One of the reasons behind my blog has always been to keep track of my shenanigans and let my family and friends know that I’m not rocking back and forth in a foreign country with a teapot in one hand and a packet of dark chocolate Hobnobs in the other, pining for England.
And so I give you a round-up of my week… the good stuff anyway… I’m not going to tell you when I’m doing my ironing or putting the rubbish out!
Quick Update: I’m making quite a few changes to VHE at the moment, so if things look a little different or seem to the be in the wrong place, while I’m doing my thing, please do bear with me!
1st – 7th August
Friday: Still in Northumberland, it was time to get out and explore. Even in the pouring rain, Lindisfarne or The Holy Island was packed. I have a full post coming on this, so I won’t go into too much detail here, except to say that it is incredible! Once we had dried off and eaten our crab sandwiches, it was time for a trip to Alnwick.
Alnwick is a beautiful town, but were there for one specific reason; Barter Books. An incredible bookshop housed in the old railway station, it is a book lovers dream. We took a few books to exchange and came out again with another bag full!
On the way back to Wooler, we stopped at an old church near Chillingham Castle, which had the most amazing tomb inside… more on that soon!
Saturday: Still pouring with rain, we made our way into the Scottish Borders. We drove by Kelso Castle, checked out a massive statue of William Wallace in the middle of nowhere and admired Scott’s View.
Then we headed to Abbotsford, the impressive home of Sir Walter Scott – more on that soon. We popped to Jedburgh, but unfortunately the rain was far too heavy to visit the abbey, so we headed back for a quick trip the pub and a curry, before settling down for an evening of wine and card games.
Sunday: Roadworks, traffic jams, accidents… it felt like a total conspiracy, making our drive from Northumberland to Brussels take 15 hours. The only good bit was a very quick stop in the park to hangout with my lovely family.
Monday: In need of excellent company and excellent food, I popped into La Piola with Maxine. I love the kind of evenings where you spend half the time giggling and you never quite finish a story as you get distracted by another story half way through. It was that kind of evening and my lasagne with bechamel sauce and aubergine was FANTASTIC.
Wednesday: Linn (who blogs over at Raus Mat) has just finished walking the Camino de Santiago, so we went for a couple of cocktails at the Delirium Monasterium, a vodka bar next to the infamous Delirium Cafe and had a good catch-up.
How about you? What have you been up to this week?