TomTom had us ducking and diving through suburbs of Corfu town and out onto the coast road.  A beautiful drive along the narrow, hilly, road to Kassiopi after which we had to find the track that lead to the villa. Found it – despite it looking like a turning into a building site.  Our driving instructions said we would need to turn off the AC and go into 1st gear to get up the hill!  It was steep and narrow but nothing major, and we actually made it in 2nd gear. Found the gates into the development where Villa Thalia was located and then down an extremely narrow, and angled drive to the small parking area where Wish’s Jeep was parked.  We would worry how to get out in the morning!

What a house! Built on the side of a hill, in what was once an olive grove, with staggering views of the Ionian Sea and the Albanian coast; all of which could be viewed from the infinity pool outside the living room.  Our room was a king suite in a separate building one level below the main house and all quite splendid.  The villa came with a concierge and daily maid service, plus a chef if needed! The final touch was the fantastic weather – warm and sunny – yes.  Wish & Cathy had been on the island for a few days and had found the island’s best wine shop and stocked up on some good Greek wine.  Then there was a great little grocery shop in Kassiopi (listed by our UK friends as the best) so we had the basics covered and quickly settled into life on Corfu.

A truly lovely island and you understand why the Durrells made it home for so many years. We visited The White House, their last house on the island, where Laurence wrote a number of his unreadable books, and Gerald wrote his lovely family memoirs.  Now a popular bar and restaurant.

We also visited Paleokastritsa Monastery on the north of the island – quite a drive over narrow mountain roads – made more interesting by the odd tourist coach suddenly lurching round a bend and heading straight towards you!  The views from the monastery were quite spectacular.  Spent a day in Corfu Old Town which is quite chaotic with its traffic and lack of parking.  The only place to park is the main car park next to the fort where we queued for 20 odd minutes before a slot became available. The car park runs right along the side of the cricket pitch, which is still in active use!  Visited the Fort and the Art Museum which has an amazing Asian collection put together by a Greek who never visited China or Japan, just bought at auction. Unfortunately the Archaeological Museum is permanently closed.

The Fort looking back to the town.

The Fort was interesting though almost no information on what you were viewing, but gave you some good views across the old town. Had lunch beside the cricket pitch where we had fun people watching, but no cricket!  On our way back to the villa we located and stopped at the wine shop, as one of the bottles that Wish had bought was corked; plus we needed to stock up on wine.  The owner was there and spoke good English so we soon bonded over wine.  The wine we had returned was the most expensive Greek wine he stocked so that was replaced in an instant.  Our visit then turned into a Greek wine tasting where we tasted some really nice wines.  Not outstanding but you could certainly drink well on the local produce.  We bought 6 bottles, plus we were given the bottles he had opened for the tasting, in addition to a bonus bottle for Wish to compensate for the bad bottle!  Messing about with wine, apart from drinking it, is just some much fun!

Our final site-seeing spot was the Achilleion Palace/Museum – a 19C pile with spectacular views over the ocean and Corfu Town.  The rest of our visit was taken up by eating and drinking at local restaurants and the house.  I mean sampling the local wines and cuisine with friends in beautiful location is just wonderful – one of life’s real pleasures. The eating and drinking was capped off by having the villa’s chef doing a meal for us – great fun – with Wish bonding with the chef’s father on fishing!  Apart from one day when the most amazing thunderstorm came through, we had fabulous weather and were sorry to return to England for the onset of winter.  Anyway, a hassle free trip back to Heathrow with a night at the Hilton before heading off down the M4 to Ross.

We could not get into the cottage we had rented in Ross-on-Wye until September 12 so had nearly 3 weeks of London and the south before heading west.  The end of August is the Notting Hill Carnival, which is now one the largest street festivals in the world with a million odd people rocking up to party.  I attended one of street parties in the early 60s with a Jamaican colleague, which later morphed into the festival we now know.  I was one of the few non-Jamaicans and rather stood out in the crowd.  This was not long after the so called Notting Hill Race riots, so not everyone was were happy to see a honky at the party, but my friend Neville took good care of me. Great experience.  However, these days the local residents board up their houses and get out of town, which meant Neal & Georgia left us to guard the fort while they took off to Norfolk.  All very peaceful with a great background sound of steel bands and reggae music.

Bonding with Mimi.

Friday before Carnival we did the Painters Paintings Exhibition at the National Gallery. A fantastic collection of the paintings that 10 major artists, from Medieval to Freud, had in their own personal collections.  I never thought of artists collecting!  Just fabulous.

After the bank holiday I found my Barclay’s card had stopped working so I was unable to access my sterling account, the source of finance for our European tour!  Barclay’s were “migrating” my account from Guernsey to the Isle of Man – their idea not mine – and I had sent off all the required signed documents by registered mail before we left the States. This was the start a 5 week ordeal with Barclay’s to get my account back into operation! Barclay’s said they never received the registered mail documents despite there being a record of them receiving them, so let’s go with they lost them!  They also managed to “lose” faxes sent to them from their own bank in London and Brighton.  The crass inefficiency and total lack of professionalism of this major international bank was beyond belief; worthy of a John Cleese sketch, which I did mention to them on more than one occasion.  I put in an official complaint and received confirmation that my case would be investigated, but “due to the volume of cases being handled it would take longer than normal”  Totally farcical!

On the home front the family was returning to London with a spaniel puppy, plus the new au pair was due arrive from Paris the next day, so we decided it was time to visit friends in Surrey and Kent, view England’s finest gardens and stately homes, while sampling the south’s finest cream teas, and pubs. After a few wrong turns on Kent lanes we found our aptly named The Wilderness B&B – our base for the next few days as we visited Sissinghurst, Scotney Castle, Pashley Manor, and Bodiam.

Great Dixter

Bodiam Castle

Warm sunny weather so everything was at its best.  After that we went on to spent a few delightful days with Tessa Ellis – her house and gardens are the epitome of the English country house – and the weather remained marvellous.  England when it is like this is quite outstanding, and we made the most of it.  We all managed to have lunch with Peter & Gill Charkin in a nearby pub; just so good to see them again and that Peter was looking so good considering he was seriously ill.  As always it’s the people, your friends and family, that makes the occasion.

It was then on to Brighton where we toured The Pavilion, The Museum, and walked along the pier.  All very touristy, but we could walk everywhere and weather remain good. Surprisingly Brighton has turned into quite a foody town and we ate very well.  Excellent seafood, Chinese, and Indian – absolutely great – the Indian was Goan and produced some fabulous food.  It was then back to London to regroup/repack and head off to Ross-on-Wye.  Sixt Car Hire upgraded us to a Vauxhall Astra Estate so we had plenty of room for the crates of wine we liberated from the clutches of Neal’s cellar.  So after a great family weekend in London including Tuppence, the new tiny brown puppy, meeting Matilde the new au pair, we left a busy Railway Cuttings and headed west.

The game plan was to spend 2 weeks in France en famille before grand kiddies went back to school, so Francophile Georgia found a fabulous old house in Provence that would fit us all – Grandpa Peter, Georgia, Neal, Silas, Lizabel, Arthur, Mimi, and Grandpa Tony.  I had put poor Georgia’s feet to the fire by insisting we needed a king sized bed with en suite bathroom, but she came through with a house in the village of Puyvert, outside Loumarin, and an hours drive south of Avignon.  It turned out to be a fabulous old house in a beautiful village.

Thanks to advice from our children we had decided to go via Eurostar to Avignon and spend a few days exploring the old city before picking up a hire car and heading down to Puyvert. We booked a hotel called Cloitre Saint-Louis inside the wall of the old city as we planned to walk everywhere.  It was a converted convent dating back to the 16thC with a beautiful courtyard, a pleasant garden, and French efficiency.  We arrived a bit before check in time and were told our room wasn’t ready and to have a drink in garden, which we did. After a couple of beers we returned to reception and was told the room was still not ready – apologies!  Had another beer and back to check in – yep you’ve got – still no room!!  So we plonked ourselves in the reception area and glared at the poor girl manning the desk and threw out the odd loud comment.  At this point we had the concierge, what appeared to be a manager, plus another receptionist dashing around.  Anyway, after a total wait of 1 hr 45 min we were in our room, which was large and comfortable with good wi-fi!

Cloitre Saint-Louis

So then it was 4 days of exploring the old city of Avignon, Palace de Papes, the Pont, etc.

And finding a number of good restaurants, and the market.  Had a fabulous lunch in the market by picking various goodies from vendors and settling down in an area which served wine – yes!

Avignon Market.

We enjoyed Avignon – very user friendly – and considering it was August, not that crowded. Our check out from Cloitre Saint-Louis was efficient and hassle free as we took a taxi to railway station to pick up our rental and head for Puyvert.  Just the two of us so we had booked a manual Fiat 500, which of course was diesel!  Smallest diesel car I have ever driven and vastly over engineered – I was still getting used to the bloody thing when we handed it back 2 weeks later.  Thanks to Chief Navigator Ann assisted by Elsie TomTom we found our way to Gordes, a lovely mountain village where we stopped for lunch, then carried on trucking to Puyvert where we arrived ahead of the Hendey Land Rover.

Puyvert

The house

The house was large and we all fitted in very well, especially us, as our suite was somewhat detached from the main section of the house.  There was a large swimming pool much to the delight of the grandbrats who were in within minutes of arriving.  We had an outdoor kitchen and dining area which basically became the centre of lives for the next 2 weeks. Neal and Georgia had located a Super-U which was a 5 mins drive from the house which had fabulous meat, fish, bakery, and delicatessen sections as well as booze, so we were good to go as they say.  Turned out that son Neal was a dab hand on the barbecue and produced some amazing fish, prawns, and chicken.  The lighting of the grill became an evening event with the children collecting twigs to start the fire, and assisting Dad in the cooking!  Awesome family bonding!  Mind you I think our dear grandchildren found Grandpa Tony and Mimi a shock to the system at times. As Peter and ourselves had our own transport we explored the surrounding villages, vineyards, and co-ops together with odd restaurant or two.  The weather was gorgeous – normally about 28-30’C during the day, and cooling down somewhat at night. The nearest town was Lourmarin, where Peter Mayle of Provence fame now lives, and where there was an amazing Vin de Cave run by a great character called Florian.  We did an extended wine tasting before buying 3 cases of wine and a couple of bottles of really good Armagnac. All the wines were local and way above average, especially the rose,  as well as being reasonably priced. However, evaporation was a factor so we and Florian soon became good friends!

All Provence Rose!

It seemed as if we had only just settled in and it was time to head home.  We were going to spend a few days in Arles before getting the Eurostar back from Avignon.  Like most European towns and villages parking is an issue so we had booked into the Best Western in Arles because it had its own garage and you could walk to everything.  An amazing old town, where the Roman amphitheatre is in use today as the towns bullring!  Being close to Marseille it had a far different feel to it than Avignon, and there was more dirt and graffiti. We did find a great Van Gogh exhibition, well it is Arles, and an excellent Archeological Museum. Explored everywhere and found some good restaurants, which doesn’t ever seem to be a problem in France!

Arles bullring the Roman amphitheatre

L’Affenage Restaurant

It was an easy drive back to Avignon where we gave Mr Hertz his car back and hopped on the Eurostar for St Pancras.  Only hitch was we had to get off the train at Lille to do the UK border control – not user friendly or efficient!  The whole train disembarks and has to go up one level via 2 escalators into a concourse area where there are only 2 border control points, and then all mill around like cattle to get on one of the two escalators back down to the train!  Bloody chaos!  We were pleasantly surprised by business class Eurostar, with the food and wine being quite good, and quite generous with the wine – always good.  Taxi back to Railway Cuttings and more family bonding!

We decided to go by boat rather than fly as we thought it would make a nice change and we had never sailed the Atlantic, so booked our cabin on the Queen Mary II.

Still not in full retirement mode when I made the booking 3 months out and decided 1st Class was too expensive – bad move!  Our cabin was mid-ships on the 8th deck with a veranda, which made it very light and airy, so pretty good accommodation, plus our Filipino steward was fabulous.  Now we can really move into AngryAnglo mode!  It started to grate with the formal attire nights; black tie requested but, a suit and tie is accepted!!  And this applied to the whole boat after 7.00pm, even if you were eating in the cafeteria or one of the pubs/bars, it was still DJ required!  I mean how stupid can you get. Quite accept that the dining rooms and restaurants have this code, but if I want to slum it in another area, I should be able to do so – give me a break.  Other nights it was jacket for dinner, which is fine and I quite like.  I did bring a suit purely so we could eat dinner on these “formal” nights, but my DJs had gone to Goodwill; I was now retired damn it. We did meet people who revelled in the formal ball nights. One lady had brought 5 ball gowns with her! Considering we were on a cross between a floating old people’s home and a bad golf club it was all so pretentious it made your head spin.  We had opted for the early seating for dinner – another mistake – which was 6.30 pm rather than the 8.30 pm slot.  We were on a table for 6 so we could meet people; an older couple with the lady a great character, and a NZ couple in their 50s who had sold up and were moving lock stock and barrel to the UK. (you’ll be sorry!!) They loved ball room dancing and she was the lady who had brought the trunk of ball gowns! Dinner partners really good, but not so much the food. At our first meal, Ann’s steak was inedible, with the other courses very average.  However, an excellent wine list at duty-free prices with knowledgeable wine stewards, so not all was lost.  It did mean that we ditched our dinner slot and sorted our alternative dining venues. Our go-to dinner spot became the Veranda Restaurant, which had amazing food, out standing service, and lovely view of the ocean.  The $30 “supplement” for using this restaurant was worth the price.

Also, the cafeteria was excellent with a mind bending array of foods, which were well cooked and presented, but this couldn’t be replicated in the Britannia dining room – strange! We also belatedly found out they did ethnic pop-up dinners that were only announced in the so-called ship’s Newspaper.  This product was so bad it was amazing that Cunard would actually put this out to its guests, but there again were on the old people’s home/golf club cruise, owned and operated by Carnival Lines.  We did attend two of these dinners, one Indian, and one Mexican, both excellent!  Mind you on the Indian dinner I was refused entry by the Maitre ‘D until I put on a tie.  In a heartbeat my dress rebellion was quashed by my love of Indian food.

Next lot of rants coming up.  In their marine wisdom Cunard had decided to change the clocks daily at 12 noon, but this was never accounted for when attending courses or various other reservations!  Once again so stupid it was mind boggling.  The courses offered were pretty pathetic and seemed to mainly comprise of minor lefty newspaper correspondents who liked listening to their own voice.  The one good speaker was a retired British general talking on Iraq and the ME.  We actually did this via a tele-repeat in our cabin because we missed the actual lecture due to the stupid time change issue!  Ann decided to try the water-colour classes, but after 30 mins of draw this line, etc., the woman running the class left never to return.  End of painting classes for Ann. There was a small, but well equipped gym that was totally unmanaged, so you would head for you next piece of equipment only to find a 70 year Bronx maiden in street clothes, complete with hand bag, screeching at her husband to make the thing work!  I was waiting for one of them to get caught up in a moving part and be throttled into silence, but it never happened.  Now we’ll move onto the internet system on the ship.  You had to buy on-line minutes at an exorbitant rate, but the system had a 4-step log-on / log-off routine that did or didn’t work!  Which meant if you didn’t log off properly your stayed on-line and your minutes disappeared.  After spending $180 we very quickly we gave up, and decided communications could wait until we landed.

We did attend a couple of wine events that were really good, mainly due to the fact that there were 8 sommeliers on board. The Belgium boss was a Master Sommelier and 6 of the other 8 were about take their Masters exam, all of whom were Indian.  Got to know 2 of them through these wine events and dining in The Veranda – really nice and very good at their job – impressive!  These chaps and an amazing duty free wine list meant we drank very well.  During our pursuit of wine and booze we met a young Russian couple who were very good company.

Of our 7 days at sea only the first leg from NY to Halifax, NS was nice sunny weather.  As we sailed into Halifax it started raining and the fog rolled in, and so it remained until we neared Southampton.  Mind you it was rather nice going sleep at night with our veranda doors open and hearing the waves crashing and fog horn booming.

Then it was into Southampton.  As soon as we were in the channel were told we would not be docking at the new Cunard Queen Mary berth, but at the old terminal.  Did not sound good!  Called the company that we had booked our car and driver with to let them know the change, and then got with disembarking drill, marshalling points.  Our bags had been placed outside the cabin the previous night, but obviously getting a thousand odd people off complete with luggage, is quite a logistics feat, but as they had done this before we assumed it would go reasonable smoothly.  Wrong yet again!  The normal 30 min disembarking time dragged past an hour with annoying announcements saying they were having problems with gangways engaging.  Scrambled around from deck to deck for a phone signal to update our car people and to try to see what was happening with the gangways.  It appeared that normal wharfie procedure was in operation – a well used forklift to move and jiggle the ramp while large hammers were applied to various sections. What I did notice was that a small gangway was in use taking bags off – positive. After further time I saw a single gangway was in use towards the bows, so grabbed Ann and our bags and headed in that direction while the loud speakers instructed us to stay at our stations ready for our turn in getting off.  Right!  Found a queue for the one and only gangway and after about 15 mins or so we were in the baggage hall trying to locate our bags.  A really switched on porter asked for our deck and cabin number and then headed towards a stack of luggage where we actually found all our stuff.  We then said we had a car and driver waiting, we hoped, which to our switched on porter was not a problem as we followed him at a gallop through a series of doors and found our man!  Needless to say super porter received a sizeable tip.  An hour and forty-five mins later we were on the doorstep of Railway Cuttings waiting for Georgia to dash back from work to let us in.  We had made it.

As we relaxed that night ( a relative term in a house with Silas, Lizabel, and Arthur) and regaled Neal and Georgia with our tales of the sea, we vowed that was our last cruise!

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