Continuing

It is about time I found a moment to continue to tell you about our doings, but will be brief.

The two firsts were our visit on Sunday to Sandringham, in spite of visiting Norfolk many times had never gone there and our second first was travelling on the Woolwich ferry. One hears about the Woolwich ferry so many times on traffic broadcasts in London, yet have never crossed the Thames this way. We had done so as we needed to avoid the M25, our radio kept chipping in with horror stories of jams so we made for the South Circular instead and were pleased to do so, for its familiarity, interesting townscapes and relative emptiness.

Just a couple of pictures from the ferry. The reason we had returned from our Norwich hotel via Suffolk and Essex was because we visited my relatives who had moved five weeks previously from northern Suffolk to southern Suffolk.

It was lovely to catch up, admire their new home, and to lunch outside as the weather was still very hot.

Back to Sunday, at Sandringham. Very impressed with the organisation and facilities for visitors, as well as the house and stables itself. Very good service and food in the restaurant, went around the house where the staff were so jolly, helpful and pleasant, before seeing the vehicles in the stables and then wandering around the gardens. Couple of pictures, but I am sure a google for Sandringham will show and explain it all so well.

Tuesday marked the end of an era, for at the end of the week, for the Val Taro wine bar and restaurant closed. The bar was situated in Orange Street, near the rear entrance of the National Gallery and has been the venue for about 6 years, maybe more, for a lunchtime gathering of librarians who have worked at Ministry of Defence during their careers. The restaurant owners, Sergio and Luciano have been very generous to us, bottles of wine and liquers were on the house, there was no rush to move us away as we chatted and gossiped. It was true last Tuesday, unfortunately I do not have pictures of the bar without our party and it would not be right to put their photos here. The restaurant didn't appear to have a website but there are references online.

Right, need to deal with domestic things, like food, ironing so will stop these ramblings and let you have a peep into our lives.

p.s. took a photo of these flowers at Sandringham, really thought they were lovely, could some kind soul identify them as they would be lovely in our front garden?