At Tenerife … Madeira yesterday. So far, excellent!

On board Costa Serena … somewhere in the Atlantic.
Visited Barcelona and Casablanca. Funchal tomorrow.All well … no sign of scurvy among the crew!

31^st August, 2009. Old Sarum

Probably one of the worst ideas the Government ever had was to move the August Bank Holiday to the last weekend in August, rather than the first. Nowadays, with the kids back at school the following week, and the days getting shorter, it usually brings on a feeling of ‘What happened to the Summer?’

Really, August marks the beginning of the end of Summer; the best of it’s usually passed, anyway. The reason for the long school holiday in August, rather than June or July was originally to release children to help out on the farms at a pretty labour-intensive time.

English Heritage usually have a re-enactment of some kind at Old Sarum over most Bank Holidays, and usually keep the best for the August Bank Holiday weekend. This year, there were a small group of pre-Norman ruffians, mediaeval knights and Napoleonic soldiers … and, as usual, I was there with my cameras.

With the still photographs, I try to cut out all the anachronisms; if I have to resort to Photoshop to take out the fat kid with the ice cream, I consider I’ve failed. With video, it’s different. I accept that I’m filming a re-enactment, not making a historical movie. But, I was thinking that some of the Roman video I took earlier would be great with footage of Hadrian’s Wall … if I’d made any!

And, that’s it for a couple of weeks! At around midday, we’re off to Gatwick, and start the cruise tomorrow. I’ll blog and tweet if/where I can … if I can’t, please keep looking in. I SHALL RETURN!!

Quite a few online conversations I’ve been having lately concern ‘green cruising’. Do mammoth cruise liners indeed, ‘pollute the ocean’? Would we be ‘saving the planet’ by not going on one? I had a look at Cmagazine, issued by Costa Cruises, with whom I’m to sail next week, in which they set out the measures they’ve taken very clearly.

For starters, they tell us, all Costa ships are Italian-registered, so they’re subject to even more stringent environment and health laws than those laid down by the European Union. And, they’ve been awarded the BEST (Business Excellent Sustainable Task) Green Star certificate for the entire fleet. This certifies that none of the fleet damage the environment and contribute to keeping the sea and the air clean. They’ve also received the Kuoni Green Planet Award for three years running.

They say they’ve achieved this by recycling 100% of the solid waste aboard the ships … even down to such little points as using wooden swizzle sticks in the bars, rather than plastic ones, and the replacement of single-use sachets in restaurants and bathrooms with dispensers. And, they never discharge solid waste, except waste food, into the sea.

Most of the water used on board is desalinated sea water. I seem to remember, from many years ago, this is all right for most purposes, but makes an evil cup of tea. I can’t say, though, that I noticed this on Costa Atlantica when we cruised on her three years ago.

They also constantly monitor the emissions from the engines and generators … but then, everyone from the owner of the smallest moped upwards does this at intervals; if it fails the test, it ain’t going nowhere!

Excursions are planned ‘with respect for the environment’ … and this is probably hardest to achieve. We called at Santorini three years ago, at the same time as two other cruise boats, both bigger than ours. The town of Thira could just about absorb the influx … but I’d hate to think what it would be like if the ships had been able to dock, instead of transferring passengers by tender.

If you’re into facts and figures, and buzzword-rich reports, check out

http://www.costacruises.co.uk/B2C/GB/Corporate/Best4/homepage.htm

On Sunday, we had pork chops for dinner. The usual way to serve them is with apple sauce, often spooned out of a jar bought at the supermarket. This time, we made apple reinettes to go with them.

They’re fairly simple to make. Just peel the number of apples you require, cut them into quarters and core them. Place them on a greased baking tray, drizzle lemon juice over them, dust with cinnamon, apply a squirt of honey to each, and place in the oven … 15 minutes at 200° is about right.

This is an adaptation of something we learnt at the French House Party the other week. However, Robert Abraham served his reinettes with sliced duck breast cooked in Noilly Prat, as in my illustration. But, I’m not going to give all his secrets away. In my book, cooking is about experimentation, not just slavishly following someone else’s recipe … although you can, of course, use the recipe book as a guideline.

The reinette recipe isn’t quite mine yet, though. I’m wondering what I can add to personalise it a bit more, Dispense with the honey, and use brown sugar, maybe? Use apricots instead of apples? There’s an idea … Maybe an apricot sauce, instead of apples?

The possibilities are endless ….

Longleat, 17^th August 2009

So, having got home from the road trip, the situation is: Doug and Beth left us temporarily for a visit to Salzburg, and two of our grandchildren, Jack and his cousin, Megan are staying with us.

And, where better to keep kids entertained than Longleat? Now, the thing with ‘stately homes’ is that they’re pretty much of a muchness, so other ‘attractions’ have to be sought to draw in the customers and, importantly, to part them from their cash. And, few do it better than the two successive Marquesses of Bath, father and son, at their house at Longleat.

(If you want to know the difference between a Marquess and a Marquis … I have no idea; you’ll have to Google it!)

The good thing about Longleat is you don’t buy a ticket, you buy a ‘passport’ … which entitles you to a free visit later, to check out the attractions you didn’t visit first time. There will be some; I think to visit all in one day is an impossible challenge.

When we have kids with us, a visit to the Safari Park is a must. On this occasion, we couldn’t visit the Monkey Jungle, as it was closed because of an outbreak of simian herpes. Which means I got out with my windscreen wipers, radio aerial and trim intact … although I think if the rhinos felt a bit grumpy, they could do much more damage.

Other essentials are the train and the boat … although I’m always a little disappointed with the train. Why do they never seem to get their steam engine out?

The boat, though, always enthrals. I think the artificial lake is the only place in Britain where hippos can be seen in anything like their natural surroundings. I was able to get much better footage of the sea-lions, and the gorilla on his island than on previous visits … and if you’re asking ‘Where are the lions?’ … they weren’t doing anything interesting, just being lions. And, I already have footage of that.

 

It must be remembered … there are a lot of senior citizens in Bournemouth, and you can’t expect them to move very fast!

　

We’ve started planning for next year … we booked tickets and accommodation for the André Rieu concert in Maastricht next July. We already have several of his DVDs, and can’t understand why, to our knowledge, he’s only performed in Britain once (at the Royal Albert Hall, about five years ago) and nobody here seems ever to have heard of him. But, we can’t book the train tickets (the best way to get there) yet, because Eurostar will only (I think; I’ll have to check) accept bookings 80 days in advance.

We also have plans for Queensland in August, but we don’t want to do any more until we’re back from the cruise. Our passports are both due for renewal, and don’t want to commit a large amount of money till the new docs are back in our hands.

But, we don’t need passports at Easter, when we’re booked for dog-sitting.

Maybe I’ve got things a little barse-ackwards here, but, for my ‘foodie’ readers, I wanted to get to the nitty-gritty of cooking at the French House Party as soon as possible. But, before we could cook, we needed ingredients, so our first task of all was to accompany Chef Robert to the market in Revel.For a long time, I thought the idea of the chef doing his marketing personally was a figment of the imagination of the producers of TV food programmes, but this is the second time in just over a year that I’ve been to the market with a chef. So, I’d imagine this may indeed be the practice in some places. So, I’m happy to stand corrected.

Unfortunately, my French wasn’t good enough to understand the discussion … maybe even haggling? … that went on between Chef Robert and the stallholders, but we came away with basketfuls of provisions that could have been entered in a competition in any County Show at home.

As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, markets, especially Continental ones, are extremely good ‘camera fodder’. Added to which, Revel is a charming, old-world town, and the market is mostly held under cover in an oak-beamed, open plan hall. The weather wasn’t too kind to us, but that was of no matter … we were dry, and with colour and bustle all around us.

　

　

　

 

This is my entry for the WordPress Thanksgiving video competition:

Since I’m restricted to 30 seconds, I couldn’t credit the music: it’s a royalty-free piece called ‘Rocket’ by Kevin MacLeod. Visit Kevin by just clicking on ‘Music’ in my blogroll.

Warwick, 13^th August 2009.

On this tour, we’ve come across various connections to Sir Walter Scott. On Ullswater, we passed a steamer called the Lady of the Lake several times, and we saw the Scott Monument in Edinburgh. That’s the long spiky tower thing you see near the Waverley Bridge … (‘Waverley’; that’s another Scott connection)… known to irreverent locals as ‘Thunderbird Three’

So, we came to another Scott association, Kenilworth. Now, if my memory serves correctly … I last read Kenilworth over 50 years ago … it was a fictitious account of how Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester had an affair with Queen Elizabeth I.

Now, as it happens, Dudley did actually seek the hand of the Queen … and I often wonder what sort of place England would be if he’d been successful, and she’d borne healthy children to succeed her.

However, we hadn’t really come for a history lesson. I suppose I could say something like see one ruined castle, you’ve seen ‘em all, for this is ‘one of the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit’. But, he did leave a considerable amount standing, which gives a good idea of what the castle was like when it was inhabited … as it had been since the 12^th Century.

‘Leicester’s Gatehouse’, built in the 1570s especially to receive the Queen on her many ‘progresses, through the country, remains intact … and, indeed, was modified as a private house after the Civil War, and now houses an exhibition called ‘Queen and Castle’, which explores the relationship between the Queen and Dudley.

Another of Dudley’s tributes was the garden he planted here for the Queen’s visit in 1575, which has recently been restored to how it was thought it might have been originally. An interesting place to visit and photograph, especially with the ruined castle in the background.

More of my ‘stuff’:

http://www.travelthruhistory.com/html/historic41.html