Wisely and Taste of Autumn

Last year I ended up at Wisley Gardens for their taste of Autumn festival mostly by accident. This year I planned it. The weather hasn't been great (thanks to Storm Brian) but there were sunny spells and I only had to take cover a few times.

The fountain.

Still flowers out

But Autumn is here.

Looking up to the rock garden.

I enjoyed the greenhouse - it was so nice to be warm but it did take some time for my camera to de-steam.

Spanish Moss.

Bottom of the rock gardens.

Looking over the park.

They also have a lovely bonsai tree walk. All of the trees are between 30 and 80 years old.

The stalls area wasn't as busy as last time, I guess due to the weather. And they did have the apple selection. Last year they had stalls of loads of different apples to taste and buy but this year their orchards were hit with disease so they couldn't. Still they had lots of different stalls (an amazing number selling cheese!) so plenty to buy.

I added to my Christmas presents (I started early this year) and left after noon. I was planning to stay for lunch but the lunch stalls weren't there this year either. So I spent the afternoon (and rest of the weekend) relaxing.

Today I won second place in our data Bake off. (I was never going to win over the syrup soaked donuts!) So I'll take second happily!

Boat trip

On the last day of our trip, we went on a boat trip on a catamaran up the coast in the afternoon. In the morning, we headed to the beach (Caroline joined me) for a swim and another sneaky Pain au Chocolate. Totally the way to spend a morning. The weather was amazing on our last day. (I didn't check the temperature until the evening but at 5pm it was 28C.)

We got picked up a noon (by a very rude driver) and dropped off in Cambrils to catch the boat.

Heading out

We stopped near the lighthouse at Salou and dropped anchor. There was time for a swim (clear but nothing to see) and some food and drinks before heading back. It was free drinks up trips but surprisingly no one got (obviously) drunk.

On the way back we moved to the nets at the front of the boat. It was a much better view.

I really didn't want to leave the sea so when we got dropped back off at our hotel, I headed to beach while Caroline went to the apartment to relax. The beach was again empty so I had no problems getting some sun beds (Caroline joined me later). I meant to use my water-proof camera on the boat but forgot so took it for a swim later.

And then spent time lying in the sun. It was so nice and warm. (I am missing the warmth already.)

On our last evening, we went straight to dinner form the beach (we got kicked off the sun beds). 

The trip back was full of people coughing and sneezing. Which is why it has taken me so long to up date the blog. I hate colds! But it was worth it. Can't wait until next years.

Cambrils

We had a lazy Thursday after our busy day in Barcelona but as usual I was awake early. So after breakfast I decided to head to the beach for a few hours while Caroline was asleep.

Empty.

I was also very bad and had a Pain au Chocolat. Which I really shouldn't eat but apparently the Canaries are much better for GF than mainland. So why not just enjoy if I was going to suffer anyway? And it was amazing!

We spent the rest of the day by the pool after lunch. And then walked along the waterfront to Cambrils which is supposedly 30 mins walk away. We got about 10 mins in before we decided we deserved a break!

The life.

We finished the walk into the town. But my feet were not happy with me again by the end.

Fishermen

Creepy.

We did a bit of shopping and had a look around. We should have walked there before as there were a lot more places to eat. We finally found somewhere that did vegetarian (Spain is even worse for no meat than no gluten!). And sold seafood! It looked a lot smaller on the image in the menu!