Madrid - Tapatastic

For pictures from the trip click here.

In the middle of plenty of trips for Anna and I, we also managed to fit in a short weekend trip to Madrid with Deb & Carl. Why Madrid? Well, we have heard plenty of people mention that it is a very cool place to visit, and we also wanted to get our last fill of fantastic Spanish tapa's....

Arriving Friday night and pretty hungry we headed into downtown Madrid. Not wanting to stick too much as tourists, we endeavoured to stay our hunger until the locals go out to eat and started off with a few drinks at the brewpub Naturbier - their Helles was quite pleasant (it even tickled the taste buds of Fosters-loving Carl), but their Dunkel needs some work. Feeling that we had left it late enough to join the Spanish late-dinner, we started the circuit around the very pleasant Plaza Santa Ana, dropping into this and that Tapa bar and tickling our taste buds on another level. This set the course for the evening and it wasn't until the early hours of the morning that we made our back towards our hotel. Though despite the hour, it seemed Madrid was very much alive, and we got waylaid ourselves by the Chocolateria de San Gines - famous for its chocolate con churros. Maybe it was the hour, or maybe we were just too full of tapa's and sangria, but the thick hot chocolate just wasn't for us - though it certainly seemed popular with the locals.

We started the next morning with a walking tour around the city and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around ourselves. Madrid struck me as quite a "liveable" city, very open with lots of wide avenues, plaza's and parks. Very different to Barcelona or Seville, not nearly as touristy and with a more relaxed feel to it. I guess that is because there isn't a lot of specific tourist stuff to do. Something I am finding I prefer in my destinations, as you tend to get more of a feel for the place rather than rushing around continuously from one site to the next. What better to do when you go away on holiday than to gently amble around a new city, randomly stopping in to the odd bar for a drink or tapa, and moving on again.

Though we did also manage to fit in a visit to Real Madrid's impressive Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday afternoon - where the museum proudly displays their numerous trophies and awards (including 9 Champions League and FIFA's Team of the 20th Century). We also found ourselves bunkering down in the manager's seat in the Stadium as a one of the largest thunder storms I have ever seen came through (apart from that crazy hour, we had great sunny weather all weekend).

The next day we joined the locals in their Sunday promenading in the El Retiro park, before stopping off at our favourite Tapa's bar one more time and one patatas bravas too many!

Another bonus of the trip was flying out of London City airport. On our return it took no more than five minutes from exiting the plane to exiting the terminal altogether (for those of you who haven't experienced Heathrow, Gatwick or the dreaded Stansted - this can be classed as a small miracle) - even the passport control officers were friendly! Just a relaxed finish to a relaxed weekend.

You can also see Deb & Carl's take on trip here.

Putney Tandoori - Kursey Lamb

The girls had organised themselves to go out and see the Dirty Dancing musical, so while they were putting baby in the corner, the boys got themselves together for a night of ale and curry - I know which sounds better to me!

We started off at The Bricklayers Arms (my favourite local pub) for a few Timothy Taylors before heading down to Putney Tandoori (my favourite local curry house) for their special Kursey Lamb - "a whole leg of tender lamb roasted in Indian style with spices & herbs, marinated in a special sauce, garnished with lettuce, tomatoes & cucumber". We actually had to order this the day before as 24 hours notice is required - to marinate the lamb overnight.

Well, if you think it sounds good, it tasted even better! As you can see from the pics, we didn't leave much behind....

From Russia with....

For pictures from the trip click here.

Being a real history nerd (I even read "The Rise & Fall of the Soviet Empire" and "War & Peace" for the occasion), I have always wanted to make the trip to Russia. But after a lot of inertia and dilly-dallying around Anna and I finally took the plunge and decided to do it through the dreaded "tour" - my first ever. There are lots of things that put me off tours - stranger-danger, reduced freedom of what you can do, and the fact that tours typically do things on the cheap. However, helping us along in making the decision (apart from the fact that we were being slack and saw that we would never get there otherwise) was that Deb & Carl's flatmates Matt & Liv were going to be on the same tour. This proved to be a god-send, as it meant that we could pretty much drop the rest of the tour and go and do our own thing - which was just as well too as there were a few members of the tour you did your best to avoid (Top of that list was "The Chad" - take the most loud, obnoxious, and rude Queenslander you can think of, times that by ten and then you have "The Chad"). Also, the tour company we were with - Beetroot - was a tour with a lot of freedom. They effectively only organised your visa, accommodation, transport, and walking tours - and apart from that you were free to do what you wanted.

Our first destination was Moscow. Being in Moscow was definitely my favourite part of the trip. It is just full of history, both Communist and pre-Communist. It was great to just be in places like the Kremlin and the Red Square and visit Lenin's Mausoleum (a weird experience). In Moscow there is also a real mix of architecture - some grand old Mansions mixed with very square Communist blocks.

This was in complete contrast to St Petersburg, which most people seem to prefer, but for me it felt much more European (reminded me very much of Copenhagen) and not as Russian as Moscow. There is little of the Communist touch there and the history and architecture is more from the Tsarist times - which was also interesting. We also got a little bit of "culture" in St Peters, going to a very entertaining Folk show (including some impressive Cossack dancing) and to a Ballet performance of Cinderella - which, I have to say, will be something I only do in Russia.

In between Moscow and St Petersburg, we also had a night in Novgorod - which is the oldest city in Russia. It was here that we had a fascinating tour, where the guide not only pointed out the sites and history of Novgorod, but talked openly with us about living in Communist and post-Communist Russia. She also gave us a real feel for some the contrasts in Russian life - where you can buy staples like bread (and vodka) for next to nothing, but a simple 2-bedroom townhouse can set you back $1m US dollars.

One of the unexpected highlights of the whole trip was the food. With the benefit of doing some research, I had found a couple of highly recommended restaurants in Moscow. The first was Café Pushkin - pretty much universally recognised as the place to eat in Moscow. It is situated over three floors of what must have been an old Mansion, with stunning interior (including shelves of century-old books and clocks) and top-class service. And just as good was the food - the most memorable being the best Borscht (beetroot soup) I have ever had. We went there the first night we arrived, and it was so good we return again on our last day! The other restaurant was Shinok, a Ukrainian restaurant whose feature is a glassed-off inner farmyard with live farm animals and a resident Babushka to tend them. And being Ukrainian we also had to have Chicken Kiev - which isn't the chicken stuffed with cheese and ham we get at home, but with a garlic and herb sauce that was delicious. And though these two were the best, they set the scene for the whole trip we where we really enjoyed the food. If you are prepared to pay a bit more (and avoid any recommendations from the Tour company!), you could get food second to none.

We also did our best to sample some of the local produce - namely the infamous Russian vodka. One memorable night saw the four us leaving a very cool arty club in Moscow at 4.30am in the morning and getting a lift in the back of a guy's Lada to our hotel. They don't really have taxi's in Russia, locals just drive around and if they get flagged down will negotiate a fare for where you want to go - this guy didn't know what he was bargaining for as we squeezed into the back in our vodka-induced state. But we were most appreciative when he got us back to our hotel (after much pointing at maps) as we had no idea where we were going.

We also had a couple of good nights out in St Peters. One was at the Tinkoff brew pub, where I took on their all you can drink "buffet" and just managed to get my money's worth. Though not an inspiring arrange of beers, they were some of the better ones I had on the trip (the unfiltered weissbier being the best) and the brewpub itself was a pretty cool place. On our last night, after a close call with a very strange bar with lots of people in fancy dress, we went to a club that was in an old bunker from WW2 - and that also had "face control", which we managed to get our way through.

It certainly was an interesting and fun trip and I would recommend it to anyone. Maybe not the easiest place to get around, but well worth the effort.

Is it magic?

You can click here for my selection of pictures, but Rich and Brad have selections here as well.

This was the somewhat bizarre slogan of our resort in the Austrian Alps - Saalbach-Hinterglemm - which had the unfortunate effect of spontaneous renditions of one of the less memorable Queen songs. But, more importantly I guess, was it magic....

Well, unfortunately, the snow wasn't magic. Though our expectations weren't high as our daily checking on snow reports prior to our arrival showed that this year wasn't going to see a repeat of the previous year's mass of snow. However, the night we arrived snow was falling so there was reason for some cheer. But this was short-lived as this was the only snow we were to see fall for another 5 days. Of course, the flip side to this was that we did have wonderfully sunny weather, which meant great visibility and views of the valley and surrounding mountains, and long lunches at ski huts with in sunnies and t-shirts. Though the warm weather wasn't too favourable for the snow conditions (or to one-piece wearers, for whom it could get pretty hot inside) - and it was admittedly a depressing sight when we woke up each morning to see our chalet surrounded by green grass.

But it wasn't all that bad. The snow was still pretty good up the top half of the resort and the facilities superb. There were plenty of ski huts everywhere to stop at during the day for lunch or to drink - both of which everyone seems to make sure they take the utmost advantage of. Of course, while the weiss bier and the schnitzel is very good, the music is seriously bad - if isn't Oompah Band, its love songs from the 80s, and the crazy Austrians/Germans/Dutch seem happy to dance away to either. In fact, the resort lived up to is claim of having the best "Après Skiing", with most people being more concerned with drinking than skiing by mid-afternoon. So this more than made up for what was perhaps not the most ideal of snow conditions.

But the week did finish with a flourish. On our penultimate day at the resort, while we were nursing some grim hangovers from a few too many shots of Jagermeister (well, it is the Austrian national drink) the night before, a decent storm came through and dumped a whole lot of fresh snow across the resort. This made for a great last day - Rich finally keeping true to his "first lift, last lift" claim - it was fine and sunny again, with plenty of fresh powder about for some good on and off piste skiing. Anna's snowboarding came on leaps and bounds - as did her 500 skills (it took a lot of cheating by the boys to finally come out on top) - and the one-piece was seen flying down the mountain somewhat more assured and quicker than at the start of the week.

We finished off our week with one last night in Salzburg (which is only 1.5 hours away) and one last indulgence in some of that schitzel and weiss bier. It was great to get another taste of European skiing and I wonder whether I will be bothered to click into a pair of bindings back in NZ now. It might not have been magic, but it was certainly a lot of fun.

Moroccan Madness

For those of you who just want to see the pics or have short attention spans, just click here.

Madness - though that is a bit unfair on Morocco, as we actually found it a relatively relaxed place to visit, but we did collect a few funny tales on the way. In fact, one of the most crazy experiences of our trip to Morocco was our first night in Luton! We had an early morning 6.30am flight to Fes on the Saturday morning so we decided to save ourselves another couple of hours sleep and a taxi ride and stay at the Luton Airport Holiday Inn (whoever books themselves there for a "holiday" should really speak to their travel agent). With some luck the Luton Beer Festival was on that night, so it made a good excuse to brave (and that is the right word) the Luton streets and was the saving grace of the night. All that can be said about Luton is....there's not much to recommend it.

A little hungover the next morning, off Anna and I went, arriving in Morocco to the weather we had just left behind - rainy and cold - and this was an early pointer to the bizarre mix of weather we were to encounter. Nevertheless, we were whisked into Fes to our Riad for the first two nights - Riad Norma. And what a stunning place it was. Riads are large old Moroccan houses that have been renovated to the point of being palatial, full of mosaics and etchings. The contrast of the insides of these Moroccan buildings to their drab and dirty exteriors was always surprising.

Fes is infamous for the maze-like streets of its Medina (old city) and we decided to follow the advise of numerous travel guides and get a guide for the first day. Our Riad recommended Lattif and he did a good job of guiding us through the myriad of alleys and lanes that make up the Medina - though poor old Lattif had been doing it for 20 years and sometimes it showed. Our first experience of Morocco definitely surprised as, as we found Fes to be a lot more relaxed than we expected. This was to be a theme of the whole trip, where we found the Moroccan people to be very friendly and - except for the odd bad seed - helpful. Compared to Egypt or Turkey, Anna said Morocco was a breeze.

After a good day in the city, dodging the odd shower, we had booked in to have dinner at our Riad - which was much recommended by reviews we had read. In fact, many of them said that the food was so good they ended up eating all their dinners there - which is exactly what happened to us. The two soups I had over the two nights are probably two of the best soups I have ever had. These were followed by first of many tagines and accompanied by some surprisingly good Moroccan wine (whose very existence itself is a surprise in an Islamic country).

The next day was fine and sunny, so we just wandered around the city by ourselves, getting lost a couple of times - requiring a small payment to the locals to get us back to a known landmark. We even picked up a couple of young lads who were determined to be our guides for the afternoon, even though we were heading back to our Riad and knew exactly where we were going. At one stage they got told off by someone and finally gave up after we had led them halfway across the city.

Monday dawned and off we went with some trepidation to pick up our hire car. By no means was it a modern car, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it could be - a Toyota Corolla (which must be the most gutless cars ever built) that served us well and got a bit of a hammering on the way. It was one of those cars that feels like it could break down any day now, but always feels like it won't be today. It was great having the car too as it allowed us to go at our own pace. Most people we met along the way were surprised that we were driving ourselves - most get a driver. But the driving was actually relatively easy, out of the towns you hardly see another car on the road. The towns themselves can be a bit frustrating, with 40 kph speed limits, and the car being a second-class citizen, the roads being primarily reserved for biking, walking, donkeys, market stalls or just general catching up.

Driving off towards the mountains we were surprised how green this part of the country was - something you are not expecting when you visit Morocco, but Morocco is definitely not the country you think it will be. We spent the day driving up into the Middle Atlas Mountains, where we got our first look at Morocco's stunning mountain scenery. We even went past a Moroccan ski field, which with just one lift, two runs and no snow, earned some disparaging comments from the two of us - little did we know that the joke would soon be on us.

Our destination for the night was the town of Midelt at the base of the High Atlas mountains. The only drama along the way being a close call with a 40 euro fine when we didn't notice the sign telling us to stop for the police (managed to charm our way out of it though). We had booked a place recommended by the Lonely Planet and it ended up being of typical Lonely Planet standard. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, being 6kms out of town along a dirt road. Its situation was quite nice, right up against the mountains, but in what was quite a large place we were the only guests. The place was obviously set up for a bus load of backpackers and was lacking a bit of life with only the two of us there. We had the choice of rooms, which isn't saying much, and we comforted ourselves with the fact that it was just a stopover for the night. The old guy (who I labelled the Patriarch) who owned the place though was a real character, he didn't speak any English except for saying "It's good? It's good!" all the time. He obviously had an interesting story as he had one son to a German wife and then about 6 or 7 for children to a Moroccan wife - it would have been great to be able to talk to him. He was also one of the few Moroccans we saw drinking. Dinner was a very interesting experience! Because we were the only guests and it was damn cold, we had it in the salon which had a fireplace, with the Patriarch and his son, who spoke English but was very intense and just a little bit scary. So there we were eating what was a very average dinner (Anna's wasn't too bad, mine was terrible), with the Patriarch and his son watching us eat and him saying "It's good? It's good!" all the time. Needless to say it feel very weird and after dinner we decided it was best to just go to bed - at 8.30pm! In the middle of nowhere in the middle of Morocco and having just eaten a meal of doubtful quality, it would not have been unreasonable to go to bed with the pocket-knife in one hand and a roll of loo paper in the other, not knowing which possibility was the least desirable. But both fears were unfounded and the shock we got in the morning was much more unexpected. Looking out the window in the morning and wiping the window to look outside, we realised there was no condensation on the window at all, and that white stuff was all outside. Yes - it had snowed overnight! We certainly hadn't expected to see snow on our trip to Morocco!!

Needless to say, it was pretty cold - though not as cold as the shower. After a quick breakfast we escape our very odd hotel and set off to drive over the High Atlas Mountains and onto the Sahara desert, where we were due to spend the night. By the time we had left, the snow had turned to rain, which stuck with us all day - a bit of a shame as we were driving through some stunning scenery. The most stunning was the Ziz Valley, where we thought we were driving along a flat valley floor and actually commented that it was quite boring and couldn't understand the panoramic views the guide books was mentioning. About 2 minutes later we turn a corner and the Ziz Valley opened out before us, a huge gouge in the plain, incredibly green, contrasting with the drab brown and grey above - definitely one of the more memorable sights.

At the end of the day we arrive on the edge of the Sahara and stopped to fill up with gas. That was when a local came up to us to talk us into getting a guide to drive us off-road to the Saharan dunes rather than taking the main road. As he turned out to be from our hotel, I decided to go along with it as it was only 10 euros. Turned out to be another interesting experience. When we went off road, Mustafa our guide wanted to take over the driving. Even though he was obviously used to it, we were hardly going to do that seeing as we wouldn't be insured. Also, how many chances do you get to drive across the desert? It actually turned out to be a bit of a hoot as Mustafa got the pip as I don't think he liked being driven around by a western woman. The car took a bit of a beating but managed to survive the day and we finally arrived out our hotel with grumpy guide in tow.

We had booked in that night to be taking by camel trek into the dunes by a Berber nomad and spent the night in an isolated Berber camp. As it turned out, we were the only two going out with our little guide Muhammad. But this turned out to be great as we got to spend a lot of time with him and learned quite a bit about how he lives as a nomad. The downer though was the weather. The highlights of going to the Sahara include the sunset, the stars at night, and sunrise - we saw none of them. We actually had some rain - rain in the Sahara desert!! The rain they have had this year is in fact the first rain they have had in 5 years. So the people are happy, but was a little disappointing for us. But because it was so cold, we did endup spending most of the night with Muhammad in the small kitchen hut learning how he made a delicious soup and tangine (those with salmonella phobia would have been a bit worried though), chatting away as best we could. We learnt that Anna in Berber means "me" (very appropriate) and Sam must mean a very hard name to remember. We had lots of fun trying to describe different things to each other and I think our Muhammad was quite smitten with Anna. The whole thing was a great experience - stars or no stars - and was definitely the highlight of the trip.

An early morning start and camel ride back to the hotel to be showered and fed, we said our farewells to Muhammad with him inviting us for a month long trek next time (though I think he might have meant just Anna), and set off again, this time on the road and minus our mate Mustafa. In the morning, we headed out in the midst of a bunch of old Renaults driven by French students involved in a rally driving to Morocco - apparently there was a thousand of them involved and they made quite a convoy. It was another day of stunning scenery, only partly disrupted by the drive through one town which was having its weekly market in the middle of the road and took about half an hour to get through. We arrived out our destination for the next two nights up in the spectacular Dades Gorge. In some places it carves vertically through the mountains and has rocks of a dramatic colour and formation. We spent the next day or so exploring the gorge and enjoying the top class French cuisine of our accommodation - Chez Pierre - which made a nice break from the tangines.

On the Friday we headed off towards our final destination - Marrakech - taking in some awesome Kasbahs and some more of that stunning scenery. However, our final trip was not without a little bit more madness when we found ourselves stopped halfway up the High Atlas Mountains - where we bumped into the convoy of the French rally again. We found out that a gas tanker had had a crash on the other side and the whole road was closed for the next 3 hours (lucky we had booked the car to the next morning!). When we finally got going it was a slow crawl over the mountain pass and we did not arrive in Marrakech until 7pm. This was our first experience of night driving, which we had tried to avoid, and for good reason as turning on your lights is clearly an optional consideration for Moroccan drivers! A fairly harrowing drive through the streets of Friday night Marrakech, we were finally able to negotiate our way to meet the owner of our Riad we were staying in for the last two nights.









Once again our Riad - Dar Dallah - was brilliant, with a great terrace on top that e took full advantage of with the warm weather. Patrick, the owner, despite being a little absent-minded put us onto some great spots for visiting and eating. Again we were surprised how relaxed the city was, though Marrakech was completely different to Fes. It is certainly more touristy (and a lot of the tourists are Moroccan as well), but it is also a lot more open and the Medina is much easier to navigate. Marrakech has a modern and trendy side to it as well and we visited some superb restaurants and cafes that would not look our of place in London or New York. It has a bit of everything really, enough sights to do a bit of touristy stuff, but not too much so you don't feel guilty about spending time relaxing in the sun or over lunch. It has cheap Moroccan markets and (a majority of) friendly locals with some fine dining and top class accommodation.

And this pretty much emphasises how we saw Morocco as a whole - a country of many contrasts, both environmental and social. One day you are enjoying hot sunshine, the next you are waking up to snow; one day you are in the desert, the next in the middle of mountain ranges, and then the next again in midst of a green oasis; one moment you are haggling with a pushy store owner, the next being helped by a stranger on the street. Certainly a interesting and exciting place to visit, it comes highly recommended.

Truism #1

It's a white out!

Up until now we have had a very mild winter - well, much milder than the only other winter I've spent in London - it's been comparable to a Wellington winter (or maybe that should be a Wellington summer!). But, weather always seems to balance itself out, and last night it all changed....

We did have the odd flurry of snow last winter, but nothing that settled. But this morning we woke to a thick white blanket across London, probably about 5cms of snow. It didn't last the day out (still not cold enough for that), but it made for some great pictures this morning....

Hell's Kitchen

Well, if this is Hell's Kitchen, it's pretty tasty. Anna and I treated ourselves to one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants - at Claridge's Hotel - earlier in the month. It was certainly a great experience - the service was superb, the decor plush, and the food terrific. And watching some of the ponces in there was a bit of a laugh as well.

We had the Menu Prestige menu, which is a little like a degustation, with 6 courses. So what did we have....

1. Bouillon of smoked ham hock with autumn vegetables and 'pease' pudding tortelli.

2(Sam). Ballottine of foie gras marinated in white port, with french bean salad, truffle vinaigrette and toasted brioche.

2(Anna). Risotto blanco with pine nuts and parmesan. (She wasn't brave enough to try the foie gras)

3. Roasted sea scallop, with carrot, pine nut and caper salad.

4(Sam). Steamed line caught sea bass, with crushed potatoes, roasted salsify and vanilla jus.

4(Anna). Roasted loan of Balmoral estate venison, wrapped in parma ham, with honey glazed vegetables and cinnamon and star anise jus.

5. Granny smith apple and calvados bavarois and walnut mousse.

6. Caramalised banana parfait with a coconut tuile and passion fruit glaze. (that's Anna getting stuck into it)

Everything was superbly cooked - Anna claims the risotto is the best she has ever had - and they weren't small portions either. I think we were both pretty much full halfway through the 4th course. By the end of the night we nearly had to roll ourselves out the door. Was a very nice night, though the credit card had the last laugh, as with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses of champagne it cost us £255! Not cheap, but a great experience.

King of the Castle










I am sure I bragged about it to you in the run up to Christmas - and the Chateau was as good as we hoped. It was a real authentic castle - first recorded at the beginning of the 1400s. It had everything you would want from your castle - turrets with spiral staircases, tapestries, suit of armour, swords, four-poster beds, cold drafts, big fire place, and a secret room.

Chateau de la Cressonniere

It did take us a while to get there - a full day's driving, especially with some genius's theory that it would take us over 4 hours to drive to Dover (where we caught the ferry) - but it was worth it. It wasn't the warmest, but once we had the fire roaring and the red wine flowing, that wasn't a problem. We had a great time not doing much - with plenty of snacks and wine and games to play, we didn't need to. We eventually got out for a few walks around the countryside, though there wasn't much around, we were right in the middle of French farming countryside and not much else. Anna did a great job with the Christmas feast, and a couple of nights playing drinking games provided us with plenty of laughs.

The only drama came with our return home when our ferry was cancelled because of bad weather - and then the ferry we did manage to get on was delayed outside Dover port for a few hours because of gale force winds. But it couldn't dampen our spirits after such a great week.









Too hard to describe how good the Chateau was, you'll just have to click here and let the pictures do the talking.

Happy Festivus...
...for the rest of us!

And for those of you not versed in the celebration of Festivus, see here, and I look forward to hearing about your 'Feats of Strength'.

Phileas Fogg

Well, winter has finally hit us. After being very mild up until a week ago, temperatures finally dropped into single figures, and along with it came some serious fog. You've probably got some news on it, but here are a couple of pics from around Putney.

Web Album

I've been busy over the weekend and have set up a Web Album to add more pics from our travels and doings. Have added a link at the bottom of each post, but there are also other pics as well if you care to check 'em out. There is also be a link in the right-hand column.

Click Here

Oxo Tower

It was the last week before Rae & Tom left London on their return to NZ (via Africa and Australia) and they had always wanted to have dinner at Oxo Tower. Not ones to turn down an invitation - Brad, Sharon, Anna and I joined them on the Thursday night before they left. You could not fault the venue, the views are fantastic (that pic is actually taken with my mobile phone). The cooking probably wasn't quite of the standard you would expect at the prices, but the dishes were an interesting mix of ingredients and flavours. So what did me have....

Me
- Starter: Slow roast partridge, quince and autumn truffle, chesnut dressing
- Main: Roast sea bass, celeriac, saffron and vanilla, oscietra cavier
- Dessert: Raspberry panna cotta

Anna
- Starter: King scallops, roast chorizo, Oloroso caramel
- Main: Venison loin au poivre, sweet potato, tamarillo, grand veneur sauce
- Desert: Passionfruit souffle

Washed down with a couple of fine bottles of French champagne chosen by Tom - with a baileys coffee to finish. A good night out in all and a more civilised send off for Rae & Tom than eventuated that Saturday night.

Borough Pub Crawl

With the girls away for a weekend in Champagne, what better way for the boys to celebrate than go on a pub crawl - especially with the Master of pub crawls, Tom, leaving in a week. After a late Friday night playing poker and an early morning getting up to watch the League final, the boys congregated at the Borough Markets on the Saturday to take in a few of the fine pubs the area has to offer.

First stop was The Market Porter, and institution and seemingly always busy with a huge selection of cask ales - typically about 15 or so. First pint up for me, and on recommendation from the manager, was the superb Broughton Winter Fire - so smooth it was like drinking velvet. After a couple of pints to put us on our way, we made a quick pit stop through Borough Market (foodie heaven!) and picked up a delicious turkey, stuffing and cranberry roll. Our hunger for food satiated, we continued on with our other hunger - for good beer.

Next stop was The George Inn - a famous old 17th coaching inn, mentioned by Charles Dickens in one of his books and protected by the National Trust. It is a brilliant building, even better in the summer when you can take advantage of the seats outside in the courtyard. Unfortunately, the ale selection is dominated by the uninspiring Greene King range, so after a quick pint of the house George Inn Ale (actually brewed by Adnams) we went in search of our next destination - The Charles Dickens.

A funny little local this one stuck in the middle of, well, of nowhere really. If I lived close by, I could definitely see this place being a popular spot for me - 6 very different cask ales and a cosy feel. Time for a one and a half pints and see the England rugby team lose once again, and then we were back into Borough and to the Wheatsheaf (a Youngs pub) so that the boys could watch the All Black test match against Wales. ABs too good once again, and so was the draw of The Market Porter next door once again, where I had the tasty Elgoods Old Black Shuck after the game.

Now probably with more beers than is good for us someone proposed the sensible idea of getting some food. Seeing that we had had curry the other night, it seemed stupid to give up a good thing and away we went for curry #2. After another good but of spice, it was off to our last pub that I had been saving for the end of the night. Unfortunately, one of us wasn't quite up the task....

The Rake is a new pub opened up by guys who run a beer stall in the Borough Markets. Reputedly the second smallest pub in London, it is a cool little place with a great selection of beer - both on tap and in the fridge. The Crouch Vale Amarillo on handpull was too tempting to deny - being reminiscent of the great Emersons Bookbinder. But someone wasn't up to the task, as Daygs decided that sleeping against our table was a much better idea. We did our best to make sure the table didn't go over with him and also to tell others in the bar that we were out celebrating the marathon he had run that day. It looked like the evening was soon up, though not before I treated the lads to a bottle of the incomparable Schlenkerla Rauchbier.

Eventually we gave in to taking our "marathon runner" home, which probably wasn't a bad idea for all of us, and we still had plenty of time to have fun with him on the train ride home.

For some more pics, click here.

Kracking Krakow

After a string of weekends away, the last trip on the agenda was a long weekend away in Krakow - and it proved to be not the least. The trip had been organised by Jab's cousin Emilia, who had lived in Krakow for a year - so we had our own little tourist guide. And what a great job she did too.

Arriving on the Friday night, we had a bit of a temperature shock installed for us. It had been snowing in Krakow the previous couple of days and it was no different when we arrived, with the odd flurry or two that night. From London, where we had been enjoying the last gasps of summer, we cowered away from the cold wind and temperatures that couldn't have been far from zero.

First great surprise was the accommodation Emilia had organised for us all (there was 15 all up - apart from Anna, myself and Jabs, there was also a large group of Aussie friends of Emilia's who turned out to be a lot of fun - though it felt weird not to be the big group for once). We had two large apartments, all decked out inside with timber and large beams - all for the princely sum of something ridiculous like £10 per person per night. This would be the theme of the trip as Krakow is incredibly cheap. In fact, we all put in the equivalent of £87 each into a kitty for the weekend and that ended up covering our accommodation, three meals and some vodka on top of that!!

The Friday night we all went out for a traditional Polish dinner - plenty of pierogi and meat - followed by our first venture out into Krakow nightlife. Lots of the Krakow bars are below the ground in basements, and Emilia took us to a very cool one with a maze of little rooms. And being in Poland, we also had to start sampling the local tipple - and found a new favourite drink, vodka and apple juice. Of special mention was the Zubrowka vodka, otherwise know as "Bison grass" vodka, because it is infused with special grass from a region where Polish Bison graze.

Waking up the next morning a little worse for wear, we were horrified to see that Jabs had gone out and got some juice for breakfast - apple juice!! - which brought back memories of the previous night way too quickly. Being a beautiful day in Krakow - dark, cloudy and snowing - we ventured out to get "Emilia's Walking Tour" of Krakow. It is certainly a nice old Eastern European city and did well not be flattened in the Second World War. The Main Square (or Rynek) is particularly impressive - it is suppose to be the largest in Europe. However, the highlight of the day was the cool cafe in the Jewish quarter we escaped to later in the afternoon after be had been turned into popsicles looking around Wawel Castle. It was dark and arty, with old cinema seats against the walls and made a pretty good latte (in fact, we found the coffee in Krakow to be excellent). Though the hot beer (a Polish "delicacy") that Jabs had was less to my taste!

With some reluctance we had to eventually leave our cosy spot in the cafe as we were booked in for a proper feast that night with some more traditional Polish fare. And what a mighty feast it was too - a meatlover's heaven. That's me playing Robin Hood with a sword that was the skewer for which some of the meat was cooked on. And of course, when in Krakow, the night is never over after dinner and Emilia led us to another bar you would never find if you weren't a local. Another very cool place this, with art spotlighted on the walls and comfy sofas. More vodka and apple juice and another brilliant night out was to follow....

The last couple of days we pretty much had to ourselves as the others left that day to head back to London. We had planned to go out to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, but hopelessly missed the bus out there by 2 seconds. So instead we substituted in the next day's activity - the much recommended Salt Mines. And - what a disappointment that was! Still can't work out what the fuss is about. For those of you who don't know, the Salt Mines is a very old mine full of carvings and sculptures that the miners made. Some of it is actually quite impressive, like the huge chapel along with its own Last Supper (you guessed, carved out of salt). But it just really didn't do it for us, and we wished we had instead whiled away the afternoon in another cool Krakow cafe.

Though that night we were lucky enough to find a tiny local restaurant recommended by Emilia and Jabs. For the princely sum of 12 Zloty (2 pounds) we got soup and a main (I had a huge slab of schnitzel, Anna some delicious veal). It was as ridiculously good as it was ridiculously cheap.

Last day in Krakow and we were determine to pay a visit out to Auschwitz so we were up early to make the journey. Tip for anyone thinking of going - it is a long way out, especially by local bus (nearly 2 hours each way). So, embarrassingly we only had 2 hours to look around both the Auschwitz Camp and the sister Birkenau Camp (the later being the more impressive - and more chilling - and the picture comes from there). This was certainly not enough time to do it justice, but we were still pleased we made the effort.

Back into Krakow to make our flight back to London, we reflected on what a great city Krakow is to visit. In terms of the touristy things, I would have to say there isn't really anything spectacular, especially if you have been to Eastern European cities before. What we were really impressed with was the overall vibe around Krakow and the cool cafes and bars that you can spend you time taking in that vibe. I could have happily gone back there the next weekend and spent it sitting back in aforementioned cafes and bars with either a coffee or vodka-apple sitting in front of me. A kracking weekend it would be.

For some more pics, click here.

DDD

The first D stands for Devon - where we spent the last weekend of daylights savings over here. Anna and Rae had tripped down there on the Thursday, staying in Exmoor National Park. Myself, Rich and Titch journeyed down there by train to meet them on Friday night after work. A long train trip, but made all the more easy by a couple bottles of wine and a few snacks. The girls picked us up at Exeter and drove us down to Dartmouth where we were staying for the night. And the reason for Dartmouth? The second D being for delicious....

The New Angel - the Michelin-starred restaurant under chef John Burton-Race. And delicious it certainly was! For entree, I had a scallop salad (suspect #1), as did Anna and Rich, while Titch and Rae had the quail. For main, I had the pork (suspect #2) which came with some delicious black pudding, while steak, lamb and venison were also at our table. All were very well cooked and extremely tasty. With not much room in our bellies, we all decided to have dessert of course, though Titch's cheese "plate" could have fed us and a small nation on its own. Being very well fed, the staff finally booted us out and feeling very well pleased with ourselves we warbled the 100 metres or so to our B&B.

The next morning we checked out the picturesque Dartmouth and took the "most attractive little boat ride in all of Britain" - or so the sign said. And the boat ride wasn't too bad at all, if the 'captain' was just a little grumpy. Having to drop Rae off at Plymouth station to get the train pack to London, we had time for a drive along the coast and a quick lunch (suspect #3 - hazelnut milkshake). After dropping Rae off, we headed into the Dartmoor National Park and into the fog. This made for a very surreal backdrop and taking a walk up to Hound's Tor you could feel why Arthur Conan Doyle would have set the Hounds of the Basketvilles here. (Was also good for my album-cover shot - see below).

Continuing the culinary theme of our weekend, we ate that night at the Sandy Park Inn, winner of Best Country Pub at the Devon Food and Drink Awards. And we weren't disappointed. A hilarious night was had with some funny conversation and Rich giving a fine example of how to dig yourself in a deep hole - caramello! The only downside was that the third D had started to take its toll on me - and that is all I am going to say about that.

The next day we went for another little drive around the Dartmoors - with the weather being a lot clearer the views were better, but didn't have the same mystery of the day before. With vows of only eating salad and soup for the rest of the week, we headed back to London with contented (and bloated) bellies.







For some more pics, click here.

Belgium - merci beaucoup!

What a great 5 days in Belgium - this blog is as long as the holiday was good! To be more exact, we visited the (less known) French-speaking Wallonia, the southern half of Belgium very different to the Dutch-speaking northern half. With the hilly and scenic terrain of the Ardennes, excellent cuisine, and many interesting farmhouse breweries - it produced an excellent trip.

Day One

Started with me "working" from home and catching the Eurostar at midday (which is so much easier than flying) to Lille, which is right on the border with Belgium. We collected out "mini" car (there wasn't much to it) and headed across the border into the Hainaut region and directly to the first brewery stops (no mucking about here - I had a list as long as my arm I wanted to visit over the next five days).

First stop was the Geant brewery in Irchonwelz. I knew it would be closed (only open for visits in the summer), but it has been built within a ruin of an old castle and I wanted to check it out. Looked pretty cool. But I also wanted to get stuck into my first beer, so it was off down the road to the Dupont brewery, on the outskirts of the village of Tourpes. Dupont is a fairly well-established farmhouse brewery, but is still contained within the original old farm buildings. We arrived at the end of the day, so not much was going on, but I still managed to sneak a look at their impressive equipment. Literally across the road is the brewery tap, a very small rustic beer café, where we joined a couple of locals and the brewery workers at the end of their day. I was able to have their famous Saison Dupont on draught, a pretty good beer to start off the trip and it certainly didn't disappointed (I really liked the peppery finish). In fact, all the beers we tasted there were good, the Moinette Blonde probably being the pick.

Off then to the nearby town of Pipiax, a drive by of the Vapeur brewery (which was closed), which is supposed to be the only brewery in the world still run on steam power. On then to the elusive (a few laps of the town had to be made) Dubuisson brewery, who brew their Bush beers, which around most of the world are under the Scaldis label because nasty big-brewer Anheuser-Busch stopped them from using their the name Bush as it was too close to theirs ("boo", "hiss"). But thankfully that is as far as the comparison goes. They specialise in very strong beers, the main brew being the 12% Bush Ambrée, which was absolutely superb and one of the beers of the trip - complex and malty, the perfect desert. Unfortunately, their food wasn't up to the same standard (our only non-brilliant meal of the trip). But we did have a chance meeting with the manager (somehow he picked up from our French that we weren't local!), which turned out to be a little bonus. We chatted to him for a little while (for which half the time he thought we were American as apparently our "New Zealand" sounded like "Louisiana") and he even ended up buying us a beer. He continuely tried to apologise for his English, which you often get when you are travelling around, which is funny when our grasp of their own language (especially mine I must admit) is so rudimentary. Before we left we also purchased a 750ml bottle of the 13% Bush Prestige to takeaway (which I am really looking forward to), when he also gave us a couple of the branded glasses to drink it from - so it was a great visit.

A few fine Belgian beers under my belt already, we headed back into the city of Tournai and found our hotel for the night and went in search of a beer café recommended in my Belgium Good Beer Guide (otherwise known as the Bible). Passing several unappealing pubs along the river, with people inside drinking equally unappealing beer, we found our destination in a more quieter location further along the river. The Cave à Biére was a great little place set in an old cask store on the bank of the river with a beer list of about 60. Had a couple of excellent beers to finish the night and with cries from the owner asking us to come back again (I couldn't quite explain to him why we couldn't), we wandered back along the river to our hotel.







Day Two

Getting up in the morning, we went for a wander around to check Tournai out - unfortunately there isn't that much to see (despite its history of being the first French capital). This is quite typical of Belgium as a whole and is the consequence of it being somewhat flattened in both the first and second World Wars. However we still managed to stumble across a cute little café where we had good coffee and pain au chocolats the size of footballs.

Heading off in search of some more farmhouse breweries, we had no luck in finding the Abbaye des Rocs brewery around Montignies-sur-Roc (though fortunately I was able to find their beers in a store later on). So we proceeded on, driving through a clutch of small hamlets close to the French border. This time we did find the Blaugies brewery and their brewery tap Fourquets. Here we stopped for lunch (and some of the brewery produce of course) and had our first experience of the formidable Wallonian grill. To be a common theme of many of our visits to these remote breweries, we were the only ones there (though a local came in later), and we both ordered steak, though not quite sure what kind of cut we were ordering. That's when they fired up the charcoal grill that was in the middle of the restaurant and proceeded to bring out a couple of huge pieces of meat. But that wasn't all, after the steak was slowly cooked over the grill, it was finally accompanied by a massive bowl of chips, the biggest baked potato you will ever see (obviously local), salad, and some home-made baked bread. It was some feast, and the steak was beautiful, having a smoked taste from the grill. After doing our best (you know how much I like the challenge of a clean plate), we finally rolled ourselves out and back into the car. Our little car groaning under the strain, we set off in search of Chimay.

Having read that the actual abbey itself wasn't that inspiring, we bypassed that and went to the abbey's own beer café, the Auberge de Poteautpré. Having sampled all the Chimay beers many times before, I had one goal for this visit, to try the Chimay Doree, which is a lower strength version (4.8%) brewed for the monks and only available at this café. Suititabtly satisfied - it was quite good - off we went to start the most scenic route of our holiday, along the Semois valley.

Of course, the weather had other ideas, so instead of having stunning views of the valley, we had a lot of stunning views of clouds. But the skies cleared enough times to show us some impressive views of the river, which meanders through the hills and continuously loops back onto itself. Entering the wooded Ardennes region was also pleasant, with the onset of Autumn bringing out some brilliant colours in the trees.

Our final destination was towards the end of the valley to the town of Bouillon, where the town is situated in one of the loops of the river with its fortified castle perched on top of the hill situated within the loop. Our hotel was quite impressive and we decided to book in for the restaurant for dinner, but not after a wander around the town and a couple of beers in a beer café the other side of the river. The restaurant ended up being somewhat flasher than we were expecting and I must have been the only person in there wearing jeans and t-shirt. The menu was also pricey, but was well worth it. The pick of the dishes, believe it or not, was my pumpkin soup with ham and croutons. It was the best soup I have ever had and I had to put up my best defence to ward off Anna from stealing it all. The mains - I had rabbit on fresh tagliatelle and Anna had roasted pheasant - were also superb, and for the second time that day our chairs were sitting much further out from the table than when we arrived.














Day Three

The morning started with yet another great meal, the breakfast buffet at our hotel being superb - an endless supply of pain au chocolats is a dangerous thing! Being a sunny day, we doubled back a little along the river to check out some of the views we missed earlier, and then it was onwards to one of the highlights of the trip, the Orval Abbey. Though you are not allowed into the new Abbey, you can work around the ruins of the old one and the whole structure is quite impressive. We also visited the abbey's bar, the Ange Gardien, where once again you can try the beer brewed only for the monks - the 3.5% Petit Orval. I was very impressed with this - lucky monks - and also their cheese, which we also sampled along with a subsequent glass of the real thing. Orval is very different to the other Trappist beers, being more hoppy and bitter, and will never be in better condition only 200 metres from where they brew the stuff.

Continuing through the Ardennes, our next destination was a drive across the border into Luxembourg, but not before another stop for a tasting at another micro-brewery, and the Rulles Blode was well worth the stop. With Luxembourg so close, it seemed like a good idea for a visit. And the guide book certainly made it sound like it - calling it the most impressive capital in Europe. Considering the likes of Paris and Rome, this was a hefty claim - and one I have to say, it fell well short of it. Sure, geographically it is impressive, with a narrow valley running through the centre. However, apart from that, there is not much to inspire - not much more is required than a good walk around the city (which probably wasn't a bad thing after all our culinary delights). Though our trip did answer one thing for us, we had wondered why we hadn't seen many cars in our travels - the answer being that they were all driving around Luxembourg!

After escaping the only traffic we met on the whole trip, we headed back towards the safety of good beer and food in Belgium. We passed through the town of Bastogne, famous for the being the centre of the Battle of the Bulge in WW2, with an old American tank situated in the main square and lots of tacky touristy stuff obviously aimed at American visitors. We were staying in a small town at the beginning of the Ourthe valley. We had tried to book into a hotel we found a recommendation for, but it was full and said they could book us into their "sister" hotel. Well, if this place was its "sister", it is the illegitimate one you only acknowledge when you really have to.

Nevermind. Dumping our bags, we headed off in search of the Achouffe brewery for dinner. This is another farmhouse brewery that has done very well, as evident by the impressive brewery kit I checked out through the window. The restaurant out the back was a great little place and we enjoyed yet another meaty treat from the grill.

Back at the hotel, I was about to embark on one of my insomniac nights and spent the whole night doing a careful study of the ceiling of room 115.







Day Four

A welcome surprise in the morning, our 3-star hotel had a 5-star breakfast. So with plenty of coffee and pain au chocolats (again), I was ready to get back on our Belgian trail. First route was through the Ourthe valley, which would be more picturesque if it wasn't for the Belgians' incomprehensible penchant to fill any riverside flat with as many mobile holiday homes as they can. Why you would want to stay in these aluminium prefabs I have no idea, but obviously, from the number of them, the Belgians (and the French and Germans, as well, probably) flock to them.

Fortunately, our first destination was very picturesque, the small town of Durbuy (apparently the smallest town in the world until a few years ago). This place was very quaint with small cobble medieval streets and, despite obviously being a tourist spot, hadn't been spoiled because of it. It was also the location of the very-micro-brewery, Ferme au Chene, where I was able to try their elusive (and very good) Marckloff beer.

From there down to the strange village of Fantome and its even stranger farmhouse brewery. Once again it was just us in the eccentric little beer café, where we had the Saison. It was nearly ciderish at the front of the mouth, but more malty in the finish - an interesting beer for an interesting place.

The last beer stop for the day was the Saint Monon brewery outside the small village of Ambly. This was real farmhouse stuff - we were fortunate enough to bump into the farmer/brewer outside his little tasting room when we arrived so he could let us in. Dressed in overalls and smelling of farm-stuff, he was obviously on the job at the time. He got us a couple of bottles of his brew and left us to it and went off to do farm-stuff. He checked back on us every now and then, allowing me to order another bottle and also to serve another group which had turned up. This was just the type of thing I wanted to experience when I thought of doing this trip - the craft side of brewing in the home of beer.

From there we travelled up to the city of Namur to find accommodation for the one night we hadn't booked. And what a great place we found, an old tannery converted into a hotel that doesn't have one room priced the same - from a dorm-type room up to a penthouse for 230 euros a night. The place is a maze of niches and staircases and we got a great multi-levelled room for 80 euros. We also booked ourselves into their restaurant, which looked good.

There wasn't much to see in Namur except for the old citadel which you can't miss, though there was a beer café that was highly recommended in the Bible. The Chapitré is tucked in behind the back of a cathedral and is a real traditional Belgian beer café with a list of over 100 beers. The waiter was ever patient with me as I read the menu twice before making my selection and referencing the Bible to make sure I made the right selection - the Witkap Stimulo and the 10% Kapittel ABT were certainly that. After a couple of heady drinks, we returned to the hotel for dinner and were once again stunned. I know the French are suppose to be the kings of cooking, but I think the French Belgians are even better. Anna had a delicious scallop entrée that was (nearly) the equal of the pumpkin soup, and the roasted duck and venison mains were also superb. Anna also had a crème brulee she claims is the best she has ever had, I was keeping room for my own desert - a trip back to Chapitré for a night cap, the superb Sint Bernadis ABT 12°, served in a cognac-style glass.








Day Five

Our last day, and time to start the diet! Just a café breakfast, but still a very good coffee and pastry. Our Eurostar train was not due to leave Lille until 7.30pm so we still had the whole day left. The first part was spent driving down another picturesque river valley, this time the Meuse. It was then time to start our drive back across Belgium towards Lille, but with enough time to make once last brewery stop.

This was the very remote Ellezelloise farmhouse brewery, where we had to disturb the brewer/farmer from cleaning the brewing equipment to serve us. I had the excellent Hercule Stout out on the garden terrace where the fact that we were out in the middle of the farm was quite obvious. It was the perfect beer to finish the trip on.







So a great trip through a part of Belgium not usually visited. Great beer and fine food, I would recommend it to anyone.

For some more pics, click here.