Arrival After taking the train to Cheltenham Spa, I have to take a bus a short distance down the road to the White Lodge. I do a double take when the double-decker bus pulls up. In huge letters on the side of the bus are a list of its four[…]
I get off the train from London, head towards the buses and am confronted with a kid, maybe three years old, lying on the floor of the station, sprawled in front of the ticket machines with his care giver standing next to him. “C’mon Peter,” he says, pulling him away.[…]
Location We decided to stay at The Hill House, a lovely B&B a ten minute bus ride from the centre of Norwich in The Broads. The Broads are a system of canals and wetlands created when the water level rose, flooding Medieval peat workings. As usual, Ange arrived first, travelling on[…]
Our trip to the Lake District started inauspiciously: we woke in the Royal Oak Inn to a solid persistent rain – not torrential – just a rain that has no intention of stopping and is pacing itself. We had high hopes of starting the day early and checking out Hill Top,[…]
In the Lake District the weather can change very quickly – when we got up in the morning we were greeted with persistent torrential rain and by the time we got to the MacDonald Old England Hotel & Spa in the afternoon, bright blue skies and strong sunshine greeted us. We’d booked to[…]
It’s raining when Ange arrives at the Royal Oak Inn in Bowness-on-Windermere. It’s mid summer but there’s still a coolness to the air. Location We’d chosen the Inn because of its proximity to the ferries to get across the lake to the Beatrix Potter Museum in Near Sawrey. It serves as[…]
Day Zero It was difficult to decide what to see this time around – like Rome, both Ange and I had been to Paris a few times and so we were looking for a mix of old friends and new experiences. I’d switched from flights to the Eurostar, so[…]
Our last stop on our Summer UNESCO Tour was Paris, and for the last two nights we stayed at the Hotel Antin Saint Georges. Location Situated a short bus ride (two stops) or a choice of two metro lines from Gare du Nord, Hotel Antin doesn’t have the price tag[…]
It’s threatening to rain when we show up to the Hotel du Printemps in the morning – too early to expect our room to be ready, and so it proved. We dropped off our luggage instead and headed out to Versailles instead. Location Hotel du Printemps is handily located very[…]
The last weekend of our Summer UNESCO tour was spent in Paris, and the first night of that weekend was spent in the Hotel Marignan. Location Very centrally located in the Latin Quarter the hotel is equidistant from Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite, the Pantheon and Jardin[…]