Tag Archives: holiday

Our holiday in Alanya

We took a last-minute break to Turkey, and stayed at the Sunprime C-lounge in Alanya, which was a great hotel for not many pennies. Turkey has had its fair share of unrest recently, but down on the coast there were no signs of this at all. The city and neighbouring hotels were quiet for day one, but then the Eid-al-Adha holiday arrived and there were plenty of Turkish tourists around, to complement the Brits, Germans, Russians, and the rest, (there were at least 10 nationalities shouted out during the pool activities).

Judging by the old photographs in the hotel, Alanya has grown a lot in the last 50 years, becoming a popular retirement destination, but the old fortress and tower dominate the skyline and were well worth the trek up the hill (though sharing a taxi is defintely recommended). Not recommended, walking backwards while taking a selfie at the top of the cliffs.

A week in Wroxham

Many thanks to Ian and Finola for organising a week in the Norfolk Broads to celebrate New Year. Finding a cottage with a free boat within 4 miles of the Woodforde’s was inspired, although you can’t prove that we ever visited the brewery since we managed to drink all 72 pints of the evidence.

New Year’s Eve also gave us a chance to dress up and polish our french accents, as we took part in “The Brie, The Bullet and The Black Cat”. While I won’t spoil the surprises, you can be reassured that no-one was exactly as the seemed… It also gave me a chance to play with my new flashgun, which really made a difference for indoor portraits.

Other highlights included tens of herons, thousands of seagulls and a beachful of mating, pupping and nursing seals (well worth a visit).

 

Swiss Panoramae

Belatedly, as ever, here are some panoramas from Switzerland. Despite the best efforts of the Swiss government to force the exchange rates towards something vaguely normal, things remained ridiculously expensive all week. Luckily our apartment had a cooker so we made tonnes of pasta to avoid the restaurants, and drank the French wine I had brought along from the week before, but the Schweizerische Bundesbahnen now have a lot of my money.