Photo Diary

Date: 10 May 2007 21:09:17

So, we have to back-track a bit to pick up where we left off...

That would have been Spain. After Barcelona, the boy and I headed to Madrid. I was not as fond of Madrid as I was of Barcelona but we had a rather nice apartment and we were in easy walking distance of the main things. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit of the time we were there and that limited our sight-seeing. This is a photo of the chapel inside the Palace:

We then flew from Madrid to Lisbon, Portugal. To me, Lisbon was a rather 'rugged' and often dirty city but there were many beautiful and interesting places to see as well. The old castle is a good place to walk around the ramparts and spend some peaceful time in the gardens. Here is my artistic shot:

Due to the earthquake (a long time ago), there are some really steep and often difficult climbs around the city. Some are aided by a funicular:

and one big 4-storey drop is aided by this lovely elevator which has become a bit of a tourist thing to do (and which we didn't because it cost money):

My two favourite things about Lisbon were

1) The tiled houses, much like this one:

and 2) The ruined church that stands in the middle of town (near the 4-storey elevator):

After a few days in Lisbon, we flew to London. This is me on the Millenium Bridge looking back at St Pauls:

I managed to get myself on a tour of the Globe Theatre and also the archaeological site of the Rose Theatre. Very interesting. The best bit was that it was not only opening night of Othello but of the whole season so the tour of the Globe Theatre included some tech rehearsals and seeing the actors on stage:

The boy kindly bought us 'groundling' tickets to Othello (with the guy from Blackadder!) the following night which was a fantastic experience. Four hours of standing up isn't terrific but we were pressed up against the stage which put us right in the thick of it, trying not to get our hands trodden on by the actors and dodging sword fighting.

One interesting thing, which wasn't in our guide book but which we stumbled across, was the church of All Hallows, Barking. It is opposite the Tower of London. It was bombed during World War II and because of this, they found Roman artefacts. They have made the place underneath the church just like a museum. They had a free audio guide available and it was a really fascinating place. I definitely recommend it.

Of course, a lovely wibmeet was organised for us as well so here is us at lunch:

We also lined up and paid rather alot of money to go on the London Eye. There are some beautiful views and the weather certainly turned it on at the right moment:

We then hopped on a bus and trotted on over to lovely Cornwall. Our few days in Bude have been very relaxing and very, very wet. Our sight-seeing has been mostly limited to what you can see from a car because it hasn't stopped raining since we have been here. We were fortunate enough for the rain to break enough for us on the first night for us to go for a bit of a wander. We got lost and ended up following the 'public footpath' which meant going through paddocks and over styles. Very Jane Austen (without the beanie and the wet weather gear):

Here is the Cornish coastline (at Boscastle):

A photo of the pew carvings in one of the old churches here:

Tomorrow we hop on a bus to Exeter and then onto Wales.