27 August, 2016

Chedworth Roman Villa

We had a good day out today at Chedworth Roman Villa, near Cheltenham.

Chedworth was a large and high-end Roman country house, with underfloor heating and on-site bathhouses, and is now owned by the National Trust. There is little left standing and as a visitor you are reliant on the plaques telling you what each room was. However, you can see well-preserved mosaics and the remains of the hypocaust. There is also a small museum displaying a variety of domestic artefacts.

The villa is set in beautiful countryside and manned by friendly and knowledgeable staff. There is a pleasant cafe on site, selling the usual National Trust fare, and a small gift shop.

We very much enjoyed our visit to Chedworth, not least because it made a change from the grand stately homes that are more generally the province of the National Trust.

The Happy Plaice

We had a really good eating experience at The Happy Plaice earlier this week.

The Happy Plaice is a mobile fish and chip van which serves Steventon and other villages in the Vale of White Horse. We heard about it from friends, who recommended it, and our kids were keen to try it out, so we decided to give it a go.

We didn't set off with very high expectations because we tend to find that, while fish and chips sound good in principle, all too often they are pretty horrible--unpleasant fish, soggy chips, etc., etc. However, The Happy Plaice really did live up to our friends' recommendation. Our meal was cooked to order (in fact we, had to wait 25 minutes as others were ahead of us in the queue, but that wasn't a problem as we whiled away the time by walking along the ancient causeway), and when it came was piping hot and fresh. The fish was of excellent quality, the chips were crisp and our meal even came with a slice of lemon! We picnicked on the village green at Steventon, which was lovely, and adjacent to where the van parks, so very convenient.

We would definitely visit The Happy Plaice again and would certainly recommend it as an unusually good fish and chip experience.

08 August, 2016

Summer holiday in Italy

We recently came back from our summer holiday in Italy.

We stayed in a beautiful spot in the hills about 45 minutes' drive from Naples -- Villa Le Favole. This was a privately owned villa with three apartments for guests and a handful of B&B rooms. The setting was wonderful -- in the middle of nowhere with a lovely Italianate garden and peaceful swimming pool. Highly recommended.

We did a lot of sightseeing -- Pompeii, Herculaneum, Naples, Vesuvius, the Amalfi coast towns of Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello, to name some of the places. We enjoyed it all, and left with a particularly soft spot for Ravello, with it's winding streets, lovely old church and gardens that were open to visitors.

My husband and I have visited this area of the world before, but about twenty years ago. Our kids were keen to see Pompeii and Vesuvius, which is why we revisited -- and we're very glad we did.

Fun-filled summer weekend

It was sunny this weekend just gone, and my family and I made the most of it.

On Saturday, we drove out to the Cotswolds -- to little-frequented Eastleach Turville, to be precise -- and enjoyed a beautiful, peaceful walk following the River Leach. We took a picnic with us and ate it sitting in the middle of a meadow. It was wonderful -- the warmth, the landscape, the company of my lovely family...

We came home via the heavily touristed, but still very pleasant, Cotwolds town of Burford. We had tea at landmark cafe Huffkins. What did we have? Their famous lardy cake, of course. Delicious! We also picked up some plants for our garden from a little nursery that operates out of the owner's front garden in the back streets of Burford.

On Sunday, we went for a late afternoon swim at the Abingdon open air pool, which was again lovely. Not too busy, dappled sunshine, pleasantly warm water. And we wound up with a post-swim drink at Abingdon's waterside pub, the Nag's Head. Their riverside garden is a great place to enjoy a drink in the sun.

Pretty good for one weekend, I think!