Water, water, everywhere

Guess where I went next? Going to Venice for the first time in ages was great - but greater still was getting to hang out there with a couple of very special ones, busted below being all cute. Meeting up with old friends or family in new places has become one of my favourite things - and I was fortunate enough to have the chance to do this a lot this summer (hold on for more updates).

We had a great time waxing all touristy. By and large it was fairly miserable weather - as much water in the sky as in the canals - but we did get a brief spell of sunshine on our second evening. We used this to head up the Campanile di San Marco (the bell tower in St Mark's Square) and get a bird's-eye of the city in the setting sun - the Basilica and the Doge's Palace looked amazing.

Like any destination city, however, some of the real gems are off the beaten track - and all the more enjoyable for being a haven from the crowds. This one was a wine and cichetti (Venetian tapas) bar, which I had been recommended by a local, but actually somehow ended up stumbling upon without meaning to. It was fantastic - the lovely wines and moreish bite-sized food were served up by the henpecked but amiable owner. The clientele were all local, and we were completely out of place - but what a great place to be so!

The rest of the stay was spent to-ing and fro-ing through the alleyways, which we actually managed to get reasonably familiar with. One of the highlights was getting a tour from a colleague who had retired to live here with her husband. They run these professionally, tailoring days around Venice to the taste of the people they are guiding, up to and including going to the markets and taking food back to cook in their home in a Venetian canal-side mansion. It's going deservedly well, with these "guided tour 2.0"s being booked many months in advance

A couple of nights out on the town rounded off our stay nicely, including a night of opera "highlights" with some classics from various operas being played in one of the scuole of Venice as well as a jazz night in a little bar beside the canal. A great way to spend a couple of days with much-missed friends from afar!

Gallic goodness

Time for another random trip out to the countryside - this one to celebrate the arrival of spring in Wales. It was a great weekend of wild country, and of course more country pubs. We stayed at a brilliant bed and breakfast, the owner of which had contributed to a brilliant book full of hearty celtic recipes - she sent me a copy, and with autumn now approaching I'm definitely keen to try some of them out.

And now, some photos - beautiful spot, no?

l'Angleterre

The day a good friend from Paris was over (the first time I'd seen him for 5 years, no less) was one of the few in a London year that the city woke up to a blanket of soft white snow. There is nothing snow cannot beautify, and this city is no exception. Regardless of this, our plan had been to escape London, and escape we did in a car borrowed just for the occasion.

Our target was fairly vague - west somewhere, maybe as far as Bath - but by the time we got had stopepd at Windsor to wander through the town and around the castle, marveling at the how the place looked in the snow (particularly with the trees in blossom), it was already looking like this was not going to be a day of long voyages, but rather something of an evolving ramble.

We were, soon enough, back in the car and heading further into the countryside; through Eton and past the lovely old buildings of the school, and onwards. The further we went, the thicker the snow lay; but the brighter the weather became, and, on the road to Oxford, we were treated to a an opening up of the sky, and the arrival of brilliant sunshine. This called for only one thing - lunch at a country pub. On a friend's recommendation, we made for The Trout, a riverside pub just outside the old university town.

It couldn't have been more perfect - great food and a few drinks with old friends, while we received alternating bouts of snow and sunshine over the garden of a lovely old pub; exactly what England is all about.