BRIGHTON - Weekend Break / Vegfest UK

This was a weekend trip we had, mainly to visit VEGFEST UK at the Brighton  Hove Centre, but we just had to visit a few other places in Brighton too. A very colourful place with lots going on.
The seafront is very big indeed and it takes a long time to walk all along it.
We loved the multi-coloured beach huts and many were used that weekend as the weather was lovely. We saw the Grand Hotel (Photo above) once a target for an IRA bomb attack, during a Conservative Conferance. We also visited the "North Lanes" shops which are a "Must see" if you go to Brighton. So many speciality shops are rare today and much more friendly than the usual High St stores you get in all cities & towns today.
We are both Vegan so that was one reason we were keen to visit Brighton, as it is known for its "Veggie" culture.  Lots of Vegetarian related shops and one was "Vegetarian Shoes" where Dana bought me a nice pair of training shoes! Very comfy too.
We came home loaded up with our Vegan Foods bought either at VEGFEST or a shop called "Infinity", which sells everything for Vegetarians & Vegans. Huge choices!.
We bought a "Vegan Haggis", which was delicious to eat.  Very Savoury in taste.
Weatherwise we were very fortunate as it was sunny all weekend. It makes a holiday!
So all in all, a very enjoyable break and we'll certainly re-visit Brighton another time.
We stayed in a great "Vegetarian B&B" in Chatsworth Road , Brighton.
Very comfortable and a great breakfast too.

FREDDIE MERCURY'S HOUSE - Kensington- London UK - In "Logan Place"

We were in Kensington, London , to visit a local Vegan Event called "Vegfest" just around the corner from this place, where "Queen" lead singer Freddie Mercury lived and died in 1991. He had bought the house in 1980 and we decided to take a look. To be honest you cannot see very much at all, other than the outside wall, which has become a place to post messages behind a perspex sheet attached to the wall. A nice idea for "Queen" Fans and of course "Freddie" Fans and music fans too. The street is "Logan Place" in Kensington and there are hundreds of messages on that wall and a few written on the pavement slabs too!  I'm pleased we went there and you really do get a feeling of sadness as you just look at that wall, realising he was such a huge talent who died so young. At least he'll never be forgotten!

GREENWAY HOUSE -Agatha Christies Home - Near Dittisham/Dartmouth -Devon UK

We visited Greenway House in October 2011 on a very sunny day.
A National Trust property, saved to preserve the artifacts of Dame Agatha Christie, the famous mystery novelist, who wrote about Hercule Poirot and many many other famous "who done it" books.
Devon was her location that inspired many of her stories too.
She lived at Greenway until her death in 1976 and inside the house is just as she left it.
The view from Greenway is spectacular, with lovely views of the River Dart and looking over towards the village of Dittisham. A ferry service can take you to Greenway or there is a Vintage Bus trip that gives you a nostalgic memory of the trip to Greenway House.
Around the house is a lovely woodland and you can walk there too, getting more views of the surroundings.

CLEVEDON -Somerset UK

Clevedon Pier

Promanade

The Restored Pier

Our Family Plate

Clevedon Beach View

Clevedon is situated just along the coast, near to Bristol in somerset.

It is a Victorian town and has hardly changed since then, when you compare old photographs from that period to current views. The pier was restored in recent years after a fund was set up. One idea was to buy a brass name plate , which was then fixed to the planks on the pier. Our family bought one in the 80's and it is still there today. We usually polish it when we visit! (Photo above).

Clevedon holds many happy memories to me personally, as my Sister and her husband used to live there and so we had a lot of visits over the 80's & 90's, before they moved to Torquay.

There is a nice walk along the cliff side called "poets walk", named after the poet "Tennyson" who once lived in the town. Clevedon is quite close to another seaside town called Weston-Super-Mare, which is more commercial and so gets far more holiday makers. Clevedon is more sedate in comparrison, but suits me more and has a relaxed atmosphere I find. I've lost count how often I have made visits over the years, but if i'm close by i'll always stop there. There are a few gift shops and cafes on the front and a small town centre close by.

OXFORD Visit

My first visit to the city of the "Dreaming Spires" and one I found very interesting too.
Wandering around the streets you cannot help but think of programmes such as "Inspector Morse" as Oxford was the location for that series, together with the current "Lewis" detective series, it was easy to see how such a city inspires a writer such as Colin Dexter to make it come alive in that way. Although I did not witness any murders or crimes, it was still a wonderful place to get so many photographs. Almost every view was a potential photo. Very much like Cambridge, but possibly more "built up" was my impression.
I love the honey coloured buildings of oxfordshire and indeed into the cotswolds too.
Maybe it is the character of the individual buildings which I like, as opposed to the usual city centres we often see today, which have no style and in most cases you could literally be stood in the same place, as they look so similar. So to visit a city like Oxford is often like a breath of fresh air in terms of "scenic architecture".

NORTH DEVON -September 2010

I went with Dana to North Devon on a 4 day holiday in September 2010.

A place i'd not really visited much in the past , other than a day trip years ago.

This Holiday we stayed at a very nice "Vegetarian B&B" called "Fern Tor", which is near South Molton. We can recommend it highly as it caters for Vegetarians and Vegan diets, which suits us very well. Each day we had a different choice on the Menu. All home made food too.

The B&B also had acres of land for their animals, all safe from harm. Goats, Pigs , Hens & Rabbits were all there and were family pets.

Places we visited those few days, included Ilfracombe , which was the wettest day of that week.

So we couldn't see too much, so we visited Chambercombe Manor , nearby, a reputedly very Haunted house!......though we did'nt see anything it was very interesting and we had a guided tour. We also visited a House near Exmoor which had featured "years ago" on an Ealing Film from the 1940's called "The Halfway House".....a Favourite Film of mine! I'd seen it was now lived in privately, so I asked the owners If I could view it for nostalgic reasons. They kindly allowed me to do so and I took photos there (One above) . It had altered a bit naturally, but you could still tell it was that actual house. We also went to Clovelly an Interesting village built in a cliff, which has a very steep set of steps to decend down. So it required careful walking. The beach below was cobbled, but still very scenic as was Clovelly itself.

Then we went onto Hartland Bay which has an Interesting coastline, very rocky.

Of course we had to visit Exmoor itself and see the wildlife there and the fantastic views.

The hills were all shades of green and gorse was colourful too. You could see for miles in the distance. The Weather Improved a bit throughout the week.

Certainly an area we'd enjoy visiting again sometime.

After North Devon we then went onto South Devon, to visit my Sister In Torquay.