That time of the year again

In an attempt to avoid the depressing grey UK winter weather and to get some warmth into our bones, we did the "almost usual" pilgrimage to Lanzagrotty. It involved a trip to Hythe, taking Mrs Toddler to the hospital and then a stupidly early start to get to Bournemouth airport for the first of the three flights leaving that day. Yes, three. Wildly busy place.

Playa Blanca and the Rubicon Palace hotel were as nice as ever and most of the controls on our 66 thousand kilometer VW Polo hire car seemed to work. All was well. Since we'd not been there in many years, we became proper tourists and visited Timanfaya - the volcano area where you get a great coach trip around the craters:

and various holes in the lava rock from the last eruption that was many years ago:

Seeing how a few lichens and little bushes have managed to make a foothold in the rocky landscape always amazes us, Nature is pretty resilient it seems. Back at the visitor centre you have to see the chicken being cooked over the heat from the volcano and the tourist special of making steam:

It was good to see that area again. 

We managed a few good walks despite the crew having a grumbling hip. Someone near the Marina Rubicon has one of the strangest "garden" layouts we've ever seen:

where anything they can put their hands on seems to have a role in making the outside space look more and more ridiculous - or should that be entertaining:

It should probably be entertaining but we are getting too old and crotchety to appreciate the artistry involved we fear.

A trip to Arrecife the capital is always good. The marina there had a most eclectic collection of craft including this one that proves having lots of money doesn't mean you have lots of taste when you pick the hull colour of your yacht:

No photoshopping was involved in the colours above....

A trip to the cafe on the 17th floor of the one tower block hotel is always a must do, not because the coffee and cake is especially great, it is just for the views:

We had been fortunate to bump into a lovely couple of folks when checking in to the hotel and spent a fair amount of time chatting with them. As we had a hire car, they got loaded into the rather cosy back seat of the elderly Polo and carted off to El Golfo so they could admire the little lagoon area that has been turned bright green by some overactive algae:

Kind of distinctive. Unfortunately, we arrived at the time there were 5 tourist coaches in the car park with the resulting mass of humanity shuffling around the place and looking generally lost. Luckily things thinned out so that we could properly enjoy a coffee and cake stop there in relative quiet.

We also dragged the poor folks with us to Puerto Calero where the coffee and cake thing was repeated. This rather expensive and decidedly fast looking yacht was high and dry - get the size of her from the "little" car underneath:

Our social activities also included visiting the Dutch couple that we met last year in Marina Rubicon who were having a sea trial on a lovely Nordhavn 52 (stretched version of our boat). They duly bought the boat and have been using her a lot and sorting out several upgrades. It was lovely to catch up and see their progress:

Of course, two weeks goes way too quickly. We soon ended up back in Bournemouth airport, feeling the cold and waiting an age for the bags to be delivered from the one plane that had landed. Baggage reclaim is always freezing and painfully slow there. From our rather nice Lanzarote hotel, to the Premier Inn at Ringwood was quite a change but the staff were great and Anne (Izzy the dog's owner) joined us so a good homecoming was enjoyed. Izzy has a new role, modelling for Xmas cards:

Not sure is the antlers suit her but.... The card kicked off Xmas well.

Malvern, off road driving and some snow then floods, of course

With Anne in tow, we headed up to Malvern and prepared ourselves for a day at Eastnor Castle, doing the Land Rover off road thing again. A particularly good one it was too. An excellent instructor who had amazing product knowledge. We were let loose on some of the advanced trails that had not been used for several weeks. That added to the fun - getting up this hill defeated even the Defender's smart electronics as it was shod with road tyres - half way up there was no real grip at all so it needed some "beans" and a high gear, as per the video:

A good day was had by all, well, apart from the poor Defender which went through the water troughs in an attempt to clean off some of the mud:

Naturally the water didn't reach the mirrors or roof so:

We happily headed back into Malvern and the next morning, despite the forecast of rain, we awoke to this:

The snow continued and the recency of our off-road driving day was handy. Breakfast was at the cafe in the Morgan factory. Again, snowing as per this video:

The crew opted for a little pain au raisin - only it wasn't small at all:

To save her, Anne kindly consumed that tiny sliver of pastry hanging down from the bottom. 

As well as enormous pastry, they did a neat line in flat white pouring:

which tasted as well as it looked so a happy breakfast was enjoyed. We ambled through the shop and heritage area:

before heading off to the local wool shop that had kicked off Anne's knitting / crochet love many years ago when we did the Morgan factory tour. We staggered back out into the snow, laden with handicraft supplies to keep Anne going for a while and then headed to get some provisions to take to the cottage we'd rented on a farm outside Leominster. We arrived to find it a bit chilly, then cold - the heating wasn't working at all and as it was below freezing outside.....The owners, who live in the house next door. were great, getting things sorted quickly. We loved the place though - have a look at Sykes cottages weblink . 

Despite the weather, we headed into Leominster for a wander around, Ludlow too, we always love that place. Anne completed some Xmas shopping - we are too bah humbug for such things of course. The farm area was still nice and snowy and the livestock looked unimpressed:

To balance out the Xmas shopathon, we also had a day of culture. Visiting Berrington House and then Croft Castle. Well, hardly a castle but you get the idea:

The site has a very pretty church (originally 14th) century too:

They had a pretty weird looking clock inside, with eyes that moved in time to the pendulum - it looked a bit menacing as you can see from the video:

Unfortunately, storm Bert disrupted the seeing and doing thing with lots of rain and seriously strong winds on the Saturday so we battened down and stayed inside. Anne turned some of her wool mountain into squares for a blanket, the crew carried on her language studies and the captain kept amused learning about Lithium batteries. Actually learning more than he ever wanted to know but still far from an expert. 

Overnight and into the Sunday morning, Bert really got going and dumped ridiculous amounts of rain onto us. That brought the next challenge. Anne was due to get a train home from Leominster. That proved tricky:

In fact, even getting to the train station was impossible:

as the main A road that we needed was closed. Big time. The little local roads were as bad or worse:

and this was the lane leading from the farm itself:

We had planned lunch out in Leominster before Anne's train departure so no proper food had been laid in. The lovely cottage owners came to the rescue again and delivered a Red Cross food parcel. Having decided that Tina was the flood lady, Anne has now overtaken her to become snow, ice and flood woman. Clearly this weather stuff has nothing to do with us.

The following day, the water levels had subsided a bit and the main road had been pumped clear so we were able to drive to Ledbury and spend a very happy day exploring the shops there. Anne stayed with us as the trains were still all cancelled due to flooding. We enjoyed an excellent lunch in the very old Seven Stars Inn there. They have their own farm and that was reflected in the quality of the food.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end and the stay in the cottage was no exception. The car was heavily loaded up, including the person who had been trapped by the floods and all of her Xmas shopping. Instead of heading back to Penarth as planned, we pointed the car into the sun (not nice) and headed to Hythe - so we could take Mrs Toddler to another hospital appointment. We arrived pretty tired (3 hours squinting into the glare - yes it was sunny) and with a very muddy car from the back roads near the cottage that had been flooded. Despite the best efforts of Bert, we'd enjoyed a great break.