We left Belfast on board the Stena ferry bound across the Irish Sea to Scotland. Ferry travel, on calm days, has become my favorite form of public transportation.  There’s plenty of room to move about and your luggage is checked (without charge) when you board. The two hour crossing was pleasant enough going from sunny to cloudy by the time we arrived in Scotland. From there we took a coach to Ayr, a small resort city sitting at the  the River Ay spot where it flows into the Irish Sea on the west coast of the country. Unfortunately it was cold and windy in Ayr and by the time we arrived at our Bed and Breakfast the rain had begun and the beach didn’t seem very appealing. Nevertheless, we took a walk to the ocean front and found a small wonderful local restaurant for dinner.

The Bed and Breakfast, which would be our home for the next two nights had a comfortable large living room with a bar in the corner.  We enjoyed chatting with a group of four men from England who were staying there while they were working in Ayr replacing seating a local theatre.  The owner was an interesting lady who said she always wanted to own a B&B so after her sons grew up and left home she bought the Arrandale Hotel .  She seemed to be a one-person show checking guests in, doing the cooking and in charge of the cleaning as well. The weather was cold enough that we didn’t hesitate when we headed upstairs to bed but hurried into our pajamas and jumped beneath the covers to get warm.  And this is August.  Wow!  What must their winters be like! We do wonder how often it is that folks get to use the Ayr beach for sunbathing!

Alloway is just two miles south of Ayr and was the home of Robert Burns. So off we went in the morning to the Robert Burns Home and Museum. We walked a short distance to the bus stop and must have looked unsure of ourselves because a gentleman who is a curator at the museum asked if he could help us and showed us which bus to take and also where to get off!  The home is a modest place that dates from the early 1760s.

We walked from the home to the museum and past the bridge,  Brigadoon, that was mentioned in the final verse of his poem, Tam o’ Shanter.     When we entered the museum there was a group of young girls performing Scottish dances.  Interestingly they were from Canada and on tour. In the museum itself we learned a lot about Burns and his personal life (He was quite the ladies man!) and how he had great influence on many American writers including: John Steinbeck, James Whitcomb Riley and JD Salinger. In the light rain we continued on to the Burns statue and then the churchyard where his parents are buried.  Even though the day was cold and rainy it sort of fit with what we expected of Burns’ Scotland. Imagine our surprise when as we waited for a return bus, the gentleman who had given us directions in the morning was at the same bus stop for the trip back.  He explained that he had been to the Scotland Cricket Match. We told him that we didn’t know much about cricket but it was the scoring we found particularly difficult to figure out.  He told us that sometimes cricket matches can go on for three or even four days.  That was enough to convince me that perhaps I didn’t need to understand any more about the sport!

The next morning we boarded a Scotrail train for Inverness in the Highlands of northern Scotland.  The check in with our Airbnb was a bit unusual because no one met us or even connected with us but once we figured out the key and let ourselves in we found the apartment to be very comfortable and in a great location. We felt a bit silly when we asked our taxi driver the name of the river next to us and he responded, “The Ness.”  Ah yes, the town was Inverness.  Made sense!  We had been warned that northern Scotland in general, and Inverness in particular would be cold.  But again we got lucky with the weather and while we had some rain, generally our weather was in the high 60s to low 70s, very comfortable indeed. We had learned by this time that whenever we ventured out to put our rain hats and umbrellas in my day pack just as a matter of habit. Inverness is a lovely city with just less than 50,000 residents. Inverness Castle is a red sandstone structure that is perched over the city. Although this castle was built in 1836 it is situated on the site of an 11th century defensive structure where Macbeth supposedly killed Mael Colium III’s father.There’s also an interesting local museum that helped us better understand Scottish history. But most of all Bob and I enjoyed walks along the river.

We decided that since our daughter Cary and our son Patrick are going to meet up with us next week in Edinburgh that we would wait to make the trip to Loch Ness with them.  In the meantime, Bob checked out other coach trips and suggested the trip to the Isle of Skye. The coach trips we’ve taken since we arrived in Ireland are usually very reasonably priced and the drivers and/or guides are very knowledgeable and provide an interesting and enjoyable day. We walked to the bus stop in Inverness, about 15 minutes from our apartment. Once again we were lucky with predominately sunny skies. For eight pounds each we were provided with sack meals for lunch and supper. The twelve hour tour took us from Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, across the northern section of Scotland through glens and over mountains to the Isle of Skye. The heather I’ve read so much about in Scottish novels was particularly pretty.

And then there’s the ubiquitous sheep… The guide explained that it is imperative that sheep are sheared as the wool becomes very heavy. And if the sheep aren’t sheared they’ll die because they can no longer get up.

But because the sheep were absolutely everywhere we looked, we wondered how the farmer ever rounds up his flock.

One of my favorite stops was Kilt Rock named because of its likeness to a kilt and features a waterfall of more than 180 feet.

Standing also at the site was a bagpiper.  The music seemed so appropriate in this setting. We also passed a school ferry on the Isle of Skye.  Imagine what it must be like to travel for several hours via ferry to school. Some students, we were told, stay the week in order to not have to endure daily treks.  I’m sure it saves a great deal of money as well. From Skye we could see the Outer Hebrides. One of these islands is Harris Island which is where Harris Tweed originates. We passed brochs (prehistoric Scottish hollowed wall structures) and medieval forts and castles. We learned about the bloody battles of the clans. We even traveled down a single track road to the Faerie Glen, but because the faeries shy away from the sun they stayed hidden from us. We visited Portree a busy fishing port with multi-colored houses.

Everywhere we turned there was a loch or mountain view more beautiful than the last.

When we arrived back in Inverness we stopped at a local bar on the way home for a beer and some Scottish music.

The next day it was time to leave northern Scotland and head down to Edinburgh.   It would be less than a four hour journey and we looked forward to seeing more of the Scottish countryside.

While we only spent a few days in Northern Ireland we learned a lot and found it very emotional.  Somehow I had thought the conflict between Northern Ireland, Ireland and British Rule had ended. Boy, was I wrong!

Although the name of the city Londonderry/Derry  is still controversial, we never once heard anyone call it anything but Derry.  We would only have two nights and one day there.  I had read that Derry is the only completely walled city in Ireland. It was built in the very early 1600’s (although earliest historical references to Derry date back as far as the sixth century) and the top of the wall is a walkway that provides amazing views of the city.

Walking the wall of Derry

View of Derry from the top of the wall

In its entirety it’s about a mile and half around. Our hotel was just inside one of the four original gates to the city that still exist.  The clerk at the hotel had told us to walk the walls counterclockwise so we’d be going downhill far more than uphill. Along the wall there are historical markers explaining the city’s history.   We found it interesting that one time the wall was protecting the Protestants (on the inside) from the Jacobites (those who supported James II of England who was a Catholic). Then later the wall served to protect the Catholics (on the inside) from the Protestants (when Henry VIII wanted to abolish everything Catholic). Toward the end of the walk along the wall we came to the murals.

We had learned during our time in Dublin and in Galway that in December of 1918 the Irish republican party Sinn Fein had won a huge victory in the election and formed their own government declaring independence from Great Britain. Violence and war ensued until July 1921 when a truce was reached that resulted in 26 counties of southern Ireland becoming a free Irish independent state and six counties in northeastern Ireland remaining part of the dominion thus creating Northern Ireland.  But even after the truce was reached, violence continued between the loyalists (usually Protestants) and the republicans (usually Catholics). For most of the twentieth century Catholics were discriminated against throughout Northern Ireland. Bob and I remembered how the violence of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s was covered in the US news. That period is referred to by the Irish as “The Troubles.”  The Catholic working class neighborhood in Derry, just outside the wall, is called Bogside. Much of this has since been torn down.  The  Protestant working class neighborhood just across the River Foyle was called Waterside.

The first sign we came to was perhaps the most powerful. The murals that follow had an emotional impact that is hard to describe.  They’re beautiful and very moving.  They speak for themselves.

We left Derry feeling changed by the experience.  The next day we took the train to Belfast.

We were looking forward to the train trip from Derry to Belfast as Michael Palin has described the first part of the trip from Derry to Coleraine as one of the most beautiful train trips in the world.  I don’t know if it was because it was a dreary day or because we’ve seen so much gorgeous scenery in Ireland and the UK but it didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary to us. In both Derry and Belfast we’ve stayed in hotels near the city center.  It makes the sights accessible to us but we’ve found that living out of our suitcases and packing up every couple of days is not something either of us relish.

When we arrive in a big city we usually select a Hop On Hop Off bus tour.  While we prefer the ones that have live tour guides instead of audio ones we find that in either case the tour gives us a short overview of the city, provides us with a bit of city history and lore and helps us identify which sights we want to visit close up.

Getting off the tour bus we almost immediately came upon the Gay Pride Parade.

I can’t help but wonder if perhaps all the sectarian conflict doesn’t help people become more tolerant of other differences!

The contrast between Derry and Belfast is amazing.  In Derry I had felt that even though there were signs saying “One Ireland” or “The Fight Must Go On”

that what we were living was more philosophical than alive.  This changed when we arrived in Belfast. While we both love the city the underlying tension that we felt was immediate.

We had read about Black Taxis and that was at the top of our Must Do List.  Black Taxis tours are individual tours with drivers who all have personal connections to The Troubles but try to provide an unbiased viewpoint of the conflict. Joe, our driver, was wonderful.  He drove us through both the Catholic and the Protestant neighborhoods where he would stop periodically, climb in the back seat with us and explain what had happened at that particular site.  Perhaps most moving is the wall that divides the Catholic and the Protestant neighborhoods. Joe explained that although the violence has pretty much ended the wall provides safety for both sides.And rather than separate the two sides it allows them to live together. There’s graffiti along much of the wall and we could see how the wall had been heightened several times.  Joe said it was because each time it was extended, people could still find a way to throw things over the top. In one place we saw how screening had been added to the back of houses that bordered the wall to add further protection. He went on to explain while driving through the Protestant neighborhood that if he weren’t driving the taxi he wouldn’t feel safe being there.  He told us he lives in an integrated neighborhood and that has made all the difference for his kids.  In the city he added they can go to pubs with their friends, Catholic and Protestant alike.  He explained that the integrated schools have made a huge difference.  And that he was surprised when his kids told him that their Protestant classmates like rugby, which is traditionally a Catholic game while futbol (soccer) is traditionally a Protestant game. Putting kids together seems to be the best way of ending prejudice of any kind.  Where to build the schools was a major decision since Catholic parents didn’t want their kids to go to school in the Protestant neighborhood and vice versa so the schools were placed in integrated neighborhoods.  I’m not sure this was ever a consideration in the US when in 1955 separate but equal was determined to be unconstitutional.  There were murals with a loyalist (mostly Protestant) slant to them. The Ulster Defence Association (UFFDA) was one in particular. The UFFDA was a loyalist vigilante group whose goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas.  They were responsible for 400 deaths, mostly Catholics killed at random in retaliation for IRA attacks.   Some signs and murals reflected the nationalist (mostly Catholic) point of view.

(We learned that the H&W ship building company, which built the Titantic, wouldn’t hire Catholic workers). There was also a huge mural of Bobby Sands who died in prison after a 66 day hunger strike when he was 27.

When he died widespread protests occurred around the world.  There are murals of hope and peace as well as murals that represent conflicts from around the world.

We went past the Europa Hotel, a hotel where journalists and dignitaries stay, which has the reputation of being the most bombed hotel in Europe having been bombed nearly 30 times during The Troubles. The nationalists said that while it was never their intention to destroy the hotel, it showed the government they could if they wanted to. Before our tour with Joe we had no idea that the tension was still so great.  As our tour drew to a close Joe told us about a march that was going to occur the next day. The nationalists had petitioned to march to the courthouse protesting the continued internment of political prisoners without charges.  For whatever reason the request had been denied and the group had been told to terminate the march several blocks short of the destination.  (Yet just a few weeks earlier, on July 12, the Orangemen had been allowed to hold their annual march to City Hall.) So the next morning Bob and I trekked down the street just a few blocks from our hotel.  When we arrived in late morning we saw a few police cars.  These were no ordinary police cars; these were armored Land Rovers. Over the next hour and a half more and more of these vehicles continued to appear, many of the police attired in riot gear.

Finally we could hear the marchers approaching and see a bit of the flags and signs.  All ended peacefully a short while later. It’s still unclear to us why the marchers were denied their request to march all the way to city center.

After our taxi ride we decided to also tour the Crumlin Road Jail. This is the jail that was in use from 1846 to 1996.

During its 150 year history children, women (among them suffragettes) and many political prisoners were held here. There were a few cells with artwork the prisoners had created. Prisoners from the two sides were held in separate wings of the prison. I continue to wonder if the guards wouldn’t find it difficult not to show personal bias toward one side or the other.  We saw the tunnel that led directly from the jail to the courthouse. It is in this jail that 1981 Hunger Strike occurred and became a showdown between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the prisoners.  Bobby Sands was an elected member of Parliament and when he died after day 66, more than 100000 people lined his funeral route.

We decided before leaving Belfast we wanted to tour the new Titanic Museum. The museum is eight stories high and visitors follow a trail of the design, building and launching of the great ship as well as its legacy.

Although we had only had six days in Northern Ireland what an extraordinary six days they had been.  We both love Northern Ireland and hope to return one day. And we left with lots to sort out in our thinking!

We had reservations on the Stena Ferry for the two hour crossing of the Irish Sea to Cairnryan, Scotland and once again lucked out with the weather.  It was another nice day and the sea was calm. Upon arriving in Scotland we boarded a coach for Ayr. This we had read was a Scottish west coast resort city.

We have found Uber to be a reliable transport for us in many places we’ve traveled. Because we didn’t know what London traffic was going to be like on a Friday morning, we decided to use Uber to take us from our London Belsize apartment to the Euston Station.  It always amazes me when it seems that Uber arrives almost before I finish putting in the details. Even with the rush hour traffic (do they call it that in London?) it only took us about 10 minutes to arrive at our destination.  Euston Station is huge!

Bob at Euston Station London

It has an enormous departure board and we had almost two hours to kill before we left (Yep, I allowed way too much time once again!) so off we went in search of coffee.  Because of the number of people who use public transport and limited space, European airports and train stations don’t announce departure platforms until it’s really close to boarding time.  We had opted for a rail/sail option to go from London to Dublin.  We thought this would allow us to see more of the English countryside as well as much of Wales which it did and we were lucky to be sitting with Brits who pointed out interesting sights along the way.
The Welsh language is difficult to for non-Welsh to pronunce but the greatest challenge of all is:  Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the longest city name in the world.  The locals shorten it to Llanfairpwll which is pronounced “vire puth.” We were heading for Holyhead, Wales, four hours away and from there we would sail on the Irish Ferries for another three and a quarter hours arriving in Dublin in late afternoon.

Sign in Welsh and English

The train pulled into the station across from the ferry dock where our bags were checked in without charge! The boat was huge and we were lucky to have a sunny day for a smooth crossing.

Leave Holyhead on the Irish Ferry, Ulysses

Arriving in Dublin

We were really surprised at how small Dublin seemed to us.  We stayed in a hotel given that like London we were only in the city for a few days and from all that I read I couldn’t figure out a safe, central and affordable apartment. The hotel turned out to be perfect. We did our usual Hop On Hop Off bus to get our bearings.

We find the little tidbits shared by the tour guides to be fascinating.  In London we had been told that when prisoners were taken to the gallows to be hanged, the wagon would often stop and offer prisoners a last drink.  This drink was said to be the source of the saying, “One for the road.”  Likewise, if they chose not to have the drink, they stayed on the wagon, thus the saying, “Staying on the wagon” for a non-drinker.  Unfortunately I learned when researching these sayings that these stories have their origin on the internet.  In Dublin the tour guide told us that the veterans, in 15th and 16th centuries, had very small pensions so many of them had to beg and they found when they put their soldiers’ caps out people were more inclined to donate.  This is the supposed origin of “cap in hand.” Whether it is true or not, it makes for a good story.

There are several tour companies; our hotel had recommended the yellow line, CityScape. Big mistake.  It was great when we used it for the overview of the city. Harry was a delightful driver/tour guide. But the next day when we used it for general transport (the tickets are good for a continuous 24 hours) we found that this company’s buses were few and far between and after waiting for more than half an hour when one of their buses did appear, with few people on it, it flew right by us! We asked questions, we walked, asked more questions, walked some more and finally took a cab to Trinity College!

Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I.That’s eighty years before Harvard and a hundred years before William and Mary. It is the oldest college in Ireland and one of the eight ancient universities in the UK and Ireland.  I was immediately struck by the students providing information and offering tours to visitors.  They were dressed in robes, the way I pictured students from a time long-past. A big attraction to Trinity College is The Book of Kells which is an early manuscript of the four gospels.  It dates from somewhere around 800.  The calligraphy is beautiful. According to Wikipedia it is regarded as Ireland’s finest national treasure.  Because we are not religious some of its awe was lost on us.  We did however love the library itself.  The books are organized according to size and the shelves extend from the floor to the top of the very high walls.  It is breathtaking!

Trinity College Library

Books organized from lightest on top to heaviest on bottom

Trinity College Campus

Bookshelves from ceiling to floor

Often the most spontaneous choices we make turn out to be among our best. As we walked through Dublin we saw a small theatre advertising the musical Once. It received many Tony awards and looked really fun so we checked to see if there were any matinee tickets available (given that they are usually significantly cheaper) and as luck would have it there were for that very afternoon.  The Olympia Theatre dates from 1879 and is spectacularly beautiful. The setting for the play was very simple focusing on a bar in center stage. Interestingly, this served as a actual bar for the audience both before the play and during intermission. The play was wonderful!

Olympia Theatre Dublin

There were two churches we wanted to visit in Dublin. The first was St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was outside the walls of Dublin when it was built in the late 1100’s.  It was in this cathedral that we saw the organ that Handel played and also part of the original manuscript of his Messiah. The Cathedral’s most famous Dean was Jonathan Swift.  (I only knew him as a satirist, not as a church dean.) We were also surprised to find that St. Patrick’s was an Anglican (Episcopal)  Cathedral having changed from Roman Catholic after the Reformation.  I had assumed it was still a Roman Catholic Cathedral.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Handel’s  Manuscript of the “Hallelujah Chorus”

The second was Christ Church Cathedral  which was inside Dublin’s city walls in the early 1000’s. Like St. Patrick’s it was built as a Roman Catholic Church and then changed during the reformation to an Anglican Church. The combined choirs of St. Patrick’s and Christ Church first performed Handel’s Messiah in April  1742 in the Music Hall of the Fishamble Street Hall in Dublin. Of particular interest were the crypts of Christ Church. There we saw a mummified cat and rat that were found in the organ’s pipes in the middle 1800’s.  They are affectionately referred to as Tom and Jerry.

Christchurch Cathedral

Tom and Jerry

Both churches have obviously had a lot of restoration in the past thousand years. And surprisingly alcohol has helped preserve their past. The Christ Church renewal was largely funded by George and Henry Roe, from Roe Distillery, between 1862 and 1882.  They donated more than 250,000 pounds which would equate to more than 2.5 million dollars in today’s money.  Likewise, the funding of St. Patrick’s restoration was dependent on Benjamin Guinness, who contributed approximately 150,000 pounds in the 1860’s to its restoration.

Benjamin Guinness statue outside St Patrick’s Cathedral

Jane doing her part to support church restoration

One of my favorite parts of Ireland is the music.  We had gone to the Brazen Head on our first night because of its reputation as a bar locals frequent with great music.  It was definitely popular with the locals but even with all its nooks and crannies we found it difficult to find a table.  When we finally found a wee table we were not familiar with the Irish custom of people, generally young men, who walk up and set their beers on your table without acknowledging the presence of anyone, while they stand nearby.  A waiter took pity on us and asked us if we’d like to move to a different room where he had found a table for us.  After ordering dinner we noticed a couple wandering aimlessly just as we had and asked if they wanted to join us.  They were a lovely couple on holiday from Norway. And while the traditional music never did commence we enjoyed our conversation with our table mates. On a different night we found the Temple Bar at the Parliament Hotel that had great food at reasonable prices with traditional music and Irish dancers. 

What fun!  On our final night we found yet another bar and when they began singing “Cockles and Mussels”, we decided we should go seek out the statue of Molly Malone. The Molly Malone, from the ballad, “In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on Molly Malone…” Again she’s more legend than truth but that too is part of the culture!

We were surprised at how many more Americans we have met in Ireland and the UK than we have elsewhere.  Maybe because it’s summer?  Maybe because the Irish and Brits speak English?  I’m not sure. We even encountered a couple from our home of Big Rapids Michigan, because on this morning I had chosen to wear a sweatshirt with the name of our local university on it and they immediately commented on it.  Small world! Repeatedly we have been told that people like our American accents. One afternoon as we were returning to our hotel, we realized that there was an elderly man standing in front of the hotel quietly asking over and over, “Would someone walk me to the corner?”  Bob offered and the man told him that the sun was so bright (not sure that’s often a problem in Ireland) that with his very limited vision he couldn’t see.  While guiding the gentleman to the corner he recognized Bob’s accent as North American.  He was thrilled to be able to share with Bob his knowledge of US geography. We continue to meet interesting people serendipitously!

Every city has some interesting signs and we definitely found some here that made us smile:

Others  are more thought provoking and speak of the history:

Remembering those who were executed for fighting for Ireland’s independence just 100 years ago.

Some things are culturally different:  When Bob got his haircut he was asked if he wanted coffee, tea, beer or whiskey.  

Sometimes we just had to look twice:

Doorman at a local department store

A live statue including a real dog

As usual the days flew by and now we’re headed to see more of Ireland outside their beautiful capital city.

We left Alverstoke Village early Sunday morning.  Because we had our luggage we chose to call a taxi to take us to the ferry instead of doing the half mile walk followed by a bus ride. We arrived at the dock just in time to catch the ferry across the harbour to Portsmouth where we had more than an hour wait for our National Express Bus.  (Because I am paranoid about missing a connection, I inevitably allow way too much time when we need to catch a train or bus! Bob is patient and although he may roll his eyes occasionally he never complains!)  And we truly felt like locals when while waiting for our coach we met a friend we had recently made in Gosport! Interestingly along the way, the young woman (maybe early 20’s??) sitting in front of us began humming softly. Then it dawned on us, she was humming The Star Spangled Banner.  She and her friend were either speaking German or a Scandinavian language but it definitely wasn’t English. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere where someone just spontaneously started humming or singing the national anthem.

We arrived at Victoria Station two hours after we left Portsmouth and grabbed a taxi to our Airbnb in Belsize Park.  Our choices of places to stay vary according to location.  For instance, when we are staying in a large city for a shorter period of time and where prices tend to be horrendous, we know a smaller residence will be just fine. We also know that proximity to bus lines and a lively neighborhood are important because during short stays we tend to do a lot more sightseeing and eat out more than we would usually. Belsize Park is an upscale neighborhood with lots of restaurants, shops, and a grocery.

Belsize Park

Plus it was just steps from the busline to the center of London.  While buses are significantly slower than the underground we like using them as we get  a better feel for where we are in the city and also see things along the way.  Our London stay would be just 5 nights and so our one room apartment with small kitchen with the prerequisite stove, refrig and sink, newly redone bath,  and a very large, much more comfortable than usual, pull out sofa was perfect. And we paid significantly less than we would have for a hotel.

We had made a list of things we wanted to see and do while in London. Our first challenge was to get downtown.  We confidently hopped on the bus only to learn that they don’t take cash so we got back off and located the neighborhood quick stop where we could buy daily tickets.  (It’s not possible to buy more than one daily ticket at a time and the weekly pass would be more expensive so each morning we just stopped and purchased our daily bus ticket.)

As history buffs one of the sights we both wanted to see was The Churchill War Rooms.There was quite a line to get in but the couple behind us was from New Jersey and conversing with them made the time quickly pass. The Churchill War Rooms are just as they were left the day the war ended.   These rooms were in the basement of The New Public Office Building and first used a week before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. They were used 24 hours a day and the lights in the Map Room were never turned off until August 1945. There were bedrooms for many of the leaders (including one for Mrs. Churchill). Small pins marked key locations of troops on wall map in the Map Room. There was a private room with a phone to the President Roosevelt.   What an ordeal it must have been to live in such cramped small spaces with no windows and no fresh air.

Schedule

Churchill’s bedroom

Statistics

Map Room

Another historical place we wanted to visit was The British Library. There’s no charge for admission and it has to be one of London’s best keep secrets because there was no line to get in!  The library itself is beautiful.  And while there were many exhibitions going on it was the Treasures Room we had come to see. In the Treasures Room they have one of the original Gutenberg Bibles from 1455. There are also two of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. (If you’ve followed my blog you’ll remember we saw another of the original Magna Cartas in Salisbury when we traveled to Stonehenge.) On display was also Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook as well as original texts of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. There was Handel’s handwritten manuscript of The Messiah and also handwritten lyrics by the Beatles. (“A Hard Day’s Night” was written by John Lennon on the back of a birthday card to his son, Julian.  And the card is on display!) So many treasures in one place!  Not surprisingly pictures were not allowed.  But the pictures will remain in our minds forever!

Newton outside British Library

Lobby of British Library

One of the items on the top of our list was play tickets. Lots of choices so we were undecided what we should do.  We definitely thought we wanted to see a musical.  Les Mis? Kinky Boots?

Theatre District

I asked the clerk for his suggestion, and without missing a beat he said, “KInky Boots.”  He said it was by far his favorite and the one to see. So we got tickets for the Wednesday matinee.  Kinky Boots far exceeded our expectations.  When I read the plot before the play began, I remember thinking, “Really?  A play about a shoe factory?”  But it was by far one of the funniest, most wonderful productions either of us has ever seen.  The music was out of this world! And the message…powerful!

When we’ve visited other large cities we’ve often bought tickets for the Hop On Hop Off Bus.  We did this here as well. (We actually purchased them online before we arrived in London in order to save a few pounds.) It allows us to see a lot of sights that we wouldn’t make special trips to and also gives us lots of interesting historical tidbits. (For instance, Regent Street is owned by The Crown Estate. And you can tell that it is owned by the crown by looking at the finials atop the lamp posts in the area.  Another tidbit: Queen Victoria disliked an arch that was to be the entrance to Buckingham Palace so she had her carriage built so it was too wide to pass through it.  The Marble Arch was moved to Hyde Park where she didn’t have to look at it!)

Finials atop lamp post indicating Crown Estate

The Marble Arch in Hyde Park

This Hop On Hop Off came with a free boat trip on the Thames.  The weather we had in London was superb!  It was warm and sunny and perfect weather to take the cruise. We got on at the dock by the Tower Bridge and got off at Westminster Bridge.  The guide pointed out a row of bronze lions that are attached to the walls beside the Thames. Legend has it: “When the lions drink London will sink;  when it’s up to their manes we’ll go down the drains.”  No worries on the day we were there!

The London Eye

Tower Bridge

Traitors’ entry to Tower of London

Lions on side walls of Thames

After the Great Fire of London Christopher Wren was charged with rebuilding much of the city in the late 1600s. Among his greatest achievements was St. Paul’s Cathedral, at least the fourth church to have been built on this site. (There’s that extraordinary European history again!) Because of that, we wanted to see it.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

It is lovely, but I have to admit that all cathedrals are beginning to look a bit alike by now. And the admission charges are pretty steep.  Concessions (the European term for discounts for students, seniors and sometimes unemployed…yep, the unemployed often get discounts for cultural events. How cool is that?) But anyway the Concessions price was 14 pounds.  That’s the equivalent of about $21 a person! The pound has decreased in favor of the dollar after the recent Brexit, but it’s sill  pretty pricey. (But as Bob has pointed out the upkeep must be really expensive as well.)

Like every other European city we’ve visited we had to go to at least one market.  Each day on our way into and out of London our city bus passed through Camden Market.  We decided on our last day it was a must see for us.  Again it was a warm day and the market was crowded. Beer is a favorite beverage of mine (as you may have already concluded from previous postings) but I was particularly surprised as I perused the beer menu on the wall to see Founders listed.  We may be a long way from Grand Rapids but their local beer had already found its way here!

Camden Market

Founders Beer

One last place we had to visit before leaving London was Abbey Road.  I think the cover of that Beatles Album is permanently etched in the minds of all who were teenagers in the late 1960s.  In 2010 the crossing was given Grade II status for its cultural and historical importance. They have to repaint the crosswalk every three months because all the people crossing (us included) wear the paint away. It’s not possible to visit the Abbey Studios but there’s a nifty gift shop near the crossing that has a lot of Beatles (and Pink Floyd) memorabilia.

Abbey Studios

Abbey Studios

Crossing Abbey Road

People told us Brits, particularly Londoners, would be a lot less friendly. That’s certainly not what we’ve found in our stay in this wonderful city! It’s been a hectic few days in London but we’ve seen a lot and we’re ready to move on. Time to pack up bags and travel across land and sea tomorrow as we head for Dublin.

After 90 days on the continent it was time, by law, to say good bye to most of Europe for 90 days but luckily neither the United Kingdom nor Ireland participate in that part of Schengen. On June 3 we flew from Lanzarote in the Canaries to London.

Spain on our way from the Canaries to England

(Just to clarify terms here:  the United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  That is different from Great Britain, which is just the island and is made up of Wales, England and Scotland.) We chose an Airbnb in the tiny village of Alverstoke, next to Gosport, which has been a spectacular base for us. It’s a great location, a few steps one direction to the post office and a few steps the other to a large convenience grocery and a pub across the street.

The blue door is the entrance to our cottage, conveniently located between the post office and a large convenience grocery.

In addition to the proximity to public transportation another reason we like our current location is that we’re only a ten minute walk to the sea.  The weather hasn’t been great summer weather, but it’s been decent. (And the resulting flowers and bushes are amazing!) We’ve had rain but never a day (yet!) where it’s rained all day.

Even the rain comes with its own gifts!

Spectacular rhododendron

To get to the ocean it’s a pleasant stroll through a residential neighborhood and we find it enjoyable to sit on a bench and read or sit at a table with a brew and people watch. There’s lots to see in the area. We had to visit the seaside city of Brighton to see where our son, Stephen, worked for a few months when he was a student at the University of Michigan. We also visited the D Day Museum in Portsmouth.

Wherever we travel in Europe the history continues to astound us. Taking a coach is a slow way to travel but it has worked well for us because it has allowed us to see the countryside which is truly lovely. And unlike train travel which we have used as well, the coach stops in the downtown areas so we get to see the small towns. Winchester had been suggested to us as a particularly pretty city off we headed to see for ourselves. We first walked up High Street stopping at many of the booths along the way where locals sell their wares.

We stopped and chatted with  folks sharing information about the Remain Campaign. And bookstores are always a weakness for the two of us. But I wasn’t expecting to find a whole display of books explaining both sides of the Brexit debate. (Too bad the oral arguments weren’t that clear!)

Winchester Castle was our destination at the top of the street.  The Great Hall is all that remains of the castle.  It was originally built in 1067 for William the Conqueror but later replaced in 1222 and 1235 which is what exists today. This is the hall where Sir Walter Raleigh was put on trial. But most significantly, The Round Table, that legendary table of King Arthur and the Knights is housed here, although it has been determined that it was in actuality built much later probably in 1290.  This is the Round Table on which Sir Thomas Malory based Le Morte  d’Arthur.  It is absolutely huge measuring more than 9 feet in diameter and weighing more than 2 tons!  During the reign of Henry VIII the tutor rose was painted in the middle of the table.  The stained glass windows depict the knights of the Round Table and are spectacular!

Winchester Cathedral was our next destination (and we both had the pop song from the 60’s humming through our heads for several days)!  This Cathedral is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe. But my primary reason for wanting to see it was because this is where Jane Austin is buried.  Her funeral, the literature said, was attended by four people and they were told the funeral had to be over by 10 am so as not to interfere with the regularly scheduled service!  She was only 41! We did stay for the Evensong service and it was mind boggling to think that the music of J. S. Bach (1685-1750) that we were listening to was half a millennium newer than the cathedral itself that was built in 1069.

Bath is located on the river Avon. “Ah,” I thought, “like Stratford on Avon” but then it was pointed out to us that there are about 7 rivers in England named Avon and that the word avon actually means river.Visiting Bath put time in perspective. The Roman Baths there date from 50 or 60 AD and a bathing complex was built over the next 300 years. In the museum we saw the Curse Tablets that were scratched in metal and written to Minerva.  These tablets were, as the name suggests, curses people wrote about injustices that had been done to them.  The writer named the name of the person who had committed the wrong, as well as the injustice they had perpetrated.  I found it particularly interesting that if a person didn’t know who had wronged them, or was unsure, they could create a list of suspects!   There is a suggestion that Bath may have been the site where King Arthur (back in about 500 AD) defeated the Anglo-Saxons.  This is something I can not begin to comprehend!  When I think of the Anglo-Saxons I think of Beowulf and English literature…not a location I can actually visit.

Bath is a lovely city and everything speaks to its history.   We ate breakfast at a Sally Lunn’s which dates to the early 1600’s.

We found a pub where supposedly Charles Dickens wrote, The Pickwick Papers. But in addition to all that it’s just a generally pretty city!

Then there is Stonehenge! Without a car it took some figuring out how to get there. But in the end it wasn’t too complicated.  We got on the bus, took the ferry and then got a train from Portsmouth to Salisbury.  From there we had made reservations on the Stonehenge tour bus to make the last half hour drive.  Because we were visiting in the summer, the website strongly suggested that we get tickets in advance for a specific time to enter. By calculating how long the trip would take us in total we figured noon would be a good entry time. And it turned out to be perfect! We were dropped at the Visitor Center from where we got a shuttle to the actual site. Even with all the pictures I had seen, the first glimpse took my breath away. It’s definitely one of the world’s greatest antiquities dating from 3000 – 2000 BC. Because of millions of tourists who visit the site each year, the stones are fenced off so you can’t actually touch them. This also protects any archaeological treasures that may still remain beneath the stones. And it’s been done in such a way that it doesn’t limit the visitors view. While its origins are not exactly known, it has been discounted that Stonehenge was a Druid construct, dating much earlier than that. The best scientific thought of today is that it was created as an ancient people’s memorial, part burial site and part worship site. Since we’ve been in England a research document has been published saying that the stones were moved from Wales. The stones were cut and the literature points out that tongue and groove techniques were used in their construction.  The whole idea is difficult to comprehend, but to think that people moved these colossal stones to a distant location is overwhelming.  After leaving Stonehenge we stopped in Salisbury for lunch, (during which time it began to pour!) and then visited the  13th century Chapter House of the Salisbury Cathedral in order to view one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. It was written in Medieval Latin so we’ll just have to take historians’ word about what it says!

Our travel continues to be motivated not by traveling to see interesting sites but traveling to be interested in whatever we see. That being said, this has been a fascinating time to live in England.  We had read a lot about Brexit, the referendum the Prime Minister had proposed to let the citizens decide whether to stay in or leave the European Union (EU). But even though there is a lot wrong with the EU we figured that the economic stability and benefits that it provides would be too great for the majority of UK residents to vote to leave.  But as we listened to debates on television we began to understand how many people were extremely frustrated and how close it appeared the vote was going to be. Even so I think most were shocked to wake up on Friday morning to find that the UK would be leaving the EU.  And most horrifying is that there seems to be no plan for going forward.  Unlike the US where everything seems to operate in slow motion here things happen immediately.  A few short hours after the vote was final, David Cameron, the Prime Minister had stepped down.  Then a few hours after that the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, gave an amazing and articulate speech expressing her displeasure with the final vote since the Scots had voted to stay in and stating that while she will work to resolve the issue, there is a good chance that Scotland will have another referendum to decide whether Scotland should remain part of the UK.  Nothing happens until the UK officially asks to leave but from this American’s perspective it appears to be a long difficult future ahead for the country!

The second big event going on throughout Europe is the Euro 2016, the futbol championship that only occurs every four years.  England had made it to the final 16 teams and now only had to beat Iceland to move on to the quarter finals against France!  The excitement was contagious.  We tried to get into our neighborhood pub but it was impossible to even find standing room where we could see the television.  So we headed back to our cottage to watch there. As unbelievable as it was, Iceland upset England (just like their surprise tie with Portugal that got them to the final 16)!  For many it was like rubbing salt in a wound! And within hours the English coach had resigned!

For many it has not been a good week for England, but we’ve certainly learned a lot, and enjoyed our visit so far. And now we look forward to next week and London!

I don’t know what we expected but the Canary Islands were unlike any place we ever experienced! When we first landed in Lanzarote, the landscape reminded us of Iceland, barren with pockets of small communities sprinkled among the volcanic rock.

Beautiful in a very Spartan way! It is obviously much warmer in the Canaries and for the month we spent there we never saw more than a light mist and that occurred only twice. (I did read that the record rainfall in May is less than half an inch. And July has never recorded any at all.)

Lanzarote is the island in the Canaries farthest east, located about 75 miles off the coast of Africa and technically part of the African continent. But the Canaries are part of Spain and while Spanish is the native language of the locals, most people speak English because it is a major vacation destination of the residents of the UK.

We had arranged to rent a car but had planned to pick it up the day after we arrived because we thought after a long day of travel we would take a taxi to our abode and not try to figure out the directions to the house. (The airport is only about a 10 minute drive from the apartment.) So we were thrilled when Drew, the man we rented from, offered to pick us up at the airport.  It was particularly nice because he also explained the details of the apartment, pointed out local sites, gave us an extra key, and as an extra bonus provided us with cheese, lunch meat, bread and both beer and wine for a light dinner allowing us to just relax.

Our travels are never without glitches. The next morning when we left to pick up the car, we found that the key we had didn’t unlock the gate. So we called Drew who once more came to our rescue and not only provided us with the correct key but drove us to the airport to pick up our car! We thought we’d have another VW Golf which we really enjoyed but instead it turned out to be a Ford Focus. (Funny, few Americans in the Canaries, and we had an American car!)

The rental we had was perhaps the best we’ve had yet.

While the apartment was lovely, two bedrooms, newly redone and a beautiful view of the water, the best part was the community itself.  It is a small complex with only about 24 apartments, most of which are owned by UK residents (with a few others nationalities in the mix, namely Swiss and Bolivians) and so there is almost a sense of family among the residents and they were very gracious to include us in their circle.  Sandra and Kenny, a friendly outgoing couple from Scotland who now live in Lanzarote full time went out of their way to offer suggestions for our upcoming trip to Scotland, even asking their daughter to bring maps and brochures to help us plan.  On two different occasions folks celebrated their birthdays with food and conversation around the pool in the evening followed by the singing of Irish folk songs! And again, we were included in the festivities! We truly felt like we  had known these people forever! And there is no doubt this familial environment led to our warm feelings for the island itself. Everywhere we turned people were super friendly.

Lanzarote is a small island: 37 miles long and maybe 16  miles wide. But there is lots to see and do. The main roads are all very good, and there’s very little traffic making the island easy to tour. Even the “round abouts” are landscaped with gorgeous splashes of color. One “round about” even had a sculpture of camels! Caesar Manrique was a local resident/architect who is largely responsible for developing tourism on the island and it truly is a model for the world. His influence is based on his love for the island and his desire to share it with others while maintaining as little impact on the environment as possible.   His home is built on the site of the volcanic eruptions of the 18th century and volcanic bubbles below ground have been made into different rooms of the home. His artwork is ubiquitous throughout the island.

One of Manrique’s sculptures honors the Campesino (Farmer) whose job is beyond comprehension.  Because of the desert like climate the vines are planted in pits surrounded by low stone fences that protect the plants from the wind and allow for the maximum moisture to be retained (primarily from overnight dew). These stone fences are everywhere and it’s hard to imagine what a tedious tiresome process it must have been to build them all.

We drove to the Timanfaya National Park which is the home of the volcano that erupted in the early 1700s and changed much of the island. From the Visitors Center we took a bus that toured the edges of the volcano that erupted .  I swear the road was the same as the width of the bus! And how the driver made the hair pin curves is beyond me

We definitely didn’t want to sit in the first row, and Bob’s comment on departure, “I hope this isn’t the driver’s first day” sort of summed up our feelings  But the views were spectacular. When we arrived back at the visitors center, chicken was barbecuing on a rack over the top of a volcanic steam pot!  Talk about efficient use of energy!  In the late 1400s camels were brought from Africa and today there are still caravans that tourists can ride in the Timanfaya National Park. http://www.discoverlanzarote.com/timanfaya.asp (No, we didn’t do it, but we were thrilled to be able to catch a glimpse of a caravan!) On the way back from the volcano we passed a salt pan.  At one time in the 1940’s Lanzarote had more than 20 salinas on the island but today there are still three that produce salt.  Many local recipes including Canarian potatoes call for salt crusts.

We particularly like to visit local markets and while many of them begin to look the same selling similar jewelry and leather goods, we found a few really interesting items. Cactus burgers (which Cary and Claudio are both really fond of) are a big item with a long line! Aloe vera is one of the main products of the island. They even have a museum dedicated to it.  There is aloe cream, aloe lip balm, aloe bath crystals, aloe for burns, aloe drink for digestive issues. There doesn’t seem to be any ailment it doesn’t cure.  (We did find however, that the aloe cream made mosquito bites disappear almost instantaneously!) We also enjoyed the local venders who sell their products of jewelry made from volcano rock and olivine, a lovely green gemstone found in some of the volcanic rock. We also liked the homemade jams and jellies as well as wine. And of real interest to us was the huge bag of saffron that sold for two euros! The real stuff?  Who knows?  We also visited an art museum housed inside a castle!  Very unusual, very interesting.

Puerto del Carmen, the main tourist town where we lived has a spectacular beach  (one of many on the island) with plenty of restaurants.  Again, we found friendly folks everywhere we went. Our favorite restaurant, Kristian’s, http://kristians-restaurant.com/en/was especially so.  Cary and her friend  Claudio were visiting from Rome and they immediately connected with one of the waiters who was from Italy. Whenever folks hear our American accent they immediately ask where we’re from and the staff at this restaurant was no exception. When it was discovered that we were going to spend much of July in Galway, Ireland, a waiter from Galway was sent over and not only offered suggestions but provided us an email address in case we had questions when we got there!  Another waiter was from Glasgow, and noticing Bob’s Bears jacket was proud to tell us that he played American football in Glasgow. The restaurant is small, seats only about 40 people so not only are reservations a must but the chef is asked when you call for a reservation if he can take another table at that time. You can even call ahead for a vegetarian meal which is made special for the diner! In addition, the chef interacted with us asking how we liked the food and commenting on what the waiters were saying.  A man at a table close by was celebrating a birthday which called for Celtic music played by the bartender on her violin!  

It was a evening we shall long remember!

Usually when we leave the house, Bob and I have this routine:  “Do you have your wallet? The car keys? The apartment key?” (which was put in the door so we’d see it as we left). But one afternoon, for whatever reason, we didn’t do that. And lo and behold! Bob closed the door and then commented, “Now I’ve done it!” Yep, the door was locked and the key was inside. I had the combination to the key box on the outside of the door but as luck would have it, Drew had given me that key the night we moved in and it was still on the bookcase in the apartment…thus leaving the key box empty. Neighbor after neighbor offered suggestions. Perhaps the man who was doing work on the apartment would have a key. No, he wasn’t there.  Maybe if they tried a spatula on the door it would spring the lock. Nope we had secured both locks. How about climbing over the railing of the porch? No, we had locked that door too! Finally, we realized that the back window was open. So a ladder was found and Kenny (who is afraid of heights) climbed up the ladder to the second floor, a significant distance from the ground, and into the window!  Voila! Apartment unlocked! Talk about above and beyond!  We will be forever grateful!  And I’ve learned my lesson, when there’s a key box, ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU PUT A KEY THERE IMMEDIATELY!

Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences occurred on one of our last nights. Bob and I had gone to a favorite restaurant near the beach, sitting outside sharing all that we had enjoyed in our last month. A middle aged couple and their teenage son were seated at the next table and inquired where in the States we were from. We began chatting about our adventure and they seemed genuinely interested. But I was astonished when the woman got out a napkin, wrote down their address and told us that they would love to have us stay with them if we’d like!  Talk about friendly! We were amazed.

Because our 90 days in the EU were up, it was time to move on to non-Schengen areas, so we bid farewell to our lovely new friends, many of whom we hope to stay in touch with, perhaps even meet up with, and move on to our next adventure.  We leave with many happy memories and truly understand why Lanzarote is called the European Hawaii!

About 14 years ago we spent a couple of weeks in Spain with much of our family.  We visited Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville and the Costa del Sol.  While we loved it all, it was very different from the Basque Country in northern Spain where we are now.  In my mind this is the most beautiful part of the country.  We took three days to drive from southern Portugal to where we are now in Zarautz, Spain. We took an engineering feat of a highway from Santiago de Compostela here.  The highway was just completed last year the cost of which skyrocketed because of the typography of the area which makes for the most amazing scenery. The highway seems to hang over valleys running past windmills that sit atop the mountains. From there it turns down to the Cantabrian Sea only to reascend to the heights around the next curve. There are numerous tunnels just because there is no where else for the road to go.Basque country extends across northern Spain and southern France and many consider themselves Basque not Spanish or French. We didn’t realize before we came here that the Basques not only have their own culture but their own language as well.  During Franco’s time in power the Basque language was not taught so generally people growing up between 1939 and the late 1970s know little Basque. But in the 1980s it had a resurgence.  It’s a very difficult language with lots of tx’s and k’s and z’s. We have found little English spoken here but because the people are so very friendly and everyone speaks Spanish and my Spanish is improving with daily practice,  we have been able to get along reasonably well.

When we first arrived and met up with Daniel, our landlord for the month, he went above and beyond to introduce us to the area. Daniel is a surfer and explained to us the week before we arrived there were European surfing championships here.   After showing us around the apartment, he drove with us into town pointing out a major supermarket (very Meijer-like for you Michiganders!) and also took us to a nearby taberna introducing us to the local specialty, Txokoli (pronounced choc o lee). It’s a dry sparkling wine that is poured from quite a height in order to enhance the fizziness of the drink.It’s really difficult for us to get used to the late dining hour of the Spanish. 8:30 is just too late for us to eat but they do have amazing tapas, called pintxos in Basque, that are very tasty and served for lunch until about 6 pm and very reasonable as well.  A pintxo usually sells for between 1 euro and 1,65 (about $1.15 to $2)!

Pintxos

That combined with a beer or glass of wine means a delightful lunch for two can be had for less than $10. Like other places we’ve visited we feel fortunate to be here in the off season when the population is about 22,000 given that in the summer the population surges to about three times that. From our apartment we get a glimpse of the ocean. There’s a promenade that parallels the sea and provides a great place to stroll and stop for a pinxto or cerveza in the afternoon.

View from our bedroom

View from our balcony

Zarautz has been a great base for us as there are many nearby places for day trips. We have traveled to Basque France, specifically St. Jean de Luz,  another beautiful seaside community, which is about a half hour drive from here.

St Jean Beach

Playground on Beach

We did notice that the French we met spoke mostly French and not Basque. Bob got a much needed hair cut while we were there, in a tiny shop, where the barber spoke absolutely no English. Utilizing a lot of hand motions he managed to get his hair trimmed as well as his beard. We’re getting the knack of this haircut communication sans words! We were a bit taken aback by the amount of security at the French border. While we were not stopped, there were many guards eyeing the traffic as it passed through.  The car in front of us was stopped, but it had a Russian plate and we were thinking that perhaps they needed to show their visa. Returning to Spain we encountered no such security.

We were excited that the Italians had a long holiday weekend allowing Cary to visit us. She flew into Bilbao, about an hour west of us.  After picking her up at the airport we visited the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry. The architecture of the museum itself is as spectacular as the works it contains!

The town of Guernica is also really interesting. It’s more than 600 years old and founded at the intersection of two important roads where it is said that important discussions of the community were held underneath the Guernica Tree there.

The Guernica Tree

More recently, in 1937, with Franco’s permission, the Germans and Italians relentlessly bombed Guernica in support of Franco’s wanting to overthrow the Basques. According to Basque figures, more than 2500 people were killed.  Picasso was commissioned to create a huge mural depicting the resulting suffering and chaos, considered by many to be his greatest work.

This is a copy. The actual mural is housed at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

It is interesting that Picasso would not let the picture hang in Spain until they became a Republic (and since Picasso died before Franco, the painting wasn’t returned to Spain until  1981, after Picasso’s death.) In the Museum of Peace in Guernica,  we sat in a darkened room, a replication of a typical home of the time, listening to a  recording describing the experience the residents were living through…complete with sounds of bombs in the background. All that remained after the bombing was the school house that is still there and still used (as well as The Guernica Tree).  The floor of the museum is made from the debris of the devastation under glass! The experience haunted me for hours after.

The Peace Museum

Floor of museum made of the bombing debris

The School that survived

We also visited San Sebastian, which I believe is the prettiest city in the area.  The Basque have done a wonderful job of integrating the old with the new, and the setting of mountains combined with sandy beaches is always gorgeous!

Square in San Sebastian

Along the San Sebastian Beach

My favorite San Sebastian sculpture: Don Quixote & Sancho Panza

Our apartment is extraordinarily reasonable but it doesn’t have wifi and  I wasn’t quite sure how we would survive for a month without being connected, given that all we do on line.  Daniel had pointed out a coffee shop/bakery/bar just a few meters from our apartment.  We tried that for the first couple of days and were delighted when we met a delightful gentleman who asked where we were from in the US. (Many we have met, assume we are British because we speak English) but our new friend Juan had lived in Chicago so his English was exceptional and he was excited to talk about Chicago. The first thing he said to us was, “Welcome!” How very warm that made us feel! (A few days later we were eating pintxos in a local cafe and a woman asked if we were speaking French or English. When I responded English, she too said, “Welcome.” Made me think about all the non-Americans I have met in the US and I don’t know that I have EVER said, “Welcome!” I will definitely do so in the future.)  Juan offered us suggestions about what to see in the area.  A couple of days later when we were walking on the promenade along the beach we encountered Juan again who stopped to chat for a bit. We have since seen him back at the coffee shop and also on the street.  It is very pleasant to encounter a familiar face…particularly one who speaks English!

While at the coffee shop I began to research internet connections and found that I could rent a “pocket wifi” for a month and because I needed it for the month I could get a special price. This would allow us to watch movies and favorite American television shows (i.e. Jeopardy) as well as some American sports (Chicago Cubs and NHL playoff hockey) when they are afternoon games.  The pocket wifi came by courier from Barcelona and the pick up location was less than half a kilometer from our apartment. Such a deal.  I ordered it on a Friday and picked it up on Monday.  We absolutely love it.  It’s such a terrific idea; I’m ready to invest in the company.

We did a lot of planning before we left the United States last August. We do our banking electronically. We have few monthly bills but we generally pay everything online. We order all our prescriptions electronically and then they are delivered through the US postal system.  When we came to Europe last fall we were only out of the US for eleven weeks so we had enough drugs to bring with us and really encountered no problems.  However, that was soon to change.  Before we left DC in March Bob ordered two prescriptions and knowing that the drug company would not send them abroad we had them sent to our son, Stephen’s, house in Maryland.  When they arrived he put them in another mailer, did some research about the cheapest way to forward them on to us and put them in the mail to us in Portugal. As of today, seven weeks later, the drugs have not appeared.  And it appears because of international law that they’re not apt to appear here EVER.  (We are hopeful, however that they will eventually be returned to sender.) So then the question became: How do we get Bob’s needed medications?  He had  a few weeks supply on hand so that allowed us some lead time.  He emailed the Mayo Clinic and asked if they could send copies of his prescriptions to Cary in Rome which they immediately sent by Fed Ex and then last week when Cary arrived with the prescriptions, Bob went to the local pharmacist who filled them and told him that he shouldn’t have any problem refilling them in Spain. And hopefully, the same will be true in the UK.  Whew! What a relief! While our insurance won’t cover the cost of the prescriptions while we are abroad, we were amazed at how much cheaper they were here than they are in the States!  Problem solved!

Our time is running short here. We leave a week from today for the Canary Islands but in the meantime we still would like to go back to France for a day. (I can’t quite get used to the idea, “You wanna go to France tomorrow?”) And we’d also like to see Pamplona (No it’s not time for the running of the bulls!). No matter how much time we allow, it always seems like there’s more to do, more to see. Below are just some random pictures from this beautiful area.  Until next time…

Walkway in Santiago de Compostela

Hondaribbia

Karlos Arguinano Restaurant in Zarautz

Road from Getaria to Zumaia

Road from Getaria to Zarautz

Tunnel for right hand lane going west from Getaria to Zarautz

Building in Zumaia with Basque flag

We enjoyed the drive from Bilbao south and there was no doubt we were now in Spain.  Because we had reservations for our Airbnb in the Algarve the next night we took the direct route across Spain staying on the autopista most of the time. We spent the night in Salamanca, a city of nearly 150,000, and it turned out to be a great choice.  It is a city that was founded in the 1100’s by the Carthaginians and was the intellectual center of Spain in the 1500’s and 1600’s.  It is home to one of the oldest and finest universities in Europe. Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk to the historic center, the Plaza Mayor.

We were a bit skeptical about finding a place to eat as it was just 6:30, a bit early for dinner in Spain, but right on the square we came upon a small inviting restaurant, Cafe Novelty.  Talk about lucky.  The food was great, the service was wonderful and by pointing to pictures we were able to explain what we wanted.  I knew just enough Spanish, to ask for “Una cervesa, por favor.”  And also, “Una mas, por favor.”  It’s interesting that in Europe we find when you order a beer, you are asked if you want large or small but never the kind.  And as usual the local beer was great!  It turns out, we read later, that Cafe Novelty was founded in 1905 and is the oldest restaurant in Salamanca. From 1905-1964 it was known as the Cafe Nacional.  It has been a gathering place for writers, artists and politicians over the past 110 years including such people as Jimmy Carter and Francois Mitterand.

We reached Lagos, Portugal, late afternoon the next day. Driving here is as easy as it is in the States. Having Google maps on my phone is an added bonus. But we have found that when the local signage differs from what the phone says, it’s best to follow the signs.  We found our way into Lagos following narrow curvy roads that made us wonder if we were on the right track and while they got us to our destination, we found after we were here that there are much easier routes to the main roads!  We’ve learned!

We were met at our lodging by a local real estate person who quickly showed us around the apartment but unfortunately didn’t know many of the details…i.e. how do we access the mail?  How does the stove work?  What about the dishwasher?  But I texted the man we are renting from (who lives in Ireland) and he quickly filled us in on the details.  Our apartment is on the first floor which in Europe means the second floor.  We can access the apartment by either inside steps or an elevator from the parking garage on the main floor.  But it seems really odd to walk outside our sliding doors, on the second floor, and stand beside the pool.  Sidewalks and a footbridge take us from our apartment to the town which has a large marina and a main street that follows the harbor to the Atlantic. Along the harbor walk are shops that sell a variety of local items especially those made from cork.  Cork trees are an important resource of Portugal and since much of the world has moved to using synthetic corks in their wine bottles, Portugal has felt the impact! Purses, jewelry, even clothing made of cork is for sale throughout the area!  Our favorite part of the Algarve is the spectacular beauty.  The rugged cliffs jut out into the sea and with each turn the view is more beautiful than the last!

Like most other European cities we’ve visited Lagos has their Saturday morning market. We particularly enjoy the citrus fruit. Being from Michigan it’s hard to get used to the beautiful huge oranges and lemons that grow on the trees in and around the city. The area is truly a culinary delight particularly if you like seafood which we do. Grilled sardines are a Portuguese specialty. The sardines are much larger than what we’re used to in the US, about the size of perch. They are yummy! But we also found some unusual things in the market, like chocolate covered sardines (which I didn’t try).

We had no idea so many Brits take their holidays here. Nearly everyone speaks English and there are also many signs in English. I had understood before we came that Portuguese is similar to Spanish.  I don’t find that to be so.  To my ear it doesn’t sound like Spanish and understandably the Portuguese don’t want it assumed that they speak Spanish. So most of the time beyond the initial greeting of, “Hola,” we reverted to English. The only other Portuguese I know is, “Abrigado” thank you. Generally the people we have met are very friendly and understand that Americans (as well as the Brits to the best that I can surmise) generally speak only English!  Because of the presence of so many Brits there are a lot of British restaurants, particularly near the marina. I think we chose the right time to come to Lagos given that during the summer tourist season it is mobbed with people coming from all over the world to enjoy the beaches!

In places they remind us of the beaches of Lake Michigan with the white sand and blue water as far as we can see. Southern Portugal is a land of contrasts. Historic buildings, forts and churches are mingled on cobblestone streets with modern shops and restaurants.

Cars from Portugal, Spain, Netherlands and the UK are integrated with the occasional horse-drawn cart! Walking through the old city center we found an English used bookstore and met a delightful Brit, Christine Woodrupp, who was running it temporarily for her daughter.  We had a lovely conversation about the area and she gave us a lot of tips about what we should see. And in addition we each found books to add to our must reads! The old town is particularly interesting because while there are lots of tourists there are also lots of locals.  I chuckled as we saw a woman, who obviously was getting her hair frosted, running back into the hair salon after touring shops in the area with her hair wrapped in foil.  Local or tourist?  I’m not sure!  Many Brits, we found, come here on holiday and then decide to stay.  From what I hear about the weather in the UK it seems like a sound decision. (We’ll find out when we visit there in June, July and August!)

Lagos is about 3.5 hours by train from Lisbon so when Cary was able to visit from Rome for a few days we decided it was a must see.  We drove to Tunes about a half hour away, parked the car and got a direct train to Lisbon.  Round trip for senior citizens costs a little more than $20 and driving it with tolls and the cost of petro is a costly venture…not to mention we didn’t have the headache of trying to find a place to park.

After checking into our hotel we boarded a hop on hop off bus which turned out to be a good idea given that the clouds burst into a torrential rain for most of the afternoon. Even so, we found Lisbon to be a beautiful capital city.

There are Portuguese tiles everywhere. They’re called azulejos from the Arabic meaning polished stone.  The first came into being in the 15th century when Portugal was still under Moorish rule.  Since that time they have been in and out of style.  Many of Lisbon’s cultural elite, at the turn of the 20th century didn’t like them, feeling they “were for the poor people.”  But in the late 1900’s the tiles were revived and now you see them on very old historic buildings as well as decorating new buildings.

The rainy day in Lisbon was the exception. Bob read that the Algarve has 3000 hours of sun a year which averages 8 hours of sunshine a day and which makes exploring the area really pleasant.  We particularly enjoyed Sagres which is the most southwest point on the European continent.

We visited a fort there which is where Henry the Navigator supposedly had his navigation school. Inside the fort is a Wind Rose, approximately 200 feet across that dates from the 1500’s.  It was uncovered by accident in the early 1900’s and its original purpose is still unknown.  One theory is that it was some sort of a navigational tool; others believe it is a kind of sundial.  Prince Henry was an interesting guy! His name implies that he was an explorer, when in actuality, he basically navigated one trip to northern Africa, and then supervised the trips of others, the majority of which began in Lagos.  When one stands on the beach and gazes out at the Atlantic it is hard to imagine the amount of courage it must have taken to set sail…wondering if indeed they were going to sail off the edge.  There’s also a site inside the walled city of Lagos where Henry first brought slaves from Africa to be sold, after putting them on display, thus beginning the slave trade!  A favorite place for us is the boardwalk at Alvor just about 8 miles west of Lagos. There they have constructed more than 5 kilometers of boardwalk along the Atlantic coast.  In addition to the great walk, we found a fabulous restaurant, Restinga’s, that has great seafood, great service at reasonable prices! Their fish soup is scumptuous!

Fish soup

We were thrilled when a friend from high school posted on Facebook that he and his wife were going to be in Lagos while we were here. We met up for a drink at a cafe near the harbor and it seemed surreal to be catching up on 50 years since high school in a place thousands of miles from Michigan City, Indiana, where we grew up!

Tomorrow is our last day here and then we’ll head up the coast to Spain ending up in Zarautz, just west of San Sebastian.  While we are looking forward to the area and all it has to offer, I’ll miss Lagos.  I feel like after a month here we know the town, we’ve made friends as well as memories to last a lifetime!  Until next time…

Before saying goodbye to our DC family we made one last trip downtown wanting to fit in a couple of things we hadn’t done yet.  We wanted to go to the rooftop bar on the 11th floor of the W Hotel for a drink.  DC is an expensive city but this was one place it was definitely worth the splurge. I’ll never get used to how alive American history becomes as I look at the streets and buildings and realize all the people from history who have walked those streets. And as if a reminder to this point, as we left the W Hotel walking toward Lafayette Park, we passed former Senator Lugar from Indiana.  The White House is beautiful during the day, but to me it’s even more awe-inspiring at night. I could feel the pride of being an American swell up inside me as the White House came into view with all the lights focused on its grandeur, lights which seemed to block out everything else.  The right to free speech was never more evident than listening and watching as a demonstrator in front of the White House shouted the most disgusting obscenities while waving the American flag. We continued on and had a late supper at Ben’s Chili Bowl, a DC institution that’s been in existence since 1958, the year that President Eisenhower ordered federal troops to integrate the Little Rock Arkansas schools. This is the area of the riots of 1968 following Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination; where Stokley Carmichael asked for special permission for Ben’s to stay open to feed activists and firefighters. Ben’s remained through the devastating decline of the neighborhood that followed because it was the local gathering area for so many.  Ben’s Chili Bowl is like visiting a history book! We were there about 11 pm and the place was hopping with folks of all ages.

And the half-smoke was just as good as advertised!

January had flown by and it was time for us to head to Amelia Island, Florida right on the Georgia border.  It’s funny I never realized how much I like proximity to water. But as I look at our locations for February through June every one of them is right on the water. Amelia Island was the perfect choice for us. Fernandina Beach, on Amelia Island, is a small Victorian town with gorgeous historic homes dating from the Civil War and none of the hustle and sprawl we often associate with the state.

Our condo was located down a canopy road and a boardwalk from our condo led to the beach. The condo faced east so each morning the sunrise provided a blaze of color!

Eight flags have flown over Amelia Island including France, Spain (twice), Great Britain, The Patriots of Amelia Island, The Green Cross of Florida, the Confederate States and the United States. Most of the people we encountered were visitors but the area had a quaint small town feel to it. Our condo was right at the edge of the Atlantic and we spent our days walking the beaches, reading, playing trivia, trying new restaurants and just exploring the area. We enjoyed watching the manatees (especially mother with her baby) at Blue Spring State Park a couple of hours drive south of Amelia Island.  We also drove to Flagler Beach just south of St. Augustine hoping to see right whales (called that because whalers thought they were the right ones to catch!) but no luck.  Wherever we travel we are fascinated by the different birds we see and also find that visiting local zoos provide us with insights into local flora and fauna.

And compared to Michigan, temperatures were very pleasant, generally in the 60’s and low 70’s.

My least favorite thing about our full-time traveling, is figuring out the packing for the transitions between locations.  We left Amelia Island on a Wednesday and were flying out of DC the following Sunday…spending two nights in motels and another two nights with our son’s family in DC.  I have a pretty detailed process for where to put things as we move from one location to another, but I still need a plan for items we need before we arrive at our next long term destination. Instead of having a written inventory of the items we have stored with our kids, our son, Stephen, suggested I take pictures of the items!  I really like this idea given that our memories are not what they used to be and after months of wearing the same limited wardrobe we are really ready for some changes! But I still need to research an efficient way to deal with the transition stuff!

On our way north, we stopped in Columbia SC.  We’d never been there before and wanted to see the state house where infamously the Confederate flag was removed just last summer.  It really is a beautiful square! I associate South Carolina with the Civil War and was surprised to find so many monuments to Revolutionary War Heroes. The north south streets of the city are even named for officers who fought in the Revolutionary War.  We also found it interesting that there are six gold stars on the statehouse marking the spots that were hit by Sherman’s cannons. And of course, we had to search for them. There’s also a cement cannon base from the Spanish American War from which the cannon was removed during World War II to use for scrap iron.

In front of the capitol there is a statue of George Washington with his cane, the tip of which is broken off. A plaque explained that it was “brickbatted” by Yankee Soldiers. (A few days later we saw a similar statue of Washington inside the Washington Monument with the cane intact.)

But most impressive is the African American Monument with life size figures depicting events in American history: Emancipation, Share Cropping, Jim Crow, Brown v Board of Education, Lynchings, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman etc.  In front of the bronze relief mural is marble map showing the different slave routes from Africa to Charleston.

Most telling, however, is the fact that the monument was not dedicated until the 21st century. There are other statues throughout the square of heroes of the Confederacy, statues we did not feel compelled to visit.  I am amazed that US Highway 1 is still called The Jefferson Davis Highway at least from where we saw it here in Columbia and all the way to Alexandria Virginia.

From South Carolina we headed up to DC and while snow was threatened we lucked out that it didn’t amount to much.  We were to visit the Washington Monument Friday afternoon after which we were to spend a couple of days with Stephen and Sadie’s family in Rockville. It didn’t make much sense to drive past DC and then take the train back in, but because parking in a big city is always such a pain I wanted to find an alternative. It turns out there’s a fabulous app called Park Whiz which allowed me to find a parking garage literally next door to the restaurant, Le Pain Quotidien, where we were going to meet Stephen and Patrick for lunch.  You reserve a place online assuring that when you arrive, there will indeed be a place to park and the cost for the whole day was $17.  I was impressed!  We got there at 11:30, had a great lunch with the boys and then trekked down to the Washington Monument. In an attempt to eliminate long lines, the US National Park Service now allocates tickets online.  (You can also take your chances and get them at the office at the monuments but that was a risk we didn’t want to take in early March.) There is no charge for the tickets and it was really nice to just show up at the appointed time and be escorted into the elevator to the top.

Even though it was a cloudy day the views from all directions at the top were just as spectacular as I remembered them from my childhood except then my sister and I climbed to the top of the monument (all 897 steps) while our parents took the elevator.  On the way down the ranger did stop the elevator twice to point out interesting donated stones along the way. He also explained that there are not wires or masonry holding the monument together. It’s all gravity!  THAT I didn’t remember! After Stephen got off work, he picked up the car, then picked us up and we were on our way out to their home. My daughter-in-law had thoughtfully planned a special “early” birthday dinner for me and we had fun catching up with family for the weekend.

Although we only booked a one way ticket to Europe, we planned on flying in and out of London first because it’s cheaper and second because it’s shorter.  So Sunday night Stephen took us to Dulles and we boarded a 7:45 flight for London via Rejkavik.  Not only is Icelandair the cheapest flight but we like the fact that we can get out and stretch our legs after several hours.  To show you how long the flight is I was able to start Downton Abbey’s first season with episode 2 and was able to watch all of the first season before we landed in Reykavik.

Heathrow has been added to my list of airports to not fly through again.  It is incredibly big and you walk and walk and walk without really having any idea of where you are.  We needed to get our baggage and then go through customs.  It took us the better part of 2 hours. (The good news is we did exceed our step goal for the day!) It was a pleasant surprise also when we went through customs that there were two lines: one for folks with EU passports and one for non EU passports. The non EU line had no one in it and we whizzed through in just a few minutes! Then when we finally got out of the airport and found a taxi to take us to our nearby hotel, we found that they wouldn’t take plastic so it was another trek inside to find an ATM.

We only nap for a couple of hours when we cross the Atlantic going east. We find that takes the edge off our exhaustion so we can stay up until regular bedtime and then by morning we are pretty well set on local time.  Ibis is a great no frills hotel chain that we like.  It’s clean with good beds, and wifi and that’s all we need. Before we headed to bed we did decide how far we would drive the next day and made a hotel reservation in a town about halfway between Bilbao, Spain where we would pick up our rental car and Lagos, Portugal which will be our home until early April. I set both Bob’s and my phone alarms just in case one didn’t work.

Luckily I woke up about 5:45 am London time.  My own phone was dead thus the alarm didn’t go off  and while I had set the alarm on Bob’s phone to 5:30, I set it for 5:30 pm instead of am. But the gods were with us. (We had also learned from a couple we met in Iceland last fall that TMobile has free data and free texting in Europe so we had changed our phone carrier while we were in the States and are enjoying the family connections it allows us!)

We were able to get a cab from the lobby of our hotel and arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time.  I didn’t like Heathrow any better this time because there was no gate posted for our flight until it was time to board, but once seated we really did enjoy British Airways.  The staff was very helpful and surprisingly a light breakfast was provided and although we didn’t take advantage of it, there was free Heineken!  It was a quick smooth flight to Bilboa, Spain where we picked up our rental car. We felt like the arduous part was done.  We were in Spain, looking forward to the drive through parts of Spain where we had not been.  Next stop:  Salamanca!