At school I developed a fondness for the works of William Shakespeare and had long thought I should visit his birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. As is often the case with places that are close to home, you just never get round to it, so in August 2009 I decided to put that right!
There are actually about five houses you can visit in Stratford which have some link to the Bard, but I settled for just visiting his actual birthplace and the church where he is buried, as well as Anne Hathaway's cottage, which is stunningly beautiful.
I also walked by the river and went to the lovely Butterfly Farm, which I would recommend to anyone visiting Stratford.
For the past few years, China had been high up on my list of places to visit. I kn ew it was not going to be cheap and there were so many places I wanted to visit. Ross and I decided to go together and me made a mental list of the places we wanted to see and then ranked them, finally weighing up where we wanted to go with the cost of the trip. The outcome was a whirlwind tour of three of the biggest cities in China.
We started off in Beijing. Our lovely guide took us to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace amongst other places. We enjoyed a traditional Chinese tea ceremony and had a delicious duck dinner. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people everywhere we went. I had expected to be surrounded by foreign tourists, given the places we were visiting, but there were so many Chinese people at these places too that we often felt like the sole Western people there!
Next, we headed by overnight sleeper train to X'ian, where we visited the Terracotta Warriors (one of the highlights of the trip for me). Expectations cane sometimes let you down, but when I walked into the main hall of this place my jaw dropped, it was so vast! We also saw the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, enjoyed a dumpling banquet in X'ian and watched a Tang Dynasty show, which was bright and colourful and beautiful.
Our last stop was Shanghai. It was the place I had least been excited about, but it really surprised me in so many ways. It is unlike any other Chinese city I have been to. What surprised me most of all is how Western it is - big, high rise buildings that are so modern and fantastic shopping! Out of the main city, more traditional Chinese life goes on, of course and the shops and stall round the Yuyuan Gardens are there to cater for tourist expectations of what China "should" be like. The Yuyuan Gardens themselves are beautiful, as is the Jade Buddha Temple. We also took in the Shanghai Acrobats Show, which is truly spectacular.
One of the main reasons we went to Shanghai and went to China at all at this time of year was to take in the total eclipse of the sun. Unfortunately the weather did not co-operate throughout Asia and we had torrential rain! That said, we did still have the very eerie sensation of seeing pitch darkness fall across the city in a matter of seconds - really weird!
I love to visit places far and wide, but actually you don't have to go far to see some places of real outstanding natural beauty and Pembrokeshire in Wales is one such place.
I spent many a summer holiday in St David's, playing on the beach at Whitesands Bay. I remember it as a massive long beach, but having visited it as an adult, it is typically not the size I remember it as.
This trip took me to a stretch of coast further south and walked along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, viewing the sea birds, the stacks in the water and the rock arches.
I also went to Carew Castle and looked around the ruins.
Like my last post, this is not exactly an exotic travel destination, but both Bath and Stonhenge are high on the list of tourist destinations in England and I got some smashing photos so it is worth sharing.
I went to Bath first and visited the Roman Baths and the Abbey - both are lovely and well worth a visit. You get an audio guide at the Baths in a range of languages to help give you information about the history of the place. My only advide would be to get there early so as to avoid the queues of Japanese and American tourists!
Stonehenge is not far away from Bath and is one of the most iconic sights in the country. As with many such sights, it is all about whether the reality matches up to your preconceived ideas. This is a very commercial tourist spot these days, which can spoil it for some. You will undoubtledly run into lots of tourists from all over the world here. However, if you can put that aside, the stones themselves are an impressive sight.
I'm not sure Warwick Castle really constitutes "travel", but this was such a lovely day out that I have decided to include it.
I took this day trip to one of Britain's top tourist spots because I had long wanted to visit it and I thought the snow on the ground would make it particularly lovely. Turns out I was right. After weeks of terrible weather this day dawned bright and sunny, but still cold, so there was still snow on the ground.
Warwick Castle is well worth a visit and the ground are stunning too.
My last trip of 2008 was taken with my twin Ross and we went to Copenhagen in Denmark.
It was only a long weekend, but it was enough time to see the main sights of the city. We visited Nyhavn, where the boats dock in the canal, which is a bright and bustling place. We saw the Little Mermaid and took a boat trip along the waterways. We also visited many of the churches and the Palace, went up the Round Tower and went to Tivoli Gardens to while away a lovely evening.
I actually arrived earlier than Ross as we were flying from different cities and I made the most of my time my heading just north of the city to Helsinor to visit Kronborg Castle, famously the castle in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is a stunning place and is also responsible for giving me one of the scariest travel experiences. I decided to head to the dungeons, only to find myself as the sole person in there and it pitch black. I am not normally afraid of the dark, but I had no idea where I was or how to get out and resorted to taking photos with the flash to guide my way out!!!
This holiday wins the award for most exhausting trip ever taken!!! I went to Disneyland Paris with my darling friend Helen and her children William and Georgia (my God children). Needless to say the kids were very excited.
We stayed in one of the Disney Village hotels and had passes to get into the theme parks every day. We made the most of it and went on ride after ride after ride. The kids had a birthday lunch with the Disney characters coming to visit and enjoyed the parade each day.
My feet and back protested on this trip, but the kids loved it (as did H and I) so it was all worth it.
