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Posts Tagged ‘flowers’

27th June
2011
written by Hazel

From Oban we had a quick overnight stop back in Edinburgh, then took the train south to visit my gran in Doncaster. It was so good to see her and her husband Ken and they very kindly let us stay in their very deluxe motor home in their back garden. This motor home was better equipped than many houses I’ve lived in and was a really comfy place to stay!

We had several very competitive games of Rummikub, saw my aunt and uncle, ate lots of tasty food, and really enjoyed hanging out and chatting. We stayed for two nights, so we had bits of two days and one whole day there. Gran and Ken offered to take us to see one of their favorite castles in the area, so of course we couldn’t say no to that!

They took us to Castle Howard and it was spectacular! The grounds were beautiful and the house/castle is absolutely huge. This castle has been used twice for filming major productions of Brideshead Revisited and part of the upper level had an exhibition about how the filming was done.

We walked through the rose garden and the other beautifully landscaped gardens.

The roses were in bloom

The roses were in bloom

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2nd April
2011
written by Hazel
We left Valparaiso and headed north up the coast.  It took pretty much a whole day of travel (without many bird sightings) to get to our destination – Pisco Elqui, in the Elqui Valley in the Andes.  This town was renamed in the early 1900s so that it would have the same name as the alcohol which is produced in the region, Pisco.  Both in Chile and Peru the pisco sour is a very popular drink and both countries have renamed towns in regions which produce pisco to try and draw tourists.  We were told that the area around this town was very beautiful and peaceful and we were not disappointed!

We arrived after dark, but quickly found a hotel and a very tasty meal.  Dad and Justin both tried the Pastel de Choclo (Corn Pie) which is basically a steaming hot bowl of cornmeal pudding/pie with all kinds of meat, egg, and other treats inside.  People often sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on the top.  It is really tasty, but didn’t turn out to be the light dinner they were hoping for!  We also discovered at our meal that there was a very local brewery in the area, and since we liked what we tasted we decided to head there the next day.

Guayacán brewery

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