June 18. South Again

This morning we packed up and started heading south again. Our first stop, an hour a way, was Bury St Edmunds. This turned out to be a pleasant mid-sized town with some sort of market running in the narrow high street. We mainly walked around the medieval abbey ruins and somewhat-more-recent St Edmundbury Cathedral.

Our next stop was just on the outskirts of Bury - another stately home. Ickworth is set in enormous gardens and it's an odd, neo-classical style with a huge cupola in the central building and then curving corridors to each wing. The upper floors were well-maintained and full of paintings. The lower level was an interesting re-creation of the servants' area.

From there we drove down to London, back across the Dartford Crossing, to the Bluewater shopping centre. We were there a couple of hours, in Marks and Spencer and having something to eat. The the final our or so through Kent to reach Herne Bay in the early evening.

May 23. Rochester

 This can be brief because we're in a domesticated routine now. The difference today was that Lynn went grocery shopping with Jacqui this morning, so Tom and I went to Rochester Castle and Cathedral. The Castle, built in the 11th cewntury, is in a sizeable bailey. It looked like just a stone shell, but there was quite a lot to see because there are spiral staircases up in each corner. And from half way up the thick walls are hollow, with corridors running through them which formed galleries onto the central halls.

The adjacent cathedral was good too. Much less gold and appalling crucifictions than the catholic ones in Portugal.

May 17. Lamego

 Today ended up being fairly slow-paced. We expected to get back to Pinhao by mid-morning but there was a hold-up getting through a lock because water levels are unusually high and this led to concerns by the lock authority (I don't understand what about). So we had a restful morning watching the scenery. On getting to Pinhao we went for a walk and saw the tiled murals at the little railway station. Pleasant ratehr than impressive.

After lunch we had an excursion to Lamego, a medieval town a short distance away. Unfortunately the guide talked the entire way, which was irritating, and we stopped listening to him as soon as we were able. One of the things the town is famous for is the Our Lady of Remedies church and the baroque steps leading down to the town. After a look at the church we walked down the steps and along the main plaze through town. We stopped at the cathedral and then at the museum, but I will spare you pictures from the inside of any more churches because they are both impressive and indistinguishable.

May 16. Salamanca

 A long day today (after a few quite lazy days). We were on the bus at 7am for the two hour trip to Salamanca - first winding up, out of the valley, then across fairly flat green plains marked by scattered stork nests on constructed poles.

Stork Nest on a Church Tower

Salamanca turned out to be a beautiful university city full of medieval yellow sandstone buildings and an immense gothic cathedral. We got a fairly painless guided tour then wandered the streets for a couple of hours.

Plaza Mayor

After lunch we got more free time and walked to the Roman pedestrian bridge and then around some more streets. The drive back took three hours because the ship seems to be on a tight schedule and had already started downstream. After we boarded it kept going until sunset.

May 7. Lisbon

 This was our one proper day in Lisbon - which I appreciate was not enough, and we didn't really get beyond the city centre. The day was really divided into three parts; a walking tour, our trip to the castle, and dinner.

So the day started with a guided walking tour, which went from about 9am to 12.30pm. It went to many squares, a cathedral, and up a funicular railway (these are fairly common, and the trams and funiculars are all yellow) to the Bairro Alto district. We stopped for a tart, a cod fishcake with green wine (both very nice) and, at the end, a glass of the ginginha cherry liquor which is ubiquitous here.

Pastel de Nata

Elevador de Gloria

In the afternoon we were left to our own devices. So we went to the castle, Castelo de San Jorge, on the hilltop to the east of the city centre. This involved an elevator and a lot of steep streets. The castle includes a very thick walled but empty traditional castle design surrounded by lower buildings. We looked around and stopped for a drink.

Then we walked down through the old Alfama district and stopped at the cathedral, Se de Lisboa. We'd only just got back to our room when we got a message that much of the tour group were downstairs having a drink so the we joined them and later all went to a local restaurant.

With a few more days there is a lot more we'd like to see, but we're moving on tomorrow.