Over the winter holidays, Tom and I travelled to England to basically spend two weeks in pubs. It was great and we enjoyed every rainy second of it!

The day we left, Montpellier was bright and sunny and England was grey and rainy. From Heathrow we rented a car and drove down to Rye on the south coast. We checked into the Ship Inn and pretty much immediately got stuck into some local ales. Rye is a very pretty town, very quiet at this time of year, but is full of interesting streets to wander up and down and around on. There are also many pubs to visit.

(I hope you’re sensing the theme of our travel…)

While on the south coast we also visited Hastings as I pretty much always want to see the sea. The day we drove down was cold and wet and windy, so we didn’t stay too long – only long enough to get a good look at the sea, have a quick walk around, and eat some chips.

After a few days down south we drove up to London to stay in an AirBnB in Hackney. A friend who has recently moved from Melbourne to Leipzig joined us in the London flat and we also were able to meet up with another friend from Melbourne who has just started working as the Head Brewer at the East London Brewing Company (shout out to Ruaridh – I’m so proud of you!). We had a special, festive Christmas Lunch at the Dove in Hackney and generally spent our time there wandering about or sitting in pubs drinking, eating and doing crosswords. We also visited a couple of specialty coffee roasters and picked up a ridiculous supply of beans to bring home. Total bliss.

The last leg of our trip was after our Leipzig friend left us and we travelled northwards to the Yorkshire Dales. The two of us stayed in a small village called Giggleswick (to which, LOL, obviously) and went for daily walks to the most beautiful countryside nearby and farther afield into the Dales country. The scenery was absolutely spectacular and I have no compunction about recommending the area as a wonderful and relaxing place to take a break. Don’t count on good weather though, not at any time of year!

Then of course it was back to Montpellier where we have enjoyed clear blue skies every day since. It’s really quite amazing. Naturally being back home means back at work and back to the usual daily grind. I’ll have the finished photo set up on flickr in a few days, I hope.