Theatre Trip: Waitress #3

WAITRESS #3

Adelphi Theatre

Date: 25 January (Saturday), 2:30pm

Seats: Stalls Row S 26

Understudies: Mark Willshire (Cal)

Lulu was played by Lucia Kaplan in this show.

I am back in the diner! It has been such a busy few months that I have only seen one show (As You Like It at the Barbican with my family), and it feels like way too long since I saw a musical! So after my family had flown out and with Richard away, I had a few weekends to myself. Plus, tickets went on sale - so as well as booking to see this show in a few weeks (Sara Bareilles!), I decided to have a self care Saturday which involved taking myself to the matinee. I did almost run late (thanks to Apple customer care taking longer than expected) and got to my seat after the customary bathroom trip with literally 2 minutes to spare.

I do adore this show. It always brings me to tears, watching Jenna take control at the end, and grow into herself and the woman she could truly be. I will already be going back for my fourth viewing, and now I want to go more again - but I think I might have to continue the pattern of seeing a different Jenna every time!

For my third visit, I was really hoping to see Lucie Jones again. The cast is changing on Monday to have the role of Jenna played by the writer of the show, Sara Bareilles. Unbeknownst to me however, Lucie had been out for about a week already with a bad chest infection, and both understudies had also been ill or on holiday, so they had called the Jenna from the US Tour, Desi Oakley, to play the role. However, we were so lucky because she is fabulous! Her Jenna was more blunt and sarcastic, which I did feel was a portrayal which fit really really well with Jenna and how she would have reacted to the show. Her singing was amazing and she put in a whole lot of riffs and slides which really worked and made the songs which I literally know by heart seem fresh and new. I really liked her, and while I was briefly disappointed when Jenna came on and it wasn't Lucie, it worked out extremely well for me in the end. Oh, and her accent was definitely the most authentic to American Southern that I've seen

The other girls were great. Marisha Wallace was back on as Becky (although not in the program) - so I'm mildly confused about that, given we saw her last time and she was in the program then (there were actually 3 program inserts this time, with a new addition to the ensembles as well). She was fabulous, as always, and she did put in a few riffs which may be to match Desi and her love for vocal runs.

Dawn was another new actress - Hannah Tointon. She is apparently another TV star, but I wouldn't have guessed that from her performance. There was one small crack, but I really thought she was good and her comedic timing was great. I do still think that Laura Baldwin was better, but Hannah was definitely a really good Dawn, particularly after Ashley Roberts.

I did get to see the always fabulous David Hunter again. I can't really say how much I love him in this role, sweet, funny and goofy. I just want to give him a hug!

A lot of the boys were new to me though. the new Earl (Tamlyn Henderson) didn't really impress me, he didn't have the same presence as Peter Hannah. I may also have laughed when he stomped on his guitar and it barely did anything. Oops! Cal (Mark Willshire) was an understudy but I really liked him as Cal. He and Marisha worked very well together. And the highlight of the new boys was definitely Ogie. Joel Montague was a breath of fresh air in the role of Ogie for me. He isn't a stunt cast, just a real musical theatre performer. Given that my main issue with previous Ogie's was the lack of singing skill, he really was great. I think this was my first performance I actually paid 100% attention to Ogie... Oops? At least he is not a cover, but in the regular cast, so more people get to enjoy his performance.

I don't think there is much else to say, given I've now seen this musical 3 times! I have tickets already booked for #4, on Feb 3 with Sara Bareilles and Gavin Creel, so that will be exciting. Plus, after March I want to head back to see Lucie again - or Sarah O'Connor or Olivia Moore (the understudies) to round out my 'a different Jenna every time' thing? We'll see.

BIRTHDAY Weekend Away: Leeds Castle Day 2

The next morning we took the biggest sleep in we could. We met for breakfast at 9:30 in the morning. I had slept very well and was ready for a fun day! After a really lovely breakfast of eggs on toast we went back to the room, packed our things, left them in the car in the courtyard and headed to the castle.

The castle had been built of different parts from the 13th and the 15th century. Part of it had been destroyed when there was a fire, when it was a monastery. Lots of bits had been rebuilt on top of old bits and there was a very rich history. However, because there is are a lot of rooms available to rent and they host weddings and other events in the castle, you cannot actually see that many of the rooms. The rooms you could see were very interesting, and there was a lot of historical information available to read and find out. Particularly interesting to me was that this year, 2020, was actually the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII’s visit to Leeds Castle. He visited on his way back from meeting a French king in Calais, and he was believed to have stayed with his retinue for at least one night. So as I’m very interested in Tudor history, that was of particular interest to me. Unfortunately, the room that Catherine of Aragon was believed to have stayed in with closed for renovation. So was Lady Baillie’s room which was right next door. It seems that that would’ve been the main attraction of the rooms of the castle, however they all seem to be closed for renovation which was a bit disappointing.

Overall, as far as the castle itself goes I think I was a little bit underwhelmed? Certainly, there was a lot of things we couldn’t see that I would’ve liked to have seen and it took us a lot less than expected to go through the rooms and come out at the front of the castle.

After doing the trip through the castle, we of course stopped to check out the gift shop. They had a really lovely range of bits from books, to mugs, to lots of swans. The Black Swan is actually the emblem of Leeds Castle, as black swans were introduced to the castle grounds in the 1920s by Lady Baillie. Before that black swans literally only lived in Australia and she actually imported them herself. So they had a lot of swans on souvenirs. The other thing I had that I was really excited about was their own gin. I had bought one at Highclere Castle last weekend as a souvenir and it was very lovely, so I was excited to be able to get another gin as a souvenir. Despite it being only just midday we sampled a few drinks and ended up buying the special Leeds Castle gin and also a bottle of honey flavoured mead. I also got a book that has a short history of every king and queen of England, and we bought some birdseed to feed the ducks and swans on the grounds with for just a pound.

After that we went back onto the grounds, wandered around and make sure that we had walked every path. This eventually lead us through some of the planned Gardens, and out the back to an area where they have the children’s activities. This includes the bird centre, as they have birds of prey which you can visit and wish to shows most days even in the winter, a café and children’s playground, and the maze. I was definitely excited about going into the maze, as I had read that on its opening in 1988 even the designer and creator of the maze managed to get lost in it.

There was a sign at the entrance that said that on average it took seven minutes for people to find the centre of the maze, so I look made a point of looking at my watch before we went in to try and make sure that I could be faster than that. Initially the husband and I went in together but after just a few turns, I decided to make a break for it and go and find my own way. This was proving unsuccessful when I bumped into my brother, who had entered just in front of us but had taken a different path right from the beginning. We decided to band together as clearly neither of us really knew what we were doing and we continued on. Only a few turns later we found my husband and we continued on together. Just after this we started finding the clues. There are four clues within the maze that tell you up to certain points whether to go left or right, and we listened to them. Not long after that we think we actually worked out how the maze was designed and very quickly after that we found the centre. After looking at my watch we had managed to solve it in only four minutes which is faster than average. So I was pretty happy about that.

In the centre of the maze was a viewing platform which we still on and waved to my mum and dad who were waiting outside the maze for us admiring the view. Then we headed back down and into the grotto which is the way out. As this is very modern, and clearly designed for children, we found it a little bit tacky. It was certainly designed to be atmospheric and interesting, but we didn’t really feel that so much. He did have good lighting design though.

After emerging from the grotto, we decided that we had done all we wanted to do at Leeds Castle and that we would start heading home. We had a look at some local pubs on a map and decided to go to one in particular that was quite close by. However, when we got there it was very full for Sunday lunch and they didn’t have a table for five. Fair enough, so we went along to the next nice looking pub. Same story. Just as we were about to change our mind and go back to London for lunch, I noticed a pub just near where we were – in fact it could be seen from the car park of the second pub that we tried. We drove just down the road to this third pub and they had one table. Perfect!

So we had a really nice, long, leisurely pub lunch. I had a gin and tonic (of course) and a very nice serving of fish and chips, which I hadn’t heard yet since coming back from Germany. We took a few hours over lunch, before we headed back the hour or so drive to London. All in all, a lovely relaxed weekend especially after how busy Germany was, and the fact that I am spending the evenings with my family while also still working during the day. It is quite tiring although I wouldn’t have it any other way.

BIRTHDAY Weekend Away: Leeds Castle Day 1

The morning after my birthday, we had a leisurely start and all left the flat in the car around 11am. Our plan was to check out Hever Castle first before heading on to our main destination for the weeks, Leeds Castle. We arrived at Hever Castle about an hour later, only to find that it was closed entirely until the 8th of February! So that was rather disappointing, and to add the the initial disappointment, when we arrived my phone fell out of my pocket and it broke. The home button cracked and now it doesn't work! On the plus side, there is a work around and I can still use it just fine.

Instead, we went into the small church near the carpark. It turned out to be the church where Sir Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father was buried! So that was very interesting to see anyway, and we can go back to Hever another time. We also stopped for lunch then at the nearby pub (appropriately called Henry VIII), where we had amazing baked camembert and I had a toasted baguette which was delicious. It ended up being a rather long lunch and we really took our time.

After we had finished lunch, we drive the other hour or so through the country lanes to Leeds Castle. Not actually in Leeds (it is in the south of England rather than north!), the castle is gorgeous, and we were staying there! We stayed in the Courtyard B&B, which was the old courtyard and servants quarters which had been converted to bedrooms and also included a restaurant and a few other bits that were open to the public in the daytime.

All the rooms are named after famous people who stayed in the castle when it was owned by Lady Baillie in the 20th century. We were in the David Niven room, and it was a lovely homey room with a huge bathroom and free fudge as well as biscuits! After we arrived we dropped off our stuff and headed straight back out for a quick walk before it got dark. The castle is beautiful and while it was closed to go in, we wandered around the grounds and explored a little. Then we headed back to the rooms to chill for a little while before our dinner reservation.

While we hardly needed a lot of food, we had a dinner reservation in the Castle Restaurant. The walk over to the restaurant took us past the view towards to the castle where the lights were shining and it looked really beautiful. For dinner I had a pumpkin risotto and a really delicious plum tart tatin! The whole meal we had a beautiful view of the lit up castle, and I was even sung to (something which doesn't happen at a fancy restaurant like Heston's)! Then we headed to bed nice and early to curl up in our big hotel beds.

Birthday Treat - Dinner @ Hestons

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday (gosh, I'm old!), and to celebrate, we went to a very fancy restaurant. Dinner @ Hestons is inside the Mandarin Oriental restaurant in Knightsbridge. It's a very fancy hotel (we actually Googled it and rooms go for from £800 a night at least!) and therefore a very fancy restaurant!

The theme of the restaurant is historical. They have taken recipes from historical sources and updated the recipes or added modern ingredients. They describe it as "Our menu offers modern dishes, inspired by historic British gastronomy." The whole dinner is an experience. Everything is synchronised - all of the dishes in each course arrive at the same time around the table (delivered by a team of people), you get up and go to the bathroom and they fold your napkin while you're gone!

We started our evening with drinks. I started with a gin and tonic, of course (I can't remember which gin, though) and looking at the menu. I love the historical aspect of it. For entree, I chose the Earl Grey Tea Cured Salmon, which came with pickled lemon salad, gentlemen's relish and sorrel. Mum had the same, and the three boys had the Plum Meat Fruit. This is a chicken liver pate that is presented to look like a plum, and it really does! The salmon is really delicate and delicious and the other bits complement it perfectly. The salmon is from a cookbook circa 1730.

For main, I couldn't have chosen what I had last time again, because it's off the menu now! I picked the same as my brother, the Duck and Turnip with buttered black turnip, turnip cream, truffle and civet of duck. This meant a little fillet of duck and really well coordinated turnip related sides. It was a recipe from ad. 79, the oldest in the whole menu! I found that appealing too, that I was eating something that had such solid and defined historical roots. I also had my second G&T with this course!



And for dessert, I had already ordered. It is a repeat from last time after the deliciousness it caused!!! A recipe from circa 1810, and the most delicious thing I've ever eaten... Tipsy cake! Served with spit roast pineapple, it's a brioche cooked fresh to order (you have to order it when you order entree so that they can make it in time!) in a alcoholic custard sauce, with a hunk of caramelised roasted pineapple on the side. Honestly... Everyone deserves this in their lives. It's truly the best.



I also had the recommended dessert wine with it, which was perfect to go with it, of course. And truthfully, this is the best place for a special dinner. (If you have the budget.)

Theatre Trip: As You Like It

AS YOU LIKE IT

Barbican Theatre

Date: 15 January (Wednesday), 7:15pm

Seats: Stalls G31-36

(Seen with my family - Mum, Dad, David and Richard!)

Notes: I had suggested to my family that we see a show when they were in town. My mum did some research and found this RSC production which was in the Barbican during the winter this year. She suggested either As You Like It, or Measure for Measure. I chose the former as I knew it was a comedy. I had seen it in a previous summer at the Globe and enjoyed it, although ended up quite sore from the standing for 3 hours part. So it was nice to be able to see the show sitting down!

This production was quite different to the Globe production. The casting was much less gender blind, which I actually think served to help us to understand it better. There was only one role which was cast opposite the original gender to create a pairing of two females (Phoebe and Silvia compared to Phoebe and Silvius), and I think it worked so well that I would never have known, even from the text, that that had been changed. There is even an original line in the text for that character which seems to refer to love as being from 'a woman' when the character is a man that really makes it work.

There were two things that stood out to me about this production. The first was the attitude. The whole show, while obviously still using Shakespeare's original language, was performed and phrased in such a way that it felt a lot more modern. It was really easy to understand the meaning, even if you couldn't make out each word, because of their intonation, phrasing, the acting - they all conveyed the feeling of the line. The setting and costumes were also modern, making it feel like it had been written much more recently that the 16th century!

The main thing that was amazing about this show was the cast. The standouts for me were Antony Byrne (Duke Frederick/Duke Senior), Lucy Phelps (Rosalind) and Sophie Khan Levy (Celia). Antony Byrne played both Dukes and did so really well, it was like he was two different people! He had totally different mannerisms. The two leading ladies, Rosalind and Celia, were the real amazing stand outs in the show. Lucy Phelps played Rosalind and in the first act she was good. But I wasn't wowed. I really felt, however, that she grew into the role, and particularly when she was playing opposite Orlando as a girl pretending to be a boy pretending to be a girl. She was funny, and overly dramatic, and somehow also really realistic? Like, she overreacted just how you would in that situation, and it really reflected how ridiculous some of the play actually is.

And then there was Sophie Khan Levy. She was absolutely hysterical! Totally fun and dramatic, and really the star of the show for me. She really played it for laughs as well, with one moment being when another character arrived suddenly and her solution was to flip her skirts over her head and pretend to be a rock! The other character sat on her!!! She also spent quite a lot of the play on stage, basically watching the action and reacting to it. She had amazing faces of reaction and a lot of the time, I watched her more than the main action. Really, I must see her again in something.

Talking about this after with my family, with the elements of breaking the fourth wall they included, we decided it was really as close to a traditional Shakespearean performance as you could get to actual Shakespeare times! It was a really good show for my family as well - funny, but very British. Just what the trip needed.

Experiences: Highclere Castle

And getting straight on from the Harry Potter Studio Tour, that evening my Mum and Dad arrived and the following day, the Sunday, Mum and I headed out to a castle about an hour drive from London.

It was Highclere Castle, better known to many people as Downton Abbey! This castle is a 'living' castle, in the sense that people still live and work in it (residents as well as servants), and now it is a home, and also has open days, takes tours, serves afternoon tea, has an exhibition, and of course a gift shop! I have been rewatching the series lately and that really helped me to really feel the moments I have seen while exploring the castle.

Even just arriving was delightful. We came up the long driveway (playing the soundtrack, of course) and around a corner just as Highclere came into view. It was gorgeous and took my breath away! The driveway is long and we parked in the carpark before walking onto the grounds proper and up the crunchy gravel driveway. The approach to the castle is exactly the same as in the show, with the main door standing open as we arrived. The only downside was that you can't take any photos inside the castle...

We went pretty much straight to the door as our tour was starting in only a few minutes! They took our coats on entering to hang them until the tour had ended, but then we were straight into the main hall - and straight away Mum and I were oohing and aahing at the location we recognised from the show! In all the rooms they had used for filming they had stands up showing production photos taken during filming, showing the cast and crew and where they had been. I really appreciated this insight into what rooms were used for which episodes.

Once everyone had arrived into the entrance hall, we were split into 3 groups to start our tour. We went first to the Georgian staircase, where we got a brief history of the castle. There had been a building there for hundreds and hundreds of years, and the house had belonged to Lord Porchester (including the Lord Porchester known as 'Porchy' who was friends with the Queen), before being passed on to the second son, who was Lord Canarvon. Different pieces of the castle belonged to different eras going back as far as Georgian times.

We then headed up the stairs and around the landing at the top. This is where we saw many of the bedrooms that had been used in filming. We saw the Mercia Room, which was used as Lady Grantham's room while filming. We also saw Lady Edith and Lady Sybill's rooms, and the room which they carried the body of poor Mr Pamuk into after he died. It was also used by some of the real life royals who had visited and stayed at Highclere. Unfortunately, the main bedroom used in Downton Abbey, Lady Mary's, was not filmed at the castle. Due to the filming schedule of Joanna Froggatt, who played Anna her lady's maid, that bedroom was on a set in London. The same is true of the kitchens (although given they're still used today that's probably a good thing!).

To get downstairs we descended the main staircase in the house, the one which they always walk down in the show. It was created with the steps at the level where you look like you 'float' down the staircase. I emulated Lady Mary on her wedding day by floating down the stairs to Mum and asking her, 'Will I do?' It was quite lovely.

Downstairs, we went into the drawing room, and the library, which I instantly recognised. Funnily enough, the first thing Mum and I both noticed was that the desk the Lord Grantham uses in the show is actually normally on the other side of the room to the show! That was when we learned that actually, about 80% of the set in the show is just Highclere itself - the paintings, the furniture, the writing desks... that was very interesting. Even the silver was from the castle stores! In the library we were also able to stand where Maggie Smith stood, by using the production photos to find the exact right piece of carpet and stand there too. The other room that was a real thrill to see was the dining room - almost everything was in the exact place and you could just imagine Carson the butler coming through the door with the letters on a silver tray.

After our tour, we were taken down to the Egyptian exhibition. One of the Lord Canarvon's had been on the expedition which had found King Tut's tomb in Egypt in the 1920s, and there is an exhibition about the trip, and showing some of the objects which they had found outside of that specific tomb. While I'm sure it was interesting to others, it was not the main reason Mum and I were here and by this time we were actually quite hungry for the next part, which was afternoon tea!

We were then led out to the out buildings, where afternoon tea awaited us. It was gorgeous, mini sandwiches, quiches, scones, cakes and the most delicious soup (curried vegetables) which I am now determined to recreate! We ate as much as we could, before heading out to the grounds for the golden hour to catch as many photos as we could before we lost the light! We got some gorgeous ones, and I even sat on the bench everyone uses on the grounds to contemplate and think.

The last stop was the gift shop, where we got our goody bags. They included a copy of the At Home at Highclere, written by the Countess herself which was signed. We even met the Countess at the shop and she personalised the books for us as well! I also got a lovely tote bag with a drawing of the castle on it and a beautifully smelling candle as well. Then we were headed back for the drive to Wimbledon, with the soundtrack playing all the way home.

Experiences: Harry Potter Studio Tour

While my family was in London, my brother and I had one day, just one weekend day, that was going to be entirely to ourselves. So what did we do? We went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour! We actually did this last time he visited too, as we are both big fans (and both Hufflepuffs!)



In preparation, a few days before we had gone into the city to visit the Primark at Tottenham Ct Road, the best place to get the Primark HP merch. Unfortunately, they were lacking in t-shirts, particularly Hufflepuff ones, and we didn't buy anything, but Bro had the shirt he wore last time and I have made a new dress with HP newsprint fabric that I could wear, so we did that! As always, I had HP socks on as well!



On arrival, I realised I had dressed so well I actually matched the print on the walls! So we stopped for a photo on the way in. Since moving to London, I have now visited 3 times, pretty much lining up at once per year. However, every time there has been something new or an event on for us to see, and this trip was no exception.



We started off with the usual video and entrance into the Great Hall. I really really wanted to open the doors, as it was only a week before my birthday, but there were children who were also celebrating their birthdays, so I let them do it. I guess 30 year olds is not their demographic for that part.



The first special bit that we saw was the Hogwarts in the Snow event. They add in Christmassy touches, like the Christmas feast set up in the Great Hall, snow covered Christmas trees, and a lot of Yule Ball touches like costumes and set pieces (as the Yule Ball took place over Christmas during Goblet of Fire).



The other part that was new was Gringotts! They have reburbished and added an expansion with the main hall of the Gringotts bank, the trolley they used to get around inside the bank and the vault and bank as it was during the last film. I won't spoil it entirely, but it was pretty fantastic!



Then, of course, they have redone the shop too. So it was a good long time deciding what to get - in the end I got two keychains, a bunch of sweets and a tea towel for the kitchen. A very nice haul, and we ate lunch in the Backlot cafe as well (plus, the traditional Butterbeer and Butterbeer icecream!).



And in the end we were there about 6 hours, I think. We went in at 10, and left close to 4pm. What a fabulous way to spend a day!!!

Christmas Getaway: Germany Day 9 (Munich to London)

Note: I am writing this a few weeks after the fact, as I only just realised I never did it at the time! Playing catch-up...

Our final day we only had to check out at 12, but we were ready with David around 10:30 so that we could head out to the BMW museum in the outskirts of Munich - via station pastries, of course. It was in two clear parts, the first part being all about electric cars and renewable technology and environmentally friendly stuff. It seemed to be the major focus of the museum but wasn’t what we were after out of our experience. Instead, we really enjoyed the historical side, which included every vehicle that they manufactured with lots you could get up close to and look at (but don’t touch, unlike some of the Russian tourists who were opening doors!).

After looking at all the older cars, we went across the road to the dealership. There you can see all the current cars you can buy and sit in them and touch them and all that cool stuff. Unfortunately we now have a car so are no longer in the market...

We needed to leave just after lunch time to get back to the hotel for our bags and head to the airport on the train, so we ended up getting lunch from a food truck we found just outside the museum. Unfortunately it was probably the worst currywurst of the trip, but at least it was convenient? Then it was back to the hotel, off to the airport. We arrived with what we thought was enough time to spare but all the queues were really long so it took us the entire time to get through and we got to the gate right when they called our flight to start boarding.

Then even arriving into Gatwick was busy, as there were no trains running to Clapham Junction! Instead, with all our luggage, we caught a different train to East Croydon and then caught a really long tram all the way to Wimbledon. We were very glad to get home... although we have to work tomorrow.

Christmas Getaway: Germany Day 8 (Munich)

Our last full day in Germany (and together, for now) saw us have a little bit of a sleep in before meeting for our now customary breakfast at the train station. No tour today, but it was very cold so we decided to check out a museum first - the NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, or Documentation if Nationalist Socialism museum. It was all about the rise of Nazis in WW2 but through the documentation and paperwork like ads and propaganda. We arrived just before a guided tour started, so we joined that. However in a four floor museum, having been told the tour would take about 90 minutes, we were still on the top floor (where the museum started) after an hour, so we left the tour ad went ahead on our own. After a couple of hours we had done it all and it was interesting to get a different perspective in both place perspective and the different materials to other places we’d visited.

After that, we headed to another beer hall, only this time for lunch. More pork and potato! Then it was time for a walk before heading back to the hotel. Dinner was a nearby Italian restaurant as we were all too stuffed for more native Munich food at dinner after lunch too. Mum and dad wanted to have an early night as they were being picked up for their transfer to the station at 7am the next morning, so we said goodbye and headed for an early evening. We don’t leave Munich until the evening so have time to do one last thing tomorrow before we have to head to the airport for our flight back to London.

Christmas Getaway: Germany Day 7 (Munich)

Today was the biggest day of our whole trip! We met in the hotel lobby at 7:30am and headed to the Hauptbahnhof again for a quick breakfast (although I didn’t eat mine until quite a bit later) and to go back to where the hop on hop off bus picked us up yesterday. Today we were on an 8:30am bus tour to Linderhof Castle, Oberammergau, and Neuschwanstein Castle!

We we on the second bus to leave, but luckily we were at the front of the queue and so got to sit at the front of the top deck of the bus! It took us about 90 minutes to get to Linderhof Castle, which was the only castle Ludwig II built that actually got finished. It was really pretty though rather small for a total residence, and the tour only took 25 minutes! He stayed there alone as he never married and was apparently very reclusive and mostly nocturnal, spending his nights reading and walking in the forest (although that seems dangerous) and slept all day!

Unfortunately the rest of the buildings were closed for the winter, and the fountains all get closed over too to protect them from ice damage. That being said, it would have been lovely to still wander but three was snow on the ground! We also didn't have much extra time before we were back on the bus and headed to Oberammergau. Oberammergau translates to "top of the Ammer district" and is a small town known for wood carvings, and their once-a-decade Passion plays! It was just a short 30 minute stop to do some souvenir shopping and have a wander. We bought a few souvenirs, I looked up close at some expensive traditional dirndls, and Richard even made friends with a shop cat!

Then we were headed out again, this time to the main attraction, Neuschwanstein Castle! It's the castle that inspired Walt Disney in his design of Cinderella's castle as well as the logo, and is also in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (it's the castle the Baron lives in - from the outside, anyway). It took us about 60 minutes to get there. We arrived at 1pm and were leaving at 4:30, so we had 3 and a half hours to see the castle. It was also built by Ludwig II, and is right next door to his parents castle. We didn't have time to go there though, as we had tickets for the 3:05pm castle tour. So we started with a quick lunch, from the snack stand (rostbratwurst and currywurst for all!) and a bathroom break before we headed up the hill. We were warned it would take about 40 minutes, but actually we did it in about 25, which was fortunate as it meant we were up at the castle with about an hour to spare. Richard and I decided that it was plenty of time to walk to Marienbrücke.

So we left the rest of my family behind and walked the extra 15 minutes over to Marienbrück, the bridge which overlooks the castle and happens to be the best spot for taking pictures of it. The walk itself didn't take long, but when we arrived there was a queue! The queue itself was so long that we only had a few minutes on the bridge to grab some snaps before we had to go back to the castle, but it was worth it for the gorgeous view.

Then we had to speed walk back to the castle courtyard to meet the family just in time for our tour of the castle interior. To be honest, it wasn’t super amazing, partly because the castle was never finished (they are actually still finishing it) and even the parts that are finished are constantly being renovated, so there was a lot of stuff we couldn't see. The audio tour itself was interesting, but I just don't think it had quite enough for us. Certainly, I think Richard and I would have rather have had the time to walk around outside and explore the exterior more instead. By the time the tour had finished and we had left the shop, there was only just enough time to get back to the bus for our 4:30 departure!

The drive back to Munich was very restful - it took about 2 hours, but given it was now dark and we were on the autobahn, even I was able to fall asleep and take a small nap on the way back. It was a long tour, but it was totally worth it to see those things and it would have been hard for us to do them without a coach to take us. On our arrival back in Munich we headed straight to dinner, as it was already getting towards com. We went to another beer hall, where I had a vegetarian meal (shock horror!) of mushrooms in a creamy sauce with bread dumplings. It was excellent, and Richard, David and I shared an amazing dessert called Kaiserschmarrn (Emperors Mess), which was a sweet egg pancake, caramelised and served with custard, fruit compote and rum soaked raisins. It may have been the best think I ate all trip so far! We did order too much though (despite ordering for 2 people and having 4 eat it!) so we practically rolled back to the hotel afterwards and went straight to bed.

Christmas Getaway: Germany Day 6 (Munich)

Today we had tickets on the Munich hop on hop off bus tour. It had a much smaller loop, in fact there were two of them. We went on the express route, which took us past lots of the lovely galleries and monuments! There are an awful lot of art galleries in Munich. We did half the loop, up to stop 5, which was the Deutsches Museum.

It's a design and technology museum, and it's fantastic! We managed to skip the queue by buying our tickets online, which was very helpful as the queue was very long and it was cold outside. We split up and spent about an hour exploring the first few floors before reuniting at the restaurant for lunch (more sausages!), then splitting up again for another hour. We could have spent another few hours at least, especially if we could actually read the German captions!

After that we got back on the bus and finished the loop, heading back to central station. Then we had a browse for fabric (none found, unfortunately) and picked up Dads shoes which were in to get fixed for the day, before heading back to the hotel to rest up. Then we headed out for another leisurely beer hall dinner - only tonight I had venison bolognese, which was excellent! Then more apple fritters, and back to go to bed.

Tomorrow is the castle tour so is a very long day. It’s a 10hr tour, starting at 8:30!

Christmas Getaway: Germany Day 5 (Berlin to Munich)

Up the earliest of all of the days so far today, because we’re headed on to Munich today! So we were up around 8 after only about 6 hours sleep, and were due to get a taxi to the Hauptbahnhof (central station) at 10am. When it got to 10:05 and there was no taxi (especially not a big one that fit all of us), we bailed on that plan and hailed two regular taxis to catch over there. By this time it was 10:10 and our train departed at 10:30, but luckily it was only a 7 minute drive to the station (especially in the taxi we were in, he was keen to get us there fast!) and we are the platform just as the train pulled up! We are unfortunately facing backwards, and it's a 5 and a half hour trip, but at least it's easy travel. Nicer than a plane, anyway.

We ate lunch on the train, and I had my first currywurst which was pretty great (it even had tortilla on it, which turned out to be crushed Doritos!). I worked on my embroidery, Mum caught up on her travel diary, David and I shared a podcast, and most people had naps as well! We arrived at 3pm at another Hauptbahnhof (central station), and it is only a 10 minute walk from there to our accommodation in Munich. This time, we're in a hotel in 3 rooms rather than an apartment and I think it's not quite as good, but I guess we do all have more privacy (and now we aren't all sharing the same bathroom which is a definite logistical plus for the mornings!) I think we must be in the Arab quarter, if they have one, as there are a lot of different cuisines around like Afghani and Turkish. It is a pretty quiet area though.

After settling in briefly, we walked over to the central part of Munich to have a wander. Munich has much more of an "old town" to it than Berlin, for obvious WW2 reasons, and it's lovely to walk around. Today was a good day in Munich with a max of 3 so we didn't last too long before we were looking for somewhere to sit and eat dinner. We have been having such early dinner, as my family are used to eating not long after dark - except that happens at 4:30pm! We found a beerhaus and had a drink, then dinner and dessert as well.

The food in Munich is much more what you think of when you think of "German" food, but really it's more Bavarian. We all had pork with potatoes and sauerkraut for dinner, just different versions: pork knuckle, various sausages, and pork belly (mine)! We also all had dessert for the first time, but mostly because there was apple strudel on the menu! I was the odd one out though in having apple fritters: they were basically apple pieces deep fried in a beer batter and in cinnamon sugar with cream and ice cream. Mmmm...

Now we're back in the hotel chilling and watching a film before its time for bed. Tomorrow we're on the hop on, hop off bus tour!