Wicker Man Week, May 16th - 23rd 09 Part 1

About blooming time too - Our first trip away in the camper in 2009 was to Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. We are big fans of the original Wicker Man film with edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, so while we were up there we visited some of the film locations.

Hoddom Castle

First stop was Hoddom Castle near Lockerbie. It was a lovely spot near the river Annan, nice walks through the grounds and a bar and restaurant in the castle itself. We only stayed for 1 night to break up our journey but we were impressed.

Kircudbright

For the next 2 nights we stayed at Kircudbright, where alot of the Wicker Man was filmed. Unfortunately the weather was rubbish, cold and grey. The good thing was there was lots to see, and the campsite was good too. It was a council owned one, just above the town.

Rachel outside Maclennan Castle at Kircudbright

Gordon outside one of the buildings used in the Wicker Man

Alleyways that Edward Woodward was chased down in Kircudbright

Brightly coloured artists houses

They served a nice glass of wine at the Gordon House Hotel !

Wicker Man Week, May 16th - 23rd 09 Part 2

Garlieston

Next we travelled west and moved on to the Caravan Cub camp site at Garlieston for 3 nights. I felt like we had one of the best pitches on the site, right next to the sea wall.

Our pitch, blues skies and sunshine...

The view of the village - Garlieston

Gordon showing his superpowers on the beach


Us on the beach in front of the campsite

Rachel on a walk to Galloway House gardens

Rachel at Galloway House gardens

Gordon and a friends down the woods

Wicker Man Week, May 16th - 23rd 09 Part 3

When we were staying at Garlieston we took a drive out to Portpatrick on the Rhinns of Galloway, then down to the Logan Botanical Gardens which is where they filmed the scenes in Lord Summerisle's garden in the Wicker Man. On the way back to the campsite we detoured round the Isle of Whithorn where they filmed the scenes in the Library. A beautiful sunny day out with empty roads.

Fairy Lights!!!

York, 28th - 30th November

Christmas(y) Shop Window

Hooray it is November and we went on our annual trip to York. This is the first time we have ever been there in the camper. Goodness me it was cold, thank god for thermo mats otherwise we might have been frozen solid. We were frozen in on Sunday morning and had to aim the fan heater at the locks before we could get out. Here's a picture of what we found when we escaped the van...

We stayed at Manor Farm Caravan Site, by the racecourse. It was so convenient for the city centre, and there was a bus every 30 mins into the centre and back again until 11pm.

Misty York Minster on Friday night

Christmas lights and a ghost tour...

On Friday night we spent some of my birthday money at a Turkish restaurant called Kapadokya - Dolma, sigora borek, mussaka, salad, baklava and a bottle of wine later we were stuffed.

Here I am looking very happy in the candle light....

And here is Gordon looking happy on Saturday night in the very sparkley Vudu Lounge with a cocktail, which was followed by a fab steak to end the night at Wildes on Grape Lane. Roll on next November!!!

Chester weekend 25th/26th October

We visited Netherwood Caravan Site from Friday night to Sunday morning. It only took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there and was a great find. It was right next to the tow path and you could either walk along there to the town centre or catch a bus. Near to the site were a couple of pubs so we walked to the nearest (the Cheshire Cat) and had a meal - which was a bit rubbish - such a shame as the surroundings were lovely. Next time we go we will book in the Plough which is the other direction up the tow path as it has just won a best gastropub in cheshire award. Chester is a perfect weekend destination, history, town walls, nice shops and lots of places to eat. We had a lovely meal on the Saturday at Brasserie Chez Gerard. Only problem we had was that I forgot my camera so I don't have any proper pictures from the weekend - here's one of the rows from someone else's website!

Mari and the rocking reindeer!

Run to the Hills 22nd - 24th August

We went to our first proper VW event near Matlock called Run to the Hills. We camped with Club 80-90. Thanks to the members that made us feel welcome, and Matt for organizing everything. It was great to be with so many other T25s and meet other club members I've talked online too. Gordon and I went after work on the friday night, and we were joined by Sarah and Jon and Lauren and Matt on Saturday morning and Charlie and Donna on Saturday evening.

3 Counties Tour August 14-17th

We set off from home after work on the Wednesday night and headed down to Birmingham to stay over with Dad. It was nice to see him and he served up one of his recipes - Normandy chicken. Mmmmmm.

County No.1: Worcestershire

About 10am on Thursday we set off for our first destination. It took about an hour to get to The Marlbank Inn near Malvern. It was a nice little site for the money. The location was good, but the facilities were in the midst of a refit so you had to use the pub loos. It was fine for a 1 nighter and only £10. We had a pint in the pub and chatted to a friendly local then went outside to catch a bus into Great Malvern. Then the heavens opened. I've never been out in anything like it. We tried to brave it out under our single umbrella but once it started hailing we had to admit defeat and run across the road to the pub porch.

Once in Malvern we found that it is one of the most boring places to be stuck on a Thursday afternoon. Seeing as it was the first day of our holiday and Malvern has the most fantastic views we envisaged sitting in a beer garden (between showers) and looking at the scenery. No such luck. None of the pubs in the centre were open until 5pm. We caught the last bus back to the campsite at 6pm and headed into the pub for some tea. Wow. It was great. It made us sleepy though and we were soon back in the van with our feet up.

The next morning we took a walk across the fields away from the pub. It was lovely. We will certainly go back once they have sorted out those showers.

View of the Malvern Hills / Looking towards Upton upon Severn

County No. 2: Herefordshire

Friday morning took us to Lyde to visit Mum and Gramma, and have a look at their overflow pipe in the attic. After lunch we headed up to Eardisland near Leominster and booked in Arrow Bank Holiday Park. Again a nice site, this one was absolutely immaculate. We ended up parked next to a couple from Ellesmere who were a good laugh.

On Friday night we met up with them in the pub and had a great night. It all went a bit strange when we went in the Cross Inn and the landlady decided to go all psychic on us. She came out with all sorts. It was certainly an experience. Our fellow campers had left us by that time, and we wandered back to the van glad that we had remembered to bring a torch as it was pitch black.

The next day the other couple said that they had fell off the kerb and ended on the ground, and had to be escorted back to the campsite by a local as it was so dark they couldn't find their way back. Those beer goggles wouldn't have helped either I imagine.

We were ready for the off for 11 o'clock on Saturday and took a bit of a detour to Pembridge and Dunkertons Cider Farm, part of the Herefordshire Cider Trail and one of the best ones we have sampled. Their cider is always the same standard and I think they sell some via Waitrose so you just know it will be good. I like their Black Fox cider. Mind you I didn't think I would fancy drinking again for a bit after the night we had just had in Eardlisland.

We headed off for our next campsite but before we got to Leominster we saw a sign for cheese and decided to follow it. There was a lovely little cheese shop with their own Hereford cheese and organic bread so we bought some and knew lunch was sorted when we got to our next campsite.

County No.3: Shropshire

We drove up through Ludlow and turned left up a B road through a golf course towards Much Wenlock. What a lovely road, we hardly saw another vehicle. We were heading for Sytche Camp site just outside Much Wenlock.

Much Wenlock - taken as we arrived

Sunny day (not when we were there!)

After parking up we went for a look round, it really is very picturesque and feels as if you have gone back in time, I think this is becasue there weren't any chain stores there. At about 4.30pm the heavens opened. We took shelter in the Talbot Inn where we met a local character with mutton chops who told us about how he had seen Hayley Westonra at Shrewsbury flower show that week. She was wearing a pink organza dress and looked "very romantic" in his opinion. A few minutes after our conversation we spotted he had dropped off to sleep in the pub. V. funny. We had a lovely meal in the Talbot Inn, very 1970s, but we like that sort of food so it suited us fine.

About 7.30 we headed back to site, it was still raining and we were glad we were parked at the bottom of the site to give us some shelter from the gales that were forecast. We were warm and cosy in the van and relaxed in front of the telly for the rest of the night.

The next day we headed for home, passing the V festival site at Weston Park near Telford. We had a great time, and would recommend all the sites we stayed at.