Europe 2014- Cheddar Caves

I've done it. I've finally reached my last trip report from our 2014 vacation in Europe. The finally tourist spot that we visited was the Cheddar Caves in village of Cheddar in Somerset.

In my first years of college, I had my heart set on being an Anthropology major and the Cheddar Caves were often mentioned in my classes. In 1903 the remains of a Mesolithic era male skeleton were found in Gough's Cave in the Cheddar Gorge. This find marks Britain's oldest and most complete skeleton. The remains are in London's Natural History Museum, but we were able to tour the cave and see the spot where the "Cheddar Man" was found. 

We paid just under nineteen pounds per ticket for adults and Felix was free, because he was still under five. The entrance fee included an audio tour, which even had a special setting for children. We thought that Felix might be bored, but he really enjoyed the audio tour. It made him laugh. The cave was very dark and he was a bit apprehensive and mildly scared. It wasn't enough to have to leave, but it might be too intense for some children. There are many places where the ground is wet and uneven, so sensible shoes are a must.

A funny thing happened when we were waiting in line to buy our tickets. There was a group in front of us and they were blind. They held up the line, because a supervisor had to be called when the ticket attendant couldn't answer their question. They wanted to know if they could play a flute in the caves! The answer was yes, but sadly, we didn't hear any music during our visit. I wondered how they managed with the uneven ground, that I found tricky to navigate. 

Our visit was brief, as this was just a short detour on our way home from our holiday in Cornwall. I'd love to come back and spend more time in the beautiful Cheddar Gorge.

The best reason to return, is the cheese. Yes, this is the birthplace of cheddar cheese! Awesome right? 

Come for the caves and eat some cheese. Cheddar is a worthy addition to your England vacation itinerary. 

Book Review - Rebecca Burns' The Settling Earth

About a month ago, I was contacted directly by author, Rebecca Burns for a review of her short story collection The Settling Earth. I tend to love short story collections and to be honest, I'm not sure if this book would have crossed my path had she not contacted me. Thank you to Burns and Odyssey Books for gifting me with a copy of The Settling Earth, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT - The Settling Earth is a small collection of short stories set during the British colonization of New Zealand in the 1800's. Although all of the stories can exist independently, the characters and themes often resurface in more than one story. The final story in the collection is not by Burns, but by Shelly Davies, a member of the Maori tribe. Thematically, a majority of the stories deal with women's issues and their treatment as second class citizens during colonial times. 

LIKE - My only other reference to colonial New Zealand is from one of my favorite movies, Jane Campion's The Piano. I kept flashing to the film as I read through this collection. I liked the multi-layered themes of the colonial women and the native population's oppression. The two paralleled,  even in their differences. I liked the little twist in the final moment of the last story, which brings these two groups together. I enjoyed the overlap between the characters in the stories, so much so, that I wished that their stories had been expanded. Easily, there could be novels with some of the characters.

The story that stood out the most, was the woman taking in the babies. It's shocking, horrific and desperate. It was a strong overlap to, in a different story, show a woman who had left her baby at this house. I wish that this had been the central story and expanded, as I was left wanting more. 

I enjoyed reading stories set, not only in a very different time period, but in a different culture. The characters lead lives that are so completely different from my own and that it fascinated me. Their desperation and dilemmas are just horrible to imagine. 

DISLIKE - As with many collections, some stories are stronger than others. In particular, the first  two stories failed to hook me. I can appreciate their important in the grand scheme of the collection, but it was a slow start. If you're reading this review and have not read The Settling Earth, I would urge you to not let this last comment put you off, because once it picked up steam, it grabbed me. 

RECOMMEND - Yes. Burns and Davies are both beautiful storytellers and The Settling Earth is a worthy collection. I think this would appeal to people who enjoy historical fiction and women's literature. 

Europe 2014- Cornwall Eats

One of my favorite parts of a holiday is the food. I don't trust people who don't plan their vacations around eating!

The Sands Resort and Spa offered amazing dinners and admittedly, they made it very easy for us to never venture outside of their property. This was especially true when the kids went to their evening club and we had a few hours to have a leisurely, adult-only dinner.

Despite trying to keep us at The Sands, we did break free to have a few meals in the nearby town. One of our big finds of the trip was the Maharajah Indian Restaurant. It doesn't look like much from the outside, there was even a decaying seagull on the sidewalk in front of the entrance, but the back of the dining room is filled with floor to ceiling windows that allow a panoramic view of the ocean. It's stunning, especially at sunset.

The dining room is decked out in purple and covered with signs giving little sarcastic nuggets of wisdom. The food was great. This is where Felix learned that he liked curry and he made his "Indian Burritos" by taking naan and filling it with rice and covering it in tikka sauce. The kid loved  them, gobbling up several.

If Maharajah was a find, then Kimz was a huge miss. 

My aversion to cutesy spellings should have warned me away from Kimz. I also should have be wary of this 50's style "American Diner." Unfortunately, we didn't just have one meal here, we came back for seconds. 

Truthfully, the breakfast was okay. A little pricy for us considering the exchange rate, but the food quality was good. We kept it simple with eggs and toast, hard to mess that up.  Here is a look at the breakfast menu.

We ended up back at Kimz a few nights later, because the Maharajah was not open for dinner yet and we were too hungry to wait. This is when I got the bright idea that Kimz just might make decent chicken fajitas. I think I was feeling homesick and missing good Mexican food. They were like no fajitas that I'd ever eaten before...they looked like fajitas, but they were slathered in a tangy BBQ sauce that made them sickening to eat. We also tried the milkshakes, which were heavily advertised all around the restaurant. They were milkshakes with the consistency of milk, just like drinking chocolate milk. Such a let down. 

Looking at the picture of the plate with the fries...I have no idea what it was Dan ordered, but it doesn't look too appetizing!

A treasure that we found on the beach, was a little ice cream stand called Roo's Beach. The ice cream was yummy and given in giant scoops that were served in freshly made waffle cones. However, it wasn't the ice cream that I loved so much about Roo's Beach, it was the mercow-moomaid drawings! There is a general mermaid theme going on in that area of the beach and the ice cream stand is located directly across from The Mermaid Pub. It's a good tie-in.

I'll end with a few pretty pictures of the beach. They have nothing to do with eating, but who doesn't like the beach?