As I write this and look at that photo, I can just FEEL the oppressive heat and humidity where I was taking the picture. It was about 80-90 F I guess, and at least the same humidity, as it was in Port Douglas, although in the rainforest it was just a bit cooler.

Really I don’t have time to write up a lengthy post about our two days at Daintree. This trip we’re on is quite active, and we have little or no down time when I’ could be typing away here at my laptop. I’ve purchased another 24 hours of internet (for $22) so will hope to at least get this short post up.

I have lots of photos that I’d like to post, but will likely wait until we get home and I can spend more time working on cropping photos, etc. before I post them. We spent 2 days and nights in Daintree National Park, way up north here in Australia. Where we must be a whole lot closer to the equator since it was hot, sticky, muggy with moisture. We were at a nice, but rustic resort right in the National Park. No phones (the white rats apparently chew all the phone wires as soon as they hook up new ones) and no TV. We walked the rain forest just once – I’ll write up a separate post about that since I have about 30 or so photos and will need to cull them down and write up stories about some of the flora and fauna.

But I will give you this little food tidbit:

On our way into the National Park we stopped at a little concession (obviously it’s a regular pause for all the OAT tours) and had a refreshing cup of local ice cream. What you see there, from 11 o’clock is: wattleseed (the best of the bunch), sapote (also really good, but not quite as tasty as the wattleseed) and blueberry. Down underneath was fresh pineapple. All four were scrumptious, but I liked the wattleseed the best.

I purchased some ground wattleseed when we were in Melbourne (did I tell you it’s pronounced mel-bin?), but I can’t take it with me to New Zealand. NZ has some very strict policies about taking any kind of flora or fauna (alive or dead and ground) into their country and our guide as assured me they’ll confiscate it. I can’t buy wattleseed in NZ, so today my goal is to transfer the contents of my bottle to a plastic bag and visit a local post office to mail it to myself. Our daughter-in-law Karen visited Australia some years back and brought me a package of wattleseed, but the voracious bugs in my pantry go to it before I had a chance to use it.

It’s a bit hard to see the rainforest right outside, but it’s definitely there. We had A/C in our cabins – the rooms were actually very nice. That’s my DH framing himself in the window. We sat out on that deck for a couple of hours one of the days. You can’t just go wandering in the rainforest without a guide, so we relaxed one afternoon and rested up. They have to generate their own power to supply all the rooms and cabins. We were in the middle of nowhere, trust me!

As I write this post we’re down in Sydney, but will need to cull more photos for that and write up more than one story about our visit here. We’re off to New Zealand soon.

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My DH and the rest of the tour group went off to see the Great Barrier Reef today. Unfortunately, I don’t go on such adventures because it was out on the open ocean and I get seasick. I hope Dave is having a good time. The others expected to go snorkeling, to swim to a small island and back and take a little ride in a glass-bottomed boat. Dave planned to stay on the 159-foot catamaran the whole time. He can’t swim with his artificial legs, and he can’t stay upright in the water without his legs. Our guide thought the skipper of the catamaran would welcome Dave’s company at the helm.

  Me? I worked on yesterday’s posting you already read about Ayers Rock, then I took the local bus into the town of Port Douglas. If you’re not actually stopping in stores and buying things (I did some of the former but none of the latter) it might take you about 30 minutes to walk up and down the main street of town. Mostly the stores sell tropical resort stuff – saris, bathing suits, hats, beach gear, sunscreen and the usual kind of tourist stuff you’ll find almost everywhere else. Port Douglas reminds me of Naples, Florida or Honolulu. Probably much like any beach resort in the world.

I stopped for lunch – a grilled chicken breast served on top of fries and some brown gravy poured over the top with about two bites of lettuce, one tiny tomato wedge and a smidgen of cucumber. The chicken was tasty and not dry. The fries were good – actually the Aussies make very good fries. I just don’t eat them hardly ever. The Aussies do love their fries and they serve them (if you order them as a separate item) with a side of sour cream and a kind of sweet chili sauce – you dip each fry into the sour cream, then into the sauce. It’s actually quite good. My plate had a few that were crispy, but most of them turned pretty soggy with brown gravy on them.

Once I returned to the hotel/resort where we’re staying I went to the bar and asked for an iced coffee. What I got was this: iced coffee blended up with some vanilla ice cream plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. It wasn’t what I was expecting (it cost me $6.50 plus a $1.00 tip) but it was so refreshing after being really warm and sticky walking around town.

The photo looks a bit dark here. I’m not bothering with going online to tweak it much. Suffice to say it was downright delicious.

I walked all around the resort and watched families playing in the swimming lagoon, and now I’m nice and cool in the room. The clothes I hand washed are draped all over the furniture on our patio. One pair of slacks I washed yesterday evening are still wet. Hopefully they’ll be dry by morning.

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As I type this we are actually way up north (in Queensland, at Port Douglas). Yesterday we flew from the outback (Ayers Rock airport) to Cairns (pronounced CANS). We arrived after dark and drove to a lovely, plush, lush resort north of there. It’s hot (about 90). It’s humid (probably about 90%) and reminds us of Hawaii. It’s a temperate climate here with the temps never ranging more than about 20 degrees all year ‘round. The room is pleasantly air conditioned, so I’m propped up on the bed, laptop on my lap, looking out our windows toward the lagoon/pool.

But, back to Ayers Rock. Having seen plenty of pictures of it, and heard tales from friends who have been there, I knew what to expect. But it’s so much more than what I’d thought – it’s gigantic. It’s not one clean, slick mound, but has lots of cracks, valleys, fissures in it. It also has some natural springs and almost always there is some water in the waterholes. The rock, called Uluru in the native’s language, is sandstone, but because it contains a lot of iron, it turns from the natural beige color to an ochre red. It’s beautiful, awe-inspiring. And it’s also a sacred place to the aboriginal people. To the men only of the native tribes. And the top of the rock isn’t sacred, it’s places around the rock that are, and the aborigines no longer allow people to go to those areas.

Our first day at the park we took a bus tour of the neighboring mountains – called Kata Tjuta (at the left above). Took a hike around parts of it. Then just near sunset we drove back to Uluru (about 30 minutes or so) and we hopped off our tour bus to join hundreds of other people to watch the sunset. We stood around watching the light change on the rock itself, sipping champagne and eating munchies. It was just gorgeous. It happened that a group of planes (similar to the Blue Angels) were flying all around the rock (being filmed from a hovering helicopter) during our visit there. Six of them buzzed like bees back and forth, up and down, loopdy-loops and all. It was quite spectacular. Give our group a little bit of wine and we hoop it up pretty good – we’re a bit loud and boisterous actually. A large group of Japanese tourists didn’t quite know what to make of us, I’ll tell you!

You see marketing-hype photos of a solitary couple taken with the backdrop of the rock, with lovely shades of sunset and they hope you can picture yourself there. Well, along with thousands of other people, that’s all. We had a great time, though.

The next day we drove right up to the rock and did a hike around part of the base of it. People can still climb Uluru (the aboriginal people don’t like it, but they allow it). However, the climb is quite treacherous and 35 people have died falling off the rock. Both days we were there the climb was closed due to high winds. It was hot and people get easily dehydrated for one thing. But you climb up the same way you come down and everyone says the coming down is the really rough part. It’s very steep. All of us in our group were almost relieved it was closed, so we couldn’t do the climb. Dave and I hadn’t planned to do it anyway. That’s it for this post. More later.

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That probably doesn’t look all that interesting. But to the people who live in the Australian outback, seeing near solid greenery is monumental since they’re just coming out of a 7-year drought. I also took this photo to include some of the red sand (not dirt, but sand) that is unique to this part of the outback. Made a bit of a mess of my black sneakers. Our guide, Marilyn, remarked numerous times during our day-long bus journey in the outback, what a marvel it was to see the land in bloom and green. We saw lots of blooming wildflowers in brilliant reds and yellows. We saw grasses, shrubs and leafing trees – all of the in the blue-green, gray-green and light green color spectrums. Not dark or bright greens. This is mostly desert terrain and plants and shrubs or trees don’t come in those colors out here.

We saw lots of colorful birds, all varieties I’d never heard of before. Like a crested pigeon – pigeons are  nothing but a pest at home – and maybe they are here too – but they’re cute as bugs with a quail-like topknot atop their heads. There are lots of wild parrots in this region, and lorikeets – so cute! Can you tell I enjoy seeing and talking about animals?

And since I know you’re all interested to hear about what I have been eating . . . for breakfast all the hotels have a fairly standard menu buffet: scrambled eggs (they’re gross, IMHO), maybe hard poached eggs if we’re lucky, bacon (like Canadian bacon), sausages (salty and containing fillers), breads of several types, canned baked beans, cooked mushrooms, shredded potatoes, canned fruit (peaches and pears), yogurt, muesli if we’re lucky, dry cereal, toast, coffee, tea and juice. Lunches have varied. Sometimes there’s plenty of options like club sandwiches, quiche, pizza, hamburgers, maybe salads. Soft drinks like a 12-ounce diet coke are about $3.50 each. Maybe more. 

Dinners have also given us the gamut. Restaurants in the big cities have had great food. We had a super Indian meal the other night in Adelaide. Dave likes the kangaroo meat (me not so much, too gamey tasting). Emu meat is the same. Chicken is expensive – more than lamb. Have had lamb shanks, lamb roast, lamb chops. Have had delicious meat pies (beef, beef & mushroom, chicken and veggie). Have had salad drenched in gross Miracle Whip type dressing. Have had salads that are overloaded with huge chunks of cucumber and unripe tomatoes. Dinners have ranged from about $22-35 apiece, sometimes with nothing but a plate of meat. No veggies, or maybe a mound of mashed potatoes or some wedge potatoes. One night we had a $12 (each) dinner. They were out of spaghetti Bolognese, so I ordered carbonara. It was really rich – too rich to eat almost – with mushrooms, bacon (more of the morning Canadian bacon kind of stuff) and cream.  Dave ordered pizza. He could hardly eat it – it was mostly sausage, ground beef, salami slices, kalamata olives (which didn’t seem to fit the pizza type in my opinion). Dave ate about 2 pieces and left the rest.

Our tour group is much fun. All people about our age. Everyone enjoys wine, so we occasionally have a 5 pm happy hour. One couple went out and bought cheese and crackers. We all bought numerous bottles of wine at the Barossa Valley during a day-long winery tour and have been carrying those bottles around. Here in Australia you can carry wine on board flights (in your carryon) with no difficulty. We hope to take home a few bottles when we fly home from New Zealand.

The hotel rooms have electric kettles and tea bags and instant coffee. Most rooms have mini-fridges and they include some little containers of pasteurized milk for your tea. Mostly the Aussies drink something like English Breakfast tea. Coffee not so much. Some hotel dining rooms don’t brew coffee, but provide diners with instant. Ugh. Although I must say, some of the instant here is better than we get at home. The food in the outback hasn’t been all that good. We get by all right, just nothing to write about!

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When I have time I’ll need to write a post about this place – a cattle station with cattle and camels. I have several more good photos to upload about this outpost – we stopped there for lunch and listened to the owner – a bush man – they call him – tell us how he settled in the outback in 1956 and the hard and harsh life he and his family have led way out in the middle of nowhere.

Camels were brought to Australia a long time ago, but once they had outlived their usefulness (when the British Army wanted horses to send to India, not camels) the people in the outback who were caring for the camels couldn’t kill them (although they were told to); instead, they let them go. So now there are thousands of feral camels in the outback. Camels survive just fine, apparently. But there was a large group of them at this cattle station that are used for the tourists to take camel rides. We didn’t take a ride because we both did that when we were in Turkey in 1997.

Internet service is scarce in this country. I suppose if I lived here I’d have broadband, but as a visitor, I must rely on the hotels we’re staying in. Some have it; a few do not. Most often they have one or maybe two computer terminals in the lobby and they can be used for 10 minute increments for about $2.00. I could connect and just upload a paragraph of text, but no photos. To be able to connect MY computer (so I can upload photos)  is ridiculously expensive. So I’ve only done that once so far on this trip. I think I’ll be able to connect where we are – we’re actually at Ayers Rock as I type this and will have lots or stories to tell and photos to share at some point. The photo at top was taken at the cattle station that’s about half way between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. And it deserves its own post because it was so interesting. Here’s one more photo from there:

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We’re in rainy Adelaide and I’m using a hotel computer, so I can’t upload any of the wonderful pictures I have. Will do that whenever I can. We spent all day yesterday visiting wineries in the Barossa Valley, outside Adelaide. Wow. So gorgeous everywhere. Maybe like it was in California’s Napa Valley back in the 1950’s. Mostly red wine. Had one from a tiny family-run winery called Villa Tinto that has stood next to Penfold’s Grange wine and experts couldn’t tell the difference between their wine and Penfold’s. And that was just $18 a bottle. We bought two! We have five bottles wrapped in clothing in our luggage – we’ll have to drink at least one. They don’t export their wine, unfortunately.

We’re having a wonderful visit in Australia. We’re on a tour – did I mention that? – through OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel). Sixteen of us (maximum number on any tour). Today we’re flying to Alice Springs and will visit a flying doctor facility in the outback, as well as one of those outback stations too. I’ll be taking plenty of photos; I just can’t upload them, and may not have access to a computer for several days now. So far the food has been fantastic. I tasted kangaroo (they call it ‘roo here), but didn’t much care for it. My DH thinks it’s wonderful. Chicken is on menus, but it’s almost a delicacy and more expensive than the lamb. Lamb is the #1 entree item here, understandably. We saw wild kangaroos yesterday and one young male koala sitting in a tree right next to the road. We woke him up, but he wasn’t frightened of us. We didn’t touch him. I took a photo, though it was raining, so don’t know if it will come out very well.

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There are some Tasmanian Devils – or Tassie Devils as they’re called here. There are three of them above, fighting over a piece of raw meat and bone. This was in a wildlife sanctuary (where they rescue orphaned or injured native animals and hopefully raise them to the point they can be released in the wild again). These guys are naturally ferocious sounding – they growl and snarl even at one another – although our guide told us they’re mostly all bluff and no bite. But they do have extremely strong and sharp teeth. They eat carrion, usually after other larger animals have killed the animal and eaten most of the soft stuff, so these devils have to chew and swallow minimal meat but lots of bone. Hence the strong jaws and sharp teeth. It’s rare to see Tassie devils in the wild. Unfortunately the devils have been beset by a contagious cancer (spread by contact) and are endangered now. In several places in Tasmania they’re raising  lots of them (where they will have no contact with contaminated ones) in the event the cancer affects all the ones in the wild. They call it devil insurance.

As the story goes, when early British soldiers came across the sea they discovered Tasmania and came into the beaches somewhere and set up an overnight tent. During the night the Tassie devils came around and as they are wont to do in the middle of the night as they’re eating, they fight over it, and they sound much larger than they are. The soldiers were terrified. They decided the island was inhabited by devils, and as soon as daylight came, they left in a hurry, telling the tale that the island was filled with devils.

At the same wildlife park, koalas are rescued as well, usually because their mothers were hit by cars and the babies survived. We were able to pet this one gently on his backside. Never their heads. Koalas generally don’t like anyone to touch their heads. We learned that koalas are actually quite dumb (they have very small brains). And as the saying goes, if you’ve seen them eat and scratch, you’ve seen the extent of their activity. They sleep 20 hours a day and spend the remaining four eating eucalyptus leaves with occasional scratching.

So far we’ve been blessed with splendid weather. Cold, but clear and sunny. We did have rain one day, but it only lasted a very short time. We visited Port Arthur, the convict camp where the first white settlers came and set up a a prison for the hundreds of British felons who were sent here. I need to write up a complete post just about that. Not today, though.

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Was this what you might have expected Tasmania to look like? Honestly,  I don’t know what I thought it would be like, but the above picture wasn’t it. The above  was about 30 or more miles from Hobart (the largest city, the furthest south city) near Port Arthur.

That shot was taken in central Tasmania, and is very representative of the scenery.

We’ve had almost no access to the internet, so I haven’t been able to blog or send email. We also haven’t had hardly a moment’s time to do so, either. The tour we’re on is VERY active, with almost no down time. As I write this it’s just a bit past 5 am and after sleeping 8 hours, I’m ready to be up. So I’m typing this in mostly darkness except for the lit computer screen. My DH is still asleep. We’re presently in Launceston (pronounced lawn-cess-ton) in northern Tasmania. A typical small city. We’re staying at a very nice hotel in the downtown area, with easy access to shopping and walking. We’ve walked our little fannies off so far (and Dave, with his artificial legs, has done just fine!)  I’m hoping to sign up for a day’s worth of internet access today, so I’ll be able to post this and maybe send some email as well. We have a free afternoon here. The food has been fantastic (oodles of fish everywhere) – also an unexpected surprise. Last night I ordered chicken to the tune of $28.50 for my dinner. Obviously chicken is not common. Dave ordered lamb and it was cheaper! We’ve seen tens of thousands of sheep everywhere we’ve been so that’s not a surprise.

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Wendy Perrin is a journalist who writes regularly for Condé Nast Traveler magazine. I always read her articles in the monthly magazine. This month she’s written up an article titled “Confessions of an Unfashionable Traveler.” She travels a lot, obviously, as a writer for a travel magazine. So she likely had sage advice, I was sure. Yup. Here’s a synopsis of her article. Next week we’re going on a trip – the suitcase is open on the guest room bed, so this advice was quite timely for me.

She carries on two things: a wheelie (she never checks luggage unless the airline won’t let her) and her unchic purse/laptop case/camera bag. She doesn’t use toiletry kits, but opts instead for Ziploc plastic bags to hold her necessities. She carries any dressy or business clothes on hangers, in dry cleaner-provided plastic bags. If you value utility over fashion (her words), here’s what she does:

1. Use a carry-on suitcase with few structured compartments or other doodads (you can get more into one, large open space). She uses a 22-inch Travelpro Rollaboard, stowing in the outside compartment (zipped pocket) a jacket or raincoat and a Pashmina which she uses as a blanket on the flight rather than the less-than-clean airline blankies.

2. Think of Ziploc bags as the “Swiss Army Knife” of your packing system. Meaning, she uses different sizes of Ziploc bags (one for liquids, gels, etc.; another for dry toiletries; another for her electronic  accessories and one for her makeup).  She takes several sizes of empty Ziploc bags (which take up no room in her wheelie). She uses a sandwich sized Ziploc for the flight stuff: lip balm, nasal spray, teardrops, hand cream, earplugs, eye mask, Vitamin C and that one goes inside the larger Ziploc that holds all the liquids and gels, then she pulls that small one out once she’s past the security checkpoint or on board the plane.

3. For clothing, stick to neutral colors and limit patterns as much as possible. She packs a lot of black (not only because it’s neutral, but also because it doesn’t show dirt) then she adds color with tops, shirts, or her pashmina. Her pashmina goes with her everywhere (in her purse) because it will provide head cover if it rains, warmth if it’s cold, or a splash of elegance if she needs it somewhere.

4. Pack old garments you’ve been meaning to replace. That way, you can discard them along the way in case you find something new you’d like to buy – to take its place.

5. Go light [packing] things you think you might be shopping for on your trip.

6. Pack toiletries that are not only travel-sized but also multi-purpose. Like moisturizer + SPF, travel-size Neutrogena make-up remover pads, shampoo-conditioner in lieu of shaving cream, non-prescription drugs (like aspirin, Motrin, Sudafed, Imodium) all in one small container. And take disposable soap sheets instead of packing liquid detergent for hand washing.

7. Save the plastic bags that dry cleaning comes in – use those when you travel – hold all your hanging garments in one hand and gently fold the group into thirds so they lay flat. Men’s dress shirts should stay in the folded, cardboard-collared form.

8. Wear the heaviest or bulkiest items on the plane. Usually she wears her sturdiest shoes on the flight, and packs sandals and/or strappy dressy shoes in the wheelie, wrapped in grocery store plastic bags and stuffed with underwear.

9. Fold [casual] clothing to avoid creases. She puts her casual clothes in the bottom of the suitcase, folding them in overlapping layers (fewer wrinkles that way). If you have to pack a jacket, turn it inside out first.

10. Somewhere when you travel you’ll likely get wet. Take the right kind of outerwear with a hood (so you don’t have to take an umbrella). Make sure the jacket has interior pockets (to put valuables). She prefers a Gore-Tex parka for colder weather. (Oh, and my addition: take a Ziploc plastic bag in your suitcase to put any wet clothes into, just in case your overnight hand washing didn’t quite dry or you went swimming just before your flight.)

11. Take two or three accessories that will dress up your outfit if needed (she recommends pearl earrings, necklace and a scarf). Mostly this advice was aimed at business travelers (to perhaps get hotel upgrades). Her husband wears his Rolex, Mephisto shoes and his Montblanc pen placed strategically in a visible pocket. [FYI: I don’t own any pearl earrings, or a pearl necklace, though I do have a couple of really good scarves. My DH doesn’t own a Rolex, Mephisto shoes or a Montblanc, so I think we’re nixed on all but one count.]

12. Pack a thin, lightweight duffel bag (she uses a LeSportsac nylon duffle) in case she buys more stuff than she can pack in her wheelie. In that case she checks her wheelie and carries on the duffel.

13. The best status symbols are plastic. By that she means that her frequent-flyer elite status card, her family credit card that gives her airport lounge club membership and priority at check-in, in the security line and at boarding. She happens to use a Continental Presidential Plus MasterCard (which waives checked-baggage fees on Continental when she flies with her family).

Article from Conde Nast Traveler, 10/2010. Photo of the wheeled duffle  from stylehive.com, and I just added the photo for fun – Wendy Perrin didn’t recommend this type of bag. Read item #1 for her preferred wheelie.

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It’s not every food blog you read that has pictures of toilet parts or apparatus, is it? After visiting England this last time, we talked about it several times, how practical the Brits are about flushing. Those two buttons you see there are for different quantities of flush. I won’t go into details here, but am sure you can get the picture – you use the smaller press-button for a solely fluid flush – and the larger press-button for well, you know. Why don’t we have this in the U.S.? Especially here in California where we have years of drought and currently have water rationing? Our most recent installed toilet in our house flushes with a miraculously little amount of water, and I actually don’t know how much water the British toilets use with each of the above cycles – maybe lots since they don’t have much issue with water – but the method here just seems so intelligent. Don’t you agree?

It’s also not every day I take a picture of a paper napkin. And this photo doesn’t begin to do justice to the quality and feel of this paper napkin. It was at the breakfast table both mornings we stayed at our hotel in Cheltenham. I was surreptitiously going to take mine home, hoping to find it here. Instead, I asked the hotel owner about them and she promptly brought me a stack of about six in the cellophane package wrapper. (Those I could fit in my suitcase!) They look and feel like linen napkins. But they’re not. They’re heavy and they’re paper. The design you see in the napkin is not just inking, it’s actually an embossed design. I’m smitten with these. The manufacturer (Duni) is in Britain, alas. After talking with their U.S. affiliate, unfortunately these napkins are not available anywhere here. Darn! I did my best to convince the person I spoke with that they NEED to start importing these napkins.  They’d sell like hotcakes. They’re called Elegance Lily, by Duni. Weeping going on here.

In the event you are interested in the details of our trip to England, I’ve written up a PDF 1-page listing of all the places we stayed and most of the restaurants. I didn’t include prices in most places because those change. Some of the B&Bs were 40 pounds per person per night. Others were higher like 80 pounds. Each one was different, so if you’re interested, go online to the different places and check them out.

One of the wonderful things about mid-day food in England is a Ploughman’s Lunch. It has a humble background – back in the day, the plough men needed a hearty but inexpensive lunch. It got onto a menu somewhere, sometime, and has stuck ever since. Normally you only find a Ploughman’s at a pub.

This one, which we shared at the Felin Fach Griffin (an upscale hotel and eatery in Wales – we didn’t stay there, just had one lunch and one dinner there) was one of the best we’ve ever had. The bread was house made. The two pickled things (chutney and fruit pickle) were outstanding. Starting from the left: delicious local Cheddar, some whole wheat bread, a little bowl of chutney-like fruit, some celery sticks, a small bowl of Branston Pickle (or probably their own homemade version), some cornichons and pickled onions, fresh tomatoes, apple slices and some unadorned greens in the middle.  The cheese was wonderful – you eat it with bread and a bit of the chutney stuff, maybe some of the Branston pickle stuff, and nibble on all of the other things at the same time.

I didn’t do a big single-post write-up about our hotel in Cheltenham. Most tourists wouldn’t be staying in Cheltenham, probably. We stayed there because our friend Pamela lives there. Instead of staying right in downtown, I booked us into a hotel up on the top of one of the nearby hills, called Cleeve Hill (with views of the Malvern hills). The hotel: Malvern View Hotel. It’s been recently remodeled (under new ownership) and the rooms are really nice. Lovely decor, and the breakfast food was scrumptious. They also have a small restaurant on premises, and we were sorry we didn’t get to eat there. The menus looked wonderful. If we stay again in Cheltenham, yes I’d stay there again, although the hotel does have a jillion steps (hard for Dave with his two artificial legs). All the rooms are on the upper floor. We did have a nice view out the window, though, don’t you think?

Picture at top taken at the Malvern View Hotel, Cheltenham, in their lovely remodeled bathroom that was spotlessly clean.

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