A day in Brighton and then Porto

And today we were on the train to Brighton to meet up with Emma and Dominic. We walked to inspect the new house after dropping off our bags and saying hello to Oliver who was enthusiastic in his greeting.  The apartment is terrific -great location and all on one floor with the garden.  We made lots of great suggestions which were ignored as they should be! After that we went for a walk to the seafront for lunch and then back to their house.  And the BBQ for tea! So many BBQs in one week  - can’t believe we are in the UK.

and I have just realised that I didn’t take one photo! Oh well, next time.

and now we are in Porto! The flight was delayed but that was fine.  The apartment is very comfortable. very new and clean. It is just out of the centre in what I would call a more normal area.  It is not too touristy and you see the locals going about their business.

We have visited the local Pingo store which is a bit of an IGA mixed with Aldi. It has this little bakery at the front where you buy an espresso and a Portuguese tart for 1 euro! The tart was the most delicious thing I have eaten in a long time - to die for!  We are hooked on the tarts!  

the is the view from the front window - it is not that wonky but you get the idea.

the lovely front room.

further up the street?

you can imagine that we were wondering what sort of neighbourhood we were in but Porto is a bit like this -lots of houses are empty and rundown but a lot are being renovated.  It wasn’t till we started walking the next day that we could understand why people came here in droves.  

Monday, we went walking - I was following Rick Steves walks which covered the main sights -churches, civic buildings etc then we just wandered about on our own.  Along the way we had coffee and tarts at a Very old Cafe where people lined up to get in. We visited the narrowest house in Portugal which belonged to the Carmelite nun and brothers connecting 2 of their churches.  We also went for a boat ride along the Douro River.  To round out the day we visited a taberna where the beer was $2 as was some sort of sparkling wine.  The tapas was about $1 .70a piece -so cheap so we have had drinks their every night!

Here are some photos of our first day

inside of the first church we visited

not sure what this building is!

the town hall.

some of the nicer buildings

a beautiful church with the signature tiles of Porto 

one side of the Carmelite Church

wedding cakes are very popular here.

plenty of gold leaf too

another view of the town hall.

another blue church.

the lovely cafe.

this was a funny shop that sold waitress uniforms, nightgowns, underwear and tea towels. Everything was behind the counter in boxes on shelves.  The owner was a bit taciturn until he found out we came from Melbourne and had been to the tennis -he was very keen on tennis. In don’t think we made him very excited about our purchase which was 2 teatowels - very good quality!

not sure why I took this??

this is a 14th century church!

the bridge built by Eiffel’s student 

And that was our day.

Flowers everywhere

hi again

Friday was the ladies day out. Claire and I had a trip to the Chelsea Flower Show in London. It was fabulous!  Beautiful gardens and an amazing variety of flowers and there were thousands of people to see it - English people love their gardens!  

and these were the cutest little swans we saw is St James’ Park on the way to the station.

this is one of my favourite sights in London.

love mum

Downtown Romsey

Hi there

we  have had 6 days in Romsey and it has been delightful. As we have visited our old haunts, we have found Romsey to be as pleasant a town as we remembered.  Dominic picked us up from the airport and took us to Romsey. Saturday morning, Claire and Andy and family had an appointment with a photographer for some family photos at the gardens.  Dominic, Dad and I walked up there to meet them. The gardens were beautiful. Lots of flowers and Rhodendrons in full bloom.  The weather was magnificent all day so a BBQ was in order for tea.

Next day after breakfast -Dad cooked scrambled eggs on Solomon’s request - Dominic went home dropping us at the local church on the way.  We met up with some people we knew before and were invited to a BBQ on the Monday night. We then went home for a lunchtime BBQ with Renee Hogan who is over here for a conference. Renee’s family and mother are here with her.  You will remember Renee from Greve in Chianti and that she worked with Claire. It is a bit unbelievable but Casey McGrath is here for the same conference!  It is a very small conference so a bit surprising to have that happen.

We had a trip to Winchester Monday afternoon with Claire and the girls and then off to the BBQ.  3 BBQs in the first week - that is how good the weather has been.  Tuesday, Dad and I went for a walk in the Meon Valley - Beautiful! Wednesday, Claire was off work so we visited a house with 7 acres of garden about 40 minutes from here -glorious!  But all good things must come to an end and today it has rained but not so soon that Dad didn’t get a round of golf in.  and tonight, because we are in England, we went out to a pub to meet up with some friends of Claire’s.  

And that’s it for now. Tomorrow. Claire and I are going to the  Chelsea Flower Show while dad and Andy look after the girls.  

tony on the walk

at the gardens in Hampshire 

I am not sure about these photos. The people look a bit distorted!

Claire and the girls

Birthday Girls

happy birthday to Hannah, Tessa and Georgie 

One of the Birthday boys

Happy birthday Bern and Dom

Mt Fuji again

Photos of theBig Buddha

Mt Fuji as we passed

More photos from Shirakawago

Pics

This lady was sweeping up the leaves with a hand brush and pan. I don’t what happens when a wind comes up again.

Nara

Well, we have seen the largest wooden Buddha in Japan - pretty big!  As well as that,we visited a beautiful garden with 3 separate areas- flower, moss and tea drinking -so lovely and it was free for foreign tourists. This is in an huge park area called Narakoen with heaps of temples and 1200 deer which were very tame and pretty.

We are on the way back to Kyoto now hoping to meet up with Yukiho.

Met Yukiho at the station. Yuki found us fortunately as I don’t think I would have found her in the crowd. We had tea with her and then trained home.

I meant to tell you what they provide in lots of cafes now - a box/basket or container of some sort to put your bag instead of throwing it on the next chair or hanging it over the chair back. Very handy!

Some photos

Hello from Takayama

Hello from Takayama. An early start Monday as I saw there were morning markets so we had our western style breakfast and hopped out in the rain. The markets were a bit ordinary really but one must follow the guide book.

We then went off to organise our tickets for a couple of things then found the 100yen store. It was so cold we decided we needed some gloves. Dad could only find some garden gloves - a bit small - and I found some thin summer gloves. They were so cheap and they did the job. I also bought some socks ( longer ones as my ankles were freezing) and was sitting on this bench outside the store trying to get the staples out and those  plastic things they put in socks. A lovely lady came over and offered me a pair of scissors!  So kind!

This photo is of the bench with cushions - so thoughtful of the store to provide some comfort.

A funny thing happend

A funny thing happened in Takayama- we were asked directions to go places and we could help which is a bit surprising considering how many backtracks we make. I am sad to say one of the enquirers was for Starbucks and we could tell them. Not only because it was next door to the 100yen store but because I had visited it. They now do cafe latte which means you don’t get a cup of froth. Not many cafes had machines in Takayama. And I have to confess to patronizing Starbucks in kyot which is just around the corner from where we are staying. They are very upmarket with a section called ‘Starbucks Reserve’ which makes coffee with a French press and poured over coffee. Only cool people sit at that bench.

Some more blossoms - see the snow on the mountains.

Blossoms

One day in Kyoto

We started with a visit to the laundromat. While the machine washed and dried, we breakfasted at Starbucks.

Next stop was Nijo-jo Castle where the shogun lived. Beautiful palace and gardens. Then a walk through the gardens of Kyoto palace followed by a train trip to Fushimi- Inari. You may have see photos of this place. It has 1500 vermilion coloured Torrii gates. Amazing!! You walk through the gates up to the top of the mountain. It was great. Then back to town where we visited the food hall at the Takashimaya department store and bought delicious takeaway. Then home to eat tea and fall into bed. We had walked 19k so a good reason.

We are now on the train to Nara to see the largest wooden Buddha in Japan!

The train is very crowded which is not unusual at these main tourist spots and it is not just foreign tourists. I think the Japanese do a lot of “Staycations”. We could hardly move at the beginning of the climb up the mountain yesterday but they dropped off as the climb went further up.

Love to all

Tina

Another Episode

Tuesday was another early start as we took a bus into the mountains about an hour away. The place was called Shirakawago, a World Heritage site. It was an interesting trip. We thought we would be traveling on mountain roads looking at super scenery but it was an expressway through lots of tunnels so you only saw a bit of the mountains between one tunnel and the next. It was marvellous construction though.

The village was mainly the thatched roof houses again which operated as a normal town except for the thousands of tourists. We had a lovely walk around and another trek to the top of the hill to look over the valley. Then back to Takayama and the train to Kyoto.

The trip  to Kyoto was amazing down through the hills and then through the valleys. It was beautiful.

So we are now in wonderful Kyoto- more later.

Some pictures from Shirakawago

More houses from Karuizawa

At the falls

The stone church

Dad peering in the golf club window