Alicante: Late summer sun

Our holiday years are out of sync with each other, so with Lou having a few days to take, and her sister Ange having a week’s holiday as a teacher, they decided on a cheap and cheerful girls’ holiday to Alicante in the south of Spain, where they were guaranteed sunshine even in late October.

We stayed at Playa San Juan, outside of Alicante itself, but an easy 20 minute bus ride to the city. Our hotel was a Holiday Inn, purchased as a 'Top Secret Hotel' through lastminute.com in a super cheap flight and hotel deal. 

It didn’t look like the city had all that much to offer in the off-season, so we were happy with our little hotel at Playa San Juan, complete with swimming pool and 5 minute stroll to the beach cafes and bars. We made good use of them, becoming a regular at GAME bar, which offered live music on Sunday evening, and cheap mojitos everyday. Acqua bar was pretty good for food and cofe, as was Lys de France - all with beach front locations.. 

We spent a happy few days chilling out, reading, walking, and one day exploring the castle overlooking Alicante (which they clearly want visitors to get the elevator to - we walked up and with no signs, spent 2 hours circling the mountain until finally stumbling over the entrance. We got the lift back down!).

Highly recommend Alicante - or Playa San Juan - for a sunny, relaxing time.

Edinburgh tattoo and fringe: Free comedy: laugh or your money back

We finally made it to Scotland for the Edinburgh festival last weekend, with tickets to the Tattoo and nothing else locked into the agenda.

We opted this trip to take the train both ways from Kings Cross, since the time (4 and a half hours) is roughly what it takes to get to the airport, check in, wait, fly, then get into town at the other end. A great way to travel, although our 2pm Friday train was jam packed with people taking up every possible aisle space. Luckily we had booked seats in advance, but all the people made for a pretty warm, squishy trip. We were lucky with our B&B too, Kirklea Guest House, which was charging more normal (affordable) rates than many other options in town, with even youth hostels asking for £100 a night when we looked to book 8 months ago.

First up, the Tattoo. Lucky for us the forecast rain didn't arrive, so we settled in for two hours of piping, drumming, dancing and the Scots not singing God Save the Queen. Highlights were the King of Norway's Guards Band and Drill Team (all youngsters doing their national service), The Top Secret Drum Corps from Switzerland (drumming so fast you couldn't see their hands move), and the Aussies, who did a pretty humorous set including a spot of Kyle and a Waltzing Mathilda sing-along. There was an extensive set at the end with all the bands re-creating Queen Elizabeth's coronation which we didn't feel the Scots were loving, and it's true, they all stood for the anthem but didn't sing. Not surprising, given one of the later verses of an older version of the the anthem includes the lines "Rebellious Scots to crush, God save the King." The Castle was very cleverly lit up in various ways throughout the Tattoo - some of the best pics here.

The US band playing a superhero mash up

The Castle lit with Union Jacks after the slightly weird and very long tribute to the Queen

The locals: a bit happier at their own flag

On Saturday we grabbed a Fringe guide (the size of a phone book) and planned the day as follows:
Improv: Aaand here's another thing - at a very small room in a pub, got jam packed and very hot and lots of people missed out getting in. Very clever and funny (donation)

Play: Executive Stress/Corporate Retreat - a hilarious play with plenty of audience participation by a group of young Aussies, Applespeil. We loved this, our competitive sides came out during the audience participation. Lou ended up the winner of the crowd in the end. Here she is proudly in her t-shirt, which we like to refer to as her 'Team Building Exercise '99' t-shirt, a la Flight of the Conchords. (£7 well spent)
Combination stand up: Lolympics - a flavour of a few of the acts at the festival (donation)
Stand up: Yianni, Numb and Number - an Aussie with number-based humour (donation)
Stand up: Kiwi Ben Crellin - funny, and good to support a kiwi, but a couple of the audience got pretty offended at his padeophile/murderer set which ruined the buzz a bit (donation)
Bingo: Bogan Bingo - does what it says on the tin. Two Aussies, in mullets, rocking to 80s tunes, while we all played a good old fashioned game of bingo. Pleased to find these guys play every Thursday close to us, so we might go laugh with them again some time soon (donation)

Our train on Sunday was departing mid-afternoon, so we had time for just two more shows:
Sketch: The Tourists - a small group of Manchurians with a set of bizarre, very funny skits (donation)
Variety: Free Footlights - another super popular show featuring some of the best young talent. Stand outs were I am I am, a musical duo with an amusing song about the London underground; Johnny Lenox as an 'author' reading some of his very clever and funny stories; and Phil Wang, a regular old fashioned stand up comic (donation)

A fantastic, albeit exhausting and full on, weekend. Will happily pop back again for another weekend during the festival.

Greece: It’s all Greek to me

In 2012 we von Yarralls had our first proper summer holiday for a couple of years, as 2010 was spent partying at the football world cup in South Africa, and 2011 exploring Canada. So we were overdue for some down time in the sun - and a bit of a change from the planning involved in independent travelling. London’s rubbish weather (grey and wet for months on end) wasn’t helping matters, so when the alarm went off at 4am for our taxi to the airport, there were no complaints – the idea of guaranteed sunshine was enough to see us bounding out of bed!

Dean - not happy at the new closing hours

We first flew to Athens, as we wanted to see the Acropolis before heading to the islands. The metro to the city from the airport took about 30 minutes, and we came out to scorching sunshine and a pretty empty street – seems most Athenians are smart and stay indoors in 35 degree heat. Not us though, we checked in to our very clean and cheap hotel Athens Center Square Hotel, then ambled our way up the hill to the Acropolis, taking in a couple of markets and the atmosphere as we went. We got there at about 3.15pm to find a hand-written note saying the Acropolis now closes at 3pm on Sundays (not the 8pm on the website). We, and many other visitors, were extremely disappointed at this, and after speaking to a taxi driver, found this is a by-product of Greece’s financial crisis, with the government not able to stump up with wages for staff to keep the Acropolis open. We were super annoyed, but took ourselves off to the airconditioned, very modern (and cheap) Acropolis museum instead. Although informative and good, it wasn’t a replacement for the real thing (and let’s be honest, we’ve been to the British Museum and seen it all already, thanks Elgin). We were somewhat amused at the video which said something along the lines of ‘Elgin took advantage of the times and plundered the Acropolis’.

The following morning we were off to the ferry terminal to head to Mykonos. Again, the metro was reliable and fast, and then we settled in for the 3 hour journey. The ferry port is huge, so it’s worth getting there early to find the relevant ticket booth, we wouldn’t have wanted to be running around at the last minute.

Mykonos was beautiful, hot, relaxing, delicious, fun, and many more adjectives. We stayed in a bungalow (big room with a private balcony) at Rhenia, by the new port. This location, a 5 minute, €1.60 bus ride to the main centre rather than inside the town, meant we weren’t too tempted to explore each day and instead did what we’d planned to do – sleep, sun, read, swim, and head out for delicious meals in town most nights. Meal highlights include Jimmy’s gyros for the best gyros (kebabs) all holiday, Niko’s Taverna for fresh seafood, and Matthew’s Taverna at the bottom of our hotel’s road (for lazybones who can’t be bothered going further). We went exploring one day, hiring a quad bike and seeing Ano Mara, Elia beach, Super Paradise beach, Paradise beach and Ornos. This was a great adventure, we spent most of our day at Super Paradise, hiring loungers and an umbrella and having food and drinks brought to us. Very luxurious. And if you're into a party this is the right place to come as this video shows!

After five nights in Mykonos we waved goodbye and boarded a ferry to Santorini, a 3 hour journey away. Here we were staying at Sofia Hotel in Firostefani, a ten minute easy walk from the main town of Fira. Santorini is beautiful, perched on top of a steep cliff, with all the white buildings looking like snow (one of us thought for a moment it was snow as we pulled into the harbour, and it wasn’t the ‘von’ part of the team.) We didn’t find Santorini quite as relaxing as Mykonos, our hotel was more central and the pool smaller, but we still lazed around doing pretty much nothing each day, starting the morning with fresh fruit and greek yoghurt, and ending it with an al fresco meal around 10pm each night.

Not snow, but snow white buildings perched on the top of the cliff

 The highlight of Santorini was the day we walked 10kms to Oia, a town famous for its beautiful sunsets. The hilly walk took about 2 1/2 hours in the hot sun, but meant we got some excellent views of the island on the way (top tip - wear normal shoes, jandals wouldn't cut it). After the sun went down we visited Santorini Mou, an excellent restaurant recommended to us by family, where the owner and his friends sing all night long. Lots of wine, ouzo and food that night especially.

Both islands seemed pretty busy, but we did get the impression they were quieter than normal, and heard in Santorini during the peak season they usually have 11 cruise ships in the harbour, where we saw 3 or 4 most days. This possibly made for a more relaxing trip for us, as although both towns had crowded, narrow streets, we didn’t feel quite as squashed as we would have during a usual visitor year.

We would happily pop back to Greece for a laid-back holiday in future, definitely the most relaxing trip we’ve done so far.

Next up – the von Yarralls don their kilts for the Edinburgh tattoo, can’t wait!

New York: The big āporo

Ok, so this is going to be a long one, because while we were only in NYC for five nights, we packed a lot in, and loved the joint so have to share all the details. We haven't even ranted about the bagels or the service! You ready?
We've split this into areas of the City for ease of reading.

Lou and the famous bull near Wall St

Walking the highline on a magnificent day

Take me out to the ball game

First up, Midtown.
Since our accommodation (Candlewood Suites) was located in mid town, just near Times Square, we spent the bulk of our time in this area. We spent the better part of one day walking around visiting Times Square (didn’t find the free museum and nice clean loos until our final day), the Empire State building, the Chrysler building, Public Library, St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Rockerfeller Centre, FAO Schwarz (yep we jumped around on the big piano), Grand Central Station, and an excellent tour of the UN.
We also popped into Justin Timberlake's restaurant Southern Hospitality in Hell's kitchen and stuffed ourselves silly.

Top tip: When you get to the Empire State building there’s a huge queue of people wanting to head to the observation deck and touts selling tickets to queue jump. From the 5th Ave entrance, it looks like you can’t get in without a ticket. You can though – just walk around the corner to 33rd St and use one of those entrances to have a good look around the lobby. Of course if you want the view, you'll have to queue!

The view from the top of the Met, central park

Uptown

Plenty to do and see here, and a really different feel to the rest of the city (might be all that money rolling around?) We spent a fab afternoon mooching around Central Park and having a wee nap in the sunshine before heading to the excellent

Metropolitan Museum and taking in the American wing and the view from the roof top bar, before wandering home past Park Ave.

Top tip: the price at museums (usually around $20-25) is in fact the ‘recommended’ price. You can just pay what you want – but you do have to pay something. At the ticket desk, just say you’d like to pay $10 or whatever, and that’s just fine - no snooty looks or anything!

Downtown

Downtown also has plenty to offer, including Wall Street, Southport (great for a drink in the sunshine), China Town, Little Italy (where we had the biggest pizza ever at Lombardi's), and the excellent 'Highline' walk along a disused rail track, which now provides a spot of green in the city and great views.

Around town

Brooklyn

The old girl

One of Lou’s old school friends lives in Brooklyn, so we walked across the bridge one evening to take in views of the city and the Statue of Liberty to have a meal in Brooklyn. As well as seeing a different part of New York, we enjoyed a fantastic meal at a local Mexican, Fonda, with Simone and her husband Geoff.

Top tip: None of the guide books told us how to get onto the bridge, so we had to ask a friendly Policewoman. The pedestrian entrance is right by City Hall.

Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty

We like to think we don’t act like travelling rookies so much these days, but we were the day we decided to get a boat to Ellis Island to visit the Immigration Museum. After 40 minutes in the queue to buy tickets, we did a reccie to see how long the queue through security and to the boat was. We estimated 1000+ people and an hour and a half, so we called that idea quits. Instead, we booked online that night (no extra charge) which meant no queues. In fact, we booked for a 10am sailing and at that time of the day there wasn’t much of a queue at all, so if you don’t want to book online, get there around 9am to minimise time wasted.

Lou rockin' a peace keeper's helmet at the UN

Times Square at night

The boat cruise was great, got up really close to the Statue of Liberty, but we didn’t get off on the island (you can, but there’s not much to see). Instead we continued on to Ellis Island where we spent 3 hours exploring the immigration museum and learning about what immigrants to the US used to go through. Interestingly, the questions they were asked (can you support yourself, can you work, are you a criminal) are much the same as UK immigration ask Dean each time he renews his visa, so things haven’t really changed. Also interesting was that the US really welcomed immigrants from 1892-24, so only 2 percent of those coming into Ellis Island got sent back. They have an excellent search facility so we looked up Yarralls and von Ds to see if any of them had come through, and since found out Lou's Great Grandfather went through there in the 1920s from Scotland.

Yankee Stadium

Whoop, it was free t-shirt day when we visited the Yankees. We do like free stuff! Enjoyed the game and atmosphere, and gorged on the obligatory fried foods, beer and crackerjack.

Some more tips to get the most from your stay

Getting into town from JFK: Very easy and fast on public transport. Take the air train (don’t need a ticket just yet) to Jamaica. Before exiting, purchase a combined airtrain/LIRR ticket (around $13) and exit. Get on the LIRR to Penn Station and you’re there in about 20 minutes.

Metro tickets: If you’re there for 3 or more days, it’s probably worth buying a 3 day pass. We didn’t, and even though we spent most of our time walking, we used the metro enough to warrant it. If you don’t get a pass, you can just buy one metro card and pass it through to the person you’re with – you don’t need one each like you do in London.

Tipping: a good rule of thumb is to just double the tax added to your bill (around 8%) which gives a 16% tip.

Most department stores (and certainly Macy's where we took advantage) have visitor cards, offering a 10% discount for out of towners.

Take your passport, as the kiwi driver's licence might not cut it as ID for alcohol. Dean and our friend Rod spent about 20 minutes arguing with various members of staff at the Yankees who wouldn't accept their NZ drivers' licences as proof of age. They won and we got the beer in the end, but save yourself the trouble!

And to finish, here's the locals at the 9th Ave food festival on while we were there, awesome.

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?