London and The Royal Wedding

So yesterday was the Royal Wedding as you all know, and while many people decided to take the extra bank holiday to go travelling, my travelling was a bit closer to home this time - to the centre of London!

The day started by hopping on the tube, and as soon as I got on I could feel electricity in the air. People starting piling on wearing crowns, Union Jack wigs and wacky costumes, and as I got out at Hyde Park station the atmosphere was positively buzzing. As I walked towards the 3 giant screens showing live coverage of the wedding, I was handed a free William and Kate flag and proceeded set up my picnic blanket alongside 120,000 others. We all watched as Prince William appeared first in his military red uniform and a big roar rose up from the crowd as 120,000 flags were waved ceremoniously in the air. Then there was the gasp as we all spotted Kate's dress for the first time and the cheers and flag waving happened all over again.

I looked around me and saw a strange mix of people all here to celebrate, those with wedding dresses on, those that had come dressed for a wedding, the hundreds of other Wills' and Kates' or those strange few that had come in any old fancy dress, even if it was a bright purple spandex super hero suit or a multi coloured jester outfit. Bands were playing and Pimms was being handed out, it felt more like a festival than a wedding. I looked down at my jeans and royal blue top and wondered if I could have made a bit more of an effort.


Suddenly, I realised that  I had reached the height of Royal Wedding fever, I wanted to be in the action, I wanted to actually see William and Kate for real. I was only a short walk away from Buckingham Palace, and was sure I would be able to make it in time for the all-important kiss on the balcony scene. I skipped the procession on the big screen and started at a fast pace towards the Palace. As soon as  I got within a mile of the Palace though I knew I had made a big mistake, I couldn't even see the road for the thousands and thousands of people standing in front of me. I felt myself being crushed in all sides, a huge backpack pushing me from behind into a bicycle in front. Somehow I had managed to get one side of a small fence and I was stuck. Policemen were shouting and us and wouldn't let us past even though there seemed to be lots of space and people walking on the other side. A surge began and people started to push and shout and I felt like I couldn't breathe, I longed to be back in the park and watching the big screen again.

Finally, somehow (I'll never really know exactly),  I managed to get back to the park just in time to see Kate and William appear on the balcony on the big screen. A World War II bomber plane flew past the balcony on t.v. and then in appeared right in the sky above us. We all waved and cheered at the plane and as Kate and William leaned in for the royal kiss, the crowd went crazy and not one single inch of the sky was to be seen as 120,000 arms, flags, cork bottle tops and who knows what else was thrown up into the air.  Now, I usually don't get caught up in things like this and I am not patriotic at all - in fact most of the time I wouldn't even consider myself to be British, but just at that moment with everyone cheering as hard as they could and all waving their flags I felt proud to be British and wouldn't have wanted to travel anywhere else in the world at that moment - England was perfect.

Get Your Easter Chocolate Fix in Barcelona

It's Easter tomorrow, and while we all know the true meaning of Easter, most of us will associate it with chocolate. Forget about going to Belgium or Switzerland for your chocolate fix though, Barcelona has now emerged onto the scene as the new place to go for chocolate and the city is re-staking its claim as Europe's chocolate capital.

Barcelona was actually the first European city to get chocolate after it was brought over by Spanish explorers from South America and it was here that the first chocolate factory was built. For the past few years chocolate boutiques have been springing up around the city that present chocolate more like pieces of art than pieces of food. Visitors to the city will find many of these artisan chocolate shops, selling everything chocolate they could ever want,  from chocolate beer to chocolate CDs.

Not only is Barcelona the perfect place to buy and eat chocolate, but it is also the place to educate yourself about this delicious treat as it is home to a chocolate museum.  El Museu de la Xocolata, details the history of this addictive treat and its journey from a spicy drink in Mexico to the sweet it is today. Every year around Easter the museum also holds the Annual International Chocolate Figure Competition, where chocolate artists from all over the world go to  to compete. Feast your eyes on a giant chocolate model of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia or a life size model of literary famed, Don Quixote.

Enjoy chocolate tours around the city or go for a meal in a restaurant composing of three courses all made from chocolate. Whatever you decide, you will find that Barcelona will surprise you as one of the top chocolate places in the world.

Coffee Around the World

Since last week was the first ever UK Coffee Week, raising money for African coffee producing countries, I have decided to dedicate this blog to this much loved (and sometimes much needed) drink. Coffee is grown on many different continents of the world and the production of coffee now brings in income to many people who rely mainly on the West’s consumption of it. Coffee has become not only a drink, but also a social interaction between people, and like everything else in the world, coffee comes in many different types. Let’s take a look at coffees around the world.

The Largest Producer of Coffee in the World – The coffee giant of this world is also one of the world’s largest countries and is home to the most important eco-system in the world. It is of course Brazil. Brazil produces about 35% of the world’s coffee and its main export is a type of coffee called Santos.

Best Coffee in the World – There has been much debate about this topic and just like wine tasting, coffee tasting and coffee critics are just as serious. A new list is produced every year, but one coffee that quite often tops the list and appears in the lots of web searches for the best type of coffee is the Esmeralda Special grown in Panama. It hails from one farm in Western Panama and it is also one of the most expensive, fetching up to £76 per pound. This is not the most expensive coffee in the world though.

Most Expensive Coffee in the World – The most expensive coffee is also one of the most disgusting sounding coffees in the world, as it is also known as poo coffee. It is called Kopi Luwak and comes from Indonesia and the coffee is so expensive because each individual coffee berry has to pass through the body of a weasel like animal first called a civit. The civit digests part of the berry and what is left it excretes and this is turned into coffee! No really – I’m joking.

Most Unexpected Coffee Growing Country – Until researching for this blog, I wasn’t aware that America actually grows its own coffee – well not America specifically, but the island of Hawaii.  It may not produce a lot of coffee but has consistently won awards for the standard and taste of its unique coffee beans.

Most Significant Coffee Growing Countries in the World – Apart from the countries I have mentioned, other significant coffee growing countries include: Ethiopia, Colombia, Costa Rica and Kenya.

So tomorrow morning when you are taking your first sip of coffee just think about where it might have come from.

Travelling with your Kindle

I recently got a Kindle and I have heard a lot of good and bad press and comments about whether a Kindle is a good device to go travelling with (as a guidebook substitute) or not. On a recent trip to Malta, I decided to use my Kindle, rather than buy a paperback to see for myself. I bought Malta chapters from Lonely Planet and downloaded them to my Kindle for use on the trip. 

On the plus side –

•  I found it great being able to store my reading books and guidebooks on one small device instead of lugging around 3 or 4 books with me.
• I also felt safe carrying my kindle around, it doesn’t look big or too expensive so I was not worried about it being stolen. 

On the negative side - 

•  The writing and maps were extremely small so I had to squint to be able to see anything. The maps were so small that they were basically unusable, not great since I use maps all the time when I’m travelling.
• The maps took 5 minutes or more to load and I found myself thinking that it would have been much quicker to just look on a paper map.
• There is no index with the kindle guides so finding the page you want quickly can be a bit of challenge.
• Don’t try and use your kindle to access the Internet while away, it will be much quicker to find an Internet cafe. The kindle can’t click on certain buttons and won’t let you click send when writing e-mails. 

Overall, I think that Kindles are good travelling devices for reading books. They may be OK for certain guidebooks, as long as you had separate maps. I think though, that I will stick to paperbacks for my guidebooks until I can get an iPad or another device that works even better. 

Great Places to go in Florida, while avoiding Disney World!

So, in the blog before last I promised you all that I would find great places to visit in Florida, without following the Mickey Mouse going crowds travelling to Orlando, and I certainly did.
The best way to travel around Florida is to hire a car as there is little or no public transport in some places and a lot of places in the towns and cities are far away from each other. You will often also find that there are no sidewalks/pavements. Distances are surprisingly not that bad, so a few hours driving a day will suffice if your heading down state.

The local Floridians told me that the weather is generally better on the west side of the state, as it is cooler and there is more of a breeze, so we'll start our tour there. If you want to avoid Orlando all together, there are direct flights from many places straight to Tampa.

St Petersburg - Just south of Tampa, is the beautifully located city of St Petersburg, which sits looking out over the bay. Head down to The Pier where you can take part in a whole range of activities, such as boat trips around the bay, fishing trips and dolphin sight seeing tours. There are also Segway tours around the city and quad bicycles that you can hire from the pier. Don't forget to check out the 'pelican feeding station' where people of all ages will have a great time throwing fish for the pelicans to catch. At the end of the pier there is a large building full of great restaurants, the best being Cha Cha Coconuts, where you can enjoy great Mexican and tropical Caribbean inspired food while taking in the gorgeous views over the water. Up until a few years ago, there wasn't much in the way of culture in the city, but this has all changed thanks to a new Dali museum that has opened up. The museum is housed in a beautiful yet quirky building designed especially and is home to the largest collection of Dali's work outside Spain - this is a definite must see for all Dali fans.

Bradenton and Sarasota - Heading south again are the cities of Bradenton and Sarasota. While there is not much to do in Bradenton itself, taking a trip to Bradenton Beach is well worthwhile. The beach area is like a separate town in itself, with loads to do including visiting the old historical town. The road along the beach is lined with Southern style multi-coloured buildings serving as home made ice cream parlours, shell shops and beach apparel shops. There are wooded picnic areas lining the beach where you can even cook your own barbecue and don't forget to visit the beach itself, with it's pure white sand and clear turquoise sea. Sarasota has a great harbour and marina to visit which is perfect for ambling along looking at the pelicans and admiring the view. You can hire out boats here or simply sit outside with cold ice tea and one of the tiki-hut style beach bars.

San Marco Island - For a bit of luxury, why not visit San Marco island, located at bottom west side of the state. It is home to beautiful houses, beautiful beaches and beautiful people, albeit most of them old and retired. This is the place to just sit back and relax.

Everglades City - A 30 minute drive from San Marco island and you'll find yourself in a different world of the everglades. Here you will feel like you are miles from anywhere and is not too unlike the Australian outback. Strange bird calls sound out through the forest and thick mist hovers just above the ground giving the area a magical yet spooky feel. Mangrove swamps are in abundance here, as are the sly-eyed alligators who watch you from there muddy pools. The Everglades are also a grate place for bird watchers, being home to many exotic species. There are a few place that hire out kayaks and canoes and a myriad of places that will take you on airboat rides across the marshes.