Hart Barn, Hartsop

It was a VERY long drive from Abergavenny to Hartsop in the Lake District – I did about half an hour of the driving before deciding I was more than a little likely to actually doze off at the wheel – so Mr B took over again – that’s what husband’s are for!

It was some gorgeous scenery along the border of Wales and England, though we could have lived without the whole motorway bit round Ellesmere port – but eventually we arrived in the absolute middle of nowhere at Hart Barn and were greeted in the most excellent style by a beautifully designed, homely and welcoming barn, complete with home-made shortbread, fresh strawberries, jersey cream, a bottle of champagne and a wedding card. There were even roses and petals on our bed!

Hart Barn’s accommodation is spread over three floors with a wonderful kitchen, with all the mod cons, on the lower floor, a large lounge complete with massive TV and log burner and a bathroom with a huge double ended bath are on the second floor and then the top floor has a king size bed and views up the valley behind the house. It’s an amazing conversion, using beautiful local materials and showcasing local artists work in every nook and cranny. With so many of these places you end up with a bit of ‘style over substance’ but everything was really, truly perfect – and not just because we had our rose-tinted honeymoon glasses on! We really felt special, like Helen had made super effort to make it extra perfect for us – though I suspect she makes just as much effort for everyone – I can tell the work of a perfectionist!

Only 10 minutes drive from Glenridding (on the southern shores of Ullswater lake) and about 15-20 minutes from Windermere/Bowness on Windermere, Hart Barn is also well located and we really enjoyed the windy, winding lanes leading from the barn to the surrounding towns/villages.  There’s an amazing drive which links Hartsop to Ambleside through the most crazy, narrow roads I’ve ever been down – so glad I had a local in front of me who knew the road!

Champagne, shortbread and strawberries – Hart Barn

Rose petals and Mr & Mrs sign – Hart Barn

The kitchen – Hart Barn

Hart Barn

We visited some gorgeous places including Ambleside, Bowness on Windermere and Grasmere – all really beautiful places with loads of shops to browse around for art, locally made jams and chutneys, handmade chocolates, luxury toiletries and cakes – lots of cakes! Ambleside was my favourite, although the views around Grasmere were so beautiful! One of the best things we did though was take the Ullswater Steamer up and down Ullwater lake – from Glenridding to Pooley Bridge.

We also took a drive out to Cartmel for lunch at L’Enclume which was more than amazing, but more on that later…

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The Hardwick, Abergavenny

Previous to actually visiting The Hardwick I’d described it to Mr B, and others, as a kind of ‘gastro-pub’ which now, having actually been there, seems like an insult and a complete misrepresentation!

Whilst not having a long history of going to lovely restaurants (mostly due to not having a very long history of earning enough money to visit said restaurants), I like to think I’ve/we’ve been to a fair few – mostly in the last 5 years of my relationship with Mr B. I’ve been to amazing Michelin starred restaurants, I’ve been to taste filled little shacks on piers and I’ve been to great local gastro-pubs/restaurants but never have I been somewhere that succeeded in surpassing my expectations as beautifully as The Hardwick did.

If you go to one restaurant in Wales, go there. If you go to one restaurant in the UK…well, maybe go to Roganic or L’Enclume! (but it’ll cost a lot more!). For value for money with regards ambience, flavour, service and presentation I’ve not seen the like. I doubt if we go back in a years time (if not sooner) that it’ll be quite such good value for money as they could easily charge more, and will I bet!

They have an amazing array of gins available so I sampled one of their more exotic options…not sure which one (but the bar manager was hugely knowledgeable and helpful in choosing) and Mr B selected a pint of local tipple Rhymney which went down most excellently. We were encouraged to take a seat in the bar and consider the menus before they came to show us to our table. They even did that lovely thing where they come over with a tray and carry your drinks to your table for you – I love little touches like that!

With dinner we had a superb Welsh sparkling wine (this was a holiday filled with sparkling wine – not Champagne) and we managed to go the whole hog and cram in 3 courses, despite having quite diminished appetites since our pre-wedding diets.

I had…

Wye Valley Asparagus, Peas & Local Rainbow Chard with Fried Bruschetta in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Neals Yard Creamery Perroche Goats Cheese

Roast Rare Breed Middle White Pork Loin, Mashed Sweet Potato and Burnt Onion, Grilled Endive with Local Honey and Capers, Savoy Cabbage & Pancetta

Home made icecream – Treacle, Peanut butter & strawberry jam and honeycomb

Mr B had…

Crispy Breadcrumbed Middle White Pork Belly & Black Pudding with Pickled Fennel and Apple & Mustard Sauce

Pan Fried Cod, Fagioli Piattelle (Italian small white beans) with Chilli, Heritage Tomatoes & Braised Octopus in Red Wine and Seasonal Greens

Warm Churros (Spanish Style Doughnuts) with Chocolate Sauce and Seville Orange Marmalade Ice Cream

By far the star of the meal for me was my main, a little because Mr B was so jealous of me being the one that could eat all of it, because I just hadn’t expected such beautifully perfect cooking and amazing flavours – it has to be eaten to be believed! The burnt onions in the sweet potato mash were truly superb – going to have to try to replicate that one at home.

And one of the best things? The bill for 3 courses for both of us plus one coffee,  beer and a G&T was under £95! Very good value.

I only wish we’d booked the dine and sleep package so we could have just rolled in to bed. I’ve already been dropping hints to Mr B!

Here ends my waxing lyrical about The Hardwick – a place that Mr B and I will be talking about many times – ‘do you remember that…’ and ‘wasn’t that the best butter ever’ kind of conversations. The ones where you share fond memories of a most lovely evening.

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The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny

Our first stop on our wonderfully relaxing honeymoon was our favourite place in Wales – Abergavenny – and this time we stayed at the Angel Hotel in the centre of the town – just for a couple of nights to relax on their dinner, afternoon tea and breakfast package. The afternoon tea was simply amazing with lovely champagne, a ridiculous selection of teas and loads of tiny little cakes – Mr B even indulged me by letting me cut each one in half so we could each have a bit of everything!

We spent the rest of our time eating copious amounts of food, wandering around the Abergavenny Toy and Vintage Car Fair (we were so lucky it just happened to be on), sitting at the top of the Abergavenny castle moat staring at Sugarloaf mountain and taking lots of baths in our gorgeous slipper bath!

It was just so beautiful, like our own little bubble of sunshine that we wandered around in for the whole time…

We also visited The Hardwick, just up the road from Abergavenny, whilst we were there which was some of the best food I have ever eaten…but that’s for another day!

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Las Vegas – Desert driving and a little too much glitz

Driving to Las Vegas was AWESOME – the salt flats, the two national parks, the mountains, the deserts, having to wee by the side of the road in prickly sand with flip-flops on, driving along Route 66 (for a very, very short time) and generally being wowed and amazed by the scenery – arriving in Las Vegas was less awesome though, an experience but not really that awesome.

Firstly there is traffic, lots of it – having driven for about 5 hours from Palm Springs seeing about 20 cars for the whole way the freeway into Vegas and the roads around the strip were quite overwhelming to be honest. There was just so many people and so many cars and so much STUFF…EVERYWHERE.

What I loved about our California trip was the beauty, the wilderness and the serenity of so many of the places we visited/drove through and, unfortunately, Las Vegas has none of those things – it also didn’t have the charm of San Francisco or the chilled atmosphere of San Diego it was ON – ON all the time!

Saying this, it was something that I’m glad we did, everyone should go to Vegas once but I’m not going to be going back – it was like the antithesis of everything I enjoy! Our hotel, THE hotel at Mandalay Bay, was fantastic though, a true bargain, though beware – you have to pay extra for everything that isn’t actually fitted to a wall or floor so be careful! One of my favouritist things that we did whilst there was lay on the artificial beach for most of the day, taking dips in the wave pool and the (not very) rapid rapids – it was free to hotel guests so a big bonus! It felt nowhere near as hot as I expected but I think that the way we did the trip (moving from the cooler north to the warmer south before going to Nevada) acclimatised us pretty effectively and, even during the day, I wasn’t really that hot – perhaps it being September helped as well?

One other thing that made it most definitely worth our while though was visiting Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant – Gordon Ramsay Steak – at the Paris casino on the Strip. It was AMAZING! Imagine ranks of waiters delivering dish after dish to tables, all dressed like quintessential English gentlemen (the likes of which you never actually see in England), and example steaks on a butchers trolley that they wheel around, dishes with theatre and style but also taste, and a drinks menu on your very own iPad (we did have to give it back). I LOVED it!

The inside of Paris casino

Outside the casino

Breads to start

The amazing fruit de mer we shared!

My delicious steak

Mr B’s delicious steak

I even got leftovers to take back to the hotel

 

Mr B and I outside Gordon Ramsay Steak

Afterwards we waddled back down the Strip – prepare to do a lot of walking – and took in a little of the sights…

And then it was onwards home – to the wonderful weather of the UK!

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Palm Springs – Mountain driving and the Hotel California

The drive between San Diego and Palms Springs was one of the most memorable of the whole trip as, being from a tiny little island (in comparison), we’ve never seen so much space! Space without people in it, without houses, without any plants for a lot of it. We even had to wait for the road in front of us to be laid!

We shared the driving on this part and went through two national parks and a lot of mountains, some of the scenery was so breathtaking that I haven’t even got pictures as were both just loving it! We did get a little lost in some mountain in the middle of nowhere where I had the quickest wee of my life (The Hills Have Eyes just kept on going through my head) but that was all part of the fun!

Palms Springs itself was really, really, really hot but the Hotel California was AMAZING – we had a poolside room with free snacks and drinks including alcohol ( that would never work in the UK!) plus there was a hot tub and the pool had misters around all of it which sprayed this cooling mist on you – it was such dry heat there that it was more than welcome. Several hours of lazing in/by the pool/hot tub followed by dinner arranged by the hotel at a nearby restaurant - Spencers. Bliss! Nothing was too much trouble for them and we felt like royalty for the one night we were there. Palm Springs is so odd, being smack bang in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere but it was well worth the visit – I wouldn’t recommend staying for ages as it would probably get a little too quiet and relaxing.

Onwards to Las Vegas!

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San Diego – Getting away from LA, Mission Bay and the Zoo

By the time we reached San Diego we were both just about ready to scream having decided to trace the (shorter) coastal route through LA rather than do the (much longer) mountain route around LA – oh how wrong we were! If you ever find yourself doing this journey, going round will always take less time than through LA!

Combine serious heat with the worst traffic jams I’ve ever seen and you get seriously p*ss*d tourists. If I never ever see LA again it’ll be too soon. I think coming from all the beautiful landscapes and little towns that we’d been in (barring San Francisco, which was the most chilled city I’ve ever been to, other than Amsterdam) LA was just way too much – too much noise, too many people and too much stuff. I think the fact that we were navigating with a cartoon map which had about 10% of the streets on it and was the size of my hand might have had something to do with the pain of the journey

So by the time we got to our apartment in Mission Bay we were pretty hot, sweaty and tired…but we weren’t disappointed! The apartment itself wasn’t quite as amazing as we’d hoped but the view was phenomenal – we could watch the boats going out each morning, see them coming home and see right out to sea plus the hot tub out front was most excellently enjoyed with Bloody Mary’s!

The area around our apartment was just gorgeous and, though there weren’t really any bars, restaurants or shops anywhere near us, there’s plenty to do down the end of Mission Beach as everything there is just so beautiful. There’s sea and beach or grass and trees – perfect places to just sit and watch the world go by!

We spent most of our time around the apartment as it was just so quiet and peaceful so didn’t see a lot/any of San Diego proper but the one thing we did do – and I would recommend to anyone/everyone was the zoo. Though it was RIDICULOUSLY hot and you need lots of water and a hat and to rest in the shade pretty regularly, the animals were in such great enclosures and the whole place was hugely interesting – the cable car that you can get from one side of the zoo to the other is great and the air’s nice and cool up there! Plus you can get a bus from one area to another if you’re a little tired/American!

Mission Beach was definitely the most chilled place we visited on the Californian coast – somewhere I would go again in a heart beat! Though maybe next time we’d ACTUALLY see some of San Diego and not relax quite so much!

Onwards to Palm Springs!

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Santa Barbara via Route 1 – Scenery, Jack Daniels and seafood

After Monterey we headed on down Route 1, along the Big Sur to Santa Barbara – the most anticipated driving part of the holiday from Mr B’s point of view as he was most definite about being the one to drive as he was having way too much fun!

With its windy turns and beautiful scenery, beach on one side and redwoods on the other this was definitely the most stunning stretch of California coast that we saw. The small stretch that we did through the Andrew Molera and Julia Pfieffer state parks with massive trees, secluded camp grounds and log cabins was equally as gorgeous and somewhere that I want to go back to and explore – a night under the stars out there would be magical I think!

Santa Barbara…what can I say…? It was alright. Decidedly uninspiring despite it’s beauty. It just seemed to have a lot of shops and a big beach – the feel of the place was a little seedy once you moved back from the beach. We stayed in a really reasonable motel called the Agave Inn, about 20 blocks back from the beach (way more than a walk in that heat) but it was clean, had great air con and suited our purpose (sleeping before heading to San Diego) perfectly. Their free breakfast was also a nice addition and kept us going most of the way to LA!

Whilst in Santa Barbara the one thing that you must do is visit Stearns Wharf – we walked along it but there were plenty of people completely adverse to using their flesh sticks (it’s a 5 minute slow walk) who drove along the pier…hmmm. Anyways, at the end of the pier is a seafood shack – Santa Barbara Shellfish Company –  that must be enjoyed! They have massive tanks of crabs and lobsters. The prices are seriously reasonable and the service very charming. Everything is a little sticky and fishy smelling and we had a sea-gull who was just waiting for us to make one wrong move to have our dinner away from us but the view from this place is second to none!

I had shrimp tacos which were delicious but Mr B’s Squid burger was definitely the star of the night…that and my obligatory Bloody Mary

And that was Santa Barbara…onwards to LA hell…

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Monterey Bay – Gorgeous beaches, Steinbeck and bike riding…

Getting to Monterey was more than a little painful, not because of the roads (which were pretty crazy – there are NO rules) or the weather (which was gorgeous) but because Mr B suddenly developed a complete inability to follow directions and ended up going back into San Francisco rather than round the bay via Oakland and Berkeley as we’d intended!

At least we got to drive on both bridges though and I think it saved us time in the end but the mood in the car was a little strained for a while there! We did then join the beginning of Route 1 and saw some stunning scenery as the road winds along the Pacific coast (though the drive along the Big Sur stretch was more breathtaking – more on that later).

Monterey Bay had a pretty hard act to follow after the beauty of Sonoma Valley and the pain of getting there but our apartment was really lovely and homely – with a lot of IKEA furnishings! I found it on HomeAway and it was about 4 blocks back from the sea and came with free bikes and aquarium passes.

We managed to find the energy after our drive to walk down to the sea, had a meander down the pier – seriously touristy – and then found an amazing fish shop which had the HUGEST clams I’ve ever bought. That evening we had a seriously cold bottle of Beltane Ranch wine with our own home-made Spaghetti Vongole and nothing has ever tasted so good!

Other than eating as much seafood as humanly possible, here are a few things I could recommend doing whilst you are in Monterey:

1. Visit Carmel by Sea – and take a dip in the ocean from your own private beach. If you drive the ocean road between Monterey and Carmel there are loads of beaches and not a single one of them had more than about 2 people on it. We pulled up by the side of the road and spent a wonderful couple of hours on the beach – though everyone looked at us like we were mental as we sun bathed in our costumes whilst they sat huddled in their hoodies…

2. Ride a bike along the ocean ride – We were really lucky that we got the use of bikes with our apartment and Mr B eventually persuaded me to return to the saddle after a very long time of not riding (about 15 years by my recollection!) when I’d had a couple too many wines. It turns out I cycle much better when slightly tipsy as I’m less concerned for my life/face/knees/other bikes Monterey has some really easy rides and the one along the beach front is pretty flat and well-lit so we even did a little night cycling – I was more than a little chuffed with myself We also rode up to the front of the hotel we had dinner in and checked our bikes instead of a car – slightly childish but funny seeing the concierge wheel my bike around!

3. Visit Cannery Row – whilst it’s more than a little touristy there are some really interesting things to see and Mr B got to see what Steinbeck was chattering about. We had a wander around on our first day in Monterey, then returned for dinner in the Monterey Plaza Hotel’s Schooner’s Coastal Kitchen & Bar (where we checked the bikes) which had all your usual American fare along with a good selection of seafood specials…

4. Visit the Aquarium – We were also fortunate enough to get free aquarium passes with our apartment so got to enjoy the beauty of the Monterey Aquarium for free. At the end of Cannery Row and above the sea, this place is absolutely worth a visit, even if just for their excellent ‘feeling’ exhibits where you can actually hold and touch sea urchins and starfish and lots of other sea creatures – even rays though they were having none of it with me! The jellyfish area was also superb…

5. Take a whale watching trip – We booked this on-line before we went to make sure that we would definitely get to go with Monterey Whale Watching.  We thought it was a gorgeous day but when we got down to the wharf they were pretty concerned that it was going to be too choppy out at sea for us tourists – I think they expected a lot of vomiting! But we were lucky and they decided to head out…

So that was Monterey Bay in all its beachy loveliness…onwards to Santa Barbara via a truly stunning drive – the Big Sur along Route 1!

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Sonoma – the most beautiful place on earth (that I’ve been to)

Leaving San Francisco was somewhat painful in that we discovered the most excellent bar round the corner (Rye - they KNOW how to do cocktails) the night before after a day of drinking margaritas,  red wine and eating lots of cheese and had a rather crazy, drunken night that neither of us fully remember…though I’m 95% sure it involved lots of gin Martinis,  some Dutch air crew and Mr B eating pasta in his pants…perhaps it’s best that I forget the rest?

So packing and leaving the San Francisco flat was pretty painful, not least because of the massive hangovers we had but also the fact that we had “lost” the keys to the flat. An hour of searching later, Mr B lay on the floor exhausted with no keys and found them on the floor, camouflaged in the carpet, where we’d thrown them in our drunken idiocy – a most awesome start the day!

Onwards to the hire car place where we managed to get our SUV whilst many, many others had to wait for hours for their convertibles (I saved money and 95% of the time it was too hot to have the top down/you would have eaten A LOT of flies!). Driving for the first time in the US whilst hung over was something of an experience but driving over the Golden Gate Bridge was the fulfilment of a dream for Mr B so he managed to crack a few smiles

Arriving in Sonoma was just what we both needed, it was only about a 2 hour drive there through some gorgeous scenery and the place itself is just so beautiful, calm and relaxing.

Arranged around a square with a lovely park in the centre, Sonoma centre is full of amazing gourmet restaurants, little boutiques and cool architecture. The host where we stayed described it as “a more chilled out, beautiful Napa” which doesn’t even come close to how lovely the place was.

But the big win for me was our accommodation - I found Beltane Ranch online in some massively lucky moment, amongst all the many, many other accommodation options in the area. I was drawn by the idea that this was a working ranch, with its own wine and olive oil, and the pictures…surely nothing can look that beautiful in person…?! Why, yes it can! If you are ever in even the same continent as Beltane Ranch – go. I can’t possibly describe how wonderful it is so the pictures will just have to speak for themselves…

Whilst I am so looking forward to our wedding next year, it actually made me wish I was American so that we could have our wedding there! They have a stage out back of the house under the shade of a tree, complete with fairy lights, a dance floor and a hammock. The party would be magical!

We were only there for one night but visited the ‘hottest’ restaurant in Sonoma whilst we were there – The Girl and the Fig - run by Sondra Bernstein – who coincidently mentions Beltane Ranch in her recent book! We chose to sit out in the patio garden and all the staff were so concerned that I’d be cold (?!?) that they gave me a massive hand knitted blanket and kept checking on us to make sure we’d not frozen It wasn’t even close to cold by our standards!

The food was amazing, simple and well-tried and tested flavour combinations, but with fantastic, amazing ingredients! Mr B had roasted squash soup followed by wild flounder meunière with Yukon potato purée, cello spinach and a lemon-caper brown butter.  I had fig & arugula (rocket to the rest of us) salad with toasted pecans and dried figs followed by grilled pork porterhouse with celery root & quince purée and a pancetta vinaigrette. I accompanied mine with a wine flight and we just about managed to cram in a pudding that we shared of ​profiteroles which weren’t your usual but rather ”tahitian vanilla bean ice cream-filled cream puffs with a bittersweet chocolate sauce” – wow!

After an amazing nights sleep (probably the best I’ve ever had – no ambient light and no noise) we awoke to an amazing breakfast cooked by the Ranch’s chef with ingredients from the Ranch. I’d thought that the food the night before was good but this was superb! We had fruit salad and freshly squeezed fruit juice followed by sweetcorn pancakes with fried onions and ham and maple syrup, all served on the Ranch’s veranda just outside our bedroom. Once again all the Americans thought we were crazy for sitting out there in our shorts…it might have been more than a little cold before the mist got burnt off by the sun…but I came for breakfast on the veranda and that is what we had!

And that was the wonderful Sonoma, one night out of many on our holiday but by far and away my favouritist place that we stayed/visited. Now onwards now to Monterey Bay…

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San Francisco – Amazing markets, Alcatraz and awesome pepitas!

In the interests of boring everyone senseless – and reliving our wonderful adventures – I thought I’d go chronologically through the places we visited on our wonderful visit to California last month. We started off in San Francisco, drove up to Sonoma, through wine country for a night and then back down to Monterey Bay. From there we went on to Santa Barbara for one evening and through Los Angeles (not quickly enough for my liking though) to San Diego. We then went to Las Vegas via Palm Springs for a night – a lot of desert driving!

So here begins the run down – San Francisco…thinking back to it, it might have actually been my favourite place we stayed…well except for Sonoma (where a little bit of me still is..but more on that later).

I just loved the feel of San Francisco – the crazy up and down roads, the cable cars, the gorgeous and food filled ferry buildings, the fantastic food, our gorgeous apartment, the hot tub (?!?), pretty much everything…well, except for all the homeless – I’ve never seen so many in one city! Quite a few Californian’s remarked to me that they congregate to San Francisco though as it’s such a nice place to live…not sure what to make of that one!

We stayed just on the edge of the Tenderloin, on Leavenworth Street, in a stunning French style flat I found on the most excellent airbnb.com, that sadly is no longer being let by the owners so I feel extra lucky that we got to stay there! The flat was fantastic in its finish, cleanliness and space but by far the best thing was the amazing hot tub that we had!

Outside of the flat we had lots of fun enjoying the city, riding the cable cars, walking along Fisherman’s Wharf and spending ages in the ferry buildings, taking the MUNI, visting Alcatraz and eating LOTS of cheese and wine (apparently Americans CAN do cheese!). Top places to visit/things to do that we loved…

1. Ride a cable car – we rode the cable car early morning before all the tourists got up and didn’t have to queue or even pay as the lovely ticket man didn’t have change and let us off (thank you again), we rode from Union Square up to Fisherman’s Wharf and had breakfast at Boudin’s. Get to Union Square for about 8am to avoid the (ridiculous) crowds you get there later on. You can then walk along the wharf to the ferry buildings for lunch and get a cable car back up to Union Square.

2. Visit the ferry buildings - The ferry buildings in San Francisco are full of shops selling fantastic hand-made items, artisan food shops and great restaurants.

It’s worth visiting on a Saturday morning so you can experience the market they have out the back which has the best vegetables I have ever seen! There’s also a great wine shop that also serves wine from the shop, cheese from the Cow Girl Creamery next door and bread from Acme Bread, the one next to that – such great food and drink! The Mexican restaurant in there (Mijita) that serves the best margaritas I’ve ever had and fantastic pepitas – even Mr B liked them The posh restaurant, Slanted Door, is a great place to have a drink – sit at the bar – their cocktails are pretty unique!

3. Take the boat to Alcatraz – Whilst Alcatraz itself was something of a disappointment, the cost of the ticket was well worth it for the views we got from the boat across San Francisco and it was great to see the place – so eerie! It’s just a shame that so much of the place was shut when we got there. Make sure you book ahead though as the boats will be booked up by the time you get there – Alcatraz Cruises.

4. Eat food, lots and lots of it! – The food in San Francisco was hugely varied with lots of Asian options as well as your usual American stuff and some great Mexican food. Other than the places I’ve already mentioned I’d also recommend the Urban Tavern (a bistro/gastropub) next to the Hilton just off Union Square and Cafe de la Press (a French bistro) which overlooks the Chinatown gate.

And that was San Francisco! A most wonderful place Onwards to Sonoma…