Broads On The Broads

I haven’t been posting much recently because life hasn’t had many adventures in store for me of late. Kim’s visa to move here got denied and so now it’s looking like instead of her coming to England I’ll be going to America. Until then I’m home alone with Barclay and Bunny, the kitties, and more often than not fairly bored.

I did however have a fun outing with my friends to Wroxham last week, when Sarah had the very good idea to rent out a day boat. We purchased picnic supplies, 2 loaves of bread for the ducks and a sailor hat (vital for all maritime voyages) and found a hut in Wroxham by the water where a friendly bearded man (who we decided to name Captain Bob) instructed us on how to sail a boat. Sail? Hmm.. it had no sails… maybe I mean drive a boat? …Operate a boat. Now he was talking a lot about ports and bows and starboards and getting stern but Nancy and Sarah had no clue and my seafaring knowledge relates directly to a games of port starboard played at Brownies and sailing trips with my dad from the 90s where I was primarily concerned with the whistle on my life jacket and avoiding the boon.

Either way we set off, we had the rule that whoever was behind the wheel must wear the sailor hat, we fed the ducks and energetically waved at all passing boats… some of whom ignored us. Rude.

We had a great time, we saw ducks and goslings and all sorts of wildlife. I even livened things up a bit by driving over large bits of tree in the water when attempting to keep the boat stationary (an impossible feat!).

We encountered two boats on a stag do all dressed as pirates who were continually crashing into each other and throwing things at one another… we let them over take funnily enough.

We all liked snooping on the back gardens of all the homes that faced the broads, and we saw 2 herons!

Either that or it was the same heron who was extremely photogenic.

When we got back Nancy reverse bay parked the boat, we were all so impressed and to this day she does not know how she did it. Amazing.

The Eiffel Tower & Seine River Boat Tour

I know it’s New Years today (4th year of my blog!) but I’m being slow and this is what Kimberly and I did on Christmas Day, it was kind of odd to decide what to do with no family or BBC as is tradition. So we decided to take a trip out after opening our gifts (woo – stockings forever!).

So we took this double decker train to the Eiffel Tower which I rather liked (novelty!).

It was so packed, I pre-booked tickets but I could see a lot of Asian tourists that hadn’t and they must have waited hours and hours. We overheard other English speaking tourists wondering why everyone else was out on Christmas Day, so many shops were open and christmas market stalls. All of the bakeries we went past were open – madness!

But we piled in the lift and up to the top we went.

Why can’t French people queue? This is a main fault of theirs, I’m sorry France but your poor ability to queue and rudeness will not do… French people looked genuinely surprised when I told them not to push in front of me, quite literally everywhere we went. Rant over, apologies to the French people who were very nice. We got some snacks on the first level of the Eiffel Tower, Kimberly got cream and waffles everywhere.

And then we got up to the next level and had pink champagne, wasn’t that nice. And only ten euros which I thinks not that bad really.

Then we had a little shufty around.

And back down we went – it was cold up there! I’d also booked a little river trip on a boat on the Seine.

And that was nice and warm and pretty, even if the audio tour bit was bizarre.

It was given by a recording of a male tour guide and the Seine river personified as this lady and they spoke to each other calling one another “my dear”… really odd. But you know… different cultures or whatever.

That’s one of the love padlock bridges and you can see where they’ve started removing some of the panels because they’re worried about the weight of all the locks on the bridge.

So then we parked up and went back to our apartment where we each had a decorative Christmas cake from the local boulangerie and some baked Camembert with baguette which I expertly prepared in the mad microwave/grill/oven thing I couldn’t figure out. Come to think of it I don’t know if I baked the cheese or microwaved it or grilled it… I definitely did something though and it worked.

Es Cana

We’d heard about a boat cruise from Portinatx where my Mum, Sister and I were staying to Es Cana where there was large hippy market on a Wednesday.

So we got a ticket and walked down stairs of death to a rocky outcrop which was a health and safety inspector’s nightmare and waited for the boat. There was much jostling and queue pushing and there were a few seats on the main part of the boat and empty seats right at the front of the boat near the helm. Well… to say the water was choppy was an understatement, we got absolutely soaked (it was hot though so it was ok – also I was behind my Sister so she got sprayed with the majority of the sea water haha). However, because it was so choppy everyone at the main part of the ship got really sea sick (including the queue pushers!); there was much passing around of paper bags but everyone at the front of the boat was fine. The sailors told us that the front was the best part to sit at to avoid sickness, so really we had good seats by luck. Also they sang us a song too which we danced in our seats too (we aren’t a serious family).  My Mum had to protect all our bags and phones and stuff as she sat at the back of us and she put them under her top, the sailors didn’t speak a lot of English but they had a good laugh and said to her “Baby!” which just made me burst into laughter.

We stepped off at Es Cana to explore but first we all fancied a drink so we stopped off at this open air place that served food and drinks and had a pool and stuff and places to lounge. We only wanted iced coffees so we just parked up. Goodness me they were pushy, there was a sign outside that said come and use our pool (not that we wanted to; we hadn’t bought swimsuits) everyone welcome. As soon as we got in we discovered you had to pay to use the pool and there were some lounging beds to the side you also had to pay to use – 30 euros!!! I don’t what kind of person agrees to pay that but more fool them.

Then it was off to the Hippy Market, a huge labyrinth of stalls that reeked of incense and dreadlocks.

It was packed with other tourists like ourselves but also locals, a lot of the things were expensive I thought but I suppose that’s the same wherever you go that other tourists go too.

Lots of the stalls sold crafted things that I assume the people had hand made like jewellery and clothing.

And… you know… other more traditional hippy goods…

There weren’t just stalls and food,, there was lots of people playing music and performing – like this ornate fellow here.

And of course the obligatory floating people I saw in Rome (I looked up how they were doing it this time).

My Mum took a look at some of the clothes but they were all pretty expensive. We noticed that all of the sellers that were Spanish had high prices and wouldn’t budge on them but all the sellers that weren’t Spanish and had obviously moved there would haggle every time and so they had prices that were more reasonable so we just bought everything from them instead.

After a spot of lunch and a good deal more bargain hunting we headed back to the boat but luckily it wasn’t so choppy on the way back. We decided to move right to back whilst others clamoured to get to the front and I think I even had a little snooze at one point (it was a long journey!). We noticed some people that were there on the way there weren’t there on the way back, they’d opted to spend a fortune on a taxi rather than face the paper bags again haha.