Tag Archives: attractions

Abbotsbury Swannery

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Visiting Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset

We have visited Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, England twice. The first time at the end of March and the second time at the beginning of May when new swans and other birds just had the first new babies born. Either of the visits were nice and we would go there again even just to have an amazing walk around and enjoy this peaceful relaxing place in the company of these amazing creatures.

birds nesting place
Birds nesting place

The Swannery was established by Benedictine Monks in the 11th century where they farmed the swans to produce food – how practical! They say that the Abbotsbury Swannery is home to the world’s only managed colony of nesting mute swans, although that is not the only thing you will find there. From the entrance gate, you will have to walk almost one kilometre (about 2,400 feet) to reach the colony of swans; free car parking is located in front of the entrance. On the way to Swannery, you will find other attractions such as a labyrinth and a small ricing arena where usage of pedal-driven means of transport are available free of charge.

Swannery

There is something else you benefit from visiting Abbotsbury Swannery – you may buy a ticket with a huge 25% discount to also enter another site located nearby – Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens. At the time we visited the Abbotsbury Swannery, there was an option to also enter another site designed very well for visitors with kids. However, this has been changed, hopefully temporarily, since the pandemic began in March 2020 (there still are some restrictions for visitors in 2020 due to the coronavirus).

Feeding swans

One of the most exciting things about Abbotsbury Swannery was feeding swans. At the time we visited the swannery, the feeding was at noon – keep this in mind when planning your trip and booking tickets.

feeding of swans
Feeding of swans

It was allowed for volunteers, especially kids, to enter the feeding area and feed swans with the food they provided on-site. This process was long enough to take a lot of photos and shoot videos. All swans from the surrounding area were gathering together to get food. Before and after feeding you may walk around the territory using convenient paths and many other birds living in the area. There is also a small museum providing more information about swans and the history of the site.

Usual swannery opening times are from 10 am to 5 pm all week, with the last entry at 4 pm; online ticket price for an adult is £10, for a child £5. Be aware that dogs are not allowed to enter the swannery. The minimum time for the visit might be two to three hours, although you may spend even more time easily.

Abbotsbury subtropical gardens

After visiting the swannery, we went to Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, a site located two and a half kilometres away by car. And again, there is a huge free-of-charge car park across the road just in front of the entrance to the gardens.

abbotsbury tropical gardens
Abbotsbury tropical gardens

About the history you may read on their website, the information provided is comprehensive. Amazing place both for adults and children to enjoy. All I may add is that gardens are really beautiful, especially during spring. There is a viewpoint where you may observe the coastline and even see a bit of Abbotsbury Swannery; getting there is quite nice physical exercise though.

Opening times of the gardens are from 10 am to 5 pm all week, with the last entry at 4 pm. Advance ticket costs £10 for an adult and £5 for a person aged from five to fifteen; children up to five years enter free, buying tickets on-site would be more expensive. Good news – dogs are allowed to enter the gardens!

Italian cooking classes in Rome

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This experience was part of our trip to Italian capital city Rome. After returning from our one-day long trip to Vesuvius, we had one more major attraction booked – cooking classes in Italian restaurant.

small restaurant in rome
Small restaurant in Rome

Almost everybody around the world knows Italian food. Italian cuisine has been developing since ancient times and has spread around the world until nowadays. One of the main characteristics of Italian dishes is that it is usually simple to prepare a meal because just a few main ingredients (often two to four) are normally used. However, Italy is large country and the same dish may be very different in different areas of the country.

Some very well know ingredients of Italian cuisine are olive oil, pesto, pasta, tomatoes, peppers, olives, garlic, artichokes, eggplants, zucchini, all kinds of meat, fish, seafood and cheese (parmesan, pecorino, ricotta etc.).

There is a huge range of pasta used in Italy as well as in other countries around the world – macaroni, spaghetti, linguine, fusilli, penne, lasagne, ravioli and tortellini. Pasta differs from each other with various lengths, widths, and shapes but, for example, ravioli and tortellini are filled with other ingredients.

A while before coming over to Italy, we booked cooking classes at Le Fate Restaurant (Le Fate means fairy). In this privately owned restaurant, Italian Chief Andrea Consoli was teaching groups of 4 to 6 people about preparing excellent Italian dishes.

tiramisu
Tiramisu dish

We were really enjoying this cooking class and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to enjoy free time acquiring some new knowledge mixed with just having fun. However, I was checking for availability of this cooking class in 2019 and it appears that this restaurant has been closed – what a pity.

There is another blog about finding good restaurants in Rome for eating breakfast, lunch and dinner – this may save your some time in finding those as I can recommend all of them after my own positive experience.

So, this is it about our cooking classes in Rome but there also are travel notes about another trips to Italy, for example, to Italian Alps.

Cooking classes near Marrakesh

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When visiting other countries, we always try to familiarise ourselves with local cuisine, at least as much as possible. For example, on our own we were buying and preparing seafood in Montenegro.

One way of doing this is visiting local restaurants, though it is even more exciting if there is a possibility to prepare food ourselves. It appeared that Morocco offers visitors to enjoy cocking classes; this is both an adventure and getting new useful skills in preparing Moroccan food.

Moroccan food

In Morocco, we booked a cooking class near Marrakesh – FAIM D’EPICES. The price was approx. EUR 50 per person and that included transportation, lessons in Moroccan food preparation, preparation of meals in practice, drinks and spice workshop (pick-up place usually would be arranged near the place you stay in Marrakesh, which is a norm in Morocco).

We learned how to make a complete meal, meaning bread, salad, a tajine and the special Moroccan patties. The main dish on the day we were there was the tajine of lamb with prunes. Be aware that they do not accept credit cards, so cash should be taken with you; we also paid a deposit in advance (half of the price).

Cooking classes

Faim d’Epices operates for a while, the kitchen is large and well-equipped. We also got very useful tips on different topics, for example, how to find out if argan oil is pure or how to make sure that saffron is genuine (these ingredients are expensive and people may try to sell fake stuff).

Argan oil is an oil produced from the kernels of the argan tree and saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus. Saffron has long been the world’s most costly spice by weight.

Both, argan oil and saffron are specific to Morocco. In addition to this, every household prepares its own mix of different spices to be used for everyday cooking; those may include caraway, cumin, saffron, sumac, fennel, mustard and many other ingredients.

You may wish to watch on YouTube my video about the Moroccan town Tafraout which we visited during COVID in 2020 (opens in a new window). In Morocco we also visited such places as Marrakesh, Taroudant, Agadir, Paradise Valley, Sahara desert and more which you can find on this blog.