December

Its been a while since I last updated my blog so I thought I would do a really quick resume of December. It turned out to be a very hectic month, busy with guests until the 11th and then on the 12th I jetted off to Germany to vist my friend for a few days. I forgot to take my camera so there arent any pics but all we did was lots of talking, shopping and generally catching up so there wasnt really anything to photograph.
I had a lovely time but all too soon back to reality and my annual Work Experience stint at Hearts and Flowers florists in the lead up to Christmas.
I had a wonderful surprise when Lisa and Darren called in to see me. Lisa first came to stay for B&B about 22 yrs ago with her family and although she now lives in Australia we have always stayed in touch. They were visiting some of Darrens relatives in South Yorkshire so decided to venture further and visit us. 18mths ago we saw all the family again at the wedding of Lisas sister Catherine in Surrey which was a wonderful occasion.
Christmas saw us entertaining all my family, dont think Bess knew what to make of it all but she joined in anyway!
On the 27th we went down to Cheshire to the wedding of Andy and Rebecca, son of our friends John and Rachael (who we also met many many years ago through B&B).
After this we came back and got ready for New Years Eve when 56 of our friends gathered in the Hopper Lane Hotel to bring in the New Year. Daphne Denise and I prepared the food and we charged everyone £10 to come along and all the surplus money is being donated to The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, £410 in total.
All in all a busy but very enjoyable month. Think I need abit of a rest before another one like that though!!!

Germany Trip

This week has been lovely. We took a few days off and travelled to the Rhine Region in Germany. We go every year with a group of local farmers, to different areas either into Europe or in the UK, usually for about 3 days, and we have a great time.
We started our trip with an evening flight from Leeds to Dusseldorf, where we stayed over night. On Tuesday we headed to Cologne where we had a city sightseeing tour, including the madnificent Cathedral, followed by a vist to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. Oh the smell of chocolate was divine!! There were samples of course and the usual shop where we managed to spend some money!!
After this we had lunch and then headed down into the Rhine Valley for a visit to the Lambrich Vineyard where we tasted 4 of their 23 varieties of wine.
Our coach then took us to Wiesbaden, a beautiful spa town, where we stayed for two nights. We had several visits in the area, to Open museums, shopping, a Rhine river cruise and a farm visit. The people , the food and the hotel we all wonderful but then we had to head back to Leeds last night and back home to a huge pile of Mail, email and phone messages. Reality soon kicks in!! This morning its back to business as usual and getting ready for my next B&B guests!!