Sunday, February 21, 2010






Since the last post, we have been mostly in the English countryside. The Cotswolds, the Lake District and Yorkshire have all been beautiful and full of connections with literature and history. The Cotswolds were lovely - very pastorial with sheep, hedgerows and rolling hills. They were also full of Shakespeare (Stratford-Upon-Avon), history (Coventry and Warwick Castle) and long drives and walks. York and Yorkshire were full of history, from the English Civil War and royal succession, Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest, the Castle Museum in York which was so interesting and old city walls and bridges to Secret Garden vistas (Sowerbys and moors). Lastly, the Lake District has been an amazing reminder of home. The water - rivers, lakes and waterfalls - and the hills/mountains all seem like the Pacific Northwest. We've hiked, traveled high roads over passes, walked on trails by the lake here in Keswick, and seen lots of people with backpacks, hiking boots and fleece.
We will leave here for Ireland, by way of Liverpool, in two days so my next posting will be from there. Here are a few photos of our latest adventures. From the top: the countryside in the Cotswolds, an inn in Stow-on-the-Wold, one of several castles, sheep in the fields, and a frozen lake and day in Keswick.

Friday, February 12, 2010

England






Hello from England! We flew from Bordeaux, France, and after landing at Gatwick, arrived at our hotel in London on February 3rd. We stayed in the Baywaters area, near Notting Hill. It was well located, near two tube lines. We had many restaurants nearby to choose from also! We spent time at Waterstones buying books (in English - finally a wonderful selection to choose from!), at Harrods looking at everything including the tribute to Diana and Dodi and the Egyptian escalator, walking through the Notting Hill street market and visiting other sites from the movie of the same name, seeing Trafalgar square, visiting Windsor Castle, visiting Greenwich and its Maritime Museum and Prime Meridian, and seeing the Lion King live! We also had a great dinner with our friends Jim and Amelia whom we met in Salema, Portugal. It was a busy, busy time!
After four days, we picked up our rental car at Heathrow airport and headed out on the M5 and A303 to Yeovil and the nearby village of West Cocker where we spent the night. The next day we drove scenic routes and made our way to Cornwall and the town of Truro. Being fans of the Rosamunde Pilcher novels and the "Poldark" TV series, we were very excited to finally see the settings of these stories. We stayed 3 nights and spent the two days between them driving in the countryside to places such as King Harry ferry and St. Mawes, Sennon Cove, and Land's End.
Yesterday we drove to Wells, a small town near Bath. On the way, we stopped in Exeter and met a couple with whom Kris stayed 20 years ago when she spent time in England finishing her teaching degree. They were very kind and planned an easy spot to find for lunch and then drove us around for a city tour. Today we visited Stonehenge and the similar, even older stone formations found in Avebury. They even predate the pyramids we saw in Egypt! It was bitterly cold, 4 or 5 degrees C, with a brisk wind but we did the audio tour at Stonehenge and persevered at Avebury. It was good to get back to our cozy room in Wells!
Speaking of driving, Jon is doing a great job! So far we haven't damaged the car or killed anyone or anything that we know of! It IS very nerve wracking however and the navigator (me) will be very glad to park the car and not drive anywhere for a while. There are so many roundabouts here and going on them and doing turns are the worst part. The more we drive, the more experience we get, which in turns makes us safer.
Tomorrow we drive into southern Wales on the way to the Cotswolds, where we will be for three nights. It is supposed to be beautiful there, with quaint thatched roofs and sheep in the fields - what a great setting for Valentine's Day!
Photos: Street sign in London for Notting Hill, in front of Windsor Castle, Jon at the clock in Greenwich, my tea in St. Mawes - a scone and clotted cream, and Stonehenge.

Scenes of Spain




















Here are some of our favorite memories of Spain, via photos. From the top: merry-go-round dated 1900, quixtos in San Sebastian, the bay in San Sebastian, the "puppy" outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, chapel in Santiago de Compostela, flamenco dancer in Sevilla, the bull ring in Ronda, us at the New Bridge in Ronda, Gibraltar, our hotel in Tarifa, the hills surrounding Granada, olives, ham and bread in Granada, Rafa and our apartment in Granada, our Christmas friends, the mesquita in Cordoba, a crucifix in the cathedral within the mesquita, the Alhambra in Granada, Christmas in Madrid, and the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Leaving Iberia






Today is our last day in Spain and on the Iberian peninsula. We have loved it! Although the weather has been more wintery than we expected, it has still been glorious. What a beautiful region of the world! What lovely people - we've yet to see anyone have "road rage" or otherwise get angry. And what food we've eaten! We would love to come back to see Spain and Portugal at their best with the sun out, temperatures warm and breezes gentle.
For the last week, since leaving Portugal, we have been in three cities, Santiago de Compostela, Santillana del Mar, and now San Sebastian ("Donostia" in the Basque language). All three are in northern Spain and we traveled from west to east for our visit.
Santiago is known as the city of pilgrims. St. James the apostle (Santiago) is buried there. Pilgrims from all over the world come to the church to pray in front of the small casket that holds his bones. We saw one man, young-ish in age, with a backpack and walking stick on a street near the cathedral looking so tired and limping. The pilgrims walk at least the last 50 miles; some walk from France and other parts of Europe. We saw police on the plaza in front of the cathedral and were advised that they were there to guard against terrorism since this is the third holiest place for Christians, after Rome and Jerusalem.
Besides the religious aspects of the city, there is a wonderful city market with fresh foods of all kinds, animal and vegetable. It was a lot like Pike Place in Seattle except that there was only food, no crafts etc for sale. It was so fun to walk down the aisles - so many colors, smells, sounds!
We took an afternoon and drove to the Atlantic coast from there - only about 45 minutes. We found a lovely beach in a small town and walked up and down it in the sun. Galicia, the name of this region of Spain, is a lot like the Pacific NW in the way it looks and in the amount of rainfall it gets.
After leaving Santiago, we had a long drive to Santillana del Mar. It is a small town with a walled old town where we stayed in a hotel whose building was constructed in the 1500s. This little town has the famous Altamira Caves right next to it and the Picos de Europa not far away. The cave has wall paintings done 18,000 years ago! After it was discovered about 100 years ago, so many visitors came that the environment was being altered and the images were degrading. The authorities had an exact replica made, down to the painting techniques used, and that is what we can visit now. There is a wonderful museum on the site; one could easily spend an entire day visiting. The Picos de Europa is a national park with high (8,000 ft.) mountains and lots of evergreens. We drove through on a road that stayed at a low elevation since there was snow higher up. We were very much reminded of home!
We are now in Basque country, in San Sebastian. It is very near the French border. This is a city of 180,000 people, most of whom can speak both Spanish and the Basque language, Euskara. San Sebastian is known as the city with the best food in Spain and we have been sampling! We had a delicious modern Basque dinner one night and this afternoon we had the Basque equivalent of tapas - pintxos - which is pronounced "peen - chos". Very good! Yesterday we drove to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It is an amazing structure, much known for its architecture. There happened to be an exhibit on Frank Lloyd Wright, which was interesting especially since I had read the book "Loving Frank".
Tomorrow we leave for Bordeaux, France, where we will stay overnight and then fly to London on Wednesday. We'll spend four nights there before we pick up another rental car and begin to see the English small towns and countryside that we have heard and read so much about! First though, some photos of Spain to close this chapter.
Photos from the top: Pintxos ready for choosing, the view across the bay in San Sebastian, Picos de Europa view, the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, one of the stalls and its vendor in Santiago.