Category: Churches (Page 4 of 7)

Jungle Book Comes to Life!

13 February 2020 / Juliet Stratton

We have seen:

Monkeys (King Louie – everywhere)
Wild Peacocks (Mao – with their hens)
Spotted deer (Choo Chip – several beautiful specimens)
Warthog (Fred – common in the rubbish piles)
Crocodiles (Jacala – 3 sunning by the lake)
BENGAL TIGER Shere Khan – briefly spotted in the shrub
LEOPARD Bagheera – snoozing up a tree
ELEPHANT Hathi – on the road to the Park
Summer deer Leopard food in abundance
Camel Working outside the park

We dragged ourselves out of bed just before 6am to be collected in an open jeep half an hour later. We were the 2nd pickup from hotels, ours being on the main road to the wildlife Park. Several other hotels, described as being in an “idyllic rural setting” and “peaceful and natural” were tucked away in the scrubs and tourists from these places were moaning about how they found it difficult to locate the places, and how they were in the middle of nowhere! Some people are never happy!

An American couple boarded the jeep, she was dressed very inappropriately in a thin ankle length denim dress with slits up the side, 3/4 length sleeves and a straw hat! I did mention that it was very cold on the road and she might want to grab a blanket from the driver and wrap up, but she was “fine”! So 20 mins later we head into the park, American lady shivering and moaning and two Aussie women behind us discussing face creams with sun protection! The park is divided into 12 zones and zones are allocated at random, 1700 sq m of wilderness, 70 tigers, chance of seeing one that day was 50/50.

The guide did tell everyone to stop talking and keep very quiet, a task the American found very hard to do, she kept asking stupid questions like “will we see a tiger today, what do they eat, where do they normally hang out????” The guide who’s name was Amstrad, took a very deep breath before responding. I was waiting for him to say ” yes, they knew you were coming, so they are hanging out at the shopping mall, before grabbing a Costa…..”

Patience paid off and we got to see a glimpse of a Bengal tiger as she crept through the foliage, my pictures are not great because I was too busy watching her, and ignoring the American! The leopard was snoozing up a tree, there were plenty of beautiful stags and their broods, as well as 3 lazy crocs sunning beside a lake.

An early cold start was well worth it, we returned to our hotel happy, dusty and cold and ready for breakfast. From the 12 guests booked onto a safari by our hotel that day, we were the only ones who had seen a Bengal Tiger and the leopard!!! Talk about lucky!!

Ranthambore Fort

After showering and warming up with breakfast, we called our driver and asked him to take us to Ranthambore Fort. This hilltop structure overlooks the National Park, was built in the 5th century and has several gates, temples and lakes within it. That particular day was a rememberance day, people remembering their dead relatives, so was full of locals dressed in their finery heading to the Temple to be blessed.

We were a bit of a spectacle, climbing the few hundred steps to the top, all the young men and girls wanted to stop and take a selfie with us, us being the only white skinned bodies in sight! One group of 3 young boys asked if they could take a selfie with us, we replied “yes for 300 rupees (about £3)” they laughed and sneakily took a photo of themselves with us in the background!

We’re on the Spanish road again!

23 November 2019 / Juliet Stratton

Having returned from our trip to the USA in October and November and letting it sink in as to all the hugely fun adventure we had, we settled in Vilanova I La Geltru just outside Barcelona for a week, not wanting to travel too far just yet!! This was easier said than done!

The Rolls Royce engine on the Dreamliner and below, coming into land at Barcelona

Our storage facility had a Dometic engineer on site, one who was prepared to take a look at an issue we had with the electric on board heater not firing up, a fault we had found just before we left for the USA so after we had landed in Barcelona at midday, driven to the storage facility and hooked up the trailer, it was about 4pm. We left the storage place to travel only 15 miles to the local campsite and we expected to arrive half an hour later and get ourselves hooked up and straight before the sun set but we got caught up in the French/Catalan/Spanish demonstrations. The campsite was just a few miles from the French/Spanish border and the main AP7 motorway had been closed by Police that day due to demonstrations on the roads, all traffic had been diverted to parallel roads and told to park up as the Catalans were hoping to keep the road closed for 3 days!! I have never seen so many stagnant lorries, cars and motorhomes, in car parks, garages, service areas and on the edge of roads, all the drivers looked really ‘peed off’, just sitting doing nothing. We eventually got to the campsite at 7.45pm, the receptionist had kindly stayed open for us.

We headed out of the site the next morning, back to see the electrical engineer, thinking how clear the roads were heading away from the border, until 2 miles down the road we hit brake lights! This time a coach, full of older aged French passengers, decided to pull across our side of the road, blocking our exit, with the attitude of “well, if we can’t move, neither will you” until the Police arrived! The Civil Police arrive, the coach driver soon moved and we were on our way. A few hours later, electrical fault identified, we headed south, still shocked at how many lorries were still parked up, probably back as far as 30 miles from the border!

We arrived at a site familiar to us, Vilanova I La Geltru, and signed in for a week; caught up and tried to regulate our sleep as well as eating at the correct times, my stomach was often wide awake at midnight, 6pm USA time!!! We did 4 suitcases full of laundry and found homes for all the extra bottles of alcohol we have imported from the USA!!

Vilanova was a little cooler than we had anticipated, we had to retrieve our jumpers and coats!!! However, the sun was out and the sky was blue, the sea was still rolling and the drinks were still cheap!! And…..one evening I scored 6 in a row when feeding the wild cats!!!

After a week we moved 200 miles south to Alcossebre, on the Costa Dourada. The change in weather and temperature was immediate, an increase of 5C, which resulted in David getting his shorts on!! We stopped at Camping Playa Tropicana, where all the drinks are free!!! Fun and Sunshine, there’s enough for everyone!!!

The coastline here is a mix of sand and pebbles, very clean and perfect for snorkeling in the summer, maybe not in November 🙂

We took a drive out one day to Alcala de Xivert, a small inland town with a fantastic 17^th Century Moorish church, closed the day we decided to visit as the forthcoming weekend was a religious festival. However, the church tower was open, and we ventured up all 213 steps to the top, for amazing views of the plains.

The views were worth the climb. At 120 steps there was a platform with 7 bells, used for celebrations and holidays, and another tiny staircase upwards. We reached the very top, with several more bells, just as it chimed 12 midday, boy did that hurt the old eardrums being right under them!

We also spotted just across the valley, a hill top castle, Castel de Xivert, so off we went, 5kms drive over dust and dirt and another 1.5kms on the knees and calf muscles! Again the walk was worth the views from the castle. It was part of the Knight’s Templar empire, built during the 11^th and 12^th Century, but possibly with parts dating later than that, as suggested by an Arabic template on the main outer wall. The castle walls and towers remain, as does several of the small village houses below, but the quietness, and the views were something special.

As we left the castle and headed back to Alcossebre, we drove through the orange grove valleys, the trees still loaded with partly ripened oranges. The smell was so fresh and fruity.

After several days here, we have decided to move on south, towards an old favourite, Bonterra Park in Benicassim.

Dubrovnik

17 June 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

We have never watched Game of Thrones, which was filmed here and in Split, so let’s get that over and done with!

We drove from Split down to Dubrovnik as it turns out that the only car ferries departs at 7am but not in the summer, and there are no trains from Split! The train line in Croatia runs inland to Zagreb from Split but not down the coast, which is such a shame as it would make a stunning journey.

View of river inlet and farmed fruits
Inland mountains

Half the road is dual carriageway, then you follow the coastline on a hillside single lane road. The route took us through mountains and pine forests, through flat green plains full of fruit and olive trees, and through several small villages. We also had to cross the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina, show our passports, and drive for 15kms before showing passports again to return into Croatia.

The route approaches the City from the north, it crosses over a river and goes behind Gruz Harbour where the original old docks berth the new modern cruise ships. Cruise passengers are then ferried by coach the few miles into the city.

Bosnia border crossing
Gruz harbour Wednesday
Gruz harbour Friday!
Disappointing entrance to the City

Dubrovnik is a walled city with three gates, surrounded by several other fortresses and towers on all sides with an external harbour. The wall is 1.5 miles long, and can be up to 6m wide in some places. From a distance it is stunning!

Views of Dubrovnik walls and City

An image of the City in 12th Century

First impressions are, its clean, smart, tidy and perfect. Lots of marble stone pavements and drains, tall uniform buildings and perfectly restored walls and décor. No signposts, no street markings, no advertising boards for businesses and hotels or restaurants. Then you realise….something is not right, it’s too clean and perfect. And we soon established why.

Interior scenes

Stradum (Main Street) in the day
Stradum at night
Replica Galleon in the Port
Original water fountain
One of the entrance gates
Aquarium is in the Tower in the background
The old Arsenal is now a restaurant
Where we had dinner one evening
Watching the sun set
Watching the Galleon return

In 1986 the city suffered an earthquake which rocked the foundations, then in the Civil War of 1990- 1995 over half of the city was bombed by the Serbs and others fighting for the territory. At the end of the war, the Government asked for money from the EU and the USA, and was given it, to rebuild the city as it is now. Handmade terracotta roof tiles were made to replace the damaged ones, local stone was brought in to rebuild the walls and stone window lintels and cobbled stone streets were replaced with marble. The narrow steep streets do look charming with the old style lamps and polished streets, and you can imagine that it looked like that 100 or 200 years ago but it comes at a cost.

To claw back some of the monies owed, they charged and still do charge extortionate amounts of money to tourists.

The local council have cracked “tourism” but not fully. All the old buildings are still called castles, Palaces and forts or Arsenals or military buildings, but are in fact hotels, restaurants, cafes or designer shops. The Rector’s Palace is an art gallery. The Arsenal is a restaurant and the old fort is now a maritime museum while the old port buildings house an Aquarium. No information boards anywhere, no prices in shops and tourist operators trying to sell you boat trips or coach trips simply call themselves Tourist Offices and dish out a street map, a very unclear one!

No street signposts or prices on anything do not add to the attraction but do encourage the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese inside where they will splash cash. We were told that in the past 10 years, tourism has increased by 70% from those 3 countries alone, followed by Americans. Personally, we thought we were being ripped off.

To walk the City walls, all 1.5 miles, would cost €30 PER PERSON. To do a guided walking historical tour of the city would set you back €25, if it involved Game of Thrones sites, it would be more. A 1 hour 20 minute boat ride to look at two offshore islands was €35 and a 2 hour boatride into the sunset with a small finger buffet was €55. A pint of lager was €7 but a glass of wine was the same. A bottle of house wine (supposedly their cheapest) in a burger bar would have set us back €35, so we asked for 2 glasses of wine instead. The home made burgers were €14 each, nothing special! They know how to con tourists here. The main street through the Old Town was heaving with fast food outlets aimed at time limited visitors, “Burger Tiger”, “Pasta Lab”, “The Irish Pub The Gaffe” and others…..

Finally to cap it all, we wanted to take the funicular ride to the top of the mountain behind, it was closed. Two tourist offices claim it was a technical issue, and no opening date was known but when we left we actually walked past the entrance to the funicular where there was a sign saying something along the lines of: “Dear Visitor to Dubrovnik, we are sorry we are not able to offer you a ride in our panoramic cable car, but it would appear that the company who owns it have not complied with a petty financial and legal regulation laid out by the council, who have decided to close this facility indefinitely.” We think this says it all………

The few things that we did visit were surprisingly empty, I guess when you are on a time limited day trip from the cruise ship, wandering around a monastery is not top of your list of things to do, so we made the most of it. We visited two monasteries, a Dominican and Franciscan monastery, each very different, but so peaceful and calm and cool. The Franciscan Monastery contains an old Pharmacy that has been dispensing concoctions since 1391, it’s the 3^rd oldest Pharmacy in Europe whilst the other monastery houses an old originally penned Bible, in Latin and in colour.

A monastery chapel
Polyptych from 15th century
One of the chapels
Old hand drawn Bible
Peace and tranquility
Original bullet holes
Image of the old Pharmacy, still operational today
A Saint’s crypt in one of the churches
Finally, a cliff top bar!

And finally, the cats of Dubrovnik……

Being a Tour Guide in Croatia 1!

6 June 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Part 1 – Carlos & Wendy

During our 4 weeks at Rovinj in the Istrian peninsular, we had not one but two lots of visitors! They did not have the best of weather, but when it was raining we introduced them to our latest game called Quirkle, something like dominoes but more strategic, or we played cards, or as a last resort, we stopped in the odd bar and had a few drinks and nibbles!

However when it was not pouring down, we explored! Carlos and Wendy arrived first, we took them to see Motovun, a small hilltop town surrounded by a complete medieval wall. We explored Rovinj itself, drank a glass of wine or two in the harbour, wandered up to its hilltop cathedral and alley full of ancient tall buildings full of artists galleries and restaurants. Wendy and I spent nearly half an hour talking to a very interesting artist, who told us the story behind a massive altar painting that was in his gallery, which is an old church.

We went into Pula, where we were defeated several times by hordes of school children, discouraging us from going into the Ampitheatre Arena so we just viewed it from the outside. We did walk up the hill to the castle and admired the wonderful historic displays as well as the views over the massive, now defunct, port and surrounding hillsides.

We also stopped occasionally at other local towns and explored the remains of Roman buildings and towns, as well as dining out at local large and small restaurants. One place called La Vigna, was just outside the campsite, is a smallholding and vineyard run by a couple and their daughter, where we ate in their front room, ate food all grown and cooked by them, ate their freshly baked break and home made wine. It was divine!!

Pula

View of the Ampitheatre
View from the Castle
Pula’s defunkt shipyard

Motovun

View from the Entrance Gate
Leaving Motovun
Wendy walking the walls
View from the castle walls
Motovun
A painting in a local gallery

Rovinj

Happy Lunch
A Rovinj street
Painting in a church Gallery.
Entrance to the old town at night
Dinner in the Shipwreck Inn
Dinner at La Vigne
Proof it did rain!

Some of our Food!

Local ham and cheese
Selection of home made olive oils
Traditional selection
So called Scampi!
Fish dish for a fish lover!
Home made sausages
Scrumptious desert, dumplings with sour cherries

Various other local towns we visited

Rain drenched castle ruins
Old and new…
Nearby basic church interior

And finally…….the Brave One!!!

**Hhhhhmmmmm….. I can just about feel my knees, it this wise???**

North to Porec

14 May 2019 / Juliet Stratton / 0 Comments

Porec, along with Pula further down the coast, was one of the first Roman colonies of Istria. The Old Town remains, along with the remains of its Roman Temple. The Basilica complex is a UNESCO world Heritage site and rightly so, it’s full of ancient Byzantine gold studded mosaics and wall paintings, which are stunning. A Bishop at one stage also extended the building to include Palace rooms, beautifully ornate yet plain.

The old buildings surrounding the Basilica are Baroque, medieval and Venetian styles and the cobbled streets are laid out in grids from the coastline.

The Basilica began as a small church in the 4th century, expanded over the next few centuries into a bigger complex, decorated in the lavish Byzantium style, but is balanced by it’s simplicity. A bell tower was added in the 16th century and we climbed the 121 steps to the top to check out the views. It is said that on a clear day you can see Venice, sadly, not on the day we went.