Berit & Chris's weblog

The Wedding

The wedding ceremony took place in a magnificant church in the old part of town on Friday evening. Contrary to British weddings, all guests and the groom were awaiting the arrival of the bride outside the church. She arrived with her father, looking absolutely stunning in a champagne coloured dress with a long train and veil. Pedro escorted his wife-to-be up the aisle accompanied by his mother and her father.

After the ceremony, we made our way to a restaurant in the outskirts of Valladolid overlooking the mountains for drinks and canapees in the gardens followed by a truly impressive meal of lobster, white fish in garlic sauce, apple sorbet and lamb, chocolate cake, icecream and champagne. And then we danced into the early hours of Saturday. It was a magical day.

Valladolid, Spain

On Wednesday, we left a cold and wet Bristol behind and flew to Madrid to celebrate the wedding of our friends, Ana and Pedro, Arriving in Madrid, we teamed up with Tucker, Glen and Emily to spend the night in one of the hostels in the city centre and for a bit of sightseeing the following day, visiting one of Madrid's many famous museeums of art, Museo Del Prado. After a late lunch, we headed towards the bus station and a 2,5 hours ride to Ana's hometown of Valladolid (once the capital of Spain), where we were picked up by Ana and Pedro, friends and family and enjoyed a lovely evening-before meal (which included tripe, a Spanish delicatesse, and which Chris felt compelled to try) in the old part of town.

Diagnosis: amoebic dysentery

I was glad to have Chris back after a week in Turkey; especially, after he spent his last day there in Hospital, with what he believed to be gastroenteritis. High on drugs, he returned to the UK to have his Turkish medical documents translated and to discover that he had caught something significantly worse: amoebic dysentery. Luckily, it appears to have been caught in time by doctors, and he has not had to suffer long term stomach cramps and hospitalisation, as I did four years ago. He does, however, remain weak and, due to the infectious nature of this condition, has been banned from going to work.

Chris' illness has coincided with a visit from John and his girlfriend, Kristina. They arrived Sunday afternoon, with first impressions of the British road users clear in their mind and unconvinced of the benefits of mini-roundabouts! Since then, they have visited places of much historical interest and national pride; Stonehenge, Bath, including the Roman Baths, Clifton Suspension Bridge and Cribbs Causeway (!). But have plans to explore Cheddar Gorge and parts of Cornwall as well before they leave for France on Saturday.

Camarthen, Wales

Saturday, we decided to take a break from the DIY and headed to Wales for a bike ride and a visit to Camarthen Castle. It was hot and sunny and the first stretch to Abergavenny was fantastic; the landscape beautifully green with scattered cottages and trickling steams. After witnessing a carnival, we continued through Abergavenny to the medieval town of Brecon, where the rivers Usk and Honddu join at the foot of the mountains and eagles soar overhead. After a quick stop we continued our journey to Camarthen only stopping for lunch along the way. At almost four o’clock we reached our destination, tired from the unexpected long journey (having set off at 10.30) and very hot. Unfortunately, Chris had done very little research on Camarthen Castle, and after a desperate search around the town and a visit to the tourist office, we realised the "Castle" we were looking for (and Chris had imagined to be in the countryside, surrounded by lovely gardens) turned out to be half a ruin hidden in the town centre. Disappointed, we headed home along the motorway.

Another bodge fixed!

After a relatively quiet couple of weeks in terms of DIY, we started a few more jobs around the house last weekend. Chris removed the last of the plaster from the walls underneath the top of the stairs, only to discover a structurally unsound landing, which needed immediate attention. This meant temporarily removing the landing (disregarding health and safety, by removing safe access to both rooms upstairs and in removing the landing directly over the junction box increasing the likelihood of electrocution), replacing the timber construction and reconstructing part of the inside brick wall.

And I started the somewhat tedious task of stripping wallpaper off the living room walls. Finally, a noticeable difference. For some reason, the previous owners had decided to paint the living room yellow, dark red and gold (!) with 'matching' dark green carpets. This allowed virtually no light into the front room and has seriously challenged our plants' survival. Stripping the walls and prepping them for painting has made a real difference, and we can't wait to knock down the wall to make full use of the sunlight downstairs.