Bath - Monday

The Roman Baths

A very warm day wandering through the roman ruins and other sights of Bath. Things have changed since we were last here over twenty years ago, there are more modern displays within the ruins and some areas we previously visited are now closed.

Currently having a fab lunch at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant (so Gen can get the apron we couldn't get in London), a great place for lunch.

We have been having problems posting on our blog, the last couple of posts have vanished into the ether. Hope this one works.

One more day in Bath then the journey home begins.

Wells, Somerset

Historic Wells, Somerset


Having fun fighting the traffic on the M5 on our way to Bath, we stopped for a break in Wells.  

An ancient town with a 16thC cathedral and Bishops Palace. Being  a Saturday means market day so the place was busy, busy, busy.

Yummy market stall food for lunch, a few local veggies and fruit purchased for the week, and back into the traffic to get to Bath.

Glastonbury Festival on this weekend so the traffic was horrid.  

We are in a little cottage about 10 minutes out of the city. Will be visiting some stately homes in the area and of course the Roman Baths in the city.

Cheers
Gen

Checking out the waterways

John on the quay at the Tamar River

Thursday

Today we did a bit of really local exploring and spent time wandering the riverside of the river Torridge at Bideford (our nearest town). Lots of fishing boats and smallish pleasure craft were sitting high & dry in the mud as the tide was out and there was no water to be seen.

We had dinner in our "local", The Black Horse, recommended by our landlady and well worth the visit.

Friday

Today we ventured further afield again and headed towards Plymouth to visit a stately home - Cotehele. Sadly when we got there the house was not open, (bugger!). But the gardens, the mill and the private quay were still worth seeing.

The photo shows John looking at a small 19th c river trader moored there, that plied the Tamar river down to Plymouth with local goods.

They have a working 18th c flour mill, powered by a waterwheel and still producing flour.

Tonight we pack up for tomorrow we move to another cottage just outside Bath.

Cheers
Gen

Cornwall

Waiting for the Doc

In our wanderings today we visited Port Isaac, a typical Cornish fishing village that is also where Doc Martin (ABC) is filmed. The photo shows me outside the Doc's rooms.

It was a very cute little village, small fishing boats in the little bay, lots of eateries with local produce.

We also visited Padstow, which is where Rick Stein had his first restaurant. He now has 3 places here, a cafe where his original place was, a shop selling heaps of merchandise and now a rather large seafood restaurant on the actual waterfront.

Our original plan was to eat at Stein's but at £35 plus for a main course we decided to forego. We tried something a little less excessive and bought handmade traditional Cornish Pasties at the bakery and they we just perfect.

We also got in a bit of history at Launceston, walking thru the old Norman castle and keep.

Time for a rest!

Cheers
Gen

Dartmouth

Visiting Dartmouth Castle

Monday
A quiet day as John obtained some help from the NHS for a crook knee. Thankfully there is a reciprocal health agreement between Aus and the UK which made things quite cheap!

Tuesday

Exploring quiet areas of Devon are made easier by the combination of a lousy road atlas and poor road signage, we ended up on all sorts of places.

Driving on some very narrow lanes with very high hedgerows preventing much of a forward view for oncoming traffic made for interesting times!

We drove through parts of Dartmoor and visited both Totnes and Dartmouth castles.

Lots of little villages, cottages with thatched roofs, traditional little pubs, but of course also heaps of tourists too!

Devon

The North Devon Coast at Lynton

Saturday
Picked up our hire car at Lewisham and drove through the London burbs. A nice car, a Golf, well suited to our trip.

Navigated our way out of town with some difficulty and then took a fairly direct route to Devon. Heavy traffic all the way and intermittent downpours for good measure.

Taw cottage at Great Torrington will be our home for the next week. Our cottage is an old stone farm building beautifully converted into a stylish home with a loft bedroom.

Our views are of lush green fields, hedgerows and lots of cows & sheep. There is a determined little garden hen that tries to get into the house anytime the door is open.

We are very grateful to our friends the Londoners for their hospitality. London wouldn't have been the same without them.

Sunday
Today we explored Exmoor and the north coast. Much better weather, mostly sunny, and lots of Sunday drivers.

The photo shows you some of the typical coastline we saw. Very rugged cliffs and small beaches.

To get down to the beach from Lynton, there is a very steep "cliff railway", a little cablecar that is powered by water.

Driving thru the narrow roads and lanes in these little villages is certainly an experience! But the sights have are quite spectacular.

Last day in Greenwich

Clip clop - it's the cops

Friday
A very cold, wet day in London. Visited the local markets and preparing a thank-you dinner for our hosts. Fried rice and spring rolls - yum!

Tomorrow we are off to Devon in our hire car.

More London exploring

St Paul's Cathedral

Suffering through rainy downpours we visited Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We were lucky enough to be going through when there was a dress rehearsal on for a play opening this weekend.
This meant we were able to experience a little of what it would be like to go to a performance. Amazing acoustics in the open air theatre.

We then walked across the Thames over the Millennium walking bridge and visited St Paul's.

The cathedral was very sparkly and clean having just completed 15 years of renovations and cleaning, the inside mosaics and stained glass were fantastic to see. Luckily a spot of sun shone thru to help show the work.

Pushing on through the rain we finished the day with a walk around the British Museum, checking out all the Greek & Egyptian treasures.

By the way dinner last night at Jamie Oliver's restaurant was fantastic!

Cheers Gen

Lesser Fire of London

Fires of London

Tuesday
Caught up with Cam (nephew) for a lovely lunch in Marylebone High Street. Cam looked fit and relaxed after completing the first year of his MBA.

Then on to the Sir John Soane's museum, one of London's more interesting sites.

Later, we walked down to the Strand to find the source of the voluminous smoke that had been smothering us as we wandered. The photo shows the burning building (which was being refurbished) and firies hosing the rooftop.

Wednesday
Walked through the beautiful rose gardens and flower gardens of Greenwich Park, watching cheeky squirrels looking for food. The park is huge, filled with lots of tourists heading for the observatory, but also used by local workers during their lunch breaks. We enjoyed a nice pub lunch.

We hope to get into Jamie Oliver's Canary Wharf restaurant for dinner tonight. You cannot book, just gotta turn up and hope for the best.

Monday

Greenwich Observatory

The Weekend
Saturday was party, day and night! Fiona's birthday was celebrated in fine style.
Sunday was a quiet recovery day.

Monday
As we are currently staying in Greenwich it was time to check out the famed Observatory, it's telescopes and timepieces and, of course, the prime meridian. We straddled 0 degrees of longitude, standing in both the eastern and western hemispheres at the same time.

Later, we visited the National Maritime Museum before a bit of shopping and a lovely home-cooked (by Gen) dinner.

Exploring London

The Thames (low tide)

Friday

Today we hit some of the usual sights, heading to Westminster and battling the huge crowds of tourists.

Would you believe they want to charge you £16 to visit Westminster Abbey!! Which we chose to not pay by the way.

Getting caught in the typical London rainburst, watching every body go into the local Boots to buy a cheap brolly.

Anyway, using our English heritage membership we visited the Duke of Wellington's home and museum and visited the Jewel Tower.

We wandered Hyde Park, walked past Buck palace, and checked out Aspley House.

London

Wednesday

Today was a travelling day. After a leisurely morning we were on a very full plane on Vueling airlines (Spanish & cheap!) arrived at Heathrow among the throng at about 3.40 PM.

A mix up with booked cabs that didn't turn up caused a bit of a hassle, but some many pounds later (cab fare from airport) we were safely ensconced in our B&B, in Greenwich.

Catching up with very good friend Fi at Dave's wine bar in the evening rounded out the day.

Thursday

A day wandering around Greenwich.

We actually moved to Fiona's place today, great to be in a comfortable home with a full fridge and with long time friends. I won't go into boring detail about catching up with domestic duties!

We went for a bit of an explore around Greenwich, walked along the Thames riverbank, and attempted to visit the "Cutty Sark" an 1800's Clipper Ship, but much to John's disappointment it is all blocked off, undergoing major renovations it seems.

The day finished with another day reminiscing and laughing a lot with Fi & Leann.

Gen

A Coruna

A Coruna harbourside, Tuesday June 7

Coruna - my kind of town, fabulous bays, beaches, boats and fishing. We enjoyed a 35 minute, 160kmh train ride on an ultra-modern train to get here from Santiago. The train even had on-board vending machines.

Coruna is a very modern city with ancient roots. It has lovely little trams servicing the 13.5km pedestrian promenade along the coastline. There are a number of wide sandy beaches along the promenade, right next to the city streets, no doubt extremely popular at the height of summer.

We caught a tram round to El Torre de Hercules, a lighthouse built by the Romans and still working. Climbing the 234 narrow steps to the top was tough and reminded us of some hills we have climbed, but provided a panoramic view of the city, the harbor and the Atlantic ocean.

Monday

'Eat Street' - Rua Do Franco

This view of our favorite restaurant area from a balcony of the Cathedral Museum. Not as crowded as usual as it's a cool, drizzly Monday.

Our last day in Santiago was spent wandering the streets and museums, taking pinchos and tapas for lunch and just generally sightseeing.

We have certainly gotten to know Santiago much better over the last week, discovering markets and sights we had missed on previous visits.

The highlight of the week was seeing the botafumeiro (a giant incense burner) in full swing during a mass in the Cathedral. This 60kg monster is only used on special occasions or when groups pay for the sight. Quite a sight to see it soaring over the assembled masses.

Pilgrims once slept in the Cathedral and the incense was used to improve the general aroma, as well as it's religious uses.

We look forward to visiting La Caruna tomorrow, before heading back to the UK.

Domingo (Sunday)

Another relaxed day wandering and exploring.

We visited the Museo das Peregrinacions, which had a display of various pilgrimages around the world, a fantastic photographic exhibition of arriving pilgrims from a local photographer and a detailed historic record of the life of St James. We ended up spending a couple of hours wandering thru.

Further to yesterday's blog we forgot to mention that we lunched yesterday in a beautifully refurbished 16th/17th century seminary. The San Martin Seminario Mayor still trains priests and currently has 38 seminarians. They also have an albergue for arriving pilgrims as well as operating a normal commercial hotel.

A beautiful old stone building with a cloister area, huge vaulted ceilings and a peaceful quiet atmosphere. We had the traditional pilgrim lunch of 3 simple courses and wine for only 12 euros, about a third the price you would pay elsewhere.

Sent from my iPhone

Fisterra

The end of the known world

Friday
Fisterra or Finisterre was known to the ancients as the end of the world. After an arduous 3 hour bus ride to get there I can see why. The scenery along the way was stunning, crystal clear blue seas, white sand beaches, fishing villages. Just stunning!

Saturday
Took an English language guided tour of Santiago today. Only four people in the group and our guide, Italo, was a font of information. A great way to learn much more about the history, legends and origins of our locale.

The markets were in full swing today with mountains of fresh, local produce. Especially seafood.

Festival Day Santiago

Festival Day Santiago, Thursday

The town was a very vibrant place today, many locals had a day off because it is a holiday, we are not sure of the reason but were told it is a local festival for the town.

The streets were busy, more than the usual buskers, beggars, uni students and pilgrims. As you can see in one of the photos there was roaming groups of dancers and musicians putting on shows of local traditional dancing and music. Fantastic to watch, they were very energetic.

We visited a fascinating little museum at the San Martino Church, giving an interesting history of a Monastery on the site dating from some 8 or more centuries ago. They had displays of early manuscripts, books and printing, an early farmacia with all sorts of concoctions etc

The main square has been taken over by a peaceful tent protest, as is happening in most large towns and cities across Spain, you may have seen something of this on the local news.

Adding to the crowds is about 400 or so pilgrims arriving onto town each day at this time of year.

The other photo shows part of our delightful tapas and sangria lunch.

John has looked at the blog settings on the computer at our hotel trying to fix the problem with comments, but has been unable to isolate the problem. We would love to hear from you via email or facebook.

Cheers
Gen

Santiago De Compostela

Music college band roaming the streets

Tuesday

A rather slow train trip from Oporto to Santiago. If nothing else it gave us a good view of the countryside of Portugal traveling thru wine regions, large industrial towns and some fantastic seaside views.

We arrived in Santiago early afternoon and on the walk to our hotel saw many pilgrims coming into the main square looking very happy to have completed their challenging walk. It brought back many memories of our own pilgrimage of a few years ago.

Let me tell you that it also made me happy that I wasn't feeling any where nearly as footsore as they looked hobbling to their hotels.

We have a lovely hotel right in the old
town with our own little courtyard, perfect for afternoons relaxing during siesta .

Wednesday

Today first on the list was to work out our plans for our week. There are many things here that we have not seen despite previous visits, monasteries, museums and the like.

We roamed the little alleyways, found the tourist office, saw some street performers (see photo of one band), and basically had a very relaxing day.

We enjoyed a delightful tapas lunch with sangria at our favorite little "hole in the wall" bar watching pilgrims coming and going.

I am now sitting in our room with a glass of local Rioja red and some great Spanish manchego cheese while I write this blog.

This evening we went for a walk in the Alameda gardens where there is a large fair going on. Sideshow alley, fairy floss for the kids, a ferris wheels and various rides. The place was very crowded and the weather perfect.

Cheers
Gen