France: The Normandy Express

We took the opportunity of a bank holiday weekend to nip across to Normandy, to visit the D-Day beaches and the town Dean’s ancestors come from (the ones who helped to settle Akaroa, New Zealand in 1840). Unfortunately the dismal grey weather followed us there, but no bother, nothing that French food and Normandy cider didn’t fix.

After an excellent overnight Ferry with Brittany Ferries (our own 4-berth cabin complete with ensuite) we docked in Caen, just in time for a breakfast of cafe au lait and croissants before collecting our car. 

Back streets of Villedieu

Chilling out in style

From our base in Caen for one night, we visited a few sights, starting with the Bayeux Tapestry: arrived right on opening time and could imagine how packed it would get in the high season. We spent about 90 minutes here, first seeing the tapestry with its excellent audio guide (and spotting the images of King Harold who, according to our guide book, could be picked out in each scene due to his shifty eyes), then visiting the museum and watching a video about the tapestry. Highly recommended way to understand the history of the Battle of Hastings in an 942 year old comic strip. Also stopped into the Bayeux Cathedral, for a change we were the only ones looking around.

The view from Pointe du Hoc

A totally preserved German bunker - Longues -sur-mer

From there it was onto the beaches. We had contemplated joining a guided tour but decided in the end to do travel independently and are glad we did. Given the cold, drizzly day, it was nice to set our own agenda and to travel independently, rather than on a tour. It meant we could get back in the car when it got really cold, and stop for croque monsieur and soup l’oignon when we wanted to. We visited Ste-Mere-Eglise church with its statue of a parachutist hanging from its tower to commemorate the real deal on D-Day; Pointe du Hoc, complete with huge shell craters at the top of a cliff; Omaha Beach; Longues Sur Mer – surviving German gun emplacements; the American cemetery and memorial museum; and Arromanches-les-Bains where we did the Arromanches 360 experience (a film depicting Normandy with a combination of WWII and modern footage). Back in Caen exhausted after waking at 0545 UK time to dock in the ferry, so headed straight for a meal at La Poterne – an excellent three course meal with plenty of Normandy cider to wash it down.

Chateau Thury Harcourt

Sunday morning after filling ourselves silly at breakfast we popped to the Sunday market right outside our hotel to pick up supplies for the day, then hit the road on the scenic route to Villedieu les Poeles (literally city of god of the frying pans). The name comes from their association with the Knights of St John (the guys who looked after Malta for a few hundred years who we learnt about in 2008), and their granting of an early tax free haven which encouraged a whole lot of copper work.

The scenic route took us through the back roads of Calvados, passing through some lovely, if wet, countryside. We stopped for a break at Thury Harcourt to check out their ruined moated chateau. Onwards through the rain we passed a number of quaint villages with the final stop being St Cecile just a few miles out of Villedieu, where we spotted some ancestors in the local churchyard.

The Mont

A short pitstop to check-in and onwards to Mont-St-Michel, a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the most crowded tourist attractions in France. Worth a visit, it was very crowded on a wet May Sunday, so perhaps avoid during peak times!

Our hotel  Le Fruitier  doubled as the best restaurant in town, so after discussing the French election with some locals in a bar we tucked into a cracking €27 menu.

Our little beach picnic with the locals

Monday we explored the cobbled streets and courtyards of Villedieu, popping into Atelier de Cuivre, the local copper workshop, before getting the last supplies of baguette, pate and quiche Lorraine we hit the road. Finally the sun came out, so along the way we stopped for an impromptu picnic on the sand. 542 km in the car ended in the less charming port town of Cherbourg. Au revoir, a bientot France.

The Bell Foundry - Villedieu

York: The Grand old Duke

The grand old walled city of York played host to the von Yarralls as we sought a long weekend of R&R, and it certainly delivered.

The train ride there was fantastic in itself,  a very fast service from London Kings Cross direct, taking in the changing scenery and the hundreds of middle-aged trainspotters along the way. Lou was fascinated with them as we slowed for each station, keeping count and remarking on the uniform of anorak, backpack, and notepad. Whoever knew trainspotting was so popular? We do now!

Arriving into York, we were almost immediately greeted with a friendly local who stopped his car when he spotted us looking at our map, and gave us very thorough directions to our B&B on the other side of town. Foss Bank B&B played host to us for three nights and was just the ticket – quiet, warm, and a giant bed perfect for afternoon naps; essential for a late-January winter getaway.

Once we’d settled in, we went off to explore York Minster, a must-do for any visit. We joined an excellent free tour (admission though was £14) and were expertly guided by a volunteer, seeing all the nooks, crannies and quirks of the 800-year-old Minster. Highlights included the semaphore statues (a recent addition, you use cards with the semaphore alphabet to figure out what they say); the quirky and often humorous carvings in the chapter house, and the choir screen with statues of various Kings. One of our areas of focus was the astronomical clock, a memorial to airmen operating from bases in Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland who were killed in action during WW2 (of which Lou's great uncle Michael was one). In fact, there was so much to do at the Minster that we stopped by for another visit on our way back to London on Sunday - free with our ticket.

 Memorial book at the astronomical clock

The following day we joined a free walking tour – always a highlight and something we try to do wherever we go. Some of the highlights included seeing parts of the 4th century Roman walls, King's Manor (Henry VIII's Council of the North, and Holy Trinity Goodramgate, complete with 15th century stained glass and Jocobean boxed pews - something we haven't seen in any church before.

After a spot of lunch, we headed to the Jorvik centre, built on the site of 100-year-old houses and shops from Viking times. It was a bit of a ho-hum experience, even the short 'ride' through the old streets was a wee bit disappointing. Perhaps we've now seen our fair share of old coins and tools and things - oh how spoilt we are!

That night we sampled the local kai at Melton’s Too, where we enjoyed excellent food, beer and service, at super affordable Northern prices.

 Not what we ate at Melton's Too

Dean’s old boss lives in Harrogate, a 30 minute train ride away, so we popped there to visit him and the picturesque town on Saturday. The sun was shining, which made for excellent conditions for a long stroll through Valley Gardens, even happening across a New Zealand garden along the way. While in Harrogate we had afternoon tea at Betty’s, a Yorkshire institution. Saturday night back in York saw us at the Punch Bowl pub, one of the oldest in town, enjoying a pie and a pint, and a few games of cards in front of the fire.

 The kiwi garden, Harrogate

We were heading back to London on Sunday, but managed to squeeze in another visit to the Minister as well as an hour at the Railway museum – once there, we really wished we’d left longer for it, it’s very well laid out and interesting, even for the girls!

Another train journey back to London and we were refreshed, revitalised, and recommending York to anyone who'd listen for a break away.

 Dean on his street, Deangate

Marrakesh: finding the silver lining

Scene 1: The souks
Little boy: Hello, are you lost?
Us (we were, and knew the financial consequences of saying yes): yes please, can you show us to Ben Youssef Medersa?
Little boy: Sure, follow me. Welcome to Marrakesh, first time here? You are very welcome.
3 minutes later, as we arrive at our destination around one corner.
Little boy: Now you give me money
Us: Of course, here you go (offering 10 dirhams – roughly the cost of that morning’s breakfast)
Little boy: Pah. That is nothing to me. You give me 50
Us: Uh no, we’ll give you 10
Little boy (practically spitting): Pah. 50
Us: 10
Little boy: 20
Us: 10
Little boy: That is nothing to me
Us: Then nothing you shall have. Toodle pip.

Scene 2: The desert
Man who’d walked us 20 minutes on a camel: Now you give me a tip
Us: Sorry, we don’t have much money on us
Man who’d walked us 20 minutes on a camel: You give me 150 dirhams (a third of what we’d paid for a two day, one night trip)
Us: Nope, don’t think so, sorry pal. Ciao.

And that just about sums up our experience of Marrakesh (and the overnight trip to the Zagora sand dunes which we wouldn’t recommend). Keeping in mind we’ve done a fair bit of travel to places like this, including Egypt and Turkey, we were surprised at the generally pretty unfriendly welcome we received. We’ll spare you the details of being sworn at, physically grabbed at, and saving a very shaken French tourist from being swiftly relieved of his wallet, and instead try to focus on the positive side of our wee post-Christmas piece of sunshine.

1: It was sunny.
2: Our very cheap, basic, but clean Riad – Hotel Imouzzer – was handily located very close to the main square in the old town, and had a fantastic rooftop from which we soaked up the afternoon sun over endless games of cards with friends Kyle and Melissa each afternoon.
3: The food – when we weren’t blatantly charged double the going rate – was pretty good, although the best was the tagine we had on the aforementioned rooftop. As well as tagine, we had kebabs, fabulous egg rolls, lamb’s head, couscous, fresh oj and plenty of tea and café au lait to wash it down.

4: We spent a day outside of Marrakesh in Essouira, on the coast. We negotiated this through a grand taxi driver (at a rate of 700 dirhams) who then passed us on to his mate in a big, clean people mover, for the rate of 1000 dirhams. To be honest, we didn’t really fancy the 5-hour round trip in a rattly, cigarette-smelling Mercades, so were happy to do the switch. Essouira is a small town on the coast, and we enjoyed a relaxing day wandering the streets and markets with far less aggressive behaviour than we experienced in Marrakesh. We also treated ourselves to a delicious lunch and a bottle of wine at Chalet de la Plage, right on the beach.
5: The New Town was much less insane, with drinks and meals far cheaper than we’d expected. We enjoyed a slightly boozy New Year’s Eve with drinks at a hotel followed by an excellent meal of pizzas and wine at Cantanzaro – the cost for four of us was about £50.
6: We happened across the clean, cheap, but tourist-friendly Hammam Ziani down the road, and enjoyed two vigorous scrub downs and a massage each.
7: Dean’s French was pretty darn good!
8: We picked up some nice souvenirs, including a couple of glass lanterns and the obligatory tagine, at bargain prices (perhaps we could have tipped more?)

9: We know we already mentioned the food, but the roti-style ‘crepes’, cooked fresh and filled with cheese, or eaten plain, have to get a mention of their own. We pretty much lived on these.
10. Despite experiencing a number of aggressive encounters and tense moments, the atmosphere in the main square each night was pretty magic – so long as you didn’t watch anything for too long as you’d get very firmly hit up for money - and what you were prepared to pay would never be enough. Wandering around, stealing glances at the storytellers, transvestite dancers, snake charmers, dancing monkeys and trying to decide what to eat was certainly unique and enjoyable – so long as you kept a strong grip on your bag and friends!

 Would we go back? Probably not. Was it an experience? Certainly. Did we learn something? Yep - not every single trip can be perfect from start to finish, can it?

Berlin by bike

We enjoyed a weekend in Berlin in October and were lucky enough to stay with friends in their apartment, giving us a local take on this small city. Arriving early on the Friday morning, we raced in from the airport to join a Fat Tire Bike Tour which is an excellent way to see a city (having done this in Barcelona too, we reckon it’s far better than a walking tour). And what better place to cycle than in Berlin, where there are bike lanes everywhere and cars give way to cyclists so we felt super safe.

The tour took us to all the main sites, as well as our kiwi guide offering an excellent history of the city. The tour included Checkpoint Charlie, various parts of the wall, the Reichstag, and a nice beer garden for lunch (would be better in summer!).  Post tour we went to the DDR museum that gave us a good insight (and a few laughs) about life behind the Wall for the East Germans. We then visited a local restaurant with our friends, Arema – excellent food and value.

We had enjoyed cycling around so much that we borrowed our friends’ bikes the following day to do more. We visited the museum for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which was an excellent, and very personal and emotional, memorial museum set underneath the memorial itself. The memorial has a fascinating history, with the chemical used as an anti-graffiti substance on the concrete blocks that form the memorial produced by the same company that produced Zyklon B used to poison people in the gas chambers during WWII.

We then visited the Topography of Terror, the German History Museum and rode down Karl Marx Alee to see more of the East of the City in person.

Sunday we were up early to catch the All Blacks v Argentina (in the Rugby World Cup) at an Irish Pub before taking a look at Mauerpark fleamarket and the Berlin Wall Memorial, an excellent open air strip of land where the wall once was, looking at the lives of those on either side, and some of the escape attempts that took place. Finally, we took in the East Side Gallery, a 1.3km of the wall covered with art.

We had some problems getting back to the airport, assuming the train lines would all be running which was a mistake. Ongoing works meant we had to decipher German to get off the train, get a bus, then another train, and put a sprint on to catch our flight. Think we’re becoming too relaxed with flights, so we need to leave more time in future. Life ain’t the Amazing Race, von Yarralls!

Canada: all about the beers/bears

We were honoured to be invited to attend the wedding of our friends Sam and Becci in Edmonton, smack bang in the middle of Canada, in August 2011. As well as witnessing their big day, it gave us the perfect excuse to explore a country we hadn’t visited before.

Over 11 days we only just scratched the surface of this independent travel in this huge, wonderful country. We fell in love and just want to live there now – but so do thousands of others so it’s near impossible to get a visa. So we’ll stick to London for now.

Edmonton city centre

As well as the wedding itself, highlights included:
Edmonton: catching up with friends including Si, Postie, Krip, Tash and Jimmy from New Zealand who’d travelled over for the wedding, plenty of laughs and partying.

The drive from Edmonton to Jasper National Park: The gps told us to drive straight for 361kms, and straight it was.
Driving from Jasper to Banff: so many things to see along the way. Even in cold rain, the lakes were an amazing azure and the wildlife abundant. A particular highlight was spotting a bear on the roadside, quite close to our car. Here's a taster.

Banff: An awesome resort town full of great bars and restaurants. Could happily have stayed for weeks. As well as the town atmosphere and excellent hikes close by, the town sports a natural hot spring, so we soaked our cares away there one morning.
Lake Louise (the lake itself, not the town): honestly the most beautiful site, even allowing for favouritism given the name
Rafting down the Kicking Horse river: Ranging from level 1 to level 4 rapids, even getting to jump out and swim (get swept through?) two freezing cold level 3 rapids, with Jimmy and Tash from New Zealand.
Glenbow museum in Calgary: we didn’t have long here which was a shame, it provided an excellent overview of the history of Canada. We were especially interested in its hunting past, given we’d enjoyed an evening of hunting stories and felt the skins of wolves, beaver and mink the night before staying with family friends.
Vancouver: we could see why it’s voted one of the best places to live. Easy to get around and plenty to see. We spent a couple of hours walking through Spencer Park, popped to Granville Island, and generally wandered around to take in the atmosphere.

We did a fair bit of hiking, enjoying the fresh air and unique scenery. Top hikes included Johnston’s canyon to the inkpots just outside of Banff (12 kms); A full day around Lake Louise, including a steep climb to the foot of the glacier, and visits to a couple more lakes on the way (14 kms); and the Grouse Grind with Lou’s relatives in Vancouver, pretty much a 2.9km grind straight up hill. The kids put us to shame with their energy.

On top of the world after tackling the Grouse Grind

Most memorable eating and drinking experiences include:

Dadeo diner and bar in Edmonton: a retro feel with great southern style food

Saltlik in Banff: amazing steaks

Magpie and Stump in Banff: drink out of jars and throw your peanut shells on the floor

Cactus Club Cafe in Vancouver: delicious food, great service, funky vibe in the centre of town.

Canada: we will be back!

The incredible Lake Louise

Independent travel in Turkey: Turkish delight

First up, Selcuk, to visit the ruins of Ephesus. We stayed in a fantastic bed and breakfast, Tuncay Pension, right in the middle of Selcuk, a small town on a direct train from Izmir airport. We had a bit of an adventure getting there, latching onto some locals to figure out which train to get on, and ended up standing with our packs by an open train door for part of the journey, watching people walk on the tracks behind the train. Poor old Dean just about had a health and safety hernia.

The ruins of Ephesus were well worth a visit, and within walking distance of Selcuk (although not on a super hot day, you’d expire).The ruins are not all that ruined, which made it easy to imagine what life would have been like in the port city thousands of years ago.

From the sunshine of Selcuk it was off on a dolmus (public bus that dropped us off on the motorway by the airport – bargain but again, health and safety Turkey...) to catch a flight to Goreme, in Cappadocia. The region is known for its amazing volcanic rock formations, with buildings cut into the rocks.

We spent two nights in a cave hotel (despite the name, it was very plush), braving the cold weather to explore the outdoor museum of caves, do a hot air balloon ride over the fairy chimneys, and do a tour around the region, including to the underground city of Derinkuyu. A unique part of the world, well worth visiting (but take your thermals).

From there it was on to Istanbul for a few days, broken up with a trip to Galipolli. We missed our flight there (official airport shuttle driver had never driven to the airport, took the wrong route then stopped to ask directions – go figure) so despite a sprint that would have seen us win the Amazing Race across the airport with our packs, check in for our flight had closed, and no amount of fake tears and “but we’re visiting all the way from New Zealand” would move the man. No bother though, we took a £12, 6 and a half hour public overnight bus instead which turned out to be a fantastic, clean and comfy option.

The tour of Troy that morning was ok (could have missed it and still died happy) but the tour of Gallipoli was fantastic.

In Istanbul, we visited all the main sites, the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Galata Tower, Topaki palace, a boat cruise, some shopping at the markets and squishing a backgammon set and tea set into our packs for the trip home. We also visited two Turkish baths, learning that the less touristy ones are far and away superior in service and price. We stayed at Second Home Hostel which was just fantastic, the staff were lots of fun and the location was prime.

And as always eating featured heavily on a von Yarrall adventure, with apple tea, Turkish delight, fish sandwiches from the sea side and kebabs in their plenty.

von D girls visit Budapest

Lou enjoyed a weekend with her sisters in Budapest in April 2011. They had a wonderfully relaxing time wandering around in the sunshine, eating, drinking, and spending a fair few hours chilling out at Szechenyi Baths. They also explored the labyrinth underneath Castle Hill and had an amazing meal at Koleves, where they discovered that Hungarian wine is pretty darn good.

A lovely way to catch up with the girls and to celebrate Ange's 29th birthday.

Ange enjoying her birthday desert at Koleves.

Random wine fountain in the underground labyrinth.

Hannah, Helen, Ange and Lou overlooking Budapest.