I have been to visit England again, a year since my last visit.  This time, for amusement, I went purely as an Australian – I did not use a British passport at any time.  Actually this was a spur-of-the-minute decision taken at Manchester airport when I arrived.  The queue for EU and British entrants was about half-an-hour long, whereas as an Australian I only had three people in front of me!

I went straight up to Cark with Mark and John.  It really is a lovely place which they have there, as a retreat from Manchester and the South.

I did some fellwalking whilst I was there (walking up to Burnmoor Tarn, in between Eskdale and Wasdale), and took some friends to l’Enclume again (see my entry from 24th August last year).  L’Enclume was declared the Best Restaurant in the UK recently by the Good Food Guide.  Perhaps as a consequence the price had gone up by a third since last year!

Valley venison, charcoal, oil and mustard

White turnip, maran egg and nasturtium leaves

Three Pea and Crab Sacks (the sacks are ceramic)

Iced blueberries, sheeps’ milk ice-cream and apple marigold

It was very good, again.

We had some lovely English sparkling wine: Nyetimber and Ridgeview, particularly the former. I even searched out these two afterwards.  Nyetimber is even sold in supermarkets.  Mark accompanied me to Ridgeview winery (they are both near to Mark’s house in Oxted).  They are expensive, however: even the very best sparkling wine in Australia (Arras Grand Vintage) cost significantly less.

I have to say that the event at l’Enclume was not quite the same, though. I guess it’s just that I had done it before and the surpirise and delight of the twenty courses was less.  £120 per head is also very expensive, even for 20 courses at the best restaurant in England.

I didn’t see several of the friends whom I would like to have visited: David and Amaryllis (on holiday in Italy), Steve and Christine (on duty and too busy), the Robinson family (just too little time).  I did get to see Tim Elsworth, who is living in London, and we had a very good day together.

It ended with an excellent indian meal and a pint of Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter, in the Cheshire Cheese, a pub. on Fleet Street.

Mark and I then caught the Eurostar to Paris, followed by the TGV down to Barcelona (where I went to the European Cardiology Congress).

Barcelona was wonderful, again.  I think the combination of beautiful seafood, amazing buildings, vibrant culture, is hard to beat.  Mark, John and I stayed in an apartment hired for me to stay in during the conference, in the Old City part of Barcelona.  Mark and John went exploring whilst I went to the conference (which was very useful, and good).  We ate out in the evenings together.