beloved bel

One of the great things of living near Kent is that we can easily drive out to explore the Kentish countryside.  We literally live along one of motorways and driving 5 minutes down we are in Kent.  In fact sometimes we do our grocery shopping in that direction on weekends. Last weekend we had another bank holiday weekend (May is the best month because there are two bank holidays - hooray).  It was a very impromptu trip but on Saturday after lunch I asked K if he wanted to go anywhere.  I've got a list of places which I've shortlisted and so he being so easy, said he is fine to drive anywhere but keep the driving time to below one hour each way.  I googled again and decided on Penshurst Place and Gardens near Royal Tunbridge Wells. In the gardens It was a 35min drive from where we live and so we set off after lunch at 3pm.  We arrived close to 4pm and we managed to buy tickets for both the house and gardens.  The house is not very big so we man...

We stayed at Sorrento for two nights.  Our hotel was nestled amongst lemon groves high in the cliff facing Capri in the distance.  Thankfully the hotel provides regular shuttle services into the city centre which we used pretty often. Walking towards the hotel's swimming pool The pool The bar area where in the daytime overlooks Capri. Goofing around We took the shuttle out to have dinner on both nights and in fact we found one restaurant which was so good that we went back on two nights in a row.  Gabby ordered a fish ravioli which was "mmmm so beautiful" in her words.  Before dinner we stumbled upon this serene house and courtyard which Marketa gasped and said it's the scene of a movie based in Sorrento, All You Need is Love A picture before dinnertime Capri The next day, we decided to take the boat to Capri, which is 30min ride away from the port in Sorrento.  We paid EUR 35 for a return trip and off we went. When...

The story of how we girls ended up at Sorrento was quite funny.  None of us had any idea where to go for our holiday.  Initially we thought we would visit Bordeaux since them girls are somewhat wine connoisseurs, at least more well versed than me.  And then we knew we all could do with some vitamin D in the form of a beach getaway.  To have some sunshine this time of the year, it needed to be somewhere south and so I asked around.  My Italian colleague recommended Salento in Italy.  He said there is both the beach and city to explore, making it a well balanced trip.  Marketa said she could redeem some points from British Airways and so volunteered to book the tickets.  Well guess what in my excitement, I told her Sorrento instead of Salento!!  Well they are similar words, no? View of Capri from Sorrento (our hotel room) In any case I was quite glad we went to Sorrento by mistake because it is beautiful.  Massimo my Italian colleag...