We’re off to Antwerp this weekend, and once again we find ourselves in Belgium during the Belgian GP but without going to the race.

Anyways, I like Belgium and am looking forward to another hurtle through the French/Belgian countryside, then a day or so soaking up the Leffe.

Hurrah for bank holidays!

We’ve just got back from a mini break to Dubai for my wife’s birthday.

We stayed at Al Qasr in the Madinet Jumeirah resort – this is near the palm island and adjacent to the Burj al Arab.

The resort is a bit Las Vegas. It comprises two hotels, a shopping centre and access to another resort hotel and the Burj al Arab, all with their own themes. They are all connected by electric buggies and abras (boats) on an internal water way. 

Because of this, it’s possible to see and do lots of different things without actually having to leave the resort. Given that the rest of Dubai appears to be a shopping mall and building site (like Vegas) this is probably a good thing.

You don’t see many arabs there and the (excellent) service and hospitality comes mostly from people from south-east Asia. You do occasionally see a local  in a thawb and ghutrah, but usually propping up a bar (somewhat surprising).

Weather was quite good, although a little strange. It is warm and sunny in the mornings, but overcast and cooler in the afternoons and actually quite chilly in the evenings. Quite pleasant actually, although you do need to get your beach/swimming done by lunchtime.

Dubai doesn’t strike me as a particularly cheap place to visit, and this resort was particularly expensive. You get the feeling you’re going to be cleaned out as soon as you arrive, with Rolls, Bentleys and Lamborghinis parked outside, then you see restaurant and bar tariffs and you’re left wondering if your normally ample credit card limits are going to be sufficient.

However, I’m left feeling it was pricey, but not a overpriced – good value of money, if you will. Certainly the best service I’ve experienced.

The one bit of the trip that’s not so great is the travel. The flying time is around seven hours or more with 45 mins drive time at the Dubai end and 90 mins at the London end, so for a four day trip, that’s a lot of time squeezed in a metal box. 

Will I go again? Yes, I think so. Probably in four or five years time. Like Vegas, it’s always changing, so next time, there will be more to see. I’d particularly like to go up the Burj Dubai.

Today, we’re leaving the chilly British weather for Dubai for four days. This is good because I haven’t actually had a proper full day off work since New Years Day – even reasonably free weekends sees me having to do something, usually at some weird hour.

So looking forward to it enormously.

Apparently it’s not snowing there, but it is at Heathrow, so perhaps we’ll not be going at all…

Today, we’re going to visit family.

Specifically, my mum and step-dad in Gloucestershire and on the way, picking up my sister (Tooting) and my older brother (Molesey).

Nothing unusual about this I suppose, except I don’t get to see family very often. I haven’t seen my mum since May, and my sister in over a year, I think.

Also, tonight, we’re all going out for a Christmas meal. This means I’ll probably have to eat relatively normal and even festive things. Something I haven’t done for a while.

Should be an interesting exercise. 

If I don’t survive the evening well, I’ll be in no fit state drive home tomorrow, so will get to extend my family visit a little longer.

Update: I survived

As a wrap up of posts from our recent holiday in Wales and North York Moor, here is a link to the picture collection page on Flickr.

After four days in Snowdonia, we headed north and east to Pickering and the North York Moors.

Not as dramatically pretty as Snowdonia, but I quite like the bleakness of moors, and there are some hilly bits too. And some super roads

It rained most of the time we were in Yorkshire, but it did hold off on a bit on one day, so armed only with the AA guide to the moors, we headed off to Goathland for short five mile walk around the area.

The route of the walk should have been down a track toward a stream, then follow the stream path for a mile and a bit, then around the hills and back, all in about 2.5 hours. The AA guide even was as bold to say that the route was suitable for families and fairly easy going.

Unfortunately, the AA guide was rubbish. Part of the stream path was crossing a bridge, walking about 20 metres and crossing back over. The first bridge was out, but we could see that the path was passable on our side of the stream so continued.

What we didn’t realise is that the whole path was out. Steep banks, deep mud pools, long drops to the rocks below.

What probably happened is that the whole ravine had probably suffered a flood-induced landslide at some point.

To be fair, there was a small sign at the start point saying the bridge was out…. and two hours later when we got through, a small sign saying the path was closed…. and an amusing bit of graffiti saying “help!”

By this point, it was starting to rain, so we just headed back to the car.

On a positive note, we probably got a lot more exercise doing this than the walk described in the book, and I did get lots of use of my venerable old GPS 12XL.

One of the aims of our holiday to Wales/North York Moor was to do some walking. I used to do this quite a bit when I was younger, but now I’m older, wider and far less fit, so the chances of walking up Snowdon was approaching zero.

Fortunately, the fine people of Wales built a steam rail facility that goes almost all the way to the top.

The weather forecast for the whole week was rain, rain, interspersed some with some rain, but on the morning we set of to Llanberis it was quite sunny. Ish.

Llanberis, from where the train starts off, was only a few miles from our hotel, so we went and bought tickets then had a little over an hour to kill before it leaves, so plenty of time to zoom over the hills to Betws-y-coed and back (prob my fave roads so far this year).

The train is a little cramped, but we got a forward-facing seat and the people sitting opposite were of smaller stature, so not too bad at all. Views good on the way up, no rain and recorded commentary very engaging.

At the top, well, Clogwyn (779m), the rain was still absent, visibility quite good, but farqing cold. The views were very pleasing (click on pic above for more).

When it was time to return down the mountain, the rain started to fall. Lots. Perfect timing

One thing I noted from this trip is that the path up for walking didn’t look that challenging, so when I’m a bit fitter, will have to go back and give it a try.

Before we left for Wales, my boss’ boss asked me if we’d ever been to Portmeirion. I said that I hadn’t but had heard of this strange place and made a note to visit.

Those of you in your fifth decade or more will know this is where The Prisoner was filmed, a cult TV show from the 60s.

Definitely an odd place and worth a visit if your in the area. Even if it’s pissing down like it was when we went. 

Click the pic for more.

We’ve been back a whole week from holiday but haven’t had much time for posting, so catching up  

In North Wales we stayed at Seoint Manor Hotel, and I wrote a bit about it here. 

It’s a fair trek from East London, so  we travelled part way on the Friday night, stopping at some random motel near Northampton, giving us a fresh start for the rest of the journey on the Saturday morning.

We took the A5 (Telford, Shrewsbury, Corwen) route in. I’d been to Snowdonia before, when I was very young, but don’t remember much, so was very and newly impressed when entering the park. The mountain roads from Betws-y-coed to Llanberis were especially pleasing.

So, the hotel. It’s set in its own farmland and a bit isolated. Click the image above for pics. We were ‘upgraded’ from the fancy room we booked to one with a four-poster bed. Whilst this might sound nice, it’s not really. Four-posters are much smaller than a normal King Size bed, but the room itself was nice. The hotel also had a nice, if small, pool. And a sauna. Certainly a very relaxing place.

The access road to the hotel has lots of speed bumps, and the car park a perfect place for an assortment of birds to dump their breakfast on your car.

As mentioned previously, there is nowhere to walk to of an evening (pub, restaurant) so you either have to drive and avoid drinking or take out a new mortgage and buy food/drink at the hotel.

Would I stay there again? Probably not. Having been all over the region now, I think I’d prefer one of the many mountainside or lakeside inns.

Over the last eight days, we and Herman have done 1206 miles, or over 150 miles per day.

That’s about a third of Herman’s total mileage now.

I’m tired, but happy to have done my first major road trip and a bit sad that I won’t be on the road every day for some time.