Tag: walks

Katy’s adventures in La Marina

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I had already planned lots of places that I wanted to visit, mostly with Mum, in the two months that I was at home. Like me, Mum loves walking and the beach, and we were able to explore some new places, as well as revisiting old favourites. The weather was unseasonably warm, so we were lucky that we had stunning blue skies and sunshine all through November and December.

La Marina is situated between the mountains and the coast, and is an area with lots of wildlife sanctuaries, and hiking areas. Although there are sandy beaches, my favourite parts of the coast are the rocky ones.

The first walk we did was along the coastal path from La Zenia to Cabo Roig. This very easy walking path goes underneath the cliffs, with gorgeous views. At the end of the 3/4 hour walk there is the harbour at Cabo Roig, with bars and restaurants for a quick coffee before setting back.

After our trip to Cordoba we went back to one of my Mum’s favourite spots, the coastal path below the cliffs and the lighthouse at Santa Pola. This is a beautiful stretch of rocky coast which is very popular with campervans. I went back later on just for the afternoon when Mum was busy, and sat parked up in Katy listening to the sea and reading, bliss!

We also visited one of the area’s reservoirs. Although desalination plants are our main source of water, due to the lack of rain, we do have some very beautiful reservoirs. Unfortunately we couldn’t find our way down to the hiking area, that ended up being the off road experience that I mentioned earlier! At least the drive round was great and there are lots of viewpoints with parking and picnic benches.

I also did a couple of trips out on my own, one to the local bird reserves, El Hondo, that I have cycled to before. This time I went right to the other side, and parked up at the interpretation centre. There are walkways through all the different parts of the reserve from here. We have so many types of birds that nest here, and I was lucky enough to see a baby flamingo.

Many flocks of flamingos live on our salinas, or salt lakes. The lakes have been here since Roman times and are still in production. The salt is exported for use on roads across Northern Europe and Russia. The one nearest Torrevieja has a beautiful pink colour in the sunlight. It is a gorgeous place for a peaceful walk on a sunny day.

The nearby town of Rojales is famous for its cave houses, which have been turned into artist’s workshops and galleries. Once a month they have an arts and craft fair, and in the summer there is live music every Sunday in an outdoor stage area.

There is a little museum area inside one house showing how the original inhabitants lived. We haven’t been for fifteen years and it was great to see so many more of the caves have been restored, with gorgeous floor paintings.

There is also an eighteenth century windmill just outside the town, very similar to those I saw at Conseugra on my journey home. This has been restored and events are held there sometimes.

Also in the mountains above Rojales, there is a country park. El Recorral is actually a water management scheme, designed to capture water from the mountains and stop it flooding the salinas, but rather than just build storage tanks they have created these beautiful wildlife ponds and a sculpture trail. We don’t often get rain, but when we do it can be very heavy and cause flooding so this is a great solution. There are lots of picnic and bbq areas, as well as hiking trails and playgrounds.

I went again with Ellen when she was visiting and we managed to find the caves further up in the park. I don’t think these were every occupied, but they do have stunning views of the mountains across the plain.

One of our Sunday excursions was to visit a monastery set in the mountains behind Murcia. This is the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta, and dates from the 1600s.

There must at some point have also been an Islamic building here, judging by this architecture, but sadly it was in disrepair and there was no further information. We had a picnic in the grounds and then a walk in the mountains.

We also went on a couple of trips without Katy, one my favourite things in Spain is the fiestas, and on the feast of St Nicholas, on the 6th Dec, there was a parade of the Moors and Christians. These are some of my favourite events, they take place all over Spain and celebrate the reconquest, when Isabella and Ferdinand took back control of southern Spain from the Muslim settlers.

The parade was a wonderful hour and a half of proud armies in wonderful costume, interspersed with marching bands. The work that goes into these outfits is amazing, usually each village in the area will have its own association. There are many museums where you can see the costumes close up and they are well worth a visit if you come across them.

The lights, and the giant nativity were also very pretty, and we had a great wander around the city. This was one of the many excellent coach trips, the advantage of these for fiestas is that you get a local pick up and don’t have to worry about parking or traffic!

I hope that you have enjoyed this little overview of what there is to do in the area, it is a fantastic region for all sorts of outdoor activities, with mountain climbing, trekking and cycling being very popular, as well as all of the water related sports.

This will be the last of my travel posts for now, I will post about Cordoba as soon as I can but have so many pictures to sort, and not that much time before I leave again, so will wait to tell you all about that fantastic city. I am off now to do more unicorn fettling, the final bits of attaching heads and putting on clothes await, and then I can show them to you in the next post.

Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Norfolk coastal beauty

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As you will know, I love the sea. I was told that the beaches in Norfolk were lovely, and they have been. One of the things that I have especially liked are the pebbles.

They don’t make for a good sandcastle building holiday but I love the variety of them, and the way that are used in all of the buildings. I have driven through so many villages full of these gorgeous flint and brick houses and churches.

I visited Snettisham RSPB reserve one very hot day, and met more Canada Geese than I have ever seen before.

I also went to Sheringham Park for a meet up with Jules, who I met last year at Hayfield. She has an identical van to mine, with a full conversion, and is still travelling full time, having extended her gap year. We had a brilliant time sharing the joys of van life.

I enjoyed my trips to Cromer and the Sheringham 1940s weekend as well. Loved the vintage adverts for Cromer and the pictures along the beach at Sheringham of the Victorian bathing tents.

Had a brilliant 40th anniversary of starting at Huddersfield Polytechnic weekend back in Yorkshire last weekend and then conquered three more motorways, so feeling very happy with all the driving so far.

Here am I with two lovely friends, Ange and Carol. It has been so good to meet up with people this summer, hadn’t seen Carol for about 25 years!

This will probably be the last update on the blog for a while. I am in the final week of the UK part of the adventure, and am now in Kent. Off to France and Spain next Saturday and I will be on the move so much then I will probably wait until I get back. I will post as much as possible on my Instagram @katykangoo, if you want to follow me there.

Many thanks as always for following my adventures. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Lincolnshire skies

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After the Slumber on the Humber festival I went to stay at Mablethorpe for 10 days. I had a really lovely relaxing time here on the coast and was joined for the weekend by my friend Sharon, from Marsden. She is thinking of buying a campervan so had rented one for the week to get an idea of what type she would like.

The weather was really good and I spent most of the time along the coast, and looking at the clouds. Lincolnshire is very flat and the campsite was next to fields, so apart from the windmills in the distance, all you could see was sky and there were some brilliant sunsets.

I went for a few walks to local beach nature reserves, there are lots of salt marsh reserves here and there were amazing clouds over the beaches.

I particularly love this last picture where it looks like there is a fight between the good and bad clouds with the evil.darkness about the envelop the fluffy white one.

We loved the patterns that the water made flowing through the sand and found shells that had worn away to form beautiful patterns of holes.

We did do a little bit of National Trust visiting, to Gunby Hall, which had the most gorgeous gardens and orchard.

The family that lived in the house in the Victorian era had lots of links with the famous writers artists and thinkers of the era. One of the daughters, Emily Massingberd founded The Pioneer Club in 1892 to support women’s suffrage.

Another daughter, Sybil, was friends with Gertrude Bell, the traveller and Middle Eastern specialist who I have blogged about before.

I really enjoy learning about links between all of these inspirational women. It sets all of their lives into context.

We had a lovely time and Sharon enjoyed her cute little campervan. Hopefully she can find one of her own and we can have more adventures together.

I am very much enjoying my time here in Norfolk, after a busy weekend at the Steampunk Festival in Lincoln after my stay in Mablethorpe and then a week at Ellen’s decorating.

Dunster and the delights of Devon….featuring roads I will only ever drive on once!

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I do tend to base many of my holidays around National Trust properties, and although this was primarily booked for the coast and moorland, I have been making good use of my membership again.

A couple of days ago I went to Dunster Castle which has a lovely little village below it, and a very interesting history, having originally been a fortified castle from the time of William the Conqueror and survived the Civil War to now be a very impressive former family home.

There was not a huge amount of textile loveliness but I did find this wonderful quilt, made of silks and satins, probably Victorian looking at the fabric.

As well as the interior, featuring Elizabeth and plaster ceilings, Jacobean carved staircases and all the lovely things you would expect to find in a house in almost continuous occupation for 1000 years, there was an amazing garden and Riverside walk, ending at a working watermill.

I love hydrangeas, the colours and shapes are so amazing, and there were so many of them.in the castle gardens.

I have become slightly obsessed with English cottage gardens as well. All this time amongst the bougainvillea and cactus has made me really appreciate the very delicate flowers that were growing in this memorial garden in Dunster Village.

The garden was in the grounds of the old priory, next to the Tithe Barn and a fascinating dovecote dating from the 13th century that had space for 500 pigeons, all bred for eating.

Yesterday I drove across the border into Devon again, to visit the Valley of the Rocks. The coastal path runs along here and the views are amazing.

The rock formations look like ruins of castles themselves.

There are wild goats that live here, one family of which was perched on a ledge so high above the sea.

To get there I had to put on my big girl pants and drive up Porlock Hill, 25% slopes and so many sharp bends!!! I also happened to be following the coastal bus.

Katy and I did really well but I did opt for the route back across Exmoor with slightly flatter roads, stunning views and only the odd sheep and cow in the road. Since I started learning to drive in Marsden that is something I am very used to.

I only have one more day here before I go to my first festival. A few days of meeting other van people and hopefully chilling listening to blues in a sunny field.

I will be back soon with a new location, spending a couple of days in between festivals at a childhood day out location pretending I am 12 again. Until then good bye from my sunny campsite.

Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

England’s green and pleasant land

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Well I am off on my travels again, at the first campsite of many this summer, fingers crossed. I have had an excellent if a little damp time at the Tewkesbury Medival Festival, and was lucky enough to have a dry couple of hours yesterday to pitch up here in North Somerset.

I am just outside Minehead, on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, with excellent views over the bay.

The campsite is on a very large hill with lots of walks along the coast and views of the moorland so I am looking forward to lots more outdoor adventures.

The forecast is not brilliant but I have got a great vantage point for cloud watching and it doesn’t get to be so green here without a bit of rain!

The heather is still in bloom, along with gorse and I love the way that the raindrops get caught in the spider’s webs.

It is great to be back in such a different landscape, I love Spain but this is such an amazing area, with such different foliage.

There are woods with trees that seem to have eyes, whose roots cover the walls, and walls so old you can hardly see them for the moss on them.

I was very excited on my walk this morning as I came across some beautiful Exmoor wild ponies. We saw some on Dartmoor a couple of years ago and they are amazing.

My Mum bought me an excellent book for my birthday, written by someone who spent years walking the Cairngorms. It is a really detailed piece of nature writing and is a great read while I am camping.

I have also treated myself to this book above so will enjoy sitting in the reading nook, with the new lap quilt and chilling.

There are lots of rabbits on this campsite, as well as squirrels so am looking forward to some excellent relaxation

As well as blog posts I have also set up a separate Instagram for my travels, as that will be easier more regularly, especially when I don’t have much signal. If you would like to follow that it is @KatyKangoo

I am here for two weeks and have lots of museum and heritage visits planned, as well as more of the spectacular coastline, so I will see you again soon.

Take care, have fun, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Rural Japan, temples and bamboo

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Much as Tokyo city was very interesting, it was the two trips that we took out to more rural areas that were the most fascinating. We were lucky to have our excellent tour guide, Jake, who knew all the best places to explore, and that meant we saw a lot more of Japan than we would have done on our own.

One of the side effects of him living there though the pandemic has been that he has done lots of visiting rural places, such as temples, shrines and going on mountain hikes, as much of the city was closed during that period and he wanted to avoid crowds.

Our first visit was to Japan’s ancient capital, Kamakura. We went on the train for this which was brilliant, I love train journeys and it was fascinating to see the extent of the city of Tokyo. We got off at a station not far from Kamakura and went on a hiking trail from the small village.

This meant that we got to visit a couple of small shrines and see lots of the forest.

I was fascinated by the wild bamboo and very excited to see a Japanese squirrel!

Ellen always laughs at me when I see squirrels as there were so many of them at her last National Trust job at Clumber Park so she saw them every day. I love them and am now happy to say that I have seen four types of squirrels on three continents. We saw some very fat grey squirrels in Central Park in New York and I have posted previously about the lovely little dark squirrels that we have here in La Marina.

The hiking trail took us up to the top of the area, with brilliant views over to the sea. The photos in no way do it justice and it was so wonderful to see all of the flora around.

At the summit there is a beautiful park, and then when we came down the other side we visited the Great Buddha that I have previously posted about. The trail was a little muddy at times and there were some very steep bits but it was brilliant fun.

Our other rural trip was by coach to see Mount Fuji! Jake had done this trip before but sadly it was misty that day and he didn’t get a good view but we were really blessed and got great views. I was very pleased that we could see it so clearly from the coach.

It was a really interesting trip as well, seeing the beautiful hills and mountains covered in blossom trees and the rural towns and villages.

We went to one of the five lakes surrounding the mountain, Lake Kawaguchiko, which is a very popular tourist spot with lots of hotels and boat trips.

The views were beautiful, not only of Mount Fuji, but also across the lake itself and I amused myself taking arty pictures through the trees.

By the time we were leaving the clouds at top had cleared and we were able to see the peak, which was extremely exciting.

I am so pleased that we got to explore so much of Japan. We will hopefully go back in a couple of years and explore more of the country. Now things are fully open Jake is keen to travel a bit further.

His last visa renewal was for three years, so fingers crossed he has another couple of years of exploration, and hopefully more as he would like to stay there as long as he can. I am so pleased that my children love travel as much as I do, and so proud of them for making their own exciting lives.

I have finished all of the Barbie collection of clothes so will post about that next. The fundraiser is next week, hopefully it will be popular and raise lots of money. I am having a quiet few weeks here trying to get some of my crafting to do list done before I have friends come to stay with me, which will be fun, the first ones since my retirement.

I hope that you have a good week ahead. It is getting quite warm here now so although I have done a couple of short bike rides, I am visiting the pool today. Whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A wander around Wolverley

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The planned visits to Trust properties didn’t happen due to some heavy rain so instead I have been taking advantage of the time to organise the van and have a walk around the village.

This is what I love about being able to travel with no time restrictions, I can spend my life being able to not worry about seeing everything at once, and just enjoy where I am. I will be back in this area in the summer so will add the properties to my list for then.

Wolverley is a very cute little English village, and had a couple of unusual features that make is special.

The first is a local legend concerning the Lord of the Manor, Sir John Attwood, who went off to fight in the early 1200s in the Middle East. He was injured and captured, but was then allegedly mysteriously returned home by a swan.

The legend is commemorated by a carving near the river and the knight’s effigy can be found in the local church.

The Manor House is now a nursing home, but there are many other beautiful old houses, showing this has always been a place of importance. This one below was built in 1876 and reminds me of Lacock Abbey, another Trust house.

There are also some very cute cottages in the middle of the village, some made even more special by the matching garlands on the doors!

I love the idea of spring or Easter wreaths as well as Christmas ones, these tulips are so pretty. It was lovely to see all the trees in blossom along the river.

The village is dominated by a beautiful church which sits high on the red rock outcrop, with a winding path up to it.

As with all old churches there were some gorgeous headstones.

There was also some beautiful embroidery done by the local Mothers’ Union and WI.

I have seen a similar Mary stitching in other churches so maybe it was a common thing for the Union to make.

In the church there was also this very unusual stitched map. There were cross stitched pictures done from photos of village locations with an embroidered map of the village, and information about the houses.

It was there I discovered that the village had some old Rock houses. Similar to the cave houses in Spain, these are a feature of this area.

There were two old ones in the centre of the village, clearly long abandoned but it looked like one had maybe been used for a Nativity or Santa’s Grotto.

I love little wanders like this, off the main tourist trail, it is so interesting what you find. I ended with a nice pint of cider watching a boat go through the lock, all in the name of canal history research you understand!

The van is now sorted properly, I needed to live in it again for a while to work out where things would be be stored and maximise my space.

I will be going back to my sister’s tomorrow and leaving Katy behind for a few months. I still have lots of adventures planned though so will be back here with more of those soon.

Hope you all have a good week, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

‘Here within the Severn Valley ‘

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The secondary school I went to was a very traditional one, with a founder’s day and a school song which started with this line. I do also remember something about it being ‘bright with gardens and rich in streams’.

We also had four different houses that you belonged to, a bit like Hogwart’s, and my house was Severn. The others were Avon, Bredon and Cotswold.

So I grew up knowing the Severn Valley quite well, at least my part of it, but have been keen to explore other areas on my UK trips. I am currently camping in Worcestershire, just outside a little village called Wolverley.

I chose this location as it is right by the canal as well so I’ve been doing some canal walks and visiting some canal heritage sites. There are also squirrels that play in front of the trees and I love seeing them.

The River Severn was a very important one in terms of trade in the area. It is the longest river in the UK and runs from its source in Wales, through the major cities of Worcester and Gloucester to join the sea near Bristol. This meant that the river, and the canals that joined it, were vitally important for trade.

I have always loved visiting canals, living so close to the one in Marsden I walked there a lot. It was doing the history of canals course with the WEA last autumn thar gave me a new appreciation of what feats of engineering they are. I love all heritage and appreciate industrial heritage just as much as the grand houses that I love.

Walking alongside this part of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal you can only marvel at the rock that had to be cut through to make the route. Many routes followed contour lines and so this canal has many bends in it.

It is also very wide in places, making it good for trade, though there are lots of locks that can still only take one boat at a time. Ultimately it was these delays that made the new railways so much more competitive, and so many were closed.

Happily there has been a lot of restoration for leisure purposes and so boats can be seen up and down this canal. Many of the houses also have their own moorings. I love the decorations in the second photo from one of the canalside houses.

I also visited Stourport on Severn, which in the Georgian era was the second biggest inland port in the UK. The canal linked with the river and with the Trent and Mersey canal, enabling goods to be transported north.

The river was very high, probably as a result of all the snow that we had last week melting. There are often floods in this area.

Thankfully the canal basins have been saved and although there is no trade now, there are places to hire narrow boats and the surrounding wharves and canal hotels have been preserved.

It has been lovely being back camping in Katy and I have not been too cold at all. There was one night where it was -3 and I woke up to ice on the inside of the windows, but I was warm and toasty with my fleeces and hot water bottles.

I have a couple of new things in her, the mandala I stitched looks very lovely and I have a cute new storage tin. A friend had a similar one which I loved so found this on Ebay.

I was also given these cute lavender sachets for Christmas and they have the same fabric as my cushion backs. So all is very pretty in Katy!

I am also planning a couple of National Trust visits and some woodland walking so will hopefully be able to post about those before I return to Ellen’s next week.

I hope that you are all having a good weekend, the sun is shining here and it feels very spring like, there are so many daffodils around which is lovely.

Whatever you are doing have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Reflections

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Now that I have been retired for 18 months I have had plenty of time to think about my life, where I have been and where I am going, in both a literal and metaphorical sense.

I have spent a large amount of that time outside, because I am now able to do that. This is in stark contrast to the year before I finished work, where like many people, I was at home more than ever, stuck at the kitchen table in front of the laptop. We didn’t go into the university at all for 6 months of that year, a fact that seems unbelievable now.

It is especially strange as my job used to involve so much travelling. To and from work every day, two days a week out doing placement visits, and sometimes even to places like China, which I was lucky enough to visit three times for work.

A large part of my professional life, as a teacher trainer, and working on an early years degree, was encouraging students to reflect on what they were doing. It was an essential part of their assessments, writing reflective journals, summarising what they have learnt. I have spent hours teaching people how to reflect, using theoretical models.

My novel, which I have been spending lots of time working on recently, has as one of its main characters a newly retired teacher who is passionate about embroidery, (not an autobiography I promise!), who spends a lot of time reflecting about her new life and the contrast with her old one.

So what have I learnt? I have always loved being outdoors but have realised that it is absolutely essential to me to be out, seeing hills, clouds, rivers, the sea. I know I am very lucky to have been able to travel extensively, but am just as thrilled by the Peak District that I spent 35 years living next to, as Cyprus or Spain. A beautiful forest or sky can be found anywhere, most of these pictures were taken in accessible parts of the UK.

I have learnt that I love being by myself. As a teacher you are always surrounded by people, you talk to them all the time. There are many days now that I don’t talk to anyone at all. I stay alone in my house in Spain, or my van, or the apartment I am staying in, and I am perfectly happy being by myself. After so many years of talking, talking, talking every day, I was often sick of the sound of my own voice. The silence in my life is wonderful.

I have confirmed that I am a creature of habit, even in a new place I like to quickly create a little routine for myself. That may sound strange given that I am travelling so much, and constantly changing things but essentially each day comes to have a similar structure.

I also know that I am still very goal oriented. However, the life that I used to have was all about completing targets set by others, and how I could make that work. Mark eight assignments today, prepare two powerpoints by Wednesday, write 4,000 words of your doctorate at the weekend.

My goals are now directed towards my crafting, my novel and general self improvement. That last one makes it sound as if I think there is a lot wrong with me 😉 but by that I mean studying, such all the courses I have been doing, and improving my fitness by walking, cycling and swimming.

I have learnt that other people consider me very brave, to learn to drive at such a late age and go off in a camper van, to travel alone so much. That has surprised me, as I consider what I am doing as very normal. Millions of people travel all the time, and the fact that I am technically on my own doesn’t really concern me as I am always surrounded by people on the planes, trains, buses, roads and campsites. I always work on the basis that people are generally kind and someone would help me if I needed it.

I have learnt that I need to work on being more flexible in my approach to the future. I used to be a big fan of the 5 year plan, but a bit like when governments try it for the economy, life often gets in the way. The situation with Brexit, visas, political events, and post Covid situations, have meant that I am not really sure where I am going to be next year, or the year after. And that is ok, if a little mind blowing to someone who always knew what she would be doing at every point in a year!

I am not sure where I will be in the future, but do know that it has to involve lots of opportunity to be by the sea, or moorland, or in the woods, or just anywhere that is not a building. My life has become focused around the line from one of my favourite poems, ‘Leisure’, by William Henry Davies. He had a very unconventional life, so if you are interested in finding out more, follow the link.

The poem starts , ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?’

This post has been illustrated by some of my favourite stand and stare moments over the last 18 months. All those moments where the place that I am in so beautiful in some way I could just stay there forever, standing and staring, watching the clouds or the sea.

Thank you to all of you for reading my blog posts, and for all the lovely comments and likes that I have got from you. It means so much to me to have this blog, and to know that other people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. I hope that you also get time in your lives to appreciate what is around you and just enjoy being where you are.

I have been exploring ancient Paphos today, and have an exciting coach trip planned for tomorrow, so will be back soon to share all of that with you.

Meanwhile have a good rest of the week, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A clear blue sea

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One of the things that has really struck me about the coastline here is how blue the sea is. We do have this in Spain, as sea colour is a reflection of the sky, but here it is a really intense blue, which I think must be due to how clear the water is. Most of the coast is rocky, rather than sandy, and there is little in the way of seaweed, so the sea is very clear and so beautiful.

I was staying only 10 minutes walk from the beach, just outside the centre of Aiya Napa, in a lovely studio apartment, River View Boutique Apartments. I can highly recommend this, if you come here. The apartment is beautiful. It has a little kitchenette, and an all important sunset over the sea view.

The sunsets here have been so gorgeous, a free show every evening.

Because of the excellent weather, most of my time has been spent at the coast, walking the stunning coastal path and sitting on the beach reading. It has been warm enough for lots of paddling, many people were swimming, and the sky has been a glorious blue all week.

There is lots of sculpture around Aiya Napa generally, the town obviously prides itself on the promotion of public art.

Many even come with added furry friends, all of these cats seem very well fed and happy. I saw lots of bowls of food and water around for them, but I think most are strays.

I also visited the outdoor sculpture park, which is just beside the coastal path. It is also a cactus park, and there were some wonderful displays of cactuses. I appreciate the effort that goes in to sculpture, and really liked some of them, especially the Argonauts bridge which was very cleverly done.

However I think the cactuses were my favourite bits of the park 😉

There is also an underwater sculpture museum, but I am not a good diver. It does seem a brilliant concept for those who are though.

There were so many amazing houses beside the coastal path, if I had a spare few million I would love something like this!

I also had my first encounter with a squid, sadly dead on the beach.

Such a truly beautiful place, I am so glad that I came to this end of the island. I wondered if it would be too far to get to, and nearly left it off the plan, but I am so glad I have been able to visit this area as well. These two pictures are going to be on the photo wall at home to remind me of this trip.

Next post it will be the turn of all of the incredible churches I have seen so far. I have only bought one icon, but I can see there may be other purchases needed. They are only very small ones though. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.