Another visit to see Ernie

We are now on our way back to France from a visit to Broadstairs to see Helen, Nick and Ernie. We arrived on Bonfire night and could see fireworks from the plane as we came in to land.  While we were there, Helen took advantage of the built in babysitters to fit in some freelance work. 

Ernie is very keen on trains and especially the Javelins, which use the high speed line between St Pancras and Ashford. We visited Canterbury one afternoon, taking the train from Broadstairs to Canterbury.

One tea shop had some lovely vintage toy cars, which were of great interest.  These are not really toys, but Ernie was determined to get to the Citröen on the left, to the concern of the tea shop staff.

Ernie indulged himself in a favourite pastime, running through puddles!  It is amazing just how many passing people smile and comment on the joy of puddles!

On Friday, Pat was at a funeral in Norfolk so John took Ernie on the 'Loop', a bus that travels round the Isle of Thanet clockwork or anti clockwise, taking in Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate. One stop on the Loop is the Hornby visitor centre where Ernie enjoyed seeing the train layouts.  

When they stopped off at Ramsgate station on their way round the loop, Ernie insisted on waiting for almost an hour until he saw a Javelin.  They also stopped at Margate to play in the hide and seek exhibit outside the Turner Contemorary Gallery, but the exhibit had been removed and so all they had was a blank space.

A long trip on the Javelin was therefore a must and so we decided on a trip to London.   

Ernie was very excited about the 'Blue train' especially as ours came into the station.  There were two trains joined together and he insisted on sitting in the second. He enjoyed seeing other 'blue trains' as well as white ones and Eurostars, train washes and engine sheds, giving a running commentary throughout. He listened to and learnt the names of the stations that we would stop at.  

 

When we reached St Pancras, he was in a great hurry to get on the tube where, again, much to the amusement of our fellow passengers, he gave a running commentary throughout 'doors open, people on, people off', doors close, followed by Ernie's (accurate) version of the sound that the tube makes as it starts off and gets up to speed.  

Our only stop in London was Hamley's toy shop where Ernie had a great time seeing and playing with all the toys.  This is not on his Christmas list!

Here we are on the way back, playing with his new Thomas train. 

Helen had been in London too and by chance, we found ourselves on the same train on the way home.

Ernie loves hide and seek and we spent a lot of time playing this at home.  Usually, he would hide behind doors or underneath the duvet on our bed, but he has a new hiding place now - in the washing basket.

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Of course, we were out and about in Broadstairs, shopping, walking, visits to the park etc. 

The a Royal Albion Hotel 

The clock tower

Viking bay where the sea was often choppy. 

 

We left Broadstairs on Wednesday for the return trip to Beziers with Helen and Ernie who were on their way to Stratford in East London to meet Ernie's former childminder and son Alex from Crouch End. Ernie was very excited about seeing Alex again.

Pat and John on tour

Catalonia

Last year, at about this time, we went to Girona with friends Sile and Martin in order to eat at El Cellar can Roca. We all enjoyed it so much, that we decided to repeat the trip and this year's destination was Corça, a small village not far from Girona and the restaurant was Bo.Tic. Bo. Tic had been recommended to us a few years ago when we were eating tapas in Callella de Palafugell. We found a very good B&B close by, Mas Vilosa which was enormous - it is a very interesting large house with an extensive garden with a swimming pool. Sadly, the water wasn't quite warm enough to swim.

Our hosts gave us plenty of information about the region which was useful for the following day, but for now, we went out to walk around the village of Corça.

We saw yellow ribbons all over the region, indicating support for the Catalan separatist movement.

Our hosts were kind enough to drop us off at Bo. Tic where we enjoyed a top quality meal - it really should have more than one Michelin star. See my photo journals for more photos of the exquisite dishes! Here we are with the chef.

On Thursday, after and excellent Catalan breakfast of tomato topped bread, cheeses and ham on the terrace, we set off to see nearby villages, suggested by our hosts.

We had visited other villages in the region earlier in the year and while very interesting, there had been many tourists. This time, our first stop was Monelles with its lovely arches. It is not unlike Peralata, which we saw in September, but very much less touristy.

The next stop was Púbol where Salvador Dali bought a castle for his wife, Gala in 1968. Púbol was busier than Monelles, with bus loads of teenage schoolchildren on a day out to the Dali museum. This is the church.

We had decided that our last stop would be L'Escale, but we passed Rupia on the way, where we saw we saw intricately decorated walls.

Some were decidedly past their best.

A river flows under the village

We Iunched at L'Escala in a busy restaurant in the town, then went down to the see front to see the band who were all wearing their yellow ties.

After a short walk along the sea

We set off for home but as soon as we got onto the French toll motorway to were halted for two hours in a long queue waiting for an accident to be cleared - well fed, with no commitments and friends on board the time soon passed.

There was a good sunset to photo with the Pyrenees (Canigou) in the background.