Bombay Sapphire

Our son and his girlfriend gifted us an Experience Day voucher for a Discovery Tour at Bombay Sapphire.

We were pleased to discover its location is at Laverstoke which is on the way to Portsmouth where we were taking a Brittany Ferries crossing for our month in France.

All packed and ready to go we had a leisurely, due to a few road closures, Sunday morning drive south.

Laverstoke Mill was recorded in the Doomsday Book, the buildings hold so much history which you can read on Bombay Sapphire's Web page

For 100s of years the papermill made England's bank notes but this ceased in 1963. Bombay Sapphire purchased the mill in 2010 and opened it to the public in 2014.

There's no better way to start a gin distillery tour than with a gin and tonic. There were three gins to choose - Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin, Bombay Citron Pressé Gin or Bombay Sapphire Sunset Special Edition Gin, with a variety of garnishes and tonic. All served in a very stylish Bombay Sapphire signature glass and enjoyed in a plush theatre whilst watching a short introductory video.

 

Our tour included visiting the beautiful glass houses, both striking in their still interprative design. Bombay Sapphire works hard to ensure their buildings and processes are as efficient and sustainable as possible. The glass house are used to house specimens of the botanicals used in their gin, one being a tropical house heated from the waste heat from the stills.

Bombay Sapphire were awarded the BREEAM Award for Industrial Design in 2014.

Inside the glass houses each botanical had its own display detailing it's origins and flavours in the gin making. The only botanical outside was the lemon tree. The botanical were: 

Juniper
Cassia Bark
Grains of Paradise
Cubeb Berries
Bitter Almonds
Liquorice
Angelica Root
Coriander Seed
Orris Root
Lemon Peel 

The mill buildings and stills inside were amazing, great industrial structures in both brick and copper. 

Our tour included visiting inside the still house but no photos were allowed, in fact any electronic item had to left in lockers and collected later.

The old cottages on the mill site have been knocked through and now house a lovely tearoom. On site there is also a bar and restaurant which can be visited without being on a tour.

We had a super time exploring the old paper mill and discovering more about Bombay Sapphire. It was a super gift and great way to start our holiday. 

Wine Escape

Our daughter and son-in-law bought us an escape wine game for Christmas, the Legend of Lochkeye. We waited, and waited, for a sunny day so we could spend an entertaining afternoon trying to get to our wine. Finally one came although true English style we had to retire indoors before long.

The game involved answering questions in four separate rooms to find four numbers for the key padlock, sounds easy eh? 

Firstly we had to work out the order of the rooms, this was very important as we discovered later. Each room had 4 cards - each having a problem card, a clue card and a solutions card.

Each card had three questions, the answers giving three numbers which when added together gave a final number .... it took us a while to get the hang of it and we did need the solution cards, mainly to check we were correct.

Over an hour later we had our answer ..... or did we?

No ... it wouldn't open ... one of our numbers was wrong. After rechecking our answers we tried again ... still wrong.

Then we remembered the importance of which order the rooms were in and yippee our much awaited bottle of Porta 6 bubbles was released. 

Such a fun afternoon, thank you Philippa and Michael 😍 

Malta

The final stop on our cruise in May was Malta. I have been wanting to visit here as my Dad was stationed at the Navy Hospital in Bighi. He was a sick berth assistant and often worked with the dental surgeon, he was only 19.

I have a few if Dad's photos and one in particular was always special. He is standing outside Villa Bighi, the main hospital, in his full navy uniform. The building is quite distinctive with the Roman numerals above the doorway.

Our daughter and now husband holidayed in Malta in 2019 and managed to find the villa. Once in port Hubby and I took an Uber, lovely driver, and he dropped us right outside. Although the front and paving looks very different now, it's a wedding venue, the building and doorway is the same. It was quite a moment standing there. We now have a photo spanning three generations and nearly 80 years!

Malta is a beautiful place, I can see why Dad had fond memories of it and why our daughter fell in love with it. The stonework is a lovely sandy colour, looking vibrant against the sea and sky. We docked in the Three Cities area and once back at the ship from visiting Villa Bighi we took the water taxis across to Valetta where the views were amazing. 

To us our cruise ship (left in the photo just over the tree) is large but it is tiny compared to some, like the MSC (right in photo). I'm not sure I'd want to be on such a huge vessel.

From the dockside in Valetta there's a lift up yo the city. My Dad's photo is of an old, maybe wooden structure, his comments say it all. Nowadays it's a solid metal lift that takes many passengers each time. 

Always happy to try local we enjoyed a pint if Maltese beer, Cisk, recommended by our daughter, very refreshing.

I'm always up for a ride on a petit train, Hubby does keep telling me it's just a tractor but I love them. We had a great tour of Valetta through narrow streets, up and down hills with views across to Sliema.

Cruising is a great way to see many new places but you don't get long in each and it was soon time to leave Malta. The views leaving were as beautiful as arriving, especially seeing the harbour entrance as Dad often told stories of how they used to swim across it.

It was a superb end to our cruise, one more day at sea before flying home from Corfu. I loved every minute of it and will certainly be cruising with Tui again.

Here's my final sunset and time tracker I've added links to each of my blog posts too.

Funchal 20.42 UK time

Gibraltar 21.03 UK time plus 1 hour

Motril 20.57 UK time plus 1 hour

Palma 20.39 UK time plus 1 hour

Cagliari 20.15 UK time plus 1 hour

Valletta  19.49 UK time plus 1 hour

 

Sardinia

Day 10 of our cruise last month saw us arrive in Sardinia, an Italian island we have not visited before. We decided to take another Tui excursion, Flavours of Sardinia. This included visiting an olive farm and museum, an ancient church and a vineyard, perfect.

Leaving the ship at 9am our guide was superb telling us all about Sardinia's history and it's own language. She informed us that there were two coaches for this excursion and we were the lucky ones as we were visiting the vineyard first... wine for breakfast!

Cantina Audarya was about half an hour inland, what a beautiful country to drive through. The views from the vineyard were amazing.

We had a super tour of the winery, including seeing some interesting shaped vats for making dessert wine which apparently add to the concentration. The vast stainless steel vats stood proud in the fermenting room. I always love to see the stored barrels of wine, they look inviting with an air of anticipation.

After our tour we settled in the tasting room which had been laid ready for us, each place having a platter of cheese and meats with a delicious bread that was as thin as a crisp.

Our first wine was 100% Vermentino,  pale straw colour with citrus flavours finishing with a touch of minerality. The wine was so clean and delicate but with lasting flavours.

Our next wine was a rosé made from 100% Cannonau, a grape I haven't tried before. It was very similar to the white wine but with added tropical fruit flavours.

The final wine was my favourite, again made from Cannonau but left to mature on the skins to give a rich deep red colour. It has great depth of fruit flavour along with light spicy notes, I really enjoyed this wine.

Our vineyard visit was a great way to start the day with beautiful views, lovely food and amazing wines. We would have loved to have bought some home but as with the whisky in Gibraltar the bottle weight would have caused a suitcase problem.

Not far from the vineyard was the next stop on our excursion. Driving through the narrow streets our coach arrived at Dolianova Cathedral which is dedicated to Saint Pantaleon. This Roman Catholic church is one of the main Romanesque buildings in Sardinia, it is said to be over 800 years old.

Outside, although a huge building with a dominant tower, it isn't an amazing Cathedral, and inside it was also quite sparse but with some amazing features.

The gems in this Cathedral are on the walls, painted frescos that have survived 100s of years. They are open to the elements and not behind glass to protect them. The Tree of Life must have been amazing when first completed and the full alter would have been stunning.

After the Cathedral we visited an olive oil producer, passed down through the generations producing oil in the traditional grinding method not pressed like many modern producers.

A tour of the production area was followed by an education in tasting, such an enlightenment as I knew very little about olive oil. We tasted olive oil, lemon olive oil and chilli olive oil (not me). The flavours were amazing and surprisingly there was no oily after taste or texture in our mouths. 

Our excursion in Sardinia was a super way to see more of the country, it's certainly a place we would like to visit again. 

As we had some time before departure we walked into Cagliari, a busy city on quite a hill. There was no way we were going to miss having an Italian pizza and to my delight the four cheese pizza had no tomato base ... delicious, especially as accompanied by a glass of Italian wine. A great end to our day in Sardinia. 

Keeping up with my sunset and time tracker I've added Sardinia.

Funchal 20.42 UK time

Gibraltar 21.03 UK time plus 1 hour

Motril 20.57 UK time plus 1 hour

Palma 20.39 UK time plus 1 hour

Cagliari 20.15 UK time plus 1 hour