Found an amazing gorge and hiking trail in the middle of the Peloponnese. Stayed at a camper stop at Taverna Koustenis, Dimitsana (evidently the birthplace of the Greek struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire in 1821). Walked the first section of the Menalon Trail 9.5 miles, total ascents of 3,000 feet and visits to three monasteries ( one from 983AD built into the rock face now just ruins, and the other two still active. The monks at the Prodromou monastery provided coffee and loukoumi.
Spring flowers on the Menalon Trail
Philosophou monastery perched on the cliff
Prodromou monastery built into the cliff face of the gorge
Prodromou monastery
Valerie in her wraparound at the monastery (women can’t wear trousers)
Front door of Podromou Monastery with bullet holes
Stayed at the campsite at Stoupa for a week and went on some great walks and a good bike ride. The countryside is fantastic for hiking but you have to watch out for paths on the map that disappear on the ground!
The site of ancient Messini was the former capital of the area founded in 371BC. It is north west of Kalamata in a beautiful location with a well preserved stadium and amphitheatre. It is not so well known as some of the other sites and had very few people. There is a small museum with several statues. Well worth visiting.
We stayed four days in Venice visiting museums and galleries and generally soaking up the atmosphere.
Street Scenes
Venice Campo Santa Margherita
Venice Grand Canal
Venice – Fondamenta del Souero
Venice floating market stall
Venice Grand Canal
Peggy Guggenheim Museum
Another visit to this fantastic museum/gallery which is a definite must. It’s quite small so very manageable and has a lovely garden with sculptures. It is also right on the Grand Canal.
Silver Bed Head, Alexander Calder 1945-6
Peggy Guggenheim Museum – Leger 1919
Peggy Guggenheim Museum – Jackson Pollock, Alchemy 1947
Jackson Pollock – Detail from Alchemy
Yves Tanguy – earing for Peggy Guggenheim
Yves Tanguy – earing for Peggy Guggenheim
Peggy Guggenheim
Joan Miró
Kandinsky – Upward
Jackson Pollock – The Moon Woman
Jackson Pollock – Direction
Palazzo Ducale
Palace where the duke (doges) resided. Very palatial.
We left Sanlucar de Barramada and our visit to Anne and Neil’s lovely house and entered Portugal, travelling to Evora, the capital of Alentejo, a place I’d visited many years ago in the 60s and 70s and has remained in my memory ever since.
Evora is a medieval walled town. It was a centre of trade during the time of the Moors and had its hey-day in the 14 to 16 centuries when it was favoured by the House of Avis, as well as artists and scholars. Then in 1580 Spain seized the throne, the royal court left and the town started to waste away. Its very fine old centre has been left undeveloped.
The narrow windy streets have white washed houses with either blue or ochra painted around the windows and doors.
Towering in the old town is the Templo Romano which is said to be a temple to Diana. It’s extremely well preserved and was apparently walled up in the Middle Ages to form a small fortress and then used as the town slaughterhouse! It’s pretty impressive. Throughout the whole Alentejo region you can find loads of Roman remains.
The Termas Romanas is easy to miss as it’s inside the local town hall. It was only discovered in 1987, includes a nine meter laconicum (steam room), and in 1994 they discovered an open air swimming pool! It’s quite surreal as you go into the town hall and there’s the laconicum and there are windows into people’s offices so you can look across and see them working and of course they have a window into Roman times.
All over Alentejo they have quite recently discovered both Roman and Moorish artefacts when carrying out developments.
Termas Romanas laconicum
The Capela dos Ossos is a very strange place. It’s within the Igreja de São Francisco and is a room lined with the bones and skulls of about 5000 people. It’s said it was the solution to overflowing graveyards decided upon by three 17-century Franciscan monks. It’s fairly creepy.
Capela dos Ossos
The Igreja de São João is a beautiful little church and well worth a visit. It has extraordinary azulejos(wall tiles) from the 18-C. It also has an underworld of an ossuary full of monks bones, and a deep Moorish cistern.
Azulejos in Igreja de São João
Ossuary under the church
We stayed in the campsite on edge of town. It’s one of those quite old tired campsites but it was perfectly ok and an easy 20 minute walk into town. There was also a sports area nearby where we could go for a pleasant morning jog!
The last time we visited Córdoba we discovered it was the day of their White Night when the squares all over Córdoba have flamenco all night. We wandered around all night and it was fantastic.
This time we’d discovered that for the first two weeks of May there is a ‘best patio’ competition, and all over the city people’s private patios are opened up to the public. So of course we had to go.
Typical Cordoba street
And then we re-visited the Mezquita – a beautiful mosque dating from 784 AD which has had a cathedral plonked in the middle. But the beauty and magnificence of the building still remains.
Mezquita
Mezquita
Mezquita
Just a quick visit and then off to Cabo de Gata for some walking
Toledo is a fascinating place to visit. A completely walled hill top city with windy narrow streets, beautiful stone houses and architecture from various influences. Before the expulsion of 1492 there was a large Jewish population here with ten synagogues. After the Jews departed these were taken over and made into churches. Two have been restored. One is now a museum for Sephardic Jewry and the other is an exquisitely beautiful building with rows of arches. Apart from just wandering around the streets we visited the two old synagogues, the El Greco museum, a tapestry museum and the cathedral. Here are some photos (click on a photo for an enlarged image)
Synagogue
Toledo Synagogue
Toledo Synagogue
Toledo Synagogue
Toledo Synagogue
Toledo Synagogue
Toledo synagogue
Toledo synagogue
Museum of Sephardic Jewry
Toledo Large Synagogue now a museum
El Greco museum
The museum was thought to have been El Greco’s house and some of the rooms have been furnished with furniture from that period in addition there is a large collection of El Greco’s paintings
Greco museum
Toledo El Greco
Toledo El Greco
Tapestry museum
This museum is connected to the cathedral and contains wall coverings and also garments worn by the priests.
We stayed three nights in Madrid mainly to visit the museums.
We re-visited the Reina Sophia to see Picasso’s Guernica and a multitude of other modern artists including Salvador Dali, Georges Braque and Madrid-born Juan Gris. The Prado gave us the Spanish painters – Goya, Velazquez, Ribera and El Greco gets included), and then we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum for the first time. What a collection! Here are a few photos.
Kandinsky – Delicate Tension No. 85
Picasso – Bullfight
Lichtenstein- Woman in Bath
Georgia O’Keeffe – White Iris No.7
Dali- Dream caused by the flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking up
Chagall – The Grey House
Picasso – Harlequin with a Mirror
Hopper – Hotel Room
Van Gogh – The Stevedores in Arles
If you are going to visit these galleries and you’re over 65 take your passport as you’ll get in half price.
We stayed in the Osuna campsite which had mixed reviews but we found it absolutely fine and positively leafy.
We got the metro into town very easily.
And of course not to forget the Sunday morning market
Stayed a couple a nights in Segovia which I definitely recommend for a visit. It has a Roman aquaduct 900m in length built in 50AD. It also has an Alcuzar which looks like a fairy castle (it was rebuilt after a fire) and evidently Walt Disney used as the basis for his castle in Sleeping Beauty.
But apart from all that it’s a lovely place to walk around. Small enough to manage and at this time of the year not crowded with loads of tourists (only a select few).
We wandered around the old Jewish quarter (the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella) Where they have a permanent exhibition in a Jewish centre.
Stayed overnight on an Aire at the bullring- very pleasant and just a 10 minute walk to the centre
