Wine Tasting and Brighton

For Jamie's birthday I took him for a vineyard tour and wine tasting day in Haywards Heath, Sussex. We took the train and were lucky enough to find tickets for only £10/day after searching different fare prices on the net. Upon arriving at the train station we found that finding the correct platform and train was a bit harder than we bargained for, and we were really lucky we left a few hours early. Otherwise we may have missed the wine tasting, and that would have been really sad...

British wine, is well to put it bluntly weak, this is due to the lack of sunshine in Britain, however there are a few wealthy Brits who have decided to squander their money on creating vineyards around the countryside. The vineyard we were at had a lovely man, that guided us around the vineyard and explained how vines grew and all the finer details of creating wine up to putting the labels on the bottles. It all looked very expensive and he suggested it wasn't a viable investment. After our tour we tasted three wines, which were o.k., Melissa and I liked the sparkling and the rose wine. Then they served dinner as well, which was very British it reminded me of eating at a British friends house. Cold cut ham and salad, but doesn't the chutney make the meal :)

After we had finished our wine tasting we packed up and headed off on the train to Brighton. Brighton is a really crazy place and it would definitely pay to book your accommodation much further in advance if you want to find a good deal. It was really quite pricey £100 / night - no breakfast , but I guess we were paying more for the location than a nice room. The photo below is the view from our room.

The 'Brighton Best Western Hotel' was just horrid, upon entering our room there was a foul aroma, which we soon discovered was due to the wet carpet. Which was being dried by a small fan heater, all the windows were closed and I though they were trying to gas us!!!! It was either stay there or go home and we decided to tough it out and stay. On checkout there was a line of people all complaining about their rooms. The shower was dirty and the view was dismal, they could have put in a little more effort, it should be called the Worst Western. Not something I'd recommed this 'Brighton Best Western Hotel' has put us off all Best / Worst Western hotels.

The beach there is quite weird to us antipodeans, no sand all rocks and pebbles. It made for a nice but very loud walk along the water. Brighton just felt like a town that was a constant funfair. The pier had all sorts of carnival attractions (rides and games) that were open all year round.

Apart from the beach, Brighton is well known for 'The Laines', which is a series of small walkways with shops on either side and lots of stalls. Just before entering 'The Laines' we found a really nice cafe that made fabulous eggs benedict for breakie. It as so good we had the same both mornings we were there. We really just had a relaxing weekend walking around taking in the sites.

We headed out on the town on Saturday night for some Cocktails, they had a 2-4-1 deal on so we thought why not give them a go. Our order took awhile to be filled and even then they got it wrong, however eventually we were given the drinks we had asked and paid for. The first cocktail we tried was a Cosmopolitan, it was really nice. The second was a choc-mint and boy was it STRONG!! Jamie had to finish mine, as it tasted like straight vodka with a hint of mintiness.

On the Sunday the sun finally made an appearance (however the temperature still didn't get above 13degrees- so much for summer) and we sun-baked on the rocks, eating hot chips and ice-cream for lunch, yum yum!!!

By 2pm we had had enough and decided to head home to London. The train ride to Clapham Junction - London, took as long as the Bus to Earl's Court (the train we needed wasn't running that day.....) After finally making it home at 4pm, we decided to have a quick nap before dinner, however we didn't wake until 4am!! No point in making dinner now, so we just went back to sleep.

What a relaxing end to the weekend.

Contiki Craziness - Part 2

Day 2 - Amsterdam to St Goar, Germany

Wild Weather, Wine and Witches

After getting up nice and early for some breakfast we were allowed some free time to explore Amsterdam before heading off to St Goar. So we set off in the pouring rain and went to visit the Anne Frank House, the house was where her family hid during the time of Hitler as they were trying to escape prosecution from the Nazis. There's a book and movie about her struggle through this period.

The house was very eerie and everyone was really quiet, it was a sombre affair but quite interesting all the same. Anne lived in a space that was bigger than my apartment but it sure would have been a tight fit for eight people and living in one place for two years and without being allowed to leave wouldn't have been much of a life.

Amsterdam's wet weather forced us into buying some expensive umbrella's and KFC was our lunch followed by a bus ride to St Goar. St Goar is a nice sleepy village in the Rhine Valley and we had a very simple place to stay however it was one of the better places all the same. That night we had an optional excursion to go wine tasting and we all headed off 5 minutes down the street to the wine tasting.

On the way to our wine tasting tour we were told a story of a wicked witch who lived in one of the nearby houses. Then our tour guide stopped us and told us to look through a dim lit fence, lo and behold there was a statue of the witch ....Scary!

Once we made it to the underground cellar a lovely German man explained a few things to us about the vineyards in the Rhine Valley, they are on the hills and are sloped at a 60degree angle, so the harvesting equipment and people all have to be strapped in and lowered down on a pully system to harvest the grapes.

They are famous for their ice wine, ice wine can only be made if the grapes are frozen at <-10degrees for at least 8 days. So you can imagine how expensive it is. It was very sweet and is mainly used as a desert wine. The wine tasting was a very good experience and we'll all remember the German saying 'Vool zoom' or something to that effect :)

After spending much of the day cooped in the bus, it was time for a PARTY!!! The tour group all headed for the hotel bar following the wine tasting and it was a very late night for all. Two of the captains got into the drinking with some jager bombs, while the other two captains danced the night away. We all reved up the tour guide and learnt about the elusive kiwi guy. Aparently a nice kiwi guy is hard to find....