As a nice summer break I headed down to Devon and Cornwall with my Mum and Dad last week. Whilst there we visited The Eden Project as it's always somewhere I've wanted to visit - and we were not disappointed!
A word of warning... North Devon to The Eden Project may only be 90 ish miles but the roads are so winding it took us 2.5 hours to get there! It's worth it though to visit.
It was relatively busy but we were thankful it wasn't the school holidays - definitely worth trying to go out of school time. When you walk in there's this incredible view of the centre and the biomes.
Of course I took Noz along for the trip - more photos under Noz World Tour later!
There are four key areas- the rain forest biome (with temperatures up to 40 degrees!), the Mediterranean biome, the core and the outside area. Each biome explores different countries - we headed for the rainforest biome first. Here are some of the things we found...
Next we headed over to the Mediterranean Biome...
The Mediterranean biome is much smaller than the rain forest biome but has some really interesting features, especially if (like me), you're very interested in chillies! The Mediterranean biome also has a restaurant inside so you can feel like you're on holiday whilst eating but sadly we had a boring sandwich on the way in - save yourself for the nice food inside the centre!
We mainly focused on the biomes but took the mini bus around the wider centre too. The whole centre is dedicated to sustainable living and there are some really interesting features in the centre and areas (like The Core) to make it very accessible for children.
Well worth the visit if you're into this kind of thing - it's like stepping into a different world. It's tricky when we're all the way up North in Leeds but if you pay once you get access for the full year so you can visit as many times as you like. The Eden Sessions look really interesting too and we even saw Elbow warming up for their act that evening!
Recently we headed out camping in Dalby Forest so we could take full advantage of the Bank Holiday Weekend and Go Ape! Go Ape was great - if not a little terrifying! - but the photo highlights of the trip have to be the photos I took in Robin Hood's Bay. I haven't been since I was very little and wasn't fully prepared (only with my iphone in hand!) for how photogenic it is! Definitely worth a visit with a real camera - here are some of the shots from my phone for now.
Having been to The Ropewalk a few months ago to do a glass-work day course I went back recently to check out the print exhibition and catch up with my Mum and Dad over a cup of tea in the cafe. The Ropewalk, just over the bridge from Hull in Barton, is a mini paradise filled with prints (I can't help myself - I just love anything etched or lino-printed), a cafe, a gallery, a sculpture garden, a museum, a shop and on a strange offshoot in the cafe they also sell Mr Huda's sauces which I can't find anywhere in Leeds.
The Ropewalk is a breath of fresh air in this part of the world and just makes me feel, well, better, when I walk in. I've taken a few pics below to give you more of a feel for the place but it's well worth a visit if you're in the area (and even if you're not!) as there's plenty of art on display and there's a nice cafe to get some lunch.
Having dabbled with a bit printmaking in the past it's nice to see what other people are doing and it inspired me to come home and work on my own lino block (admittedly, this is still just a thought... watch this space).
Taking a day off work I decided to meet my Mum and Dad by the coast at Scarborough. I absolutely love Whitby (which is just up the coast) but taking my camera out and about on Thursday around Scarborough made me see the town through different eyes. I've been heading to Scarborough at least twice a year since I was born so it's familiar territory but the buildings and sea front on a cold, snowy day made for good viewing. There's something really nice about taking time out when everyone else is working - it's a lot quieter and having a day off work is always a bonus! Here are a few pics I snapped on my trip (of course, it wouldn't be complete without fish 'n' chips!).
Rotterdam - Wow, what a wonderful city. Before I headed off for the weekend with my Dad on the North Sea Ferries from Hull to Europort I was a little clueless as to why my Dad had picked Rotterdam as our trip destination. Experiencing Rotterdam was a whole different matter - art galleries, beautiful sculptures, great food, friendly people and great open spaces. Here are some photos of our trip and a few places you should definitely trip in Rotterdam if you're heading over. At £45 each on the ferry each it is well worth a visit!
1. Rotterdam houses- I found this beautiful door whilst walking through a back street.
2. Chuck Close at the Kunsthal Gallery - part of the Avant-Gardes exhibition.
3. De Calypso building, Rotterdam.
4. Amazing display in the Netherlands Architecture Institute cafe.
5. Artwork by Jan van der Ploeg at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
6. Delfshaven - the older part of Rotterdam to contrast buildings like De Calypso.
7. Delicious apple cake from Nieuw Rotterdams Cafe on Witte de Withstraat - great cafe
with nice surroundings and even better apple cake and tea. Well worth a visit.
8. A Picasso inspired sculpture outside the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Museumpark is well worth a visit if you're into art or not - it's a great space to walk through and if you like galleries it's surrounded on all sides by some of the best galleries in Rotterdam - The Kunsthal Gallery and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen were great. The pic above is of a small corner were the Kunsthal Gallery lives.
