Christmas in Exeter, Basingstoke and Cardiff

It was Christmas on the move this year, mainly because Riona's shifts meant she only had the Saturday and Sunday off and we were working around her as much as possible.

Caitlin and Riona were around at mine on Christmas Eve and we spent the day wrapping, making crafty things and, critically, playing Overcooked and Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch.  We relocated to Roger's for the evening and enjoyed the new Glass Onion film.

Christmas Day was the standard Adams fayre - breakfast of poached eggs, spinach, salmon, bucks fizz, washing up, unwrapping stockings, walk (in which we got pretty wet) then present opening.

For lunch Riona presented us all with mini lego people - so cute!  If you remove my hair you can see I even have a hearing aid on.

Rog always cooks a feast, and this year it was roasted butternut squash with goats cheese and all the other roast accompaniments along with the essential brussels stir-fried in ginger, then it was washing up, TV, games, cheese and biscuits, and probably a tad of washing up for good measure at the end of the day - you know the score for a relaxed Christmas Day. 

On Boxing Day it was an early start as Rog and Riona left at 0600 to get Riona to Cardiff for her shift.  Caitlin and I rose a little later then headed to Basingstoke.  Caitlin drove my car for the first time ever - it wasn't half as scary as either of us thought it would be!

We popped into Whitchurch to see Mum.  She was awake and chatty which was nice, and we gave her some socks and the family calendar which she seemed to enjoy looking through.  

As my Dad and brother had covid we couldn't go to visit them, so we had a quick present exchange in the car port then drove to The Vyne to meet my uncle.  What a lovely treat!  The house was closed so we only needed to pay garden entry.  First off was much needed coffee and food, then we strolled around the west end of the lake and the woods, although I had the wrong footwear for the gloopy mud paths we encountered.  It was very nippy so we were glad to head back inside for a second hot drink.

The original plan for 26 December was that we'd all meet at my Dad's.  We'd divvied up the food provisioning between us and Mike elected to bring his much loved fruit salad.  By the time the plans changed Mike had already bought the fruit so, during our second coffee, announced that he had a fruit salad, bowls and spoons in his car.  So as we left, we parked up and ate fruit salad by the roadside in the cold.  Classic! 

Next up was a drive to Cardiff.  Nice of the cosy passenger to take a photo of me whilst I was filling up the car in the cold!

We got to Cardiff early evening, for another excellent supper cooked by Rog.  Riona wasn't back from her shift until 2145 but we then unwrapped another dose of presents from the Basingstoke gang which was fun.

On Tuesday, 27 December, we went off to see the sea at Penarth.  It was raining heavily (it's the only sort of rain I think Cardiff does) but we trotted up and down the pier before finding a warm and dry lunch spot.  

Another fun afternoon of Nintendo and crosswords before watching Knives Out with a takeaway.  It was wonderful to spend the day with Riona in between her shifts. A bit of late one home but back in Ottery by midnight and lots of happy Christmas memories.

Bournemouth Pre-Christmas Bash - 02 to 04 Dec 22

In October I bought JC a pre-Christmas treat of a theatre production of "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" in Bournemouth.  A few days after, he realised he had to be in Luxembourg that weekend as his sister was home and, due to Covid, he hadn't seen for years.  Fortunately Caitlin was able to join me - Riona was on nights in Cardiff so definitely ruled herself out there.

Not being a fan of driving, I decided to catch the train from Cranbrook to Bournemouth.  The Cranbrook to Salisbury and Salisbury to Southampton legs worked smoothly.  We were held up entering Southampton Central, and I joked to the guy next to me that I might miss my connection.  What I didn't realise is that all connections to Bournemouth had been cancelled. I stepped off the train at Southampton Central into semi-chaos, as the line from Southampton to Bournemouth had gone down due to a failure of the electric 3rd rail.  I asked a station assistant what the plan was and they pointed me towards the exit stating "taxi replacement service".  So there we were - about 200 of us trying to exit the station to join a not-yet-formed queue, others were trying to exit to simply leave and more were trying to enter for another train.

I called my friend, Rosey, who lives in Southampton, who nearly came out to rescue me and drive me to Bournemouth. Meanwhile I'd made friends with other frustrated passengers in the static queue - Ran, Rob, Nick.  I stuck with it, as I really wanted to get to Bournemouth that night and I didn't want to put Rosey out.  After an hour or so, success! - we got to the front of the queue, did a shout out for "who wants to go to Bournemouth?" and myself and my now 7 new Bournemouth buddies were whizzed off westwards.  Ran's wife collected him from Bournemouth station and kindly dropped me to my hotel so I managed to reach my destination 5 hours after leaving Cranbrook.   Meanwhile, JC had gone to Luxembourg that morning from Cranbrook, via Waterloo, London City Airport and arrived home in 7 hours.  

On Saturday I headed for the sea.  I found Boscombe Pier and wandered up and down it.

I then headed off towards Bournemouth Pier.  I loved the rainbow of beach huts.

There is a lot of sand at Bournemouth - so much so that there are numerous steps down from the promenade to the beach where only the tops of the step railings appear.  The sand has accreted that much.  I'm far more used to shingle ;-)

Caitlin arrived on time, no such train fandango for her, and we strolled by the sea on the way to our supper.  There's always a reason to walk via the sea to go somewhere.

We ate at a lovely Sri Lankan restuarant, The Coconut Tree, then saw the show.  The show itself was fine although a lot more scripted than I remember: so much so that the cast were walking around the stage with their written scripts.  What made it unpleasant for me, though, was that the BIC's loop system didn't work.  It turns out that analogue T-loop are incompatible with digital hearing aids.  As I pointed out, the NHS have been providing digital hearing aids for over a decade so it's crazy that they haven't upgraded their technology.  Caitlin wonderfully switched on live-listen for me on her phone, so I kind of read that and kind of listened. Not being able to hear didn't ruin the evening for me, but it made it an experience I would not hasten to repeat, and I won't trust BIC again with their T-loop offering.

On Sunday we had a lazy first thing, then brunch in town.  Bizarrely, we ended up in exactly the same place I'd had lunch the day before - which just goes to show it was a Ruth-friendly cafe (the veggie + gluten free is an offering too far for many establishments).  We sat and ate, drank and did the obligatory puzzle.  Happy days :-)

Barcelona - Parc Montjuïc

Saturday 19 November 2022

It was Parc Montjuïc day today.  JC wanted to see both the Fundació Joan Miró and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) and I had espied a botanical garden, a funicular and a cable car so I was game!

We took the metro to the funicular, then trundled up on that to the Parc Monjuïc hill.  These things get me far more excited than JC.  

First off was the Fundació Joan Miró, definitely a choice of JC's as I'd never even heard of the artist (bad me).  I think I know why I hadn't heard of him as I don't really like his pictures it turns out.  I'm obviously uncultured.  Well, to be fair, some of them were nice.  

But I couldn't get my head around these ones.

Once JC had had his fill of JM, we thought we'd go for a spin in the cable car.  However we decided against it as (a) it would either take us too far across the mountain, with a long walk back, and it was quite pricey for a return ticket (b) the queues were big and (c) we'd forgotten our face masks which were mandatory.  So instead we headed down to find Teatre Grec for a change of scenery.

And a few sparkly fountains with something Romany behind them.

We had timed (free!) tickets for MNAC so headed for the botanical gardens.  We somehow weren't charged for entry, but, to be fair, November in the Northern Hemisphere is hardly a fantastic time to see a botantical garden.  It was pleasant stroll though.

And then it was time for the MNAC.

On JC's itinerary were the Romanesque frescos.  This collection is the largest in the world, with numerous paintings lifted (as in, peeled off the walls) from dilapidated buildings around Spain.

The MNAC had been built for the International Exposition of 1929 so had an amazing hall complete with organ (and coffee shop).

We now had 1.5 hours left to view the modern art and it was a rush!  I enjoyed this section, although I always get more enthralled the more arc deco/stained glass there is.

A series of mosaics.

And some beautiful stained glass friezes.

Back to the main city, we had our best meal in Barcelona at a wonderful tapas bar, which turned out to be Peruvian.  An awesome way to finish!   

Barcelona - Gaudi Fest - La Pedrera and Cassa Battló

Friday 18 November 2022

Our Gaudi treats today were at the Isla de la Discòrdia (block of discordia) just north of Plaça de la Catalunya.  La Pedrera, also known as Stone Quarry, was developed between 1906 and 1912 and is another super example of modernist architecture.

The entrance foyer has a staircase designed like a dragon fly, and it just goes on from there!

Again, glass, stone, tiles, mosaics abound - beautiful, light, sparkly, lovely.

In the attic, you can see the use of the catenary arch again.  He wanted to design the attic to be like a whale, a room fall of supportive and spacious arches.  At one stage this area was turned into apartments, but they have since been removed.

The roof is wonderful, full of stone warriors.  And, through the carefully positioned arch, you can see another of his works, the Sagrada Familiar.

We found a quiet café off a side street for lunch (more tea!) then visited Casa Battló, which turned out to be the residential building I loved most out of the 3 we'd visited.

It was just so gorgeous inside.  I love glass, wood and art deco/nouveau styles so this ticked all my boxes.

We strolled around really slowly, immersing ourselves in the beauty of it all.  Of course, it didn't stop indoors as, on the terrace, there were mosaics galore.

As we ascended further inside we came across the Gaudi classic arch.

And then onto the roof.  His roofs never cease to amaze me!  The one featured a dragon, and the back was wonderfully tiled with a rainbow of scaly colour.

And then we descended down a Kengo Kuma staircase that had been installed post Covid-19 pandemic - so sinuously delicate and a delight to run your fingers through.

We ate out at a lovely tapas bar but it was SO noisy, we didn't linger.