The drive and the ferry home

We left Dijon early this morning to drive to Calais for the ferry back to Dover.  

All passed off without event and we got home later that evening after another pleasant meal in the ferry's smart restaurant.

A day exploring Dijon

We got up quite early today and had breakfast in our hotel.

After breakfast we did a walking tour of Dijon visiting the Cathedral Saint Benigne, then had a look at the Porte Guillaume archway.

Next up was the Jardins Darcy then we had a wander around a nice indoor market (Les Halles) and bought a few presents for people back home as well as some nice food for lunch.

We ate lunch near the Museé des Beaux Arts and then explored the museum itself – there were some fascinating pieces dating from the 19th Century right until the 20th.

After the art museum we stopped for a quick coffee and then went on the museum of scared art which was next door to the museum of Burgundy life.  The latter was really interesting and finished our exploring off nicely.

We went back to the hotel for a rest and to book dinner.

Leaving Provence and the drive to Dijon

We had a good breakfast and made some baguettes for lunch today then packed everything up and left Bedoin to do the 420km drive to Dijon.  We got there around 6pm and checked into our hotel, the Hotel du Palais and parked the car in a nearby secure car park.

We had a short explore around Dijon and then had a gorgeous dinner at a restaurant called La Theatre de Sens (The Theatre of Senses).  The meal and the service were both delicious.  We had a few drinks in a nearby bar afterwards.

Gordes, Village des Borries and Rousillon

We did a driving tour around the Luberon area today, starting with Gordes where we had a nice lunch at L’Artegale restaurant.

We saw some ancient cellars used for olive oil pressing and great views across the area.

Village des Borries is an old abandoned village with lots of amazing houses and other buildings made of drystone walls.


Rousillon is a pretty village and had near it some amazing natural stone formations containing lots of Ochre so showing really vibrant yellow, read and orange colours.

We came back to the campsite for our last evening, preceding dinner by a last hour by the pool.  We ate in the campsite restaurant where I had faux-filet of steak again because it’s very good there!

Back to Vaison la Romaine

We left the campsite fairly early this morning to go back to Vaison thinking we’d spent an hour or two there and then go on elsewhere.  It turned out the Roman museum was really interesting and came with an excellent audioguide that took us not only around the museum but around the extensive Roman remains in the town as well as across the Roman bridge over the Ouveze river and up into the Old Town.  We had a good explore around there and went up to the castle from where we saw great views of Vaison and the area.

We popped into Bedoin on the way back to see if we fancied a restaurant that was featured in Trip Advisor but its menu did not look enticing so we picked up a few bits at the small supermarket there and ate back at our tent.

The market at Bedoin and Vaison la Romaine

We drove into Bedoin this morning as Monday is market day there.  The market was much bigger than we expected and we had a really good explore, buying all sorts of tasting cheese, meats, olives, garlic and fig chutney.  We took all this back to the campsite and had a lovely relaxing lunch with some French soup that we had also bought.

Later in the afternoon we drove over to Vaison la Romaine to explore it – it’s only 20km from the campsite.  We got to the extensive Roman ruins and bought tickets but realised that we were not going to have enough time to do it justice so had a quick walk around and decided to return tomorrow (the tickets are valid for 24 hours).

Back at the campsite we had a rest and then ate in the campsite restaurant again.  I had delicious gambas and Gordon had dorade (bream).

Mont Ventoux and a special dinner

We spent today resting at the campsite again and then in the early evening we drove up to the peak of Mont Ventoux, which is near where we are staying.  We ascended about 2,000m in 15 km for a really spectacular view at the top.  It was extremely windy, as the name of the mountain suggests.  Ventoux is also a very famous stage of the Tour de France and we did indeed see lots of cyclists.

The descent of Mont Ventoux was fine and we stopped at a nice restaurant at the bottom of the descent called Le Mas des Vignes where we had a really wonderful meal.  The car’s brakes were clearly very hot as they were smoking gently at the front and the plastic wheel trims were feeling decidedly soft!  

The view of the sunset over the dentelles de montmirail was really gorgeous to see.

We came back to the campsite bar for a couple of drinks after our meal.

A day in Avignon

We got up a bit earlier this morning and after breakfast drove about 40kms to Avignon.  We had a good explore, doing one of the walking tours in a guide book we have.

We visited the Palais de Papes and saw some interesting history about when Avignon had been the seat of the Catholic Church in the 14th Century.  The buildings were interesting but the contents were somewhat less so.

We also visited the famous Pont d’Avignon and learned a bit about its history including the fact that it has been damaged too many times by the River Rhone and that eventually it was not repaired so doesn’t actually full cross the river any more.

We came back to the campsite and again had dinner in the restaurant there.

Carpentras, Fontaine de Vaucluse and L’Isle sur la Sorgue

Today was a day of  exploring and we visited three local towns.  

Carpentras has a market on Fridays so we explored that and had some nice market food for lunch with Gordon enjoying a stuffed tomato and me a merguez sandwich.  We visited the synagogue in Carpentras, which is quite an historic synagogue, and saw the former cathedral.  

Then we went on to Fontaine de Vacluse, which is a town with a huge spring – the biggest in France and the fifth biggest in the world.  It’s also a bit of a tourist trap so we didn’t spend ages there. 

We moved on to L’Isle sur la Sorgue and continued exploring, seeing a water wheel. 

After a rest at the campsite we went out to dinner, going to a restaurant in the next village, called Saint Colonne, and the restaurant was called La Colonne.  We enjoyed an excellent dinner and a good night’s sleep afterwards.

A lazy day and exploring Bedoin

We had a restful morning at the campsite and then drove into Bedoin for the afternoon for an explore.  We had nice ice creams and looked at the church there.  We came back to the campsite and had a laze by the pool before again having dinner in the campsite restaurant.

Camping at last!

After an unimpressive hotel breakfast yesterday we decided to have breakfast at the nearby market today – it was half the price and at least twice as nice.  We left the hotel at noon to start the drive to our campsite, Domaine de Bélézy, just a bit north of Avignon near a town called Bedoin.

We arrived around 4pm and got the tent put up and ourselves installed.  After a cup of tea we went to explore a bit more.  We had dinner at the campsite restaurant where I had a delicious faux filet of steak.

Exploring Lyon

We started our day with an over-priced and under-impressive breakfast at the hotel and then got a tram then bus into the old part of Lyon to explore.  We first visited the cathedral then walked through the old town, exploring some traboules (very ornate little passageways between residential blocks). We had a sushi lunch on the riverside and then popped back into the cathedral to see the treasury. We saw an impressive fresco then got the funicular up to Fourviere.  We saw the basilica at Fourviere and the Roman theatre up there.

After this we descended the funicular again and then got a boat that gave us a fascinating round the confluence of the Rhone and the Saune rivers.  There was a good commentary and there is clearly some impressive development going on on the piece of land that is bordered by the two rivers near the confluence.  We got a bus back to near our hotel and had a nice drink in a little bar in a market nearby then went back to clean up for dinner.

We went back into the Old Town for dinner and at at Restaurant a la Traboule.  The meal was ok but we’ve both had better and both seen far better service. We had a quick drink afterwards then returned to our hotel.

Driving on to Lyon

We had breakfast in the hotel then had a very brief wander into Arras for a look at a couple of churches, John the Baptist and the Cathedral that we unfortunately could not get into as it looked like major renovations were ongoing.  We left around 11am to start the 660km drive to Lyon.

The drive was fine and we stopped for lunch a bit over half way where I enjoyed an Andouillette.  We arrived at our second hotel, the Radisson Blu, around 6pm.  We parked the car and got into our room (on the 35th floor!) then went out for dinner and a couple of drinks.

Start of the Summer Holiday

We left home around 2pm for the drive to Dover, and missed our booked 1735 ferry because of M25 hold-ups but got the 1835.  We had dinner on Ferry then drove Arras where were we booked into The Hotel de l’Univers.  It was quite a quaint hotel but fine for a stopover.  We wandered into the main squares of Arras (Place des Heros and La Grande Place) and had a couple of beers before retiring around midnight.

Carrick-on-Shannon, Maynooth and the trip home

We left the B&B after another fantastic breakfast and decided to drive to Carrick-on-Shannon, a pretty little historic town.  We had a walk around, seeing a few churches and then enjoyed lunch in an Italian restaurant called Vittos.

Following lunch we drove back to Dublin stopping on the way to see Maynooth and its University.  The University includes St. Patrick's College which has an amazing chapel with seating choir-style for up to 450 people.

We dropped the car back at Dublin and then got the Minoan flight back to Oxford which I'm pleased to say was running this time!

A boat trip around Clew bay and the Museum of Country Life

We got up to a delicious breakfast at the Waterfront B&B today and after a morning of wandering around the Quay area we got a boat from there which took us out into Clew Bay.  We saw lots of small islands (there are reported to be 365 - one for each day of the year - in the bay) and we saw seals as well as jellyfish.  The boat crew gave a good commentary of the area and its history.  We had salads for lunch at The Towers pub in Westport but couldn't book for dinner has a huge party had already done so.  Instead we booked at The Helm, just along the Quayside.  For the afternoon we drove up to the Museum of Country Life, which is part of the National Museum of Ireland, in Turlough.  The displays were excellent and tell a fascinating story of how industrialisation and any sort of serious development largely passed Ireland by until the mid-20th century.  Living off the land really had been a way of life for the Irish for many hundreds of years.

After the museum we went for a drive out to Achill Sound, following the coastal road and seeing some spectacular views. We crossed over a bridge to Achill island and had a car-explore of that before driving back via Newport to Westport.  Dinner was at 9pm and was very good indeed with me enjoying prawns and scallops and Gordon enjoying mussels and John Dory.  We finished off the evening with a drink or two.

Moving hotel and Westport House

We had breakfast again today at the Knockcranny then checked out as we had decided to stay elsewhere for the rest of the trip.  After leaving the Knockranny we drove into the centre of Westport where we parked up and had an explore of the town.  We had a nice walk along the river to Westport House.  Westport House is one Ireland's few remaining stately homes and has been in te ownership of the same family for hundreds of years.  It was fascinating to explore and the grounds are very beautiful.  These days they include some theme park-type attractions to help bring the visitor numbers in, so essential for the income and thus possible upkeep of the estate and the house.

We'd had rather a large breakfast so didn't really need lunch and just had a scone and a cup of tea in the Cafe at Westport House, which is in what used to be the house kitchen.  We walk back into Westport to collect the car and then went for a scenic drive from Louisburgh to Ballinrobe via Delphi, Leenaun and Cong. The Doolough valley is very beautiful and was certainly worth the drive.

Following this we were invited to the home of Maria's parents.  It was good to meet her family a bit more informally and to enjoy a delicious buffet.  We didn't stay too long as we had not checked into our next hotel.

After driving back to Westport Quay we checked into the Waterfront B&B around 8.30pm and then went out for an explore of the funfair that was on the quay for the weekend and I sampled some local Carlsberg. Gordon was more adventurous and had Guinness.

The day of the wedding

We had a bit of a lie in and then a nice breakfast at the hotel.  After another snooze we went and picked up our friend Steve from his hotel elsewhere in Westport and then drove for about an hour to Ballinobe where the wedding was to be held.  It was a really good service, led by a Catholic priest but with Aidan's Anglican priest from Belfast also taking part in leading the service and blessing those who did not have communicant status in the Catholic Church.
Following the service, Gordon, Steve and I grabbed a quick snack then drove back to the Knockranny Hotel in Westport, the venue of the wedding reception.  It was a really good evening with a lovely meal and some excellent speeches from Aidan, Maria, Maria's Dad and the best man. The evening continued with much music, dancing and merriment!

A trip to Ireland for a wedding

We were excited to be booked on a flight from Oxford Airport to go to Dublin and then on to Westport for the wedding of our friends Aidan and Maria.  We arrived at Oxford Airport 3.30pm.  There was Lots of confusion and eventually the Minoan flight was cancelled.  A quick dash to Birmingham following some help booking an Aer Lingus flight by the staff at Oxford Airport got us on to the delayed 1950 flight from there to Dublin.  We left the airport in the hire car at 10.30pm, about four hours later than planned, and got to the Knockranny Hotel in Westport around 1.30am

The trip to L.A - Malibu, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood

We left the motel in Santa Barbara again in good time today and went to visit the famous mission in Santa Barbara, by the same name!  It's still an active church so we had to wait until after mass to visit the worship area itself.   The mission had beautiful gardens and some very old trees too.  We then visited the courthouse in Santa Barbara which is an incredibly grand building, given its purpose.

We then drove on further down Highway 1 and have a delicious fish lunch in a really busy and popular place called the Reel Inn near Malibu Beach.  We drove on along Sunset Boulevard, which was fun as it was so sunny and we had the top of the Mustang down.  For our final visit we drove into Hollywood and parked up to have a walk around the famous Hollywood Boulevard and to see some famous theatres where to Oscars are awarded each year.

We got to LAX at 7pm, returned the car (boo!) and go our 10pm flight back to Heathrow after a truly fantastic holiday.  I'd recommend California as a trip in your lifetime to anyone!

Cambria to Santa Barbara - the last full day

We left Cambria around 11am today after a pleasant night and a good breakfast.  We visited a tiny town called Harmony with a state population of 18.  It didn't take long!  We also stopped at a pretty beach called Spooner's Cove at Montaña de Oro state park.

Our next stop was a visit to the pretty town of San Luis Obispo where we had a rather disappointing lunch in a place called the Blue Sky Cafe but then visited the Mission in the town. It had a very odd double set of seating, giving two perpendicular aspects on the altar table.  There was also a lovely museum of modern art in San Luis Obispo, that we enjoyed visiting.

We drove on to Santa Barbara where we were booked into a nice motel called the Sandman.  It had a great pool and spa and a nice spacious room.  We had dinner at a local cheap Mexican restaurant then wandered along to a local pub called the Tiburon, which was actually quite a fun bar with a friendly barman and decent beers.

Driving down Highway 1 and Hearst Castle

We left Monterey this morning to start the drive down Highway 1, driving along the area known as the Big Sur.  There were some spectacular views and we stopped several times to take them in, including visiting Julia Pfeiffer-Burns park to see a beautiful natural waterfall (McWay Falls) that comes out of the cliff onto the beach.  We some amazing groups of seals on some beaches too. We visited Hearst Castle in the afternoon, a fascinating place built by William R Hearst in the early part of the 20th Century.  It has a bizarre mish-mash of European antiquities as part of its structure and I think is more stunning outside than inside!

We got to our Motel, the Cambria Shores Inn, soon after 6pm and wandered into Cambria itself for dinner a bit later.

Monterey Bay Aquarium and a trip around 17 mile drive

We went to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium today. It was about a mile walk down the hill from Mike and Jan's house. It's a really good aquarium but this week is Spring Break in the US so it was teaming with barging kids, making it hard to see much.  What we did see was pretty impressive though, particularly the jellyfish collections. We had lunch in a nice restaurant that was part of a fishmongers so had extremely fresh fish.

After lunch we walked back up the hill to the house and picked up the Mustang to go for a drive around the area.  We visited a really pretty area called 17 mile drive with some amazing houses and some amazing views of the bay.  We went back into Monterey later for a wander around the older parts of the town.

We had a nice Thai meal for dinner in the evening on Lighthouse Avenue, a really pretty avenue just to the West of the centre of Monterey, in Pacific Grove.

The trip to Monterey - sea otters, seals and more food!

After breakfast we left Evergeen Lodge around 11am today to head to Monterey to Mike and Jan's seaside home there.  The drive was quite spectacular and it included driving back into Yosemite National Park and then out via El Portal where we some more wonderful views.  We drove on then via Mariposa and to Merced for lunch.  Following lunch we drove on through the central valley where the temperature got up to just short of 30C.  We had the top down on the Mustang and it was pretty warm!

 We drove on via the San Luis reservoir and once we were over the hills and out of the central valley the temperature rapidly dropped to more like 13C.  Time for a jumper and putting the roof back on the Mustang!

After seeing some sea otters and seals in Moss Landing we got to the house in Monterey around 6.30pm.  We went out for a nice dinner with Mike and his son Tom at a restaurant near the Monterey aquarium called the Cannery Row Brewing Company.  Canning fish used to be big business in Monterey, hence the name of the area.  We some some seals sleeping on a nature reserve beach on the way to dinner too!

Yosemite Valley

We drove for about an hour from Evergreen Lodge today into Yosemite Park itself and to Yosemite Village to explore.  It was quite an exciting drive with the hood of the Mustang down and the temperature getting quite low as we got up to more than 6,000ft altitude.  We made numerous stops to see (and photograph) the quite stunning views along the way including the famous half-dome.

Once in the village we had lunch and looked at the visitors’ centre and a short film about the area.  We walked along to the base of Yosemite Falls to see quite a spectacular sight.  Later we drive along to Camp Curry and decided to walk to the Vernal Falls.  We quickly realised that the walk would have taken longer than the daylight we had left so had to turn back only some of the way up. 

We came back to Evergreen Lodge in time to see a beautiful sunset and also to have a dip in the lovely pool and hot tub onsite.  I’ve never been in a hot tub you can swim lengths in before!

We had another dinner at Evergreen, ready for departing tomorrow back to the coast to stay at Monterey for a couple of nights.

The trip to the Yosemite area

Mike kindly drove us to Oakland airport today to pick our hire car to continue our trip around California.  We were offered a very cheap upgrade to a convertible Mustang so we jumped at the offer.  We drove to our accommodation near Yosemite, the Evergreen Lodge and got there late afternoon.  We had a small explore and then dinner followed by quite an early night ready for a trip to Yosemite Valley tomorrow.

Moving on, Easter worship at St. James' Fremont and afternoon with the Scruttons

We had an early start this morning to get the BART train to Fremont where we were picked up by Mike to take us to his church, St. James' Episcopal church.  We joined with the congregation for Easter morning worship which was a joyous occasion indeed.  Lots of good liturgy, a great choir and a lovely welcome from many people present.

We went back to Jan and Mike's home in Fremont and shared lunch with them and their children (who are hardly children being 13 and 16).  We enjoyed meeting their cats, Percy and Peeta too.  We had a nice relaxing afternoon and after dinner watched the film Argo, about smuggling six american embassy staff out of Iran after the storming of the US embassy in 1979.  We all enjoyed the film greatly and slept well afterwards.

Brunch at Fort Mason, A walk along Crissy field and a visit to Golden Gate Park

We got the Powell-Hyde cable car this morning up to the coast area and walked along to Greens Restaurant to meet another old friend, Andy, from College.  We had a nice brunch there and then went for a lovely walk along Crissy field towards Golden Gate Bridge and back again.  The weather was lovely and we got some great views of the bridge.

Andy and family then dropped us at Golden Gate Park where we had an explore and visited the gorgeous Japanese Tea garden.  We then walked south to pick up a bus along Lincoln Street and into downtown via Haight Street, which is a fascinating throwback to the hippie years of the 1960s and has a huge diversity of people and businesses.

We got off the bus and had a look at City Hall before getting the Metro back to Powell and having a look around a shopping centre there.  We got the cable car back up to the hotel from Union Square.  We had a wonderful evening meal on the recommendation of a staff member at our hotel at a wonderful Indonesian restaurant called Borobudur.