Some little trips

Tues 9 th Sept We were getting lazier by the day and so we were even later to breakfast today (9.45) and then we decided that we needed a rest in the room. We finally headed to beach but there were no sunbeds available so we went to the pool instead. We stayed for a few hours then got showered and changed. I’m sure we must also have popped into the lounge for some snacks cos this was part of our daily routine :) We were going to walk to dinner but got a taxi...we made a mistake and told the guy the wrong place and then along the way realised we could have walked easily! We had dinner at Mama Mia's again, Rob had another M E A T T T Y pizza and I had one with ham and mushroom. We then both managed to get a slice of the chocolate fondant cake that Rob had wanted the other day. Of course we each added a scoop of ice cream as well. It was such good cake!   We walked the short distance back to the hotel where we got a quick drink in the lounge. We also got...

Sun 7 th Sept We got up and headed to breakfast a little earlier today. Thankfully we managed to miss the crazed masses and Rob got his omelette within a few minutes. We decided to spend a lazy morning in the room before leaving around 1 to head to the Roundhouse for lunch. The Roundhouse was on the other side of the island and unfortunately we got a little lost. It took us about an hour to get there on some rather bumpy roads – I’m reasonably sure we took one wrong turn which lead to quite the detour!             Lunch was great, the waitress brought some garlic bread as our fries were still being cooked – we weren’t even really aware of a delay but apparently she was!       We were quite full but managed to squeeze in ice cream for dessert which was nice :) We drove back across the Island to the hotel – thankfully we didn’t take a wrong turn and so it only took around 30 minutes to ...

Sat 6 th Sept We went downstairs slightly later to breakfast this morning and it appears as though the whole world has descended on the hotel. We got a table quickly enough but Rob had to wait about 20 mins for an omelette today! There was a massusive line! After breakfast we decided to visit the Sheraton Mall. Got there and it was not quite what we expected. They did have a Courts which sells furniture etc just like we used to have in the UK. Rob wanted to buy some giant speakers to bring home cos they were so retro! We did manage to buy me a hairbrush as I had not been able to find mine since we arrived and then we headed back to the hotel. We decided to watch the first US Open semi on TV before facetiming Rob’s mum quickly and then we went to get cake and drinks in the lounge. It was a little bit overcast so we decided against the pool/beach and in the end we watched the second semi too. We were surprisingly wrong about the result of both matches (as I s...

Fri 5 th Sept Today we went down for breakfast at around 9am. We were having our car delivered at 10 and met the guy in the lobby.     Once we got all of the paperwork finished we headed off to Bridgetown to get some Barbados dollars. Parked the car and found a bank....yay! It didn’t take us too long to swap our pounds and we got an exchange rate of 3.2 Barbados dollars to the pound.   We headed back to the hotel to store some of our cash and grab a quick drink – it was quite hot driving around in our doorless car! Then we were off to explore....we got a bit lost and drove around Bridgetown twice before finding the right road. We went up past Holetown and Speightstown before reaching the Animal Flower Cave. We bought a print from some random guy on the way in and then paid our entry fee to the cave (think it was 20BDS each).     Terrible selfie - it was windy and my hair does not look good!   There were s...

Thurs 4 th Sept This morning we had breakfast at around 9 then went out for a wander. We knew the garrison was nearby and so headed to look around. Whilst on the way we realised that the house where George Washington ‘lived’ (he stayed on the island for 6 weeks in 1751) was just down the road. We headed to the house and paid our entry fee (it was $20 US). We were taken to watch a movie explaining the background of how George came to the island (his brother had TB and they were looking for a cure).     Afterward we were taken across to the house which has been restored and staged with furniture appropriate to the time period.             Unfortunately George’s brother later died from TB but George contracted (and survived) smallpox whilst in Barbados which the Barbadians are quite proud of....! We stopped to have a drink in the coffee shop and were amazed at the bargain – we had 2 bottles of coke ...

Wed 3 rd Sept First day on the island and we managed to stay in bed until a reasonable hour. We were up around 8 and off down to breakfast.   This was included in our rate and as with most Hilton properties there was an omelette station, standard breakfast options (sausage etc) lots of continental options and most importantly....cake! We both had omelettes and I had toast along with a muffin and I’m fairly sure I had a slice of cake too! We decided to ease into our trip by spending the morning by the beach, the sea was sooo warm! Despite carefully applying my factor 50 sun cream both Rob and I managed to get slightly sunburnt shoulders :(   We headed back to the room for a rest and then went to the lounge for some snacks and drinks. I’m fairly sure that more cake featured here! We decided to take a walk along the beach past the Radisson but found that we had to walk around (via pavements) we kept going a little while and then decided to ...

So, after 4 trips to Disneyworld in the last 12 months (Sept 13, Dec 13, Feb 14 and Jun 14) plus a trip to Barcelona swiftly followed by a Greek wedding you’d think we had enough holidays for one year right? Wrong....! We decided that we needed a slightly more relaxing break as all of the others had been quite busy holidays. So, almost immediately after returning from Disney in June we started looking for another holiday. Virgin were having some form of ‘sale’ and we picked up flights to Barbados (out economy, back premium economy) for £1251 for the 2 of us. I then started looking at hotels....we booked the Hilton (bed and breakfast) on a fully cancellable rate ($1880 ish for 8 nights) and kept looking at other options. About 2 weeks before we left there was a new rate at the Hilton that included wifi as well and was down to around $1600 so I swapped to that one. The following day they had a flash sale and I managed to grab the same room rate (breakfast and wifi inclu...

Our last full day in Greece and we had a slightly late start. We missed breakfast again! We packed up our bags and checked out of the hotel. We started on the way back to Thessaloniki and somehow along the way got stopped by a police car – they just asked to see Rob’s license and then let us carry on. We were driving into a town called Platamonas and noticed a castle on the top of a hill so we decided to stop and take a look around. We climbed up the hill and discovered that the entrance fee to the castle was only €2 each so we went in. The castle was quite interesting and there were some fantastic views. Photo overload coming up......       There was a church within the castle boundary:     We continued on our journey and stopped for lunch at a very new service station which was also very empty! More tolls along the way as we continued to Thessaloniki. The roads got...