Cambridge and the Cotswolds - 9th to 11th of October 2009

With Janine still around and keen to see a bit of the English countryside, we took Friday the 9th of October (Ange's birthday) off work, jumped in the car, and cruised north of London to Cambridge. Mark, a friend of Glenn's is studying there, and so we were privileged enough to be shown through a few of the Cambridge colleges.

But the highlight without doubt was punting down the River Cam. Mark showed us how its done before handing over the reigns to Warren who managed to make it back to base without getting wet. Well, wet from the river anyway - by the time we got back the rain was starting to come down pretty hard.

Drying out afterwards we found a few pubs, with a great dinner squeezed in as well.

After a bit of a sleepin and a great breakfast, Janine Ange and I climbed the step of St Mary's for some great views over Cambridge.

We said goodbye to Mark and jumped back in the car and headed out west to the Cotswolds. Before holing up in Stow-on-the-wold for the night, we passed through cute little villages including Stratford-Upon-Avon (the birthplace of William Shakespeare), Bourton-on-the-Hill, and Moreton-in-Marsh.

Not the greatest of weather on Sunday, but that didn't stop us seeing a few more Cotswolds villages on the way back to London, including Burton-on-the-Water, Buford, Minster Lovell, Witney and finally Oxford.

Bath - 12th to 13th of September 2009

With Warren's sister Janine arriving the previous weekend for a few months holiday in Europe, we jumped on a train early Saturday morning for an hour and a half west to Bath. The city was established as a spa resort by the romans in 43AD. They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs, the only ones naturally occuring in the UK. After arriving in Bath and dropping off our bags at our hostel, we were in need of a snack, so we went to Sally Lunn's house, the original bakery of the famous buns, and had a light tea of original recipe buns. Rearing to go, it was time to visit the main attraction in Bath, its Roman baths. Very well preserved and in the shadow of Bath Abbey, with plenty of infom they are actually pretty impressive. A roman version of the Polynesian Pools in Rotorua perhaps.

A quick bite to eat and a short wander up the main shopping street to the circus (i..e a roundabout surrounded by Georgian terraced housing), and a chill out in the sun in the Royal Victoria Park.
Turns out Bath is a bit of a university town, so we partied a little bit with some youngies on Saturday night. Not huge though, Warren wasn't feeling 100%.

Sunday morning the girls wanted to go through the fashion museum. The highlght being the interactive display below:
Time for a a quick lunch next to the Avon.
After a quick pitstop for the Italian grand prix, we got a cab up to the Prior Park landscape gardens, created by Ralph Allen (Bath Mayor) from 1734 to 1764 to basically show off his wealth to the district. It's a great spot on a rise overlooking Bath, and we spent a few hours there before dinner and a late train back to London.

August bank holiday weekend - 28th to 31st of August 2009

The last bank holiday of the year, and for the first time in a long time, Ange and I did our own thing.

My bank holiday started a bit early, at about 6am on Friday. My mate Conor picked me up and we jumped on the Eurotunnel to France, and then cruised along the Belgian motorways for about 3.5 hours past Brussels and deep into the Ardenne forest to the circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Its the longest race on the F1 calendar at just over 7kms, and if any racetrack can be beautiful, this is surely it. We spent all weekend at the track, eating frites and drinking beers, and made it back to London mid afternoon on the bank holiday Monday.

Not too sure what Ange got up to. May have had something to do with a bunch of girls and some funky looking drinks...? When I got home on Monday she was still out, apparently at the Notting Hill Carnival.

Croatia - 31st July to 9th August 2009

Up bright and early Friday morning for our main summer holiday, a week cruising down the Croatian coast! We flew into Split about 10am to 30+ heat and beautiful blue skies. We had a quick stroll around the town and its markets, made it to the nearby beach for a few hours and then had a quick nap before a few drinks out in town. Saturday morning we located our boat and checked into our little cabin ready for our 1pm departure. Our first stop was an hour or so south of Split, just off the mainland, for a quick swim.

The first night was spent moored up in the town of Makarska. What we thought was a sleepy little town turned into a very happening party spot with some awesome bars. Bit of a crazy night, a sign of things to come perhaps...?

Sunday, our first full day on the boat, was arguably the best. After leaving Makarska mid morning, we stopped off at a deserted bay on the island of Brac. We had about 5 hours there, including a great lunch, and plenty of time in the water.

Late afternoon we cruised further along the coast of Brac and pulled up in the town of Bol. This is our boat, Tarin:

Bol has an amazing beach that I didn't manage to do justice with my camera.

Monday. The 3rd. Possibly my best birthday ever. Again the day was spent at a random spot, this time off the island of Hvar, before pulling into the main town (also called Hvar...confused?) for a great birthday dinner and an awesome party night. These boys have nothing on Tarin.

The Tuesday morning sun coming up.

Tuesday was (perhaps not surprisingly) pretty low key. We cruised over to the island of Korcula, for more swimming and sunbathing, and then had a quiet dinner and a pretty early night moored just outside Korcula old town.

Another contender for "day of the week" was Wednesday. We spent the morning swimming and chilling at a random spot just off the island of Mljet, before jumping in the dinghy and being dropped off at the small town of Polace.

The main attraction on Mljet is its national park, basically two large "lakes" (actually connected to the sea) with a monestry in the middle. We hired some bikes and got our only exercise of the week peddling maybe 12kms from Polace over the hill to the national park and around the lakes to a great spot next to the Monestry.

We jumped back on the boat about 5pm which pulled out of Polace to a secluded spot with a fantastic sunset. Tarin had a great spot on the roof with lots of thick comfy mats, perfect for sunbathing during the day and drinking beers at night.

Thursday, more of the same. Spent the day swimming off the boat at a quiet spot, before pulling into the town of Sipan for another great sunset.

Our final full day on board was pretty similar to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh and probably Thursday too. Similar in that it was almost perfect. We swam during the day and pulled into our final port, Dubrovnik at night.

After some serious illness overnight, Saturday morning was spent at the Dubrovnik Hospital getting drips and anti-nausea medication. Probably not the best day on tour. We snoozed all afternoon and finally got out to see a little bit of Dubrovnik on Saturday evening.

Things were pretty much back to normal on Sunday, so we walked around the amazingly intact city walls of Dubrovnik. The old town is in extremely good nick, especially given the wars in the early 90s, and ranks right up there in our top places we have visited so far. Of course the perfect weather and 30 plus degC heat might have helped.

Sunday afternoon we decided we hadn't had a swim in ages (like 48 hours) so walked around the corner to a nice little beach to get our last little bit of Croatia sun and surf.

Unfortunately that was it, and so we left Croatia late Sunday night on our flight back to London, a little bit browner and a big bit happier.