Tropical Island

So how was our Belgium trip? Bruges is very pretty and very busy, we had the most entertaining and informative city tour when we arrived which set us up for a delightful few days of sightseeing, eating and drinking. With so much history of WWI in the area we could not miss the opportunity to learn more and visit the Menin Gate for the Last Post. Ghent & Brussels are much bigger cities and as a consequence felt slightly less relaxing, yet still steeped in history and interesting in their own way.

Isn’t it a small world! We did get a special treat for our visit to Antwerp as one of my old aviation friends lives nearby and joined us for the day as our own personal tour guide, many thanks Ken. Then whilst walking by Saint Nicholas’ Church in Ghent Annette literally bumped into Joe, an old work colleague; how amazing was that. Finally and most amusingly we have been trying for a long time to meet up with our coach driver friend from Rubery but have failed even when staying in Redditch only miles from his home. Low and behold he was driving to Belgium on a weekend job and we actually got to meet up in Ypres for a lovely pizza – really good to catch up with you Carlos and nice to meet Martin.

The second half of May was spent on the tropical Island of Wight. It has palm trees and is nearer to the tropics than the mainland so I am sticking with the title 🙂 We spent the first week on holiday on the east side of the Island, sightseeing and taking long walks along the beach; what hopeless romantics we are. This week also happened to include the weekend event known as the Isle of Wight Takeover, this is where the locals are subjected to countless performance cars popping and banging along the coastal roads in the usual annoying manner, however if you’re into your flashy sports cars then apparently this is the place to be.

The second week we spent dog sitting in Yarmouth for Elsa (Labrador) and Louis (Fox Terrier) and as this week covered the Bank Holiday weekend we were treated to the Yarmouth Sea Songs Festival, four days of open air sea shanty songs from a tent next to Yarmouth Sailing Club and if that wasn’t enough the local pubs then provided more of the same from the same artists during the evenings. All harmless fun in aid of charity and everyone seemed to enjoy a good sing-along.

We finished off May with a few days in Portsmouth with our friend Mike who was over from Switzerland for a family wedding. We try and meet up once a year somewhere in the UK when he is over and explore some new places.

June is shaping up to be a busy and interesting month, we have lots of things going on and we get to see some of our favourite fur babies and their owners who have become good friends of ours over the last couple of years.