Scarborough at Christmas

I'd forgotten what Christmas in Scarborough was like, having spent each Christmas from 2006-2008 in Brugge. Unfortunately, the incompetence of the French brought it home to me this year, having to spend Christmas in Scarborough because a bloody useless French-designed train breaks down in snow.

In Brugge I had become used to Christmas markets, with stalls selling hot food and drinks in decorated market squares, ice skating and music and a party atmosphere, with pubs serving the best beers in the world when it was time to get inside out of the cold.

So imagine how drab Christmas in Scarborough is. No markets, no ice skating, pubs which sell beer more akin to water, no shops lit up. Indeed, the shops in this town made little or no effort for Christmas, unlike at Halloween, when all seemed to be in on the act and vying for the darkest displays. All we seemed to get, as a nod to Christmas, was a ghastly display in Boyes which consisted of toadstools, model elves and a grating, horrible racket of a song "we are Santa's elves" repeated over and over again ad nauseum.

If this is the best this boring town can do for Christmas it is time it called it a day.

Holidays 2008 Part Two

We booked our Christmas hotel online the other day. We had to book online or else go and book in Filey or Pickering because Scarborough is the only town in the area which has no proper travel agent. By "proper" I mean an independent one and not one of those tacky high street chains who are only bothered about their commission and how many insurance packages, excursions, transfers etc they can get you to fork out for.

Last year Scarborough had a really good independent agent who we had booked with for years and never had a problem with. Then the owner retired and closed the shop so our main September holiday hotel was booked with a well-known high street chain. We had nothing but problems with this travel agent chain and at one point we contacted our tour operator about them because we weren't happy with the rubbish they were coming out with. We also complained to the manager of the travel agent who did not even have the manners to answer our concerns. Thankfully we booked our flights online with the airline so we didn't have to deal with a high street travel agent apart from booking the hotel.

Our Christmas hotel is the same one we stayed in last year, as it was very nice with a minibar (great for storing your beer in), nice rooms, a nice location and freshly-cooked eggs at breakfast (soft boiled as well - very rare in Belgium!) I always had the scrambled eggs with my buffet breakfast, they were gorgeous and tasted really buttery. The only downside to the hotel is the depressing classical music they insist on playing in the lounge and breakfast room.

Travel

Travel is one of my passions. There are so many places I would love to visit, and sometimes I will just go and get a travel brochure from the travel agents just to browse through.

I would like to see Japan and go on the Bullet Train, visit Singapore, Australia and New Zealand again, Canada, South America - the list goes on.

Pity I can't afford to actually see those places, but I like to see them on TV and read about them.

Currently my favourite holiday spot is Belgium - we have had holidays in Brussels, Brugge, Mechelen and Oostende, as well as visiting many places by train while we are there. We have spent the past two Christmases in Brugge, where there is a big ice skating rink in the market square, stalls selling snacks and very welcome hot drinks (the chips are very good too!) and a fabulous atmosphere.

We are going to Oostende again this year, and hopefully the weather will be good. When we had our holiday in Brugge in 2006 it was very hot (especially when we went to Zeebrugge) but in Oostende last year it was not as good for weather and we saw more rain.

When we go on holiday we always fly.