I’d like to apologise to the readers who have missed my gastronomic rumblings….sorry, ramblings. Please be assured that normal service will be resumed shortly….

This year we are travelling a little further and by a less common means of transport. At the end of April, we’re driving down to Girona, leaving the car in the hopefully gentle care of an off airport car park and catching a coach to Barcelona. We’ll stay in Gracia again, revisiting some favourite haunts and restaurants and trying to discover new vistas and culinary experiences. From Barcelona we go to Girona, again staying in the old town, but in time for the flower festival, where lots of patios are decorated and open to the public.

In August, we fly from Nantes to Edinburgh, then drive to Durham to celebrate my mothers 90th birthday. To recover from this festival of excess, we return to Edinburgh and fly off to Cracow in Poland, then after a few days, catch the train to Wroclaw, then on to Bydgoszcz (it’s ok, I can’t pronounce it either) ending up in Gdansk for a few nights. From there we’ll be taking an express train, travelling 1st class naturally, to Berlin for five days and flying back to Nantes…..

To end the year in style, the plan for October is to drive down to Bilbao, fly to Seville, stay there a while, again exploring and revisiting, then by coach to Cadiz. After a few days in Cadiz, we’ll find our way to the airport at Jerez and fly back to Bilbao. Staying in Bilbao we are looking forward to seeing the Guggenheim and searching the city for outstanding restaurants….ah, you thought we’d forgotten about that…