Avila

Avila - city walls! We are as usual in the older parts of the city. The walls are amazing from both outside looking up at them and on top walking around. However will have to cull out many photos of them - how many do you need for goodness sake! But Avila has been a wonderful stop, slightly slower paced and a great place to explore. Unfortunately my sense of direction has not improved at all throughout our trip and I am often bewildered as to which direction I should be moving in. Many of the touristy maps do not include all streets/lanes/alleyways so it is easy for me to lose where I am heading by turning off too soon. The cathedral was amazing like others we have seen. I can see how you get cathedraled out! Each one is stunning but your expectations change with that and it becomes a little ho-hum. Photo depicts not just the wall but also travelling with David. We are trying to establish systems so that I don’t lose him while he is stopping.

Toledo- hopefully not twice

Toledo was wonderful. Could have had longer there . Our key concern here was my knee and if it was going to behave as it had caused us big concern the day before and me great pain. We did less here, went to the cathedral, the height of the ceilings and the obvious wealth of these buildings still hit me - seems contradictory to have so much money spent on places like these. Awesome to see if you can get over that fact. Gold and carvings everywhere. What is nice is that they are often still used for services which must be for those attending a special thing. We usually sat for a little while quietly just absorbing it all.

A wonderful aspect of our accommodation was the roof top terrace from which we saw the cathedral and the alcazar. Photos are from the rooftop of both these amazing buildings.

Toledo Spain

Toledo was wonderful. Could have had longer there. Our key concern here was my knee and if it was going to behave as it had caused us big concern the day before and me great pain. We did less here, went to the cathedral, the height of the ceilings and the obvious wealth of these buildings still hit me - seems contradictory to have so much money spent on places like these. Awesome to see if you can get over that fact. Gold, carvings and statues everywhere. What is nice is that they are often still used for services which must be for those attending a special thing. We usually sat for a little while quietly just absorbing it all.

A wonderful aspect of our accommodation was the roof top terrace from which we saw the cathedral and the alcazar. Photos are from the rooftop of both these amazing buildings.

Sintra

18 June
Sintra has a lot of world heritage sites It was very picturesque with lots of greenery and trees around the large old buildings. There are even NZ tree ferns planted in one or two of the places.

The castle (Moorish castle) was very cool - just as you would imagine old stone forts to be. I couldn’t handle the height after the 1st tower so I sat and waited for David to do the 2nd tower The history or rather age of the place certainly was obvious and hit home a little.

‘Pena National Palace’ I found rather hideous - a real mix of style and structure, plus incredible opulence in all the rooms. It was all a bit too over the top for me more money than style or grace. Kids would love it -like a mix of fairy castles all in one!

The palace, my favourite, Quinta Regalia (palace and gardens). The grounds - beautifully laid out areas and gardens and grottos - walked through one of these caves - quite lovely too. (Photos are from here).

We also went to the Sintra National Palace - that was great too particularly one room that was amazing, tiled walls (blue and white illustrations) and incredibly ornately decorated ceiling as well - heaps of gold! Stunning and a bit over the top but just amazing all the same.

Lisbon

Lisbon is so cool. Went on 2 sightseeing bus rides - well one bus and one tram- they have audio info which is very cool and basically you can get on and off the bus/tram as you wish and look around different parts of the cities - very good. So far we've chosen to stay on for the trip but boy we'd like to come back here again. such a cool city! The world cup fever is so evident everywhere - restaurants crammed with people watching the games, flags and banners flying as well as people wearing the colours on their clothes. Large screen up in places around so that you can sit a watch as well - pretty amazing really. We even sat in the live audience of some TV show who was hosting an obviously well known player (or at least that’s what we think). Found the best Portuguese chicken as well - served us for most of our teas! Got to come back didn’t see enough! Sorry photo does not match really but...Mary's photography!! (Yes that is David in the foreground)

Coimbra

Coimbra -what another amazing place. We really were extremely lucky here though as we arrived the day of a medieval festival/fair not far from where we were staying. So wandered down some narrow stoned streets towards the noise and found ourselves in the midst of a setting in history. Many locals dressed in costumes befitting the period and stalls and skits/music to go with it. Just loved the atmosphere and the involvement of so many people of all ages.

[David says] yep, Coimbra was good. Medieval festival was superb and completely out of the blue. You go down an alleyway or two, which opens out to a relatively small square and suddenly there’s everything happening - music, snake dancing, stalls selling all kinds of stuff and everyone’s dressed up like it’s 1000 years ago. Hmmm, I can dress like it’s 30 years ago, but how did they keep their clothes looking so nice? Also fun to see Mary ducking for cover VERY FAST when they were looking for dancing partners!!!!!

Oops Here are the other photos! I may improve over time.

Here’s a couple of photos of Porto and Coimbra. The river in the foreground is Porto - really picturesque. The other is from our bedroom window in Coimbra - amazing eh!

Porto, Portugal

Loved the buildings all close together and old. Semi derelict ones sandwiched in between others obviously inhabited. They are multi-storeyed and crammed in together - orange tiled rooves. So different to anything I’ve seen in ‘real life’ to date. I have enjoyed not being in crowds like in Singapore. English is a lot more prevalent than I thought it would be and a little card about my gluten free thing has already proved great. The limited contact with local people we have had has been friendly. They have been patient and happy to repeat things. As well as strolling around, we have done a couple of bus tours and a short river cruise which were great to get a feel for the place and see significant icons here. 6 bridges in close proximity to each other. Yummy port and cheap too - forgot we did a port ‘tour and tasting‘. Really beginning to feel on holiday and so looking forward to all our holiday now - funny how it takes a bit to sink in. Well we’ll tackle local transport systems again when we catch a train to Coimbra - last one went well on attempt 3 or 4!

UK

Was fabulous having Deb and John pick us up - they also took us to Stansted to catch our plane to Porto which was extremely kind of them.
Deb and John were great hosts and took us to Brighton, Bodium castle and Rye. Loved the village feeling and the buildings in all the places we saw - quaint and pretty well reserved. Could have spent a lot longer at both Brighton and Rye and may well go back there when we return. Ate too much the whole time there. Loved John and Debs place - the country setting. The farm is 150 acres and is so lovely and refreshing after city life in Singapore. Noisy animals, birds in the morning though! The birds started around 3:30am, it seemed to be getting light around then as well. Funny to have twilight and dawn again after Singapore. Lovely to have a bit of time with Katie and Ben. Kim was her delightful self and enjoyed touching base with her, ready for our next rendezvous in Spain and Morocco. Great to see her with her cousins as well. Really enjoyed the stroll around the farm and the chance to get rid of the jetlag and lack of sleep after a night flight. Very cruisy feeling for starting our trip.

Last minute nerves

Hi
Must be more nervous or excited than I thought – awake at 4:38am!! Gonna be a long day – fly out at 11pm tonight. David peacefully sleeping away.

So to fill in this morning I thought I’d give you the rough outline of our trip. Think I have the dates reasonably accurate, I know we have made the odd change since this version of our trip but...... So here it is.

6 – 9 June:
England, Tonbridge

10 – 17 June:
Portugal; Porto, Coimbra & Lisbon

18 June – 7 July:
Spain; Toledo, Avila, Barcelona, Cordona, Granada & Seville

8 – 20 July:
Morocco; Rabat, Meknes, Fez & Marrakesh

20 – 30 July:
England; Cambridge, yet to be decided & Tunbridge

A treat for me will be seeing Kim again when we get to England tomorrow and also having her join as in Spain for part of our Morocco trip. Poor David will be out-numbered by females yet again.

Next blog will not be from home.
Cheers all
Mary

Hi all,
Well we’re off and away to Europe so keep an eye on this site. We’ll try to keep this up-to-date and email as we can. Hopefully skype when possible too.

All slowly becoming real – though getting on that plane will do it. Then reality might hit me! This is the exciting part of living in Singapore and the benefit of working here. So good to be able to have this time available.

So hope you will check in regularly to the blog and follow our journey.

Cheers
Mary