On December 7th EasyJet will begin flying from East Midlands Airport to Barcelona. I’ve never been and neither has Alison so we might just go there for our break. It’ll be warm and sunny so that will make a great Christmas break.
So I’m now going to find out what there is to see and do, and to find out whether it’s cheaper to go at the weekend or during the week.
We also need to find a hotel in Barcelona.
Have you been?
Do you have any recommendations?
We’re thinking off getting away for a short break sometime before Christmas as I’m coming up to a landmark birthday.
East Midlands Airport is dead handy so we’ll fly from there, the only question is where to?
May somewhere on the Mediterranean for a bit of winter sun?
From Sunday to Wednesday last week we had a break from doing the bathroom and took ourselves camping in Wales for a few days. We stayed at the Willows campsite at Mynytho in the scenic region around Pwllheli.
The weather was terrible on the day we arrived, it was really pouring with rain but stopped for just long enough for us to pitch our tent.
The next day was overcast and we could see from our tent that Snowdon was clouded over, in fact I think most of Wales was! That day we went to see a National Trust house Plas yn Rhiw and we looked round Abersoch and Pwllheli.
We also went to the cinema and saw the Bourne Ultimatum, an excellent film that I can heartily recommend (Alison liked it too…).
Tuesday morning finally promised the clear skies we’d been waiting for. We could see from the tent that it was still slightly cloudy over Snowdon but that’s to be expected so we packed the car and left for Rhyd Ddu. From here we took the Rhyd Ddu path up the mountain. The walk was fairly straight forward as it’s well trodden but we did have to stop for a Shepard herding his sheep which is a rare sight.
After reaching the top of a steep climb Alison let out a great sigh of disbelief: she thought that the summit was near however our false horizon gave way to a speculator view of the summit which was some way away and to Alison’s extreme dismay there was another steep climb followed by a narrow ridge (for us anyway!). Getting up the ridge took quite a bit of courage but after that there was only a short climb before reaching the summit.
Believe it or not there is a train station and cafe at the summit, they’ve been there for a very long time and although they are very expensive both do good trade. At the moment, however, the cafe is being rebuilt and instead of a crumbling old concrete building there is now the beginnings of a modern steel and glass structure. The new building looks much bigger and as it’s now on two floors I suppose it is but a fellow walker told me that it’s in the same footprint as the original building. I expect it’ll be quite nice when it’s finished so if you fancy walking for three or four hours to pay £5 for a coffee then you should think about it, but if you don’t fancy the walk the train used to be about £25 for a return 
We had lunch on the summit, took a few photos (including what’s maybe the worlds highest cement mixer at 1085m or 3560ft!), then set off back down. Rather than go down the way we come up we opted for a change of scenery and took the Snowdon Ranger path, this route offered great views of our earlier walk including the ridge. The way down actually took longer than the way up as it was slightly longer and I was also having trouble with my knee.
Once back down we had a well earned drink and sit down at the pub in Rhyd Ddu for a slightly stiff hobble back the car 100m away. We slept well that night!
Last Wednesday night we left for Prague in the Czech Republic and returned late on Saturday night, so we had three days and three nights in the city. We timed it so that we’d see the famous Christmas Markets but not so close to Christmas that the prices were ridiculous. Actually the prices were ok, we got a budget flight from the UK with EasyJet from Nottingham East Midlands Airport and the hotel (the Astoria) wasn’t too bad either.
Prague has a reputation for being quite cold so we took plenty of warm clothes even though the forecast said temperatures would be close to the UK. For a nice change the forecast was accurate although it did cool down towards the weekend. It has been a warm year for all of Europe though (the Met Office has confirmed the warmest UK autumn on record), and in fact some winter sports in the Czech Republic were canceled at the weekend due to a lack of snow.
Anyway enough typing, here’s some photos:
The Astrological Clock
The Charles Bridge
Prague Castle
Prague Old Town Square
Those are the best of mine but you can view them all at: my flickr album, and plently of other people have taken photos too so why not check out theirs?
And you can read more about Prague and the Czech Republic at Wikipedia
While we were in Newquay on our recent holiday we tried out something new: Blo karting. If you’ve ever seen Land Yachting then this is very similar, the diference is that these are smaller and can dismantle to fit into a holdall!
Although they are small they are by no means slow! There was a good wind but not very stong, great for learning.
The place we went for the Blokarting on Gwithian Beach near Hayle in Cornwall (map), we arranged it through a company called SpeedsailUK who were excellent. We paid £44 for a two hour session comprising of tuition, equipment, coveralls and insurance.
We had an absolutely excellent time and I would recomment it to anyone.
Photos:
As promised here are some of the photos from our recent camping holiday (click here if you want to see them all).
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