Well, I’m back from the far reaches of the globe. To catch you up, I did indeed go to Fremont and the Burke Memorial Museum. The Burke was great, very ‘together’ exhibitions that were local to the area. There was also an exhibition of photographs around the theme of conservation. Really excellent. Had a quiet evening in at the hostel, with a final walk down to Pike Place for food later on.
On the Monday after, I spent the WHOLE day trying to get to NYC. I was up super early, walked to the bus stop, got on a bus, then went on a train, then walked a bit more, then waited a while, then got on a plane, then got to Newark, then waited a long time for the shuttle bus, then waited for shuttle to pick up passengers, then waited for it to drop off aforesaid passengers, then FINALLY got to East Harlem guesthouse and welcome of family. 3.5 hours to get from Newark to Manhattan – not impressed.
Slept badly because it was HOT! And here’s where it goes a bit fuzzy because I didn’t keep up with the holiday diary. But here’s a rundown. We did... Ellis Island (great building, shame that the exhibits made no sense), Museum of Modern Art (where we watched a screaming exhibition by Yoko Ono – odd! Also saw a dizzying selection of the most famous works of art in the world.), Museum of American Folk Art (interesting, in a slightly odd building), Central Park, Macys, a bit of Bloomingdales, and we walked and walked and walked, and I probably forgot something really major, but never mind. Yep, thinking it through we also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art – fantastic. Huge, and like the Louvre in that you can spend hours and hours there, and barely scratch the surface. Even the gift shop was huge – and pretty naff. We also did quite a bit of book shopping – significantly heavier bag on the return leg.
We had a pretty long flight back to Heathrow, which was quite delayed. We made good time though, and had a good long kip driving down to Portsmouth. A few more zzzz later and we got to our formule 1 bed for the night. Up early, and a drive to Les Hallerais, near Dinan. Snazzzy litte campsite that we stayed on last about 20 years ago! It has a swimming pool now though. (And the world’s NOISIEST neighbours. We all got woken up at 3am on our first night by the hippos next door – seriously, how do you not wake yourself up making that much racket?!)
Very relaxed week spent reading, dodging rain showers, getting really competitive in games of Pictionary and trumps, trudging up the cobbled slopes of medieval Dinan, pootling around St Brieuc and attempting to sleep on sloping root-ridden ground. We had a day staying in St Malo, where we had dreadfully overpriced food, but managed to bag a few bargains, enjoy wandering the walls, step down to the beach, and admire a man flying 30 kites attached to one cable. Long ferry and car ride back to home. I can't emphasise enough how much I love my duvet after a month away!
