quick blogs 2: Summer Holiday in Sunny Spain

And...what Glorious weather it was.!
Such a nice change to the unpredictable dublin summer...
A strong dose of sun, beach and surf... food and lots of family..

Elena went up in August to see her parents and other family..and Ivan then joined them for a while.
Cousin Louise from Australia also joined us for a very few days, taking s short detour from her holiday in England.... But for some reason, I am missing some of my photos, and will have to ask Louise for copies. Sadly, I think i left them in Spain. :(

Anyways, here are some snaps from Tapia in the north of Spain, with my parents and cousins, and some of their little ones.

Elena and her mum at the Eligio del Horizonte sculpture (Praise of the Horizon), by Eduardo Chillida in Gijon (great city)
and... with parents on a day out in nearby Luarca

Marine museum at Luarca with Ivan and Louise- with 4 giant squids (mostly baby ones, like this one) and other strange and wonderful creatures.
For memory this baby giant squid was abou 13 metres long from tentacle-tip to 'tail'.
The spooky looking thing is actually a sting-ray skeleton..

Nearby Castropol- very small fishing village near Tapia (as seen from a little boat)

A trip along the coast with Ivan... Spectacular Cabo Vidio (Cape Vidio)
and then... back home to Dublin to await the eminent arrival of our very dear friends The Merriels and some unseasonally lovely stable weather!!!

Road Trip England - The final! QUICK BLOG

Ok...
The only thing i want to say about this bit of our England trip is that Northumberland in the far north east of England is hugely recommended - beautiful, beachy, 'castley', and with lots of lovely wildlife..
The wildlife we got to see on a trip out to the Farne Islands (National trust) bird and seal sanctuary.
IT was awesome!! all that was missing was David Attenborough himself.
From now on we will sign myself up to any and all such wildlife trips we come across.

So, without any delay, here are the pics.

The bird Islands...from afar... and with flying puffin

I know some people don't like birds, but surely they haven't ever seen a puffin!
Like a cross b/w a penguin and somewthing smaller.

These here are Guillemot (i think) and Kittiwakes with their bubs

Blobby seals, Dolphins on the way back to the mainland

Magnificent and very memorable....and a perfect end to our England Holiday!!!

Road Trip England: Part IV.

For the last part of our English camping holiday we decided to do something a little different and headed up to Beautiful Northumberland... on the north east coast of England, past the 'Angel of the north' (at right).
This may very well be our favourite part of the trip: camping on the coast, just off the beach & halfway between Dunstanburgh castle and Bamburgh castle.... it was gorgeous.. Maybe the beach and the sea are more 'holidayish' than any other type of holiday... for us, the best holidays are by the sea... and camping by the sea just added it's own magic.
Here: Seaside camping at Beadnall Bay

'Walking boats' Beadnall bay, 11pm! in June, Beadnall Bay

We unfortunately missed out on seeing Bamburgh Castle cos we got there 5 mins late!
We had been walking a gorgeous stretch of the Castle to Castle coastal walk (Dunstanburgh to Bamburgh castle) and didn't realise you couldn't get in after 4pm... 4pm!!
And, the Castle was still open till 5pm! but they won't let people in after 4pm!! what!! even if we only take 55 minutes to look at the damn thing? "No, we can't let you in, they're the rules".
Stupid castle gatekeepers.
So, one fine evening after camp dinner we stole into Dunstanburgh Castle ruins and had a look around (as part of our revenge against the National Trust (Bamburgh being too well fortified)).
Dunstanburgh is so beautiful, it made up for everything and we forgot all about that silly Bamburgh ..

Dunstanburgh Castle Ruins at Dusk.
While we were up north, we also checked out Lindisfarne (Holy Island), where the Vikings first attacked England all those years ago in 793 and raided the Lindisfarne Priory.
"AD. 793. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter." Entry for the year 793 in the Anglo Saxon chronicle! (amazing isn't it.)

Perhaps the poor old Lindisfarnians had done something to provoke the Gods...
A Scholar at the time writes in a letter to the Bishop of the Lindisfarne priory "Consider carefully, brothers, and examine diligently, lest perchance this unaccustomed and un-heard of evil was merited by some unheard-of evil practice... Consider the dress, the way of wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of the princes and people."
Alcuin to bishop Higbald of Lindisfarne (780-803)

Should we take heed in these 80's fashion revival times...? One has to wonder.

http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/

Crossing over to Lindisfarne, exploring the island

Upturned boats (sheds), Ivan's dream boat

Cute owl at Bird of prey sanctuary.

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Lindisfarne Priory

We also checked out Hadrian's Wall while we were up there.
Built by Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD.. it runs 118km across the width of England (albeit at a narrow point)... It is a massively impressive and beautiful sight... A moss, lichen and grass covered stone wall climbing over the rolling green hills.. Beautiful.
We only saw a small part of it, Housesteads Fort and some stretches of the wall on either side, but it is very memorable.

One of the best bit of the fort, which housed 800 soldiers (quite squashy), is probably the Latrines, because they are so intact, and there's a large sign portaying a vivid picture of 'Latrine life' in a Roman Fort.. I will never forget the imagery of the Roman 'sponge on a stick', (ie: Roman toilet paper), which soldiers would keep, clean and look after...
Here's some more info on the wall if you like... There's a popular walking track along the whole wall which would be spectacular, if you ever had the time and the chance.

http://www.hadrians-wall.org/page.aspx//Things-To-See-And-Do/Hadrian

Hadrian's Wall winding it way thru England

One of the Mile-Forts, HouseStead Fort: The Wall and Ivan,

Housesteads fort: The Latrines

The Small village of "Wall", near Hadrian's wall... For fans of 'Stardust' (the excellent movie or the book by Neil Gaiman)... if you've no idea, it's a must.

God almighty!, and to think we haven't even finished blogging England yet! But i just have to include a little Ironbridge and the Farne Islands...... time for more 'super quick blogs'...
My massive goal for the weekend: to drag the blog into October, where it belongs.

Road Trip England : part III

Hello all!
Ok... here are some more snaps of our English holiday last June.. How time flies! It´s september already... and in no time we´ll be back in oz for a holiday. (For Christmas)

"Bloke's Blog: Science and History come alive in England" has been postponed until further notice (at Bloke's discretion) ... but will hopefully follow soon..

For the moment we leave you with the another peice of the trip: Harrogate, York, Yorkshire Dales (pictured above) and the Williams partial-family intercontinental reunion

After leaving Tudor-lovely Shrewsbury, we headed north east for the Victorian Spa resort and home town of Joan and Derry (Ivan's Uncle and Aunt)..

There we were very well looked after indeed....we got to sleep in a proper bed for a few nights and enjoyed many cups of hot tea, jaffa cakes, 2 course dinners, and of course¨no end of stilton cheese¨ (The Jumblies, Edward Lear)

In the garden, Joan & Derry leave tasty morsels of food for nightime animals like foxes, badgers and hedgehogs... the most anticipated visitors are the badgers (who apparantly are partial to cat food)... the garden is wired so that a bell rings inside the house if an animal is in the designated snacking area.... then, there is a rush to the window, lights out, torch on, to spot the evening´s visitor. Unfortunately we only saw the hungry hedgehog which came very night for a snack... and not a single fox or badger... But it was a treat nonetheless.

It turned out that we weren´t the only visitors to the UK at that time... Ivan´s parents were also roaming around nearby and so we decided to have a family do... the English side of the family and a few Aussies thrown in...

So here we all are for the family portrait at Ivan´s cousin´s house (Jane & hubby Steve).
L-R Back: Jane, Joan, Nick, Elena
L-R Front: Mike, Derry, Ivan, Steve

Yorshire Dales
We just had time to squash in an impromptu visit to the Yorkshire Dales...of rolling green pastures, fluffy sheep, plump sleepy cows, and pristine rivers... Gorgeous stuff.

We drove to the village of Hebden just inside the Dales and went for a walk/picnic in the sorrounding countryside, along 'public footpaths' (which are just the best thing ever! (when well-marked)) ... we accidentally stepped off the path and onto private property a couple of times but we were promptly redirected by the local farmers yelling and pointing in the opposite direction. Usually, the pathways are quite obvious, but not always, or not at least for absent minded tourists.

L-R: The beautiful Yorkshire Dales, with sleepy calf

York city and York minster

A quick day trip to York City, to visit the amazing YorkMinster and the not so amazing Yorvik (Viking Museum)... although Yorvik was 'good' and even 'interesting', in the end it is best (i think) to hang around a town, explore at one's leisure etc.. and not visit as many museums... not that we visited many anyway... but less is more?. This lesson I learnt towards the end of the England Holiday (after Yorvik, to be precise).. because, it would have been nicer to walk the wonderful city walls...which, we didn't have time for :( Ces't la vie!

Still, YorkMinster was Amazing and the extra special ticket to climb the super-narrow, super claustrophobic spiral staircase right to the top was worth every little cent... breathtaking (literally).. the oxygen levels seemed very depleted in the staircase itself, very stuffy..... and the health warnings against climing the spire if elderly, pregnant, claustrophobic, 'vertigoish', with a heart condition, too young ... etc... where definitely well warranted... a mid-staircase or spire-top rescue would be an impossibility... It's no wonder that in many other Cathedrals, the Spires and spirally tower staircases are forbidden

But we lived to tell the tale.

L-R: York Minster and a cute pub.

Next up: we'll try and finish the England trip once and for all (its dragging on a bit) with Hadrian's Wall, the castles, coastline and animal life of beautiful Northumberland and 'Bloke's Blog'.