Kyle and I were meant to have gone to Iceland a couple of weekends ago.
Originally I had, on a last minute whim, signed up to the marathon as it was the only one still going on and, it seemed, Iceland were pretty COVID secure. Sadly within hours of signing up I received an email to say it’d been cancelled. I received my money back but it was disappointing nonetheless. Of course a worldwide pandemic is far more serious than missing a marathon so it is what it is. We could still travel to Iceland and had booked our flights and accommodation so decided to still go anyway for a nice short little trip. We knew we’d need to take a COVID test at the airport but otherwise all seemed fine.
Then a few days before we were to go our tour guide for one of the trips we had planned while we were there rang me and told me the rules had changed and we were now required to quarantine. As we were only to be there for four days it meant it would be pointless for us to go. We were super grateful for the guy to let us know as otherwise we’d have only found out the day before from the airline and we wouldn’t have been able to get our refunds back in time.
It was a shame of course but to be honest we were probably too gung-ho to plan such a holiday so soon. So for now we’re going to stay put in the UK. Things are just too changeable right now! We still had Friday, Monday and Tuesday off so we decided to plan in some fun things locally.
On the Friday we walked down to Southsea (a couple of miles from where we live) and had a fantastic meal in Meat and Barrel.
A true “Anna and Kyle special” involving loaded fries, chicken wings and a burger. It was delicious! I can never get bored of chicken wings…
Saturday we decided to head to Arundel, which is only about 30 minutes down the road from us.
I can’t remember the last time I went and now cannot wait to go back.
It was such a lovely day trip. Arundel is so beautiful! Proper oldie British village with a cathedral and castle, and lots of pretty areas to walk around. And you can’t move for tea rooms! We loved it.
We had a gorgeous walk along the river and lunch in one of the local pubs, The Red Lion. And I’ve discovered that I really love a ploughman’s.
Something so British about meat, cheese and salad on a plate with a chunk of bread. Delicious. Kyle had two sandwiches 😉
We also picked up some cake from a very quirky café called LG Cafe for later. They sold so many types of brownies and yumyums – so good! And even American style sheet cake, which I’d always wondered what was like when I’d seen American films or programmes (it was very sweet, lots of fluffy buttercream in the middle and super soft).
On Sunday I went for a lovely, albeit wet, 15 miles. It was just lovely to be running in cooler temperatures.
Though I did somehow get stung by a wasp mid-run! It flew into my face and then I felt a sharp stab in my arm and saw it buzz about me. I revved up my speed very quickly, I can tell you!
Then on Monday we headed to the Isle of Wight with our car for a little day-trip.
It’s a short drive to the ferry for us and not too expensive to go over so was a perfect little adventure for us. I’ve only ever been to Ryde once with school on a school trip so I was excited to see more of the Island.
We headed over to Compton Bay where we parked up and then walked around 2.5 miles to Freshwater Bay and back again.
It was very windy but otherwise perfect weather. We’re so lucky to live nearby to some truly beautiful places and in a way it’s good that we can’t go abroad easily at the moment so we can enjoy the local scenery instead.
We then had a bit of a nightmare finding somewhere for lunch as we thought we would be OK with the Garlic Farm (the biggest garlic farm in the UK – we’d heard some good things). Sadly we were just too late for food. We then had a mad dash around the place trying to find somewhere still serving lunch (it was close to 4pm now) before our ferry was to head home. Fourth time lucky we found a really lovely restaurant called The Breeze.
They did some delicious salt and pepper chicken wings for starters.
And for main I had another ploughman’s (when I like something I go to town on it haha).
It was a lovely long weekend with a good mix of relaxing, eating and exploring new places. Perfect despite our original trip not happening.
Have you ever been to Iceland?
Have you got any trips planned?
Did you want to go abroad?
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Ah that’s such a shame you had to cancel, but so lucky that you found out before travelling.
Doing some local things is a good idea. I did want to go to Disneyland Paris and we have had to cancel and change dates so many times this year, but of course with the quarantine it wasn’t possible, and now with things changing so last minute it seems hard to book anything right now.