Spring in Shrewsbury
Sam
Jo and the Ladies
{family}
Erdington Fire Station
A postcard from GB
To our dear friends from Perth (and other globetrotters),
Thank you for having us to stay! We had such fun exploring your streets, dipping in your pools, talking to your dogs and sizzling sausages.
Now isn't about time we returned your generosity?
In an effort to persuade you we've put together this little tour of the UK, a dream team itinerary, as a pledge of good hostmanship. We hope it'll wet your appetite.
(If you're here for a while check out the whole list, if you've only got a short stop check out the comments marked with an asterisk*.)
What to do in the UK...
Visit Scotland: In Edinburgh* theres the Jenners department store, the Castle (with the military tattoo), the Scottish National Galleries of Modern Art to fill your day. Of course you couldn't miss out Linlithgow*- home of your Scottish friends, which has its own beautiful Palace and Loch (see your first white swans!). If there at the right time don't miss the marches. Take a long drive and two ferries to isolation on Iona, theres a monastery surrounded by purple and turquoise sea (you can easily walk round the whole island in a few hours). See your first ever snow and ski on it in the Cairngorms. Kayak on a loch and spot some highland cows. Make sure you drink IRN BRU, eat tablet*, haggis, an Oliphant's pie and at least one insane thing deep-fried in Glasgow. Finish with a cultural turn up for the books in Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art.
Have a long weekend drifting around the countryside on a canal boat. And make sure you see at least one dramatic waterfall and one fast flowing river.
Go to London to see the Queen (and Corinne!*), go to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels (you can have a really quick visit for free if you go round as they lock up), see art in Trafalgar Square and the Serpentine gallery or swim in the Serpentine lake. Top up on art in the Saatchi Gallery, the V&A, the Tate galleries and eat lunch in the Turbine Hall*. Watch a show in the West End, Shakespeare at the Globe and sneak a peek at a celebrity on the red carpet at Leicester Square. Go to the Natural History Museum, the Imperial War Museum and see the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. Glimpse grandeur in Westminster Cathedral and St Paul's, or watch MPs in The Houses of Parliament. You should probably check out the Liberty's building to compare it to Perth's imitation, London Court. While you're at Liberties you might as well go in for a spot of shopping, and while you're in the mood Oxford street* is a must see (Topshop for Bee and Moo). Get a Boris bike and crash London fashion week. But don't go in the Thames.
There are loads of special events to see too, depending on when you're in London, the Oxford/Cambridge boat race, The BBC Proms, Pride Marches, the State Opening of Parliament, Chinese New Year or the Trooping of the Colour to name but a few.... oh yeh, and there's the Olympics.
In London enjoy the Tube (its fun when you're not in a rush) then take the Megabus to another city for £1.
Stop a while in Birmingham: Go to the Bullring markets and a vintage fair at the Custard Factory. See a show at the REP or a film at the Electric Cinema (and text your waiter your order for olives from your sofa seating). Have a curry in the Balti Triangle* and experience a proper pub lunch. Meet the pre-raephelites in the BMAG, something more contemporary in the IKON or something less famous in one of the Digbeth galleries. Taste Cadbury's without the wax at its home in Bourneville and check out the canals. Meet our friends and picnic in Sutton Park.
In Wales you could stay in a bothy to experience the countryside up close and personal. Take a visit a Welsh revival chapel and some of our favourite beaches around Abersoch. Eat a Cadwaladers, do some wake boarding in the cold sea, warm up with a bonfire on the beach. Then see the heights of Snowdon on your way back to England.
The following deserve at least a mention: Brighton (ride a carousel at the end of the pier, its a family tradition of ours), Cornwall (the best clotted cream and amazing art in St Ives), the Lake District (has lots of lakes), the Cotswolds (have pretty cottages with yellow stone walls and thatched roofs), Bristol (is an environmentally aware city, with a hippy vibe and cool goings on) and Blackpool (for tacky souvenirs and the blackpool illuminations).
This completes our list of recommendations for a visit to the UK (this list is not conclusive).
Please come and see us soon,
With love
Coz, Nom & Malc
Vaughany
Eight hours in Dubai?
You're booking you flights from somewhere to somewhere with a change in Dubai, the flight company gives you the option of spending a few hours in the city to explore. What should you do?
For us it turned out that 8 hours wasn't very long in Dubai, especially after we'd figured out passport control and getting out of the airport, but it was long enough for us to see all we wanted. So here are our tips:
- Convert your currency to Dirhams before you fly. We got ours while we were waiting for boarding time in the previous airport. How much you'll need obviously depends on what you've got planned, but food seemed reasonably priced and transport (especially by taxi) was cheap.
-Know your visa situation. It seems most countries don't need to get one in advance, but UK citizens don't need one at all. If you do need one you can cue at the airport: there are separate cues for men and women (when we were there the woman's cue was much faster and it took about 30 mins). If you have British passport go straight to passport control.
-Speaking of passport control and going straight to it, we found the airport really confusing. Plan to get off the plane and ask someone for directions to passport control straight away. Then follow their first direction and ask another person once you've done that, thereby doing the journey one step at a time. There are loads of staff in blue t-shirts who seem to be hanging around for this purpose but no signposts.
-Once you're cleared to leave head for the metro, which stops right outside the exits. We just asked the guy in the ticket booth what we needed to get us where we wanted to go, sorted. There are women only carriages, but women can stick with their men in the other carriages if they wish (be warned there are few women in these other carriages).
-The metro had awesome views of the city so its a good way to get around. An there are two announcements of each stop (only slightly repetitive!) so no need to worry about forgetting to get off at your stop. It stops at many of the major malls and attractions, and if its not close enough the taxis are easy and cheap.
As for what to see...
theres the world's tallest building
the palms or the world (man made "islands" shaped as their names suggest)
shopping malls (and a festival of shopping)
And if you decide not to get the extra hours in between flights you might like to know that Dubai Airport is reportedly the world's best duty free.
Shrewsbury Train Station
Perth
We had a relaxing time in Perth, which was great, but probably means we're not qualified to give a thorough list of "Things to do and see". Here are some of the things we enjoyed doing incase you might like them too. We've mingled in some tunes from our holiday experience as well.
In Perth
Kings Park is pretty cool- its full of native plants and when you get bored of looking at them it has great views across the centre of the city from its high vantage point. During the summer months it also is the host of Mooonlight Cinema: a temporary outdoor cinema showing a variety of movies (including exciting advanced releases). You can buy popcorn and rent a chaise lounge shaped bean bag to recline on.
For other greenish, outdoor activities you could take the free CAT hop off by Mt hospital and cross the road to John Oldham Park. Its a nice spot of shady green in an unexpected spot surrounded by major roads and there were plenty of birds to wonder at. Or you could go down to Point Walter and walk out along the sandbank into the middle of the river.
Perth is a city that feels small an manageable rather than huge and cosmopolitan, but it still has its hidden gems and its big city lights. The best place to see those lights is from the South Perth foreshore. And the best place to enjoy its small, friendliness... at someones house in their pool.
Around Perth
Hop on a ferry down the river to Fremantle. Consume so much chocolate you feel like you're about to go into a coma in Chocolateria San Churro at Hillary's boat harbour. Watch the sunset and eat fish and chips from the jetty at Cottesloe. Take a road trip to south for the beaches, beer sampling at Eagle's Bar Brewery and walk the jetty at Busselton (there's an underwater observatory at the far end and a little train to bring you back again). Its 3km long- take a look at it on google maps! (While you're there have a look at the swan river around the city of Perth to see some crazy boat trails).
In Perth
Kings Park is pretty cool- its full of native plants and when you get bored of looking at them it has great views across the centre of the city from its high vantage point. During the summer months it also is the host of Mooonlight Cinema: a temporary outdoor cinema showing a variety of movies (including exciting advanced releases). You can buy popcorn and rent a chaise lounge shaped bean bag to recline on.
For other greenish, outdoor activities you could take the free CAT hop off by Mt hospital and cross the road to John Oldham Park. Its a nice spot of shady green in an unexpected spot surrounded by major roads and there were plenty of birds to wonder at. Or you could go down to Point Walter and walk out along the sandbank into the middle of the river.
Perth is a city that feels small an manageable rather than huge and cosmopolitan, but it still has its hidden gems and its big city lights. The best place to see those lights is from the South Perth foreshore. And the best place to enjoy its small, friendliness... at someones house in their pool.
Around Perth
Hop on a ferry down the river to Fremantle. Consume so much chocolate you feel like you're about to go into a coma in Chocolateria San Churro at Hillary's boat harbour. Watch the sunset and eat fish and chips from the jetty at Cottesloe. Take a road trip to south for the beaches, beer sampling at Eagle's Bar Brewery and walk the jetty at Busselton (there's an underwater observatory at the far end and a little train to bring you back again). Its 3km long- take a look at it on google maps! (While you're there have a look at the swan river around the city of Perth to see some crazy boat trails).
Dolce Vita
Breakfast in Perth
(Nom and Malc would like to thank Breakfast in Perth for the inspiration behind this post and the recommendation of some of the great eateries we visited in Aus.)
Today we thought we'd share some of our favourite places we ate at while we were in Perth. You may have noticed we love our food, and whilst we are not fussy we are also not easily impressed. So the following are our recommendations should you ever find your self in WA with a rumbly tummy.
Breakfast
Toast in East Perth was our favourite place for a hot drink. The best chai latte I ever tasted by a mile, with an almost custardy texture and none of that grit you sometimes get with a ground cinnamon topping. The cafe is filled with an eclectic mix of nic nacs and tinkers and the outside tables are right by the river. The breakfasts we had were inspiring- we've tried (with partial success) to recreate their scrambled egg on polenta toast, which was delightful.
Cioccolato: Their menus are disguised in children's books, so once you've chosen you can had a little read. The food was yummy- we sampled quite a variety (breakfast muffin through to an exciting roast veg salad) and check out the chocolate sprinkles on my iced coffee. Fliori Coffee served us another great chai, but I was more taken by the coffee paraphernalia decorating the service counter.
Lunch
We wound up in Bivouac for Malc's birthday, and were not disappointed by some really tasty food. Blue cheese arancini with pesto were new to us and fantastic (the above picture is a chicken schnitzel with avocado mayo). Straight across the street is Jusbuger, which has an interesting aversion to freezers: they never use one, so everything they're selling is made fresh. The vegetarian options were refreshingly thought out- not just a generic veggie burger. Malc had a lamb burger and Nom had a pumpkin goats cheese with goat's cheese and pesto.
Drinks
The Old Swan Brewery is now mostly swanky riverside apartments and two nice restaurants, but does still have its own microbrewery. Malc had one of their Kangaroo Paw's.
For a small bar tucked away down an alley in in centre of the city Helvetica has a pleasantly surprising number of scottish whiskey's. Also pleasantly surprising was their free antipasti buffet table, which seemed to be provided just for the birthday boy.
Today we thought we'd share some of our favourite places we ate at while we were in Perth. You may have noticed we love our food, and whilst we are not fussy we are also not easily impressed. So the following are our recommendations should you ever find your self in WA with a rumbly tummy.
Breakfast
Toast in East Perth was our favourite place for a hot drink. The best chai latte I ever tasted by a mile, with an almost custardy texture and none of that grit you sometimes get with a ground cinnamon topping. The cafe is filled with an eclectic mix of nic nacs and tinkers and the outside tables are right by the river. The breakfasts we had were inspiring- we've tried (with partial success) to recreate their scrambled egg on polenta toast, which was delightful.
Lunch
We wound up in Bivouac for Malc's birthday, and were not disappointed by some really tasty food. Blue cheese arancini with pesto were new to us and fantastic (the above picture is a chicken schnitzel with avocado mayo). Straight across the street is Jusbuger, which has an interesting aversion to freezers: they never use one, so everything they're selling is made fresh. The vegetarian options were refreshingly thought out- not just a generic veggie burger. Malc had a lamb burger and Nom had a pumpkin goats cheese with goat's cheese and pesto.
Drinks
The Old Swan Brewery is now mostly swanky riverside apartments and two nice restaurants, but does still have its own microbrewery. Malc had one of their Kangaroo Paw's.
For a small bar tucked away down an alley in in centre of the city Helvetica has a pleasantly surprising number of scottish whiskey's. Also pleasantly surprising was their free antipasti buffet table, which seemed to be provided just for the birthday boy.
Genfab
Dear Aussies, We miss you!
Its been 6 weeks since our 6 weeks in Aus: about time we wrapped some things up I think! So this week we've got a few posts planned about our time in Perth, Dubai and then something a little closer to home. Hope you enjoy them.
John
Mary
Shoes
113
Shoes, Sam and Kate's Hallway
Allman Road
112
Allman Road, Erdington
Dave & Viv
111
Dave & Viv
Parents and parents-to-be