Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

I'm not a massive fan of odd numbered years, but life is what you make of it. It's strange to think that last year our New Years Eve was in a vineyard in the strangest B&B we have ever stayed in, verging on scary. 2013 has been a fantastic year, which started in New Zealand, also:

• Prince George born
• Margaret thatcher died
• Nelson Mandela died
• Andy Murray wins Wimbledon
• We went to Sandringham on Christmas Day
• Penny arrived at our home
• We had afternoon tea Fortnum and Mason where the dress code was 'elegance'
• We went on a Duck tour in London, I will never forget the screams from Liv and Caitlin when the truck went into the water. Later in the year, a Duck tour caught fire!
• We continued our love of cottage holidays in Lincolnshire and Norfolk
• Cambridge punting - with Cous Cous punting, I haven't laughed that much in years
• We went to a cricket match
• Sun walk - we walked a half marathon in London and obviously forgot how our legs felt because I signed us up to the full marathon!
• Guide camp - I went on guide camp, for the first time in 20 years. I also got my 10 year service award as a Brownie leader
• Hastings - Phil and I visited, he walked around the battle site with a briefcase
• Buckingham palace - visited twice!
• Gromits - all 78 of them, 1 was vandalised so I couldn't see it, one I couldn't see due to vertigo
• Harry potter - visited Harry Potter studios, a dream for a long time
• George's wedding - in Glasgow
• Katherine's wedding - in Bristol.

Looking forward to what new experiences we will have in 2014, I do love an even numbered year.

Christmas in Bristol

After 3 days home alone for Christmas, we ventured to Bristol on the same day that everyone else was travelling on the motorways. As such, it took us 4.5 hours to get to Bristol but there was a plus side, 23 Eddie Stobarts on the road, including a car transporters and 2 biomass trucks. We had a weekend of meeting friends and family which started with cold meat and chips with mum (Taditional Shackell boxing day lunch). Then coffee with Norma, coffee with Ruth, taking Olivia and Caitlin to lunch where we met Mum, Chris and Jo, then Indian with Mum and Dad! What a day of reunions! Then on the Sunday, we had a walk at Leigh Woods with Jen, Jemma and Billy. Aunty, Cous Cous and Tia. Fran and Kat. Mum, Liv and Caitlin. Every other dog owner in Bristol had the self same idea, there were dogs off the lead everywhere! A lovely muddy walk catching up.

A great Christmas in Bristol, but gosh we are looking forward to fruit and veg again.

A Royal Christmas

We stuck with tradition and had our Christmas presents and dinner on Christmas eve. However, this year we opened a bottle of Moet that we were given for the wedding last year. It went down rather well....a little too well. Sailor and Penny loved their toys and their bone, we didn't see them all night. However, they made the same mistake as their mummies. They ate too much and one was sick in the night. It's like having kids! Luckily though, they don't wake us at 3am to see if Father Christmas has been.

Instead, I woke us at 6am because I really wanted to go to Sandringham to see the Royal Family go to church. Driving to Sandringham at 7am, there were very few cars, few lights on houses. I wondered how many families were opening presents as we drove through the dark. It took a couple of hours to get to Sandringham and as we went down the drive, lots of people were parking on the verge. Panic parking, the car park only had 2 cars in it!

We stood in the queue for an hour, then Ali took Sailor and Penny around Sandringham Wood because they were bored. The gates were opened at 10am, then it was a rush to get a prime spot. I was adopted into the family that I met in the queue, they had been before so I followed. The trick is to go over to the far side, with the sun to your back, and stand on the corner because you will then see the Queen, the Royals and the children giving the flowers. We were too late for that, so we were nearer the gate.

Only one count of queue rage, an Austraian lady behind me was rather short and kept shouting about how her viewpoint has gone. Try standing in the queue for over 2 hours! Then you might be at the front. I didn't have much patience.

We waited for an hour, there were so many people with bunches of flowers. I had a big group of Americans from Mississippi in front of me. They turned out to be a godsend, one girl has quite a knack of getting the Royal family to speak to her. Especially William because she said her husband if deployed in Afghanistan so she is spending Christmas here!

The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Andrew led the family to the church. It was quite a march, they went at quite a pace. I was surprised at the number of people that left, however, it meant I got a front row spot. During the service, we were given the words for the carols and the singing from the church was played on speakers. All the children were invited to go with the police to meet the Royal Family. Some in their Sunday best with gorgeous posy's.

Then each of the members of the Royal Family walked back to the house. Camilla was one of the first and stopped in front of me and asked what's on my hat! I explained it's a polar bear :) She said something like 'very nice', it definitely made her smile. They were all so elegant. The girl from Mississippi was stood next to me and she called William, who stood right in front of me. They are all so much taller than I thought they would be.

I absolutely loved it. While I was seeing the other members of the family, Ali, Sailor and Penny was waiting in the line to see the Queen! They waved.

We then went to Tichwell Marshes for a beach walk. Sadly, the boardwalk was ripped apart from the storms and a lot of the dunes have been washed away. It's still one of our most favourite beaches though.

Festive London at Christmas

You can tell we are getting old, instead of Christmas presents this year, we decided to have an afternoon in London to look at the lights and have afternoon tea. The train was heaving and then at Oxford Circus, the tube corridor has sick on the floor and wafting up the escalators, mid afternoon! Our first stop was Carnaby Street and Choccywoccydoodah. The floating robin decorations were the best we saw all day. The window decoration of Choccy was excellent, it's like adult Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. We had to queue to get in the café, but was entertained by the Maitre 'd and given a piece of chocolate cake to keep us going.

We managed to get the table in the corner with 3 side views looking over to Christmas shoppers below. The menu was simple, chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. The hot chocolate is made up of molten chocolate with hot milk. I opted for a white chocolate one, Ali had dark. Oh my gosh! Then I had a dipping pot with white chocolate, fruit, pieces of the cakes, chocolate crunchie, marshmallows, chocolate pretzels...I ate half and was considering throwing up, so stopped. I asked if anyone has ever thrown up. One person has, because they were in the chocolate 'secret room' for 2 hours!

Luckily, they give you a doggy bag to take home what you don't eat. The prices were really normal too, but we could have easily shared one piece of cake with 4 people. Ali's chocolate cake was a huge wedge, the biggest piece of cake I've ever seen. We even saw the owner at the tube station.

Onwards, our next stop was Charing Cross to see the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree which has been given to London every year from Oslo since 1947, to thank us for help during the second world war. A choir was single carols in front of it, raising money for charity. Our next stop was Covent Garden to see the coca cola truck and decorations. I had to take a picture of the queue for a photo, it was massive!

Back on the tube, then onto South Kensington to the Natural History Museum to see the skating rink and carousel. The kids had these penguin push things to stop them falling over. I need one of those skating! We still felt sick from Choccy, so walked to Harrods, you can't miss it. The window display was wonderful, called the Harrods Christmas Express and train based.

We got to our venue for afternoon tea, Fortnum and Mason and the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, opened last year by the Queen, Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Cornwall. Change of shoes for the dress code of 'elegance'. We had our coats and shopping put in the cloak room. The first thing I noticed, they don't cram you in, there was lots of space between us and the next table. Elegance is a very appropriate word. We ordered our gluten free afternoon tea, a coffee and jug of traditional lemonade. Sandwiches of salmon, coronation chicken, ham, egg and cress. 4 scones with clotted cream and assorted preserves, then a macaroon, chocolate cake, bakewell and raspberry dessert. We had a refill of sandwiches, at no extra cost, refill of coffee. They would have kept refilling, but we were full, so we had to have doggy bag number 2 for the day! In a gorgeous box, with the preserves.

What a Christmas present to each other.

Iceland: Time to say goodbye...for now.

What a snow storm overnight! We awoke to the view being pure white again. The last Ranga breakfast, I'm going to miss three course breakfasts. I'm also trying to convince Ali that we need to buy the bath from the Antarctica room, i'd never leave the house! An incredibly snowy/ icy drive to the airport. Incredibly, we saw Lea and Jay at the airport! We met Lea and Jay last year at Ranga, we did the superjeep together, they adore the Antarctica suite too, went back this year, but our paths didn't cross. You  know when some things happen for a reason? Well, us walking past them at the airport was meant to be. Great to see them again.

What a bumping landing in London, the plane was going up, down, side to side. All I kept thinking was that pilots from Icelandair regularly land on snow and ice, we will be fine. Ali was shaking for a good 5 mins after we landed. Back in blightly and already planning future trips back to Iceland, a country that's in our hearts.

Iceland: Storms and the bridge over the waterfall, minus the ice

What a stormy night! Gale force winds, the doors and windows were being pounded by wind all night long. It was incredibly noisy. The weather in Iceland is so unpredictable, overnight, most of the snow has melted or being blown elsewhere. It has also gone up to 4 degrees. Yesterday we were driving through deep snow and being blasted with ice, today, the road is clear.

Our day started with an amazing massage. We talked non stop, about Icelandic Christmas, about the Yule Lads, about Icelandic horses. The lady also said my English is very good, I immediately told Ali, who thinks I sound like a farmer. I also met Hugrun, our wedding co-ordinator from last year. It was so great to see her again, I think back to a year ago, it was so good to see her in reception on the day of the wedding. She came back from Uni in Reykjavik, just to be there for our wedding. I'm also soooo going to miss the Ranga breakfast! We dream of coming back to Ranga every anniversary, we just need to win the lottery.

We headed over to Seljalandsfoss, the waterfall where we had our photo's last year. However, this time, it was really warm! There wasn't even ice on the bridge which I was so elegant on, hooking my dress between my legs to climb sideways up the rail! Jemma did well to film people getting back over the other side. Even though the bridge was fine, the footpath today was an ice rink. Thank goodness for gripeys. They are definitely coming to Antarctica with us.

On to Skogafoss, then back in daylight for a change. In the evening we enjoyed the Christmas buffet, 80 courses! I got to 30, Ali got to 33 before we had to retire to stretchy trousers. What a meal, I even ate Reindeer but trying not to think it was Rudolph.

Iceland: Anniversary trip to frozen gulfoss

The day started with 'Songbird' being played on repeat while we opened our cards and presents. Songbird was the song we walked down the aisle to. Ali gave me a gorgeous calendar of photo's from our trips, I gave her the traditional year photobook and engraved cufflinks. We put our cards on the same ledge as last year, then went for the best hotel breakfast in the world. Waffles for starters :)

We headed out, on a mission to Gulfoss and Geysir. We haven't ever seen Gulfoss in winter, last time we visited it was too windy and there was a big risk we would be blown into the waterfall! Overnight we had another downpour of snow. It was a gorgeous sunrise. I thought it would be a good idea to walk around the hotel to take photo's, walking into the wind was painful, instead of snow, ice crystals pounded our faces. It was like hundreds of needles in your face.

The drive to Gulfoss was 'interesting', I couldn't see the road for the majority of the trip, just pure white. At 12:00, we stopped the car, said Happy Anniversary. We finally got to Gullfoss and decided that the snow trousers are required. While our bodies were toasty, the needles were back again. We got down to the double cascade waterfall. In the summer we sat on the bank and watched the waterfall, this time we took a photo and ran back. One idiot decided to climb over the rope and stand closer to the falls! Why oh why would someone risk their life for a photo.

Back down the road to Geysir, I love the blue colour when the water bulges, just before it explodes. We watched a few explosions, watched the tourists slip around the ice. They were wearing jeans and trainers! Ali and I had thermals, another 3 layers, ski trousers and jacket and grips on our shoes :) We have perfected the attire after 4 trips to Iceland. A storm is brewing, the wind has really picked up and was blowing snow across the road. The lowest temperature today -8 degrees.

A pre dinner Jacuzzi in the room. Trouble was, I put in 2 bottles of gel, which resulted in the bubbles expanding over the sides of the Jacuzzi in the room! oopps. Dinner in the restaurant was as amazing as usual. So, we are no longer newly weds, we are now a year wed, 6 years together and already planning next years anniversary trip. We even thought we might do a 10 year Iceland reunion for our families :)

Iceland: Hotel Ranga feels like coming home

We've had yet more snow overnight, it's a white wonderland outside our window, overlooking the harbour. Today's plan was to go whale watching so we wore thermals, tshirt, micro fleece, mid fleece, thick fleece, then big coat and wandered to reception to board the one. One problem, the weather was so bad that we couldn't go :( So, we quickly took off layers because we were baking at this stage.

Instead we decided to hit the road as we had a long drive ahead. Thank goodness for the bum warmers, heated windscreens and de-icer tool in the car. I love the look of the snow, but driving on it is a whole other matter, especially the fresh white powder which makes you skid around the road. A few times I went 'dancing in the street' as someone put it.

We stopped off at Stykkishólmur to get a coffee, which then turned into lunch in a lovely little restaurant. The waiter said that very few people visit this time of year...except us. I also got to visit a third cemetary. The drive to Ranga was a little hairy, to say the least. The road was pure white for most of the trip, then we had drifting snow across the road. We swaped at Borganes for Ali to take over on the clear roads. However, what we didn't bank on was the blizzard as we went over the hill into Selfoss. You couldn't see the road, nor the tracks of other cars, the snow was going right into the windscreen and we had a big drop on one side of the road! Not a snow plough in sight either, even though the whole trip has been snow plough after snow plough. Makes you wonder why Britain grinds to a stop, as soon as there is snow here, the ploughs are out.

It felt so wonderful to arrive at Ranga, like we were coming home, everything is so familiar. From the moment we walked in the door, it was as though we were celebs. We didn't have to check in, they have our details on file! Then we went to the bar and Amy, our waitress from last year said 'it's you, you are back!'. Then at dinner, the owner came over to welcome us back and said he would like to book is in for 2072 for our 60th anniversary too! We will be back before then :) We are so at home, Ali didn't even wear shoes to dinner, she went down to the room in her socks.

I can't believe a whole year has past since we were sitting in the Antarctica room, feels so good to be back, an amazing trip down memory lane of the best day of our lives.

Iceland: Northern Lights, Jules Verne, beaches and frozen waterfalls

One of the great things about Iceland, is that it gets dark early and the sunrises later, which means lots of sleep. So, I was asleep by 9pm, then at 11:30, there was a knock at the door, the Northern Lights were shining! I wish I filmed Ali, she was wandering around the room in a daze, didn't have her snow trousers, nor her rab coat, nor her tripod. We ventured out, down the road to get away from the lights of the hotel and saw the halo in it's full glory. The green lights were dancing around. Magical. It's quite a coincidence, but at 11pm last year, we saw the Northern Lights for the first time, at the Northern Light inn.

A late start after being woken half way through the night. A gorgeous breakfast in such an elegant setting. We waiting for some light, then set off for a walk to the beach. The dog from the hotel joined us for our walk along the coast and up to the black church. Graveyards seem to be a theme of the trip. Today's was amazing, looking onto the Atlantic. The snow was incredibly deep and I couldn't feel my hands, but it was a lovely morning dog walk.

There has been quite a bit of snow overnight, so I drove for the day. Luckily the snow poles show the edge of the road, or you wouldn't know what was road and what wasn't, it was just pure white. We explored the peninsula. Our first stop was back to Arnastapi to look for the monument to Jules Verne and Journey to the Centre of the earth. We couldn't find it first of all, but took some great shots of the sunrise at lunchtime. We eventually found it, behind a petrol station. The signpost shows the distance to places, via the earths core. Randomly they had New York...then Stomboli.

On the ventured, through snow showers. We next visited a black beach, but couldn't get down to the beach due to snow and wind. To get there, we travelled through a lava field and very small road of soft snow, which I secretly enjoyed, Ali held tight to the car. We drove for over 3 hours and didn't see a single car. On route we saw frozen waterfalls, so many mountains and loved the bum warmer seats!

We made it to Grundarfjordur, our overnight stop. We had a walk before sunset, the houses are so Christmassy!