Post Comment Love and Blogger Showcase 10-12 February 2017

Hello there and welcome back to #PoCoLo, if you were here last week it was lovely to see you. If this week is your first time then welcome, we're a friendly bunch and both Morgan and I hope you'll become a regular.

My week has been busy, and been one of contradictions. There's been a fair bit of hospitality and eating and drinking and at the other end of the scale there's also been a mammoth visit to the dentist. My crown is finally on, but not without a fight and some misbehaving, from the crown, not me. 

Somehow once it had the cement they couldn't get it on right, and the cement set so it needed to be drilled off. As a nervous patient anyway, this wasn't the best dental experience but there wasn't a lot I could do, was there?  It's on now, and has been behaving and I've a couple of weeks grace before I go back to pick up my mouthguard, which will hopefully protect my teeth from the grinding I've been doing in my sleep. 

Consequently I haven't taken many photos this week, but of course to contradict myself, and on par with my week I'm sharing two in this post. They're from a shop window on the way to the dentist, which I paused and admired as I arrived there earlier than I expected. I must have known I'd need some home comforts, and when I left I could quite happily have curled up in these. Well, apart from the fact they were in a locked shop's window, of course!

I'm definitely seeing a trend here with faux flowers, and I've a feeling I'm going to break soon!

Blogger Showcase: Chloe from Chloe Metzger

1. Who are you? 

Hi, I'm Chloe. I blog at Chloe Metzger and work in Marketing day to day. I post about mental health, books, feminism and general lifestyle. 

2. How did you discover blogs/blogging?

I saw people online posting book reviews and wanted to get involved. My first blog was a book review blog to find a reason to keep my ever growing book collection. 

3. Why did you start blogging?

As I said above initially to have a use for all my books. My current blog, however, started for me to write about uni, I couldn't find blogs that were about day to day life at uni, they were all too generic for me so I started mine and it's completely evolved! 

4. What is your favourite topic to write about?

Mental health, I truly believe that bloggers can help fight stigma and promote positivity. 

5. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?

I've gotten more goal orientated since I graduated last year, I really want to put a lot of time in and see positive results. 

6. What is your favourite thing about blogging?

Connecting with so many people.

7. Have you ever attended a blogging conference?

No, but I really want to! 

8. What are your 3 best posts?

1. I'm a Feminist

2. Lessons I've Learnt From Quitting My Job

3. Stressed, Depressed, but well dressed? 

9. Describe yourself in three words!

Loving, Strong, Smart.

10. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?

Tea and Biscuits are my go to.

11. What's your idea of a perfect night out?

A night at a gig with Ali.  

12. Your perfect night in?

Curling up with a good book, some yummy food, a big blanket and cuddles with Ali. 

13. What would your best friend/OH or mum say is your best quality?

I work hard. 

Thanks Chloe, it's lovely to share more about you on my blog.

It'd be great if you could use the links below and follow Chloe, I'm sure we all still know the joy of a new follower or two!

Blog  -   Twitter  -  Instagram  

An InLinkz Link-up

Coffee pots, Vouvray and arriving in Tours

It's been a while since I've shared a cycling post and I'm aware that in our Loire Cycle Tour I've left you hanging around at the farm at Chenonceau. Not a bad place to hang around, but there's still plenty more from our trip. So as this week I'm contemplating pushing my bike over the threshold, I thought it would be as good a week as any to resume our trip.

So today we're cycling onto Tours and taking an unscheduled detour to Vouvray. Our detour was entirely swayed by the fact it's a wine we recognised! Our route on this trip wasn't taking us near any of the other recognisable wine towns like Chinon or Saumur, so we decided to make the most of the town that was almost on the route, and stop there.

It was a shorter cycle than some of our 'moving on' cycles, so adding a detour, and one that involved wine, made sense.  And what made even more sense was heeding the packing offer from MOH for our longer journeys. That meant I packed most of the heavy stuff, and actually most of our stuff in his panniers.

We stopped off in the town of Amboise to buy some lunch to store in my basket and promptly found a whole new, bustling part of town we'd not discovered before. Oops - so if you go there, check out the town properly before you leave, unlike us...

We left Amboise along the river and enjoyed a quiet, peaceful and ambient ride with nods to cyclists coming the other way, the ones that overtook us and the ones we overtook too (yes, there were some!)

As we cycled towards one house my eye was caught by something brightly coloured decorating the wall. I couldn't work out what it was as we approached the house, but as soon as I did, I knew I had to stop because you'd never believe me otherwise, just look.

The whole wall was topped with coffee pots. And mostly they were enamel coffee pots, and made quite a sight. Too many to count, but definitely something to marvel at, and wonder if it was a household that liked coffee, as much as its coffee pots!

THE VIEW OPPOSITE THE COFFEE POT HOUSE

There were some hills too, and as usual I was slow up them. I was surprised to be overtaken by a speedy pensioner on one of the hills, until I realised she was on a motorised bike, it was even more of a surprise for MOH when she sped past him too. It actually wasn't the last we'd see of this group of older riders, and they were the only cyclists we met on the whole trip that soured our experience, and not just because they overtook us.

The gents were dressed head to toe in lycra, which is fine, we saw other cyclists who were, but most weren't. It's a leisurely route and unlikely ever to form part of the Tour de France, so it was a bit OTT, as was tagging onto the back of MOH and I as we cycled along, cycling almost on my back wheel. It was quite disconcerting, and in the end we pulled over to let them past so they could cycle how they wanted to without annoying us. 

Of course, as is always the way, then they stopped in the next town and so we were ahead of them again. And sure enough, they had to get past us again. We'd nicknamed them Grandad Pelaton by this stage and once again stopped to put some distance between us and them, and if I'm honest I was glad we were doing that detour to Vouvray, as it meant there'd be no further encounters with them; they weren't unpleasant, just pushy.

It was clearly our day to encounter cyclists. Out next encounter was as a couple of cyclists stopped to let us past. Well she did, he cycled on, and again this was fine. Only thing was he didn't realise her chain had come off, we did and so stopped to help her and eventually her OH returned to see what was going on. We are experts at chains on step-over bikes now, which was lucky as her OH was convinced, like we were to start with, that the chain cover didn't need to come off to put the chain back on. But it does, as I said we're experts!

We reached the point of our route where we needed to cross the river to detour into Vouvray. We weren't quite prepared for the size, or busyness of the bridge and seriously reconsidered the alternative route when we saw it. It was one of those large metal structures, without a segregated bike lane and with one of those huge roundabouts to get onto it. 

As we'd passed the Grandad Peloton, who'd stopped for a picnic lunch, we decided to continue to Vouvray and hope that wasn't their plan too. So over the bridge we went, and into Vouvray.

The only thing is, it was pretty much shut. But not all of it, it was a small town and what I'd call functional. We popped into the Grands Vins Du Val De Loire (above) and were treated to a fantastic welcome by the proprietor, who was keen to share his wines with us and of course sell us his wares. We tasted a few, bought a bottle of sparkling Vouvray to have with our lunch, which was promptly replaced with a chilled bottle after we shared our plans.

In the end we didn't have it with lunch, but that's because we cycled up the road and found a bar instead. I mean to have a glass of Vouvray in Vouvray, because we could, was an opportunity not to miss. We had second thoughts about buying another bottle we'd tried and so cycled back and bought a second bottle. That gave me a bit more of a packing challenge though, but I managed to find enough space in MOH's panniers for that second bottle, the chilled originally-for-lunch bottle had already been safely stowed in my wicker basket.

A VOUVRAY IN THE BASKET

PARKED UP AT THE BAR

The trickiest part about our detour was finding our way back onto the path. We knew we weren't going back over the big bridge and it looked as if there was a route through the town and along the river again. It started off well, and then we missed a sign and ended up cycling along a pretty main road parallel to the river.  After a few rather large lorries rattled past us and worried for our new purchases, we realised we could drop down the embankment onto a much safer, and more relaxing route.

So we did, and we finally stopped for lunch too. And didn't drink the bottle of wine.

Our next challenge was to find our hotel in Tours, it was a pretty town to arrive in and by far the biggest town we'd been in for a while, so big it's actually a city and that was a bit of a shock, but not unpleasantly so. As usual I had the address of the hotel in my panniers but no actual directions to find it - that happens a lot, with the bikes and without - but this time we got lucky.

Somehow by following our nose (well, mine actually) we'd found ourselves on the same road as our hotel. It was a wide boulevard with two lanes of traffic either side of a tree lined walkway that was almost as wide as the space for traffic and so very French. It was ideal for cycling up and down looking for the hotel, and we couldn't help but wonder why we don't have something similar for cyclists and pedestrians back home. 

With the bikes parked in the garage around the corner, we arrived in our room to find we had our very own view of the boulevard outside. Actually it was a pretty stylish hotel, with plenty of modern touches alongside the classic French decor you imagine you'll find. This light - which turned out to be really hard to photograph - looked great, in that effortlessly French chic style.

And as well as the classic view from our window, the breakfast room provided its own oasis of calm, stealing light from the balcony above with the clever use of glass bricks - that's definitely something I'm storing away in case I ever get to do something similar. I probably won't ever get the chance to, but it was so clever and very effective.

Just imagine how fab it would be to have breakfast out on the terrace surrounded by the lushness of the garden? Sadly it was a little too damp and chilly for that to be a viable option for us, but all wasn't lost as this is the place that introduced me to chestnut spread, which I happily slathered all over my toast and went in search of in the supermarket, so I could bring some home.

Actually that reminds me, it's in the cupboard unopened. How on earth have I let that happen. I'll be right back, I've a jar of chestnut spread to find... and some bread to toast!

In a snowy Hofgarten

It's just over a year ago that I shared my first visit to Munich's Hofgarten here on the blog, despite our visit having taken place some six months earlier. It's a lovely central space and one that's well used by visitors and locals alike. So when the coach dropped me off just around the corner from the Hofgarten on my recent visit to Munich, I knew that my first stop would be to see how it looked in winter, and how it dealt with the snow.

As I arrived at the arched entrance I was half expecting to see the cheery guy who'd been there before, but no such luck. There were though fabulous blue skies, blue enough to rival any summer's day. The temperatures were something else entirely, and that's in the negative, I had my big woolly scarf though to keep me warm.

The view down the avenue of trees was breathtaking. It was good without the snow, but somehow better with it. And yes, this is still me writing this, the snow-detesting me. But look, and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.  

I looked over to my left and the central pavilion glistened in the snow and sunlight. I remembered how its inside was clad partly in shells and hoped to get better pictures than on my first visit.  

But first, I'd spotted some swaying on the branch of a tree. And yes, that's a snow topped bird table.  

It's great isn't it, and hopefully its visitors and/or inhabitants welcomed the greenery as well as the food supply.  Onto the central pavilion. I think with the clear blue skies, and the snow it was even more stunning than on my first visit.

On my tentative walk along the path I stopped to capture snow resting on the top of the hedge, and like the picture of the frost on my fence, I was amazed at how much detail my iPhone picked up.

Sadly the pavilion was chained off so I wasn't able to improve on my existing pictures. I learnt that leaning in and around to get a picture didn't work and after a couple of attempts I gave up and decided to head towards the strange dome shape in the distance. As I approached I remembered that under the cover was probably a fountain, and sure enough when I got closer it was obvious that the cover was made from wood. And covered with snow. Looking back at my photos confirmed they were fountains, and that gave me an idea for a future post comparing a summer and winter shots. I wonder how many of the same shots I've got...

What I liked about the garden in the winter was the starkness of it. The snow definitely gave a blank canvas and the lack of greenery on the hedges and trees gave a clear idea of the garden's structure. And the importance of that too.

By now I'd covered half of the garden and it was getting chilly, so with the shops calling my name I headed back towards that central avenue and back towards the centre of Munich, but not without first stopping to admire the ironwork.

You really didn't expect anything else did you?

* While this post isn't in collaboration with Viking or Stihl, it was only possible because of the UK press trip arranged by them.