Writing about: Family Travel, kids, places, food…

Month: July 2018

House Swap in Knaresborough

We had another great house swap an hour and a half away from Scarborough in Knaresborough which was a new area for us and allowed easy access to York and Harrogate etc. It’s really a lovely area and the house was so comfortable for us all with great views onto the countryside and included rainbows!

We’ve always loved York and had a couple of fun days there. The Jorvik Viking Center is always a good visit as is the Minster and of course shopping and eating in the old city.

 

Darwin does just fine with buses, trains, boats and crowds. He’s a trooper.

 

More picnics this time in the Yorkshire Dales (near Scarborough it’s the moors).

 

And visits to market towns including Thirsk which was the home of James Herriot and still has his museum there. Charlotte and I are also fans of the show the Yorkshire Vet which is a reality show using the old Herriot vet practice (new vets) so we were groupies and visited the clinic.

Then there were Farm Shows and more picnics with friends and of course Darwin.

 

 

 

And off Back to Scarborough

One of our main goals of summer 2018 was to all spend time in Scarborough visiting the place I was born (my grandmother’s house and where I mostly grew up is the red door) and to show the 3 younger kids (my two and cousin Janet) the town and special places for our family.

This included trips to Durham to see my grandmother’s, great grandparents and great-great grandparents graves and old houses. It might sound rather heavy going but our family spends most of the time laughing and being silly so there was plenty of that going on. We got to meet up with a cousin who brainstormed the family tree and expanded the ancestry site a lot. Later we also met his lovely daughter which was very special too.

England was going through a drought and it hadn’t rained in ages which was good for us as we had unusually dry trips out.

Charlotte was happy to ride quite a few times at my old riding school in Snainton. It was quite special for both of us. She now of course wants to move there and buy her own horse.

We had some amazing picnics at Abbeys and cliff tops all around Yorkshire. I think the theme of the summer has been picnics and family.

 

 

 

Colours of Brittany

It really is a gorgeous summer and the colors and sights of Brittany kept impressing us.

 

Our favorite outing and one we went back and did again was to the oyster beds in Cancale for a picnic. You can buy dozens of them quite cheaply and carry your tray to the steps for a picnic. We took wine, cheeses and bread along too and had feasts. Better than a 5 star restaurant any day! The two pictures show the same spot with the tide out and oyster beds visible and then when the tide is in. Pretty neat.

 

Saint Malo was lovely.

 

This castle was on a head land at Cap Frehel and the water color amazing. It really is this blue!

 

Brittany Bound

We had been offered a house swap in Brittany so happily had jumped on that. I’d spent holidays there as a child but most of my memories were of wind swept beaches and cliffs in a caravan. Having a lovely house made it a bit easier and the summer was so warm with little rain or wind that we were spoilt!

Sunset from our deck:

The area is lovely and the cliffs and beaches gorgeous. A great beach vacation spot with plenty of castles and historical towns to keep all engaged.

I think our favorite was Dinan. Gorgeous old buildings and lots of good food – galletes are the famous buckwheat crepes here. Yum.

Another pretty spot was Mont San Michel. We parked and took the shuttle bus over to the island and the trip was pretty cheap and easy although coming back we had a long wait as the crowds were high. It was hot going and loads of steep stairs so not an easy day out but interesting. Worth the effort.

 

 

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