We recently went on holiday to Ireland, spending a week on a boat with my family and cruising up and down the Erne. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty terrible, so we spent much of our time indoors, but it was still great to get to spend time with someone, even if I may have gotten a little competitive over the nightly Phase 10 games…. [ Read More… ] …
The final part of my Honeymoon Series will cover our day trip to Bournemouth and our visit to Mad Cucumber Vegan Lounge!
We spent Tuesday shopping in Bournemouth, after a car journey through the stunning countryside and a quick ferry journey over to Poole. There isn’t a whole lot to tell you about Bournemouth itself, not because it isn’t a great place, but because we mostly just shopped. I’ll be posting a Lush Christmas haul very soon though!
For lunch, we did a quick Google search on vegan options in the area and found Mad Cucumber, which is really central and easy to find. I’m still in shock about this place. It has to be to best vegan food I’ve ever eaten, aside from home cooked dishes and our wedding meal, of course. There was so much to choose from, and the place is completely and entirely vegan! We ended up settling for enchiladas, and chocolate cake and pumpkin spice cake for dessert. The food was absolutely delicious and the cake was perfect. I was very impressed by the fact that it wasn’t too sweet – I find that many times vegan cake is made with far too much sugar to compensate for the ‘lack’ of animal ingredients. And can we all just take a moment to appreciate the side salad? I’m used to side salads being a few wilted leaves with some under-ripened and over-refrigerated chunks of tomato and cucumber, but this took it to the next level. A simple salad with mustard dressing, some rice AND a scoop of creamy cucumber salad? I felt spoiled. I would also like to say that the staff were absolutely lovely. Apart from that one time I had to ring Lufthansa and they saved my arse over a checking-in mistake, I think Mad Cucumber had some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced in my life.
Have you been to Bournemouth before? What are your recommendations?
*Image-Heavy Post*
Welcome back to my Swanage Series! On Monday, we decided to take a little day trip to the nearby village of Corfe. Jake’s auntie is an artist, and she displays and sells her work at the Boilerhouse Gallery, which is right next to the station. We hopped on the historic steam train and went to visit her!
I was so impressed by her artwork. We already have a few of her pieces in our flat, but every time I see her work I just can’t get over how talented she and her fellow exhibitors are! If you’re ever in the area and are looking for something individual and inspired for your home, you really should pay them a visit. Alternatively, I think they sell online, too.
Afterwards, the 15 (!) of us went in search of somewhere to have lunch. We ended up finding a lovely pub with an gorgeous garden and a brilliant view of Corfe Castle, which I’m hoping to visit in the future. We kind of had to compromise a little, since there weren’t really any vegan options, so if we go again in the future, I think we would take a packed lunch.
The village itself is incredibly picturesque, it’s almost unreal. I just couldn’t stop looking around! It was such a change to the North-West landscape I usually have around me.
Have you ever been to Corfe? What did you think of your trip?
*Image-Heavy Post*
This path was outside our B&B, it was only a few feet away from the beach!
With all the costs affiliated with planning and having a fairly big wedding reception, Jake and I really didn’t think a honeymoon would be in the cards. His family disagreed, thinking (rightly so) that we would enjoy a little bit of time away, and decided to pay for us to visit the seaside town of Swanage, Dorset, during half-term. Jake’s family is originally from the quaint little place, and many of them still live there, with his mum and sister visiting at the same time as us. It was a lovely little break from reality, and I’m so grateful to have such amazing in-laws!
I’ve thought long and hard (not really) about how to put the whole thing onto the blog, as I’ve literally taken hundreds of photos and we had so many amazing experiences of which I’d like to share at least a few. To avoid one unreadable and lengthy post, I’ve decided to break the whole thing up into several pieces, organised by location. The first, of course, will be Swanage itself!
We stayed at The Sands B&B, which is completely vegetarian and rather lovely. We had a great time chatting to our host each morning while we had breakfast! My only complaint would be that the walls were rather thin, and at one point we felt like the people in the next room were actually in our bedroom with us, we could hear their conversation that clearly! The Sands will be changing over the next few months, as they have sold the accommodation flat and will be building a small guesthouse in their garden instead. I hope to go back some day and see what it’s like!
One of the best things about our B&B was that it was literally meters away from the beach. We had incredibly good luck with the weather and spend several hours each day walking along the sea with the dog and family. There were even people out swimming, clearly enjoying the unusally warm half term! I think that would have been a bit too hardcore even for me though.
We didn’t manage to visit all the cafes we wanted to, unfortunately, as we simply ran out of time. We’ve heard that there a quite a few veggie and vegan options around town though, and we particularly enjoyed Earthlights. They serve a hummous baguette and a hummous salad (both vegan), as well as a killer soya latte. I think it was the best coffee I’d ever tasted!
I was so sad to leave on Wednesday, and we’re really hoping to be able to come down again soon. It was lovely to spend some time relaxing with family after the stressful (but so worth it) wedding period!
*Image-heavy post*
Last week, Jake and I travelled down to London to visit the German embassy and officially declare my name change – exciting stuff!
We spent the day wandering around Chelsea and Kensington, visited the Natural History and Science Museums, went to Wholefoods (of course) and spent the night at one of my bridesmaids’ family’s house. It was a lovely trip, and although Jake isn’t the biggest London fan out there, I’m sure we’ll be going again!