Part Two - Details

London - So after a bit of worry we made it to London only to discover we would not be able to get on a flight to Belfast until the 26th of December. We quickly booked a hotel online at Last Minute, at half the price. Heading to the Cavendish, on Jermyn Street (home to the first Thomas Pink shop, which unfortunately did not open before our departure on Boxing Day) we cleaned up and headed out to find some grub.

We were lucky to fall upon a funky little restaurant, Randall & Aubin (http://www.randallandaubin.com/restaurant.html). Dressed up like a new years eve bash, this champagne and oyster bar (with so much more) had an open concept kitchen serving fresh seafood and roasted meats. After a delish dinner of seafood (of course I had oysters) and Prosecco, we met up with Tom's brother Declan for a few drinks at a West End Pub.

The following day wandering around London we realized that Christmas Day has to be the quietest day of the year in this city of 7 million. With not much open, and the tube not operational, we really just investigated different areas of the city, took pictures and found the odd coffee bar to warm up. We eventually ended up having dinner in a Pret a Manger because we figured that 70 pounds we'd end up paying for dinner was probably not all that worth it, plus we'd be eating Tom's mom's leftovers the following evening. Turkey sandwiches it was.

Belfast - Newry - Dublin - We finally got our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day. Arriving into Belfast in the late afternoon we spend a quick couple of hours at Windermere (Tom's Belfast house)wrapping gifts and packing for the trip over to France.

Dinner in Newry was followed by an evening of drinks and catch-up.

Bordeaux - An early afternoon flight from Dublin to Paris had us in Bordeaux for a late dinner, which we ended up eating at McD's (amazingly I got a very fresh salad with a lovely walnut and balsamic vinaigrette) due to the fact that we really only had fast food joints to choose from near our airport hotel, and it's recommended not to drive into Bordeaux due to its difficulty to negotiate and find parking. Orginally, we had though our arrival into Bordeaux would be much later, hence the airport hotel, but given the past few hectic days, we were happy for the uneventful night of drinking champagne we found for 10 Euro at the Champion supermarket. The Etap hotel was a steal at 42 Euro and was completely clean, quiet and with flat screen.

Wine Region (Sainte Radegonde) - We were very happy with our decision to travel to Chateau de Sanse the following day, as navigating the narrow country roads around the region, and the limited signage (resembling rural Ireland somewhat) would have been impossible the evening before. We were also quite happy with our decision to rent a GPS along with the car, but after a few days relied mostly on our accumulated knowledge of the area, and the relatively good map given to us by the hotel manager.

Our first stop on the road was to Ste. Emilion, which took us under an hour to reach from Bordeaux.

To Be Continued...