Cute & Quaint Cotswolds

Having temporarily being evicted from our unit for the weekend, we took the opportunity to get out of London and into the Cotswolds. Pete remembered some of what that area was like from when he was younger and exploring the UK with his family, but his memory was a bit fuzzy so it was good to go back. We hired a car from Swindon (after taking the train to Swindon) and headed into the small villages of the super cute and charming Cotswolds. Over our 2 days we stopped at Burford, Swinbrook, Minster Lovell, Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower Slaughter, Upton St Leonards (where we stayed overnight), Painswick, Gloucester, Bibury and Ewen.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking through the small villages and marvelling at the pretty stone cottages with flowers on them, plus devouring a few cream teas! There was so much to see and we probably need to go back to see it all!

If you want to see more photos, click here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135546&id=688115638&l=075bfd3201

Belinda & Sophia in Barcelona

It was with great excitement that I had the chance to go to Barcelona for a weekend and meet up with my good pal, Belinda (or Boo). It was great to catch up with her and we had fun exploring the city together. We both slipped on our walking shoes and hit the pavement - covering La Rambla, most of Gaudi's buildings and park (including the fabulous Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera), the Cathedral, art and craft street markets, the Concert Hall, Parc de la Ciutadella, the lovely harbour area and the large food markets. Intertwined with all the sights was some great tapas, coffee and of course shopping!

Barcelona is a great city with plenty to see, do and experience, plus a chance to try some of my sketchy spanish. We really enjoyed learning more about Gaudi and seeing his really creative architecture. Hasta luego!

View from the Sagrada Familia over Barcelona

Wintry Wales

Our interest in exploring more of the UK and being unemployed, meant we took a couple of week days and a weekend to travel over to Wales for a bit of sightseeing and catching up with our friends Mike and Sarah Pasalich. We spent 2 days on the Gower Peninsula and had some truly wet and horrible weather, but it felt just right for where we were. We really enjoyed the coast line and lovely rolling hills that went right up to the cliff tops. We spent our first night at Maes-Yr-Haf in Parkmill which was a lovely restaurant with rooms set up. We thoroughly enjoyed some fabulous Greek food, which seeemed a bit odd to be eating in Wales. On our second day we took a walk to 3 Cliff Bay, visited Oxwich Castle in Gower, saw the beach boxes at Langland beach, the Mumbles Pier and cruised around Swansea bay to our second accommodation at Egerton Grey Country House Hotel - where the Dalai Lama and Prince Charles and Camilla have stayed! It was gorgeous and the most typical English house, it was lovely.

The next day we headed into Cardiff and stopped off at the Castell Coch which had some beautifully decorated rooms before meeting up with the Paso's in Newport, where they live. We had a good catch up with them, enjoyed some delish Wales pub food and a visit to St Faggon's before our trip back to London.