Fun – Page 35 – Berkeley Square Barbarian

Norfolk Seal Safari

July 30, 2018 27 Comments

During our visit to Norfolk last weekend Ms B and I took part in a seal safari on an amphibian vehicle. The one-hour tour run by Searles Sea Tours costs £18 (£9 for children) and departs from the Sea Tours Kiosk, Central Promenade, Hunstanton. We recommend you pre-book (in which case you’ll be asked to re-confirm your booking by phone in the morning of the day of your tour). Despite the fact that it was extremely windy (our deep sea fishing boat trip the next day had already been cancelled for that reason) and despite a number of reported recent accidents with amphibian vehicles around the world, we felt in very safe hands throughout. These vehicles are not like the Duck Tours ones, which look and feel like a bucket with an outboard motor. No sir, you’re dealing with proper heavy machinery here: so-called LARCs (ironically abbreviated from Light Amphibious Resupply […]

Cotswolds, Fun, London, Travel

24 hours in the Cotswolds with a 1980s Jaguar convertible

July 23, 2018 25 Comments

We had been planning a day of driving a 1973 Jensen Interceptor III (my favourite car) through the Cotswolds for years. Twice something had gone wrong (accidental double-booking, motor malfunction), so, surely, we thought: third time lucky. But apparently not so. We received an email from the car rental firm, Great Escape Cars, a couple of days before the big day to tell us that a client had totalled the Jensen (luckily no harm to humans, unless you count the emotional pain this was causing me). We were offered a number of replacement cars and a 1988 convertible Jaguar XJS 4 litre V12 turned out to be the best option. We tucked the 1970s outfits, that we had been planning to wear, away and went back to the vintage clothes store for something a tad more 1980s. After all it is a well-known fact that no one is allowed to […]

Art and Culture, Fun, Germany

Burghausen Burgfest Castle Festival – 3 Days of Rock’n’Roll in my Home Town

July 18, 2018 12 Comments

Whenever Ms B and I get a chance, we like to do Burgfest (‘Castle Festival’) in my initial home town of Burghausen, Bavaria. I grew up there and only left when I was 19. My parents still live here in the same house I grew up in. It is 1.5 hours’ drive (2.5 hours by train, 2 interchanges) from Munich airport and 45mins drive (3.25 hours [sic] by train via Germany, 3 interchanges, busses infrequent; another option is bus to central station, then train from there to Ostermiething, all on Austrian side, only 1 interchange, then taxi from there; takes 1h45m) from Salzburg airport. This little town of just 18,000 residents boasts the world’s longest castle (unless you count the fortified garden fence our Chinese friends built) at just over 1,050 metres in length. It sits between a little lake (that once used to be the river bed before the […]

Fun, London, Travel

Thames Rockets – Great Fun on a Rubber Boat

July 7, 2018 20 Comments

I had been thinking for some time about booking myself into London’s number one outdoor activity (according to Tripadvisor): a trip on a rubber boat with Thames Rockets. Today I finally made it, and boy was it fun! I opted for their gold standard package, the so-called Thames Barrier Explorers Voyage (80 mins for £54.50), departing from the London Eye. As a Londoner, the touristy sightseeing part didn’t do much for me, even though the guide was amusing enough and got a few laughs out of us. I was in it for the thrill of speed. Shortly after we had passed by Tower Bridge, our captain increased the speed and went full throttle. It is surprisingly smooth a ride. Last year Ms B and I were going on a zodiac in the open Arctic sea off Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen at similar speeds of just over 55km/h (back […]

Fun, London, Travel

EG Chauffeurs – Driven Around London in a Chauffeured S-Class

June 7, 2018 4 Comments

Ms B and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary yesterday, and EG Chauffeurs (one of London’s premier chauffeur services, best rated on Trustpilot), very kindly invited us to use one of their S-class Mercedes. In Britain, some people have the strange habit of calling the best of its class “The Rolls Royce”, and of course EG Chauffeurs have their fair share of these fine British cars to choose from for those not in the know. Why an S-Class is better than a Rolls Royce In Germany, where I’m originally from (before I became an Englishman a few years ago), we use “S-class” the same way: as epitome of perfection, luxury, and prestige. So S-class it had to be. Ervin Gjoni’s (the founder and head of EG Chauffeurs) strategy is to focus on the Mercedes brand such as S-Class and V-Class rather than other brands, going forward. The cars can […]

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