Dog-friendly hotel in Bournemouth: Riviera Hotel, Alum Chine

When we go on vacation we have a lot of factors to consider. And Dug is one of them. Do we bring him? If not, who is going to look after him. We want to bring him as much as possible as we feel guilty leaving him behind if we know he is allowed and he will have loads of fun. We love our silly boy.

J's birthday fell on the long weekend end of May and he wanted to celebrate with the two brats he love the most. His words, not mine.

So we were researching the deep web to find a dog friendly places. And decided on Bournemouth as it is not too long a drive from Epsom. We ended up in booking.com because it was the easiest hotel booking site with the dog-friendly hotel option. While working with a budget (because everywhere was super expensive during long weekends), we found Riviera Hotel. The review were satisfactory and most importantly, they allow dogs with additional of £10 per night on top. That is cheaper than a dog sitter.

He knew we were going out then got too excited and climbed onto the front passenger seat. 😧😧😧

Source: Google

The photo is not that clear sorry. I lazy to find another photo.

It is not the grandest but with a doggie we had limited choice but you know what I was very pleased with it.

Checking in and out was easy enough. There were parking everyday even when it was obviously a very busy weekend.

The room was kinda small but it was quaint and good enough for us for just a couple of nights. We had a balcony and sea view.

I don't mind waking up to this every morning. 🌊🌊🌊

We wanted to take a family unit photo. Dug has been acting like a teenager lately. He doesn't want to post for photos.

Chilling and have lunch at the balcony after we checked in.

The Alum Chine beach is just around the corner from the hotel. It is 5 mins walk to the beach. I think we picked the right end of the beach to stay at.

It is a long strech of beach. From where we were to walk to the famous Bournemouth pier, it would take us around 30 mins.

So cheerful!

Catching up with the boys. It looked gloomy in my photos but i was actually really sunny.

Another reason why we were at the right end of the beach is because the doggie beach area is at this end.

Dug dived in right away but couldn't stay in the sea for too long because it was so cold. He would get out, roll on the sand to get dry and then forgotten that the water is cold and go in again.

Silly doggie brain.

J fell asleep and snored super loud at the beach. Horgh horgh horgh.

Like father like son.

Address: 14-16 Burnaby Rd, Bournemouth BH4 8JF

Where to eat in Haga? Sjobaren - Gothenburg, Sweden

We always wanted to eat where the locals eat if possible when travelling so we asked our receptionist at Hotel Vasa where would a local eat around Haga area in Gothenburg.

They suggested Sjobaren. We wanted seafood as Gothenburg is known for their fresh seafood. We checked Tripadvisor and confirmed their recommendation. So we went wandering aroung looking for it.

We didn't have data so we we followed the map given to us by the hotel. We are seriously not good at using the map wtf.
So we ended up roaming to use Google Map. Haha damn fail!

I really liked Haga but I will leave that for another post because it is just too much pressure for me to post all in one post. I find that I am more motivated to blog when I do it in nuggets rather than the whole thing at once. Also, why am I back here? I found out that I can cut and paste this whole post to my blogspot blog.

I digress. Anyway, we found the place very quickly as Haga is just one long street. Gothenburg is not extremely pretty but it has its charm.

Sick face. I am sick again as of now but I was so ill then after getting back from Malaysia. J caught my bug after this trip. Sozzz babyyy!

He was nice enough to carry my backpack for me.

We were very lucky because we got in to ask for a table later on that evening but they were fully booked. As we were exiting the restaurant the friendly manager quickly told us that someone just cancelled at that moment and if we wanted the table right now. So we went for it immediately.
We weren't even hungry but we didn't want to miss the opportunity as it seemed like they will be full for the weekend.

As soon as we sat down and looked around we knew that we made the right decision. 😄

It is more pricey than the usually already pricey Gothenburg but it was very worth it.

I always thought that London was more expensive than other parts of Europe but that wasn't true at all.

Local beer. I think he liked it. I was ill so I asked for hot water only.

I think between us, I am the more adventurous one when it comes to food. I noticed that J tend to go to his comfort zone when he eats out. I don't think he realized it cos he once laughed at his dad for not being adventurous..apple don't fall far from the tree huh? Lol

I think I influenced him now. He tries to go for something different everytime now. When I said influenced, I mean laughed at him till he changed! Hehe.

Some bread and butter to start. We can see the kitchen where we sat and think they bake their own.

Yes, oysters again! It was very good.

We shared our starters and dessert because we really weren't very hungry but it was good.

I ordered a wallenberger. It was super fresh but while I can taste its freshness, it is a little bland for me.

Do I still recommend it? Sure. Especially if you like fish or crab cakes.

J ordered his favourite cod. The one with crab dumplings.

He really loved it. He kept going like emm emmm emmm when he ate. So annoying. Cos mine was bland.

They are really creative actually, this restaurant. They really care about combining different flavours.

This is the clementine filled doughnut with cream cheese ice cream. Special right?

But at this point, omg, so full.

We walked back to the hotel after the meal in complete food coma.

Address: Haga Nygata 25, 413 01 Göteborg, Sweden

Super Fresh Oysters - Whistable, Kent

I loooove the taste of oysters. The aftertaste of the sweetness of the oyster flesh and the saltiness of the sea water plus a dash of lemon juice and Tobasco. Hmmmm! Take me back!

I jumped on the chance to visit Whistable, Kent when Robert recommended this place. If you like seafood and want it fresh and cheap-ish (depends on where you ended up), this is the place to be. I found out about this place last winter but we didn’t want to go in the cold, so Jesse only took us there recently.

 

 Industrial but picturesque at the same time.

 

It’s one of the best experience I had in the UK. When we arrived, Jesse was smiling ear-to-ear. He was looking at the sea and was so happy about it.

 

We did our research before we go. Looked through Tripadvisor to find the best place to eat. The most recommended place is obviously the Wheelers Oyster Bar but upon reading the reviews and seeing the photos, I know that this is not what we wanted because of the way they serve the oysters. Also, it’s a tiny restaurant/café..well it is essentially a bar so we can’t take our time to enjoy the food and there’s a queue to get in. When we saw the bar, we knew we made the right decision.

 

So we decided to go to The Lobster Shack instead. We did not regret it!

 

Before that, I want to say that the famed cheap seafood in Whitstable is actually West Whelks stall by the pier/docks. When I say cheap, it is dirt cheap. Think 80p for one rock oysters. Fuck yes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t have any cash on us and managed to pull together £1.60 so we could have one each. Damn, it was good. Not because it was only cheap but it was actually good.

We wanted to save our appetites for The Lobster Shack so we left and search for it. If you can’t find it, not to worry, there are signs everywhere.

 

The restaurant is neatly situated by the pebbles beach. So we managed to get a table by the window to look out at the sea whilst enjoying our food. If it was warmer, we could definitely sit outside too. The restaurant is dog-friendly. We made a mental note on these things because of Dug. So we know we can bring him with us the next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ordered the half Seafood Platter. Omg, it’s so big. The half, you could feed up to 4 people if you order some sides. We also ordered their baked lobster with chips. It was good. But the oysters were not as good as West Whelks. Everything else was fantastic though. The shrimps that came with the platter were filled with eggs/roe. I can feel my cholesterol level shot up after the meal but hey it is worth it. The platter was quite pricey (Robert thinks it is London pricing) but everything else was not expensive. I think it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went to walk around the town and loved how quaint it was. It’s a small town though, so you probably don’t need to spend the whole day there. We were there for half a day and managed to cover everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also managed to dip my toes into the sea. It was freezing!!!

 

 

Happy but super naughty man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual, I needed coffee so we found this hidden gem right on the high street but we missed it the first time. It’s called No. 15 (maybe that’s why we missed it). We had this lovely cake called the Hummingbird cake, I loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a slow drive home after that. Yes, we will be back again.

Minimoon at Gothenburg, Sweden. The Fish Church.

 

When we were landing in Gothenburg, this was what we saw. Ice caps everywhere. I was down with a bad cold when we went and I wasn't looking forward to the cold weather. It's our second minimoon since the wedding and I've always wanted to see Sweden, especially now that I am working for a Swedish company.

 

We took Norwegian Air there from London Gatwick. We didn't know they had wifi onboard until on the way back when we met a young couple from London as well.

Mandatory airplane selfie. He looked good but I looked like poopoo.

 

 

 

Hello Gothenburg!

 

 

 

The view outside our hotel room, quaint apartments. We stayed in Hotel Vasa. It's not as pretty as it looked on the website but they do offer good breakfast spread.

 

Went for a quick walk around the hotel and head for the place we read so much about. The Fish Church.

By the river near the Fish Church. You must be wondering why is it called a Fish Church. It's because it's a fish market in an old church!

This place is super touristy though. We went on a non-busy time and you can see taxis stopping to drop tourist off every few mins. This is about 15 mins walk from our hotel.

 

 

Mouthwatering and fresh seafood. By now, I'm sure everyone who reads my blog know that Jesse and I cannot resist good seafood.

 

Af the far end up the stairs, it's their restaurant. It's super expensive, like not in a worth it kind of way. Super tourist trap but if you buy the seafood to go, it's quite reasonable.

 

So we took a shrimp and crayfish salad that was super fresh and went to the supermarket around the corner to get some local beer and crisps to enjoy by the river.

 

We sat there for quite some time because it was very calm and relaxing. It's a lot colder than London but because it is not as humid and windy, it's actually more bearable and comfortable compared to the UK at that temperature. I believe that it was 2 degrees celsius.


We had another stroll and headed back to the hotel to rest and plan for dinner. By then, my nose was falling off my face from blowing my nose.