Chiddingstone Castle May 2014.

 

We've lived here for ages but for some reason have never been to Chiddingstone Castle. It's only in Edenbridge so not very far away at all.

What a lovely little place. There is a little tea room just around the end of the building but you can bring your food and sit anywhere you like in the grounds.

 

The grounds are open to the public but you have to pay to go into the house. 

There was hardly anyone there. It is a really popular walking area, so I think people just go straight past, which is a shame.

A Ha Ha. I think they are a really clever illusion. There was a huge drop on the other side of this wall

   

We walked across this little bridge to get to the village. While we were having lunch a couple were planning their wedding and were going to walk from the church in the village to the castle. Lovely if the weather is good, a disaster if it's wet.

Desborough May 2014

We haven't seen Jo and Andy since April so we decided to go straight there from Gatwick as the journey time was about the same as from home. We hadn't reckoned on the good old M25 though, so it took ages.

The next day the weather was rubbish so we did some craft.

She sat there nearly all day cutting and sticking with what she called " luberly glue" no idea why she called it that as it was a Pritt Stick!

We went shopping and she spied this, it's a bit blurry as she was jiggling about.

                

          

                  

Lovely smiley face .

We went to Ziizzi's for lunch. Madelyn scoffed all her food and then tucked into ice cream.

    

Get ready

    

Steady

             

Go

Next day it was still raining so we all went to Mini Mischiefs. It was packed and soooo noisy! Lots of tiny tots all charging about.

           

This is a wind machine. You are supposed to hold plastic balls over the jets of air, which is what Madelyn did but the photo makes it look as if she has a pair of shiny white boobs.

It was much more fun to just stand there and get blasted.

                

  

I've used this photo before but it is mega cute so no apologies for using it again. Before we left I bought Madelyn some proper paint. I didn't have time to play with it with her but it was clearly a great success

                 

Such a great photo.

  

Menorca May 2014.

This is hotel Del Admilranti. It was built by Admiral Collingwood in 1700 something. It was the strangest little hotel we've ever stayed in. There were only 7 rooms in the hotel, all mahogany and faded velvet. We had asked for a room in the house but changed our mind when we got there. It was very gloomy and made me think of an old peoples home, which it could have been seeing as everyone there was ancient 👴👵There were lots of people staying there but we hardly saw a soul.

                   

This is the garden and this is the view from our room. Not bad.                               

        

                              

 The pool

Our room was here.

                        Deserted and it was a glorious afternoon.

              

The terrace.

            

It wasn't really a good location. We were between Mahon and Es Castelli, both harbour towns with no beach. The  hotel was in a highish position overlooking the two harbours. So,although we had a brilliant view it was all downhill to the restaurants and of course uphill on the way back. The brochure said it was a ten minute stroll to the town, if you were Usain Bolt it might have been, in reality it was a good 30 minutes.

While we were there, there was a tall ships race. They were moored up in Mahon Harbour and glided past our window to start their race.

This enormous cruise ship also went past.

Es Castelli

It looked lovely at night but the resturants were expensive.

We never saw anyone in the boats though.

We hired a car and had a little potter about. It is a very small island and easy to drive around as there is very little traffic.

This is Calla Galdana. It is a family friendly place with little beach shops and quite a few resturants.

It was cloudy when we got there but by the middle of the afternoon the sun came out and the beach was busy with families. 

    

Mahon Harbour

Fornells

Fornells is a fishing village. Some people in our hotel raved about it but, to be honest there was naff all there and it was very, very windy.

Next day we toddled of to San Bou. It was a bit more of a resort with a big hotel and a beautiful beach. The water was staggeringly clear and such a lovely colour.

                                   

  Enjoying the view.                                                                     

                 

                       

Beautiful beaches everywhere

One day we went into Mahon. There was some sort of festival and as often happens in Spain, some random dancing 

              Some of the trees had been decorated with paper flowers, don't know why, but it looked pretty.

               

And finally. 

This was part of a crazy golf playground. Be a good advert for Andy!!