Anglesey Abbey

To Anglesey Abbey with Alberto and Jacqui.

But first a stop to admire a cottage garden. The owner buys tulip bulbs by the thousands from a wholesaler and annually plants them over three six hour days. 

There's an avenue planted with a carpet of cyclamens that were more impressive than the photograph.

Joan, Jacqui and Alberto

Then to the dahlia garden where 90 different plants are in a crescent arranged so that they can't all be seen from any single spot.

And then we get into the house  before it closed.

And afterward the rose garden. Chandos Beauty is the one with the strongest and most attractive scent.

We had a coffee in the café before heading for home and the heavens opened. Torrential rain, and Alberto bravely heads out to the far end of the car-park to bring the car closer to us. We we so lucky to have a pleasant dry day in the gardens.

Rutland Water

 Before we leave I buy some wines from Oakham Wines, an independent shop on the High Street with a selection of interesting and very tempting bottles.

On our way from Oakham to the A1 we call into the Rutland Water - Europe's largest man-made lake - visitor centre. It's Saturday, the temperature is 29 and rising, and the huge car park is filling. 

Oakham Castle

 

The arch was where the castle's drawbridge was. It's a level walk from the town in to the castle grounds.

The castle walls and towers have all but gone, but the magnificent original Norman Great Hall survives. It was built  between 1180 and 1190.

Inside walls are covered with 230 ornate ceremonial horseshoes donated by Peers of the Realm (Royalty and nobility such as Dukes, Marquis’, Earls, Viscounts, Barons and Bishops). The exact origin of this custom is lost to the mists of time, but it continues to this day. The oldest surviving horseshoe was given to the Castle by Edward IV in 1470.

The Great Hall is one of the oldest-continuously used courts in the country, having sat as a crown every two years since 1229.

There was a new judge today!

In the market place outside the castle are the unusual five-hole stocks.

Oakham - Admiral Hornblower

 

To Oakham to visit the Castle.

We stayed in The Admiral Hornblower in Oakham High Street. From its website we'd thought it was a fairly posh hotel, but it was really a pub with rooms. Our room was in a separate block at the end of he carpark, probably the old stable. The room had only three roof lights and it was hot and stuffy there. Apart from a free-standing rack with a few hangers, there was no storage; no wardrobe and no drawers.

The temperature outside was 30, so we walked to the park outside the castle grounds and read our Kindles.

The  restaurant had a short menu and we had sirloin steak and chips. The chips were excellent, nicely chunky and crisp.

chair in bar

Gyles Brandreth - Can't Stop Talking

To Alban Arena after early dinner to see Gyles Brandreth's one man show Can't Stop Talking. "if you can't stand name-dropping - you've come to the wrong show", he said.

After an hour there was 30 minute interval in which a long queue waited for him to sign copies of his latest book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait.

The second part was just 30 minutes.

Lyon & Provence - Lyon > London

 Click to go to Day 1

Day 8 - Tuesday 22 August – Lyon > London

The latest time to depart the cabin is 08:00, which means we have only really had the suite for six full days since we arrived so late on Day1. We are not due to depart until 14:45 so have a leisurely breakfast and later the buffet embarkation/disembarkation lunch. 

When not eating we sit, after a short spell on the sun deck, in the lounge. The earliest departure was 03:30 and the latest is twelve hours later at 15:30. Two other couples are on the same flight as us and Viking have booked a people-mover taxi for us.

There is no delay getting to the airport where we have to wait 20 minutes for check-in to open. Then we’re homeward bound. Both cases arrive with us.

Reflections on the cruise  

I like the heat and we ate out on the prow almost every lunch and dinner, and most of the others in the open were Brits and Australians. The majority of Americans preferred being inside with air-conditioning. It was also the first time I could spend any length of time on the veranda, and some evenings after dinner I sit there with a glass of white wine from our fridge while reading my Kindle.

Cooking seemed to have less flair on this cruise. As a non-cheese eater I was most aware of just how many dishes had cheese; there didn’t use to be as many.

This cruise the bottle of wine chosen from the wine list was left on the table for us to pour subsequent glasses. We preferred this, rather than the waiter taking the bottle away then coming back to top up glasses.

Since we were cruising through the famous Rhone wine region I found it disappointing there were only two red Rhone wines on the list included in the drinks package. The one Chateauneuf du Pape, at €120, was not included in the package.

 There were about ten people in their twenties or thirties, the majority in the 40-50 range and a sprinkling of 60-70 year olds. It shouldn’t be assumed that the leisurely walking groups were only for the elderly, one of the youngest women on the cruise was so large she had difficulty walking and chose the easy group.

Anyone considering a trip to France in August ought to be aware that French people take their holidays in August and many places are closed.

Click to go to Day 1

 

Lyon & Provence - Lyon

 

Day 7 - Monday 21 August – Lyon

This is the last full day of the cruise.

Mount Brouilly

At 08:45 we join an included excursion to Beaujolais Wine Country. We travel north as the guide tells about Beaujolais. The appellation Beaujolais, which includes the once famous young wine Beaujolais Nouveau, but the best wines come from the ten ‘crus’ which use their name instead of Beaujolais – although all the red wines of the region are made from the same black grape variety Gamay. About 5% of production, rarely seen outside the area, is white wine made from Chardonnay.

 

We go to Chateau des Ravatys in the hills about Mount Brouilly which gave its name to two of the ‘crus’, Brouilly and Cote de Brouilly. 

First we go to a vineyard to see vines with plump bunches of black grapes, then we get a tour of the underground cellars before being seated in a barrel aging cellar for a tasting. 

We are poured four wines, a white, a red Brouilly and two Cote de Brouilly  and nibbles are passed around. The excellence of the Beaujolais excursion emphasises just how overpriced was the optional  Chateauneuf du Pape visit. And while we can buy the wines if we want, there isn't the hard sell we got in Chateauneuf du Pape

We are moored on the Rhone at Lyon and some people wander off into the city in the afternoon. At 17:00 we attend a demonstration in the lounge given by two people from a silk factory. They explain how complicated pictures are imprinted on silk by multiple additions of dye through a screen. After 25 minutes the talk turns to various ways women can wear silk squares and I lose interest and return to the cabin.