Livin' la buena vida in Spain

On Sunday night we arrived home after a relaxing four days in Madrid, Spain, with Matt and Kat. It was a lovely break and we all decided we could easily get used to the laidback Spanish rhythm/pace of life! It was great to not need jumpers and to feel the sun's warmth on our skin - feeling it starting to burn, just like home - hadn't even realised I'd missed it!

The Spanish clocks tick a little differently to ours. A typical day consists of starting work at 9am, shutting up shop for lunch and siesta from 2pm to 4 or 5pm, businesses opening again from 5pm to 8pm, and having tea at 10pm or even later. Even walking around at midnight, the tables on the footpath outside restaurants were full of groups of families and friends, and children were playing on the play equipment in the square.

Also, no one is in a hurry. People stroll slowly and leisurely down the street in a way that would make the average harried Londoner's blood boil. Drivers often don't even honk their horns when they have to wait because someone has temporarily blocked the street by pulling up in the middle of it! The only people we saw in a hurry during our entire time in Madrid was a group of about a dozen African salesmen (a common fixture at many tourist sites in Europe) who were bolting around a corner carrying their sacks of illegal merchandise (fake branded accessories, pirated DVDs etc), evidently having seen some police in the distance!

Madrid is a vibrant city with lots of amazing architecture and huge lush, green parks. Although some parts are fairly run down and rough, it's also quite cultured - there are lots of important art museums (Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia are the big ones) and many buskers. Sadly, we also saw a number of beggars and homeless people. The public transport system (underground trains like London's tube network, but called the Metro) is fantastic - frequent services and easy to navigate - very similar to London. It's also well set up for tourists - our three-day, unlimited travel tourist passes came in a little plastic pocket with a map of the city and tube network that we referred to endlessly.

We stayed right in the centre of the city, in an area with a lot of restaurants, shops, theatres and cheap hostals (yes, that's the correct spelling!). Our hostal was on the fifth floor of a building with a fairly unappealing entrance and stairwell, and that also housed a second hostal and presumably a few floors of residential apartments. It was the most basic accommodation we've stayed in yet, but having read many customer reviews on the website when investigating accommodation options, we weren't expecting any sort of luxury!

Ben and I arrived in Madrid on an EasyJet flight around lunchtime on Thursday (Matt and Kat arrived a day later), and after having lunch and wandering around for a few hours, we headed back to our hostal with the intention of having a belated siesta and going out again later for tea. The next thing we knew, it was 15 hours later and we were getting up on Friday morning... so that was a pretty good way to feel extremely refreshed and energetic right at the start of a holiday!!!

On Friday morning we happened across an enormous street parade preparing to start. There were hundreds of police and armed forces personnel wearing many different styles of uniform, most on foot and carrying guns, but also some on horseback and some with musical instruments. We had no idea what the parade was for, but we figured it was pretty significant due to the crowds waiting for it to start and the fact that we could see four snipers from where we were standing!!



After standing on the footpath for about an hour waiting for something to happen, all we'd seen were the uniformed parade members wandering up and down the road and milling around fairly aimlessly. By almost midday it was time to head back to our hostal to sort out our next booking with the extra room for Matt and Kat, and the parade had still not started!

An hour later we had sorted out the rooms and were wandering around the Plaza Mayor, one of the town squares. An Egyptian band was performing and there was a sign advertising performance times for various events in the square over the next couple of days. The sign said "Madrid 1808", so we figured that had something to do with the parade and general public-holiday-atmostphere. Since getting home we have established via the Internet that the celebrations were commemorating 200 years since the Spanish uprising against the French occupation.

While we were in the square, there was a flyover of 7 jets in a "V" formation with coloured smoke trailing behind them in the colours and layout of the Spanish flag (horizontal red at top and bottom, and yellow in between). Very awesome! The only reason I had time to take a photo before they were out of sight again was because I already had my camera on! :P


After leaving the square, we saw another flyover and then the end of the parade, which consisted mainly of the various groups of police and armed forces marching or riding down the street to the applause of the crowd. The precision of their marching was a huge contrast to their earlier milling about!

After Matt and Kat arrived, the next couple of days passed in a lovely blur of relaxing in parks, shopping, hunting for just the right tapas restaurants, eating delicious gelati or icecream cones, and a great deal of just wandering the streets and enjoying the atmosphere and sights. Some of the "living statue" buskers we saw were the best we've ever come across. There were also plenty of piano accordian and two-stringed Chinese violin (erhu?) players, and even a 9-piece Spanish band with sombreros and all!

We saw the Royal Palace from the outside, but couldn't do a tour as we'd hoped, because we happened to be there on one of the few days it is closed each year! We enjoyed strolling through Retiro Park and relaxing on the grass across the lake from the Crystal Palace. There were black swans, ducks, large fish and turtles in the lake. We'd also planned to look through the Reina Sofia art museum, but ended up seeing a couple of free temporary exhibitions (Otto Dix and Alfonse Mucha) at different galleries we came across, so gave the Reina Sofia a miss.

On Sunday we went to the meeting in Madrid and stayed for lunch afterwards. Thoroughly enjoyable! That afternoon we walked through a hilly park criss-crossed with mountain bike tracks, en route to the Teleferico cable car ride that would take us across the city to another park. From the top of the hill, there were great views of the city, including a distant rollercoaster and a Tower of Terror-type ride - we could hear the screaming even though we were miles away!

That night the four of us took the same flight home (EasyJet again) and then travelled from Gatwick back to our place via local bus. Yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday, which we hadn't realised when we booked the Madrid trip months ago or we would've extended it - but it worked out for the best anyway as it gave us time to recover and study!

Well, that will be all for this entry - I'll put most of the photos in a separate post as otherwise this one will be too long! Hope you enjoy them!

2 days in Ireland, Post 2: It's a long way to Tipperary

On Wednesday morning, after a scrumptious breakfast featuring pancakes with maple syrup, strawberries and banana, we set off for another day of exploring. The map below shows where we drove during the two days. Shannon Airport is in the middle (M), north of that is where we drove on Tuesday, and south-east is where we drove on Wednesday. As you can see, the southernmost point wasn't too far from Waterford and Kilkenny, which is where we went during our four days in Ireland last October!


On Wednesday, we drove through Limerick and on to Tipperary (click here for a rendition of the famous song, which is almost 100 years old!), where Mary had told us we would find one of Ireland's most famous historic sites: the Rock of Cashel. Tipperary welcomed us with signs saying "you've come a long way". :) After a brief wander through the centre of Tipperary, we asked someone where the Rock of Cashel was, and were directed on another 12 miles, to the village of Cashel (point I on map).

The Rock of Cashel is a collection of buildings up to 1000 years old, sitting atop a small hill and towering over the rest of Cashel. Apparently it's the most visited Heritage site in Ireland. The main buildings are the round tower (c. 1100), Cormac's Chapel (c. 1127 - 1134), and the cathedral (c. 1235 - 1270). It was also the seat of the province's kings prior to this. You can read more on the Wikipedia link above if interested! There's also an old graveyard with lots of Celtic-style crosses surrounding the cathedral.



Most of the buildings are fairly ruined now, particularly the cathedral, which was missing most of its roof. But we could still see the ornate Romanesque and Gothic building styles - elaborate archways surrounded by sculpted human/ animal/ mythical heads, and a semi-restored ceiling where patches of a bright painting could be glimpsed.

It was quite an interesting spot to explore and there was a good video presentation about the site's role in Ireland's history. It was also excellent value; only a couple of Euros each for entry! However, it was so freezing cold and windy up there (Ben's hat got blown off his head) that we could empathise with the old friars who moved out for precisely that reason!!!

Afterwards, we drove to Caher (point J on map), another random village with a castle sitting in the middle of it, and had a late lunch after a bit of a wander around the town. Check out the photo below showing the pub owner's other occupation!



Earlier we'd picked up a brochure on the area's scenic drives, which is how we ended up in Caher, so after lunch we headed slightly back towards Tipperary but branched off to take a road alongside Ireland's highest inland mountain range (around K on map). We then saw a sign to Lake Muskry, so decided to follow that instead. We ended up on a dirt track that took us higher and higher up the side of a hill, passing woolly horned sheep and looking out across a valley with a conifer plantation and a little river far below. We never did find the lake.

Eventually, the track became a minefield of very large rocks and very deep cracks, forcing us to abandon our expedition. Refer to the photo below to see what I mean by "very deep cracks"!! We walked a little further on foot, but soon it was time to start heading back to the airport for our flight home.



Other than a thorough pat down and scan with a handheld metal detector at Shannon Airport (note to self: the skirt and jumper with little metal buckles on them are obviously not a good flying outfit), and the permanent confiscation of the bottle of Clare Jams apple and cinnamon jelly that we had got as a present for someone (unfortunately it counts as a gel, which means it can't be more than 100mL if in carry-on luggage), nothing else eventful happened. And that was our very enjoyable two days in Ireland!

2 days in Ireland, Post 1: County Clare

Earlier this week we did a two-day whistlestop tour of Ireland's west coast! A few weeks ago, we found extremely cheap RyanAir flights online, so we booked a midweek break during Ben's school holidays. We flew out of Gatwick at 9:45pm on Monday night, and arrived back home just short of 48 hours later! We flew into Shannon Airport in County Clare on Ireland's central west coast, picked up our hire car (a light blue Fiat Panda) at the airport, and drove to our nearby B&B for a good night's sleep before a full day of sightseeing on Tuesday.

The next morning, after a little sleep in and a hearty full Irish breakfast prepared by our lovely host, Mary, we set off. First stop: the Cliffs of Moher. The first two photos below were taken during our drive there; the others are at the cliffs. As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day, the cliffs were imposing and dramatic, and the Atlantic Ocean was a gorgeous shade of blue. Standing at the lookout, we could even see dolpins breaching in the water below! There was a tourist centre set into the hillside a little way back from the cliff edge, and there were three buskers along the clifftop pathway - a tin whistler, a harpist, and a banjo player. Incidentally, we later learnt that the Cliffs of Moher were the Cliffs of Insanity in The Princess Bride, for those familiar with it!



Along to the right was O'Brien's Tower (see the photo below with Ben in it), and the view from there looked down at a sharp rocky island. On this island were hundreds of puffins - little penguin-type birds with orange parrot-like beaks!! From the top of the cliff I could hardly even tell they were there, but luckily a man loaned us his binoculars so we did get a brief good look at them. In the photo of the island below, you might just be able to make out lots of black and white specs along the ridges all the way up the rock - those are all the puffins! Sooo cute!!!



Continuing on after seeing the cliffs, we drove north along the coast, and the scenery was just amazing! We were heading into an area called The Burren, which is an incredible 250 square kilometre "karst landscape region", meaning the ground is literally covered in rocks. The distant hills were completely gray and there were rocks piled up to make walls absolutely as far as you could see - that's what they'd used the rocks for when clearing some space for cattle and sheep!

There were fantastic old ruins everywhere - houses, barns and churches with rock walls still standing, but no roofs (probably used to be thatched). The ruins were often covered in green vines, and were just sitting in people's front yards beside their houses or in the many small paddocks beside the road. We had a quick wander through the village of Doolin, and stopped to explore some deserted cliffs and a particularly overgrown church ruin. It is impossible to convey in words how absolutely awesome this area was - The Burren was my favourite part of Ireland to date - so here are lots of photos to illustrate my point, taken as we drove up the coast towards Ailwee Cave...



Ailwee Cave is the oldest of the ancient limestone caves beneath The Burren. There are over a kilometre of passages leading into the mountain, stalactites and stalagmites, an underground river and waterfall, and the remains of bears that used to hibernate in the caves (long extinct in Ireland now). We did a guided tour of the cave in the late afternoon, and it was quite interesting - especially when the guide turned out every single light and we had about a minute to appreciate total, absolute darkness!

Before the tour, we also went through the Birds of Prey exhibit and caught the last 15 minutes of one of the twice-daily flying demonstrations. Check out the video below of Hughy the enormous owl!

Afterwards, we stopped briefly in Galway, the northernmost point we went to on the trip, and then had tea in the village of Ballyvaughan on the way back to our B&B. It was a wonderful day!

Hever Castle

Continuing on from the last entry, after lunch we went to Hever Castle, which is also in Kent and only 15 minutes' drive from Groombridge Place. Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, who became Henry VIII's second wife and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. She was executed in 1536 at the Tower of London, the first of two of Henry's wives to suffer that fate, and she is buried at the Tower in the chapel we visited during our tour with the Yeoman Warder.

Anyhow, Hever Castle was a very impressive and interesting place to visit! The first two photos below show the view of the castle from the direction of the entrance to the estate. Note the fantastic topiary and the amazing field of daffodils - I've been meaning to mention for ages that there are daffodils everywhere over here in spring! They just grow wild beside the road and on roundabouts - it seems the councils must throw handfuls of seeds out as they drive past!



After entering the castle via the little bridge in the photo above, there's a central open-air courtyard and the rooms of the castle are in the four walls surrounding it. The last photo above is the view from the courtyard of the castle walls from the inside.

We spent quite a while looking through the inside of the castle. Much of it was furnished in the Tudor style. Some of it was roped off so we couldn't get too close, but there were huge tapestries, amazingly intricate carved wooden wall panels, moulded ceilings, large portraits, etc. There were information displays about the Boleyn family and Henry's other wives, as well as William Waldorf Astor, a businessman who later owned the castle and was the richest man in America in the late 1800s.

The castle also had many gardens and three mazes! There was a yew maze, a water maze, and a third maze we didn't have time to see. I had read somewhere recently that the trick to getting through a maze - although not usually the fastest way - is to just keep following the wall on your right. Imagine you are running your hand along that wall: never let it lose contact - this will lead you out of dead ends and you'll eventually find your way out. I tried this in the yew maze, which had the additional obstacle of large mud puddles, and it worked - eventually!! I've included a photo from the castle's website, as has a great view of the yew maze from above...

Hever Castle's water maze was awesome - at first it looks quite easy, until you find out that the "walls" of the maze are spouts of water that suddenly erupt in front of you as you unsuspectingly step onto moveable concrete slabs! See the photo of me below, taken by Ben who had reached the centre and was sitting on top of the wall - it shows a spray of water suddenly shooting up in front of me as I step onto that slab. Beside the water maze was a large lake (and more daffodils), and it was possible to hire a boat and paddle around but we didn't have time to do that.

Hever Castle's extensive gardens were also very impressive. As well as various other themed gardens, they had a huge Italian garden with little flower patches in alcoves along the wall, and large statues arranged symetrically around the edges of wide grassy patches. The wall ended at an Italian-style pier (stone columns etc) at the edge of the lake - you can see the view of it from the water maze in the first photo below.



Anyway, that was Hever Castle - well worth a visit!