It strikes me that they bear a remarkable resemblance to the Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is Morocco in fact a secret haven for Force wielding personages?

After lunch pose

a long-haired biker

Forty, with tinsel

Again, a bit late in coming…

It was an early morning start for us

First Xmas meal with Han’s family

Bill and Ben, the new residents at The Old Post Office

a trained expert, but unfortunately not at chain-sawing!

Xmas day with the Darlo lot

The Boxing day trip to watch Newcastle at Wigan proved to Big Sam’s last league game

These are rather late and out of sequence…

Near the top of The Old Man of Coniston

The view of Derwent water on our way down from Cat’s Bells

Surveying the way forward…

Near the end of the Old Man

The fun decent from Harrison Stickle

It’s bizarre writing this so many weeks after Christmas, but here I go…
A few weeks before Christmas Liv and I decided to venture out to a Christmas Market somewhere in Europe. It was decided that we’d try a German Christmas market – and there were many to choose from. Liv became very excited at the thought of trying all the wursts he could lay his hands on, washed down with some rather pungent Gluhwein.
After a rather stomach churning descent into Frankfurt airport we made our way to our hotel. Much to my horror, this was in close proximity to the city’s most notorious sex show/shop area including Frankfurt’s much loved Dolly Busters…. I wondered why the hotel was so cheap! When we finally arrived at our hotel; which was adorned in everything I was expecting/hoping for (cuckoo clocks etc) we were told that there was a small problem…. the hotel had overbooked! After some deciphering it became apparent that we were required to take a kleine taxi ride to their schwester hotel next to the bahnhof….
Thirty minutes later – after another tour of the dodgy district we arrived at our replacement hotel, next to the bahnhof, police station and local dodgy dealers. By this time we were tired and hungry and set off looking for the Klosterhof – a traditional restaurant selling traditional food for a fair price. Unfortunately, it proved to be elusive and after a long day travelling we settled for an American bar and ate the most enormous burgers, vowing to eat more traditionally the following days… and indeed we did.
The next day, after a breakfast of cheese, ham, eggs, nutella and cereal (sometimes all together with lashings of cream) we set off towards the ‘old’ part of Frankfurt. When I say old – I mean 50 to 60 years old as many of the original buildings were destroyed during WW2. However, it was all very charming and definately had the desired Christmas feel. There were many stalls selling beautiful decorations hand crafted from wood and the most amazing toys. There were also many stall selling various meats, nuts and sweets. It was very easy to spend a couple of hours browsing the stalls, but come meal times, very difficult indeed to get a varied diet. Meat, meat or meat. Many restaurants were packed out not only with tourists, but locals having their Christmas work parties.
The sky scrapers were really interesting to photograph, but you had to be careful to look out for the trams whilst walking around looking at the skyline! I really enjoyed the car boot sale Saturday morning next to the river – there were some funny things. What’s one mans junk is another man’s treasure…. anyone for an old shoe, just the one, it’s half the price… what a bargain!

Anyway…. who says I don’t blog??? 😉

on a bridge

ein großes Bier…

skyscrapers… so shiny

schmeckt

glückliches Weihnachten

To verify the weight loss resulting from a largely fat free diet over the last few months, I invested in a 70p Boots Body Fat test. Alarmingly, my body fat ratio was evaluated at 41.9%, which according to this scale, makes me wantonly obese.

Essential fat 2–5%
Athletes 6–13%
Fitness 14–17%
Acceptable 18–25%
Obese 25%+