Southwold is not your normal seaside resort. Yes, it has plenty of beach huts, a boating lake, mini-golf and a pier, but there aren’t any amusement arcades or a promenade lined with pubs and cafes. What you have instead is a quaint and historic town, and a pier with rather different attractions (although there is a small amusement arcade as you enter).
The pier has a couple of classy, for a seaside pier, eateries, an attraction in the middle called ‘The Under of the Pier Show’; what this actually comprises are handmade up-to-date arcade attractions – a lot of fun and very popular and a couple of up-to-date artworks. These include a tribute to George Orwell, who lived in the town for some time, and a water clock, initially made to highlight water re-cycling. This is a lot of fun on the hour and the half hour when there is a little display involving shorts dropping and water squirting!
After North Kent we headed towards London for a few nights as we wanted to catch up with a couple of friends and family. We found a site near Sidcup (it was actually just on the edge of Bexley Village) called Kelseys , a lovely site with an adjacent farm shop and café/restaurant. You really don’t know you’re so near to London 🙂
Kelseys Farm Shop
Our camping field at Kelseys
We had the same thing happen to us again though, whereby we were the only campers in the field and when someone else arrived (again an older couple), they pitched right next to us rather than taking their pick of all the space available!
We still weren’t well but on our 1st full day we headed off towards Rochester (we’d seen it from the motorway on our way in and decided it was worth a look), with a view to carrying on to Chatham Docks after.
Parking in the Cathedral short term car park we paid (via phone) for 2 hours – a mistake, nowhere near long enough! Coming out of the car park and turning left it was such a surprise what a lovely view we had of a gate entering the city and the lovely old buildings in this old part of Rochester. (Top tip – always head for ‘the old town’!)
Gateway into Rochester (from the cathedral)
The streets of Old Rochester
After a quick spot of lunch we headed for the cathedral. This is free to enter (although I did put a fiver in the donation box), and there are guides dotted around who will chat to you and give you information on the history. We discovered that this is both the 2nd oldest and the 2nd smallest cathedral in the country. Continue reading “Staying near London and visiting Rochester & Chatham Docks”
,Neither of us is actually too well this week. Calv doesn’t seem to have shifted the cold he caught whilst in Ibiza, and I have definitely now caught it.
Despite this though we have loved our time back in Kent 🙂
We didn’t book anything before arriving but had a couple of sites in mind. Arriving at the 1st, at the end of a long narrow lane, we found the site deserted and nobody around or answering the phone. As there was nothing really giving us any reason to be desperate to stay we headed back to our 2nd choice, Hampton Bay, here in Herne Bay. The SatNav took us to the wrong place (into a private housing estate with very narrow, unadopted roads – not suitable really for the van – we had already unhooked the car, luckily). So we asked a postman who pointed us in the right direction and off we set (just in the van). What a lovely find! (I will be posting a review later).
Once settled we walked back to collect the car, and ended up exploring along the Herne seafront. Debbie, I found this picture of Edmund Reid (Whitechapel) – I didn’t realise he was real!! It looks like he retired to Herne Bay 🙂
The main photo is of one of the pebble, driftwood and shell sculptures that we found further up the promenade – they were really rather lovely.
I was really surprised to feel so at home when we stepped back into the van after flying in from Ibiza. It just goes to show how comfortable we are in the van. This is something that we don’t think people understand – we constantly have, very kind, offers of a room when we’re in home territory, as everyone seems to think we might like a break from the van. It’s very sweet of you to offer but we really are very happy and comfortable thank you (and we’ll soon ask if we want a room!!)
We were quite busy over the weekend, including helping our friends out so that they could stay on the same site as us on Saturday night. They had a courtesy car without a towbar so we towed their caravan for them…
Yes – we did get some looks!! (We didn’t, of course, use the little car on the road – that would be illegal..)
After a night out on Saturday we had a long lie-in which was desperately needed due to our self-inflicted ‘tiredness’.
On Tuesday we set off again for Herne Bay. However, the beauty of having no particular plans (i.e. bookings) is that you can change your mind whenever you want. In this case it was when we saw that Steve & Denise, who we had met in Spain, had finally returned to the UK and were staying overnight at a Caravan Club site on our route.
So we diverted to Bearstead, having asked if they minded of course… However their wifi was hit and miss so they didn’t get my message. When Denise replied to say ‘yes, of course, where are you?’ I answered – ‘In reception!’ Continue reading “Back in the UK – home and then a return to Kent.”
We were looking forward to our week in a finca in Ibiza, but also a little wary..
Looking forward, of course, to a week in the sun and watching my niece get married. Wary as we have been just the 2 of us for so much of this year, and we weren’t sure how we’d cope living in a house with 11 other people. For a week!!
Neither of us had ever visited Portugal before (I have been to Madeira, but it’s not actually Portugal..), so we had no real idea what to expect.
Overall, unfortunately, we were a little disappointed. However, this may have had much to do with the ‘welcome’ we received at our 1st campsite (lukewarm), the weather whilst we were there and the roads (especially the tolls..). There were some highlights and we will probably return for a 2nd view – we think we will probably fly in though and not take the van.
So here is what we learnt in our time in Portugal.
It’s often very windy. I mean very windy…
The sunsets are spectacular
There are numerous boardwalks near the beaches, along which you can cycle and walk. Very useful.
The country is very, and immediately, different to Spain
The language, whilst there are occasional similarities, is also very different.
I think the Portugese are very used to people saying Gracias instead of Obrigado… (I did my best, but was a bit useless to be fair…)
We struggled to find campsites but eventually found a really good chain, Orbitur – we stayed in 3
Our favourite site (not an Orbitur) was a little one on the outskirts of a lovely little town, Zumbejeira. IF we ever took the van back we would definitely head here.
I finished my last post by noting that we were expecting rain the following day and so would be van bound.
To a certain extent this is what happened. I went out for a walk in the morning to try to find the Mercadona that, I thought, was a mile and a half up the road somewhere. I was trying to get there and back before the rain was due to hit. Halfway there I still had over a mile to go – google maps has a habit of giving you the distance ‘as the crow flies’ and then giving you the real distance when you press the start button – or so it seems to me anyway!
So I decided to turn back after popping into the local garage (where I discovered the diesel was priced at 1.08 per litre), as I thought I probably wouldn’t avoid the rain otherwise. As it happened I was right, but that didn’t stop Calv from giving me a really hard time for not making it to the shop!!
Calv was keen to cycle on the tracks that we’d found the previous day, so he donned his wet gear and went off. I got on with some chores (and had a bit of a read of my book) and he cycled about 25km and came back really happy (and really wet).
The rain, once it started, was unrelenting, and then we had a real surprise when it turned to snow and started laying. When we woke in the morning it was to a carpet of white!
A snowy March day in Salamanca
We therefore changed our original plan – to cycle into the city along the river (there is a very good path along the river from the campsite), and decided to catch the bus instead. The bus stop is about 3/4 mile from the campsite and the cost was 1.40 each, each way. The bus drops you on the Gran Via (and to return you get on exactly where you’re dropped off) and from there it is easy to find the sites.
It’s probably best to head for Plaza Mayor first as this is where the Tourist Information is situated. We didn’t we kept walking along the Gran Via and came across our first monument, the Convento de San Estaban. We weren’t sure it was open at first as there was some sort of emergency services exercise going on. It cost 3 Euros each to get in and was definitely worth it, with the cloisters, staircase, confessionals and, of course, the church to see.
Cloister at San Estaban
Stairs with the sculpture of Mary Magdalene
Te church at San Estaban
On leaving San Estaban we headed up past the cathedral(s) and one of the many university/college buildings. Then right up towards the Plaza Mayor where there were numerous eateries and bars to choose from.
We then wandered fairly aimlessly wondering at all the amazing buildings that we saw at every turn – literally! We found a church, Vera Cruz, that looked nothing extra special really from the outside, but when you went in it was amazing (we didn’t get any pictures as there were people in there praying).
Walking back down from here we came across a house inscribed ‘Casa de Muerte’, or ‘House of the Dead’. Under the window sills there were skulls (not real ones; well I don’t think so anyway…!) Calv had wandered off to take some more photos while I was looking at this and a Spanish guy started talking to him (he thought he was scared of his dog). This gent, Antonio Grande, was a very interesting man; a former English and History teacher he had spent a lot of time in the UK, including Portsmouth, our home town, and Swansea, my dad’s birthplace.
He told us the best places to visit and a very brief history and I decided to ask him about the ‘House of the Dead”’ – he told us that apparently a woman married and lived with 3 husbands in this house. All 3 of them were murdered and apparently sealed in the walls, where they were found hundreds of years later when renovations were made…. There are other legends detailed in the link that I’ve included above.
Thank you Antonio Grande for bringing our visit to Salamanca to life 🙂
We then wandered a little more and headed to the Scala Coeli (3 euros each), 200 steps up 2 towers from which the views are amazing. You can also visit the Papal university here, but unfortunately this didn’t open until 5pm. The views were indeed amazing and we could also see into ‘the shell house’ opposite (unfortunately closed at the moment due to renovations), but so-called as the outer walls are covered in about 300 shells.
View across the rooftops in Salamanca
Finally it was time to visit the cathedral, or rather cathedrals. There is a new cathedral, started in 1513, and the old cathedral, started in the 12th century. They are actually connected and you can pay 4.75Euros each to visit both.
The new cathedral is beautiful and has several chapters ranged around the outer walls and 2 organs, 1 considerably older than the other. It is much larger than the old cathedral, which also has 2 extremely old organs of it’s own. It was also severely damaged in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and has undergone some re-building following this. For me this was a more interesting visit.
Organ in the old Gothic Cathedral, Salamanca
(Apologies for the quality of the photos – Calv was taking so many photos that the battery on his camera ran out. Before we got to the cathedral…)
We then visited the cathedral towers, more steps! As we emerged out into the open at the top it had just started snowing again. Again there were amazing views from the bell tower – I lost Calv when he went into the ‘clock workings’ room and I didn’t see him so carried on down to the bottom. I had to employ my limited German to ask the 3 girls who he’d taken a photo for earlier if they’d seen him! ‘Yes, he’s looking for you!’
We were now pretty tired so decided to head back to the bus – we definitely slept well!!
We also only saw about a quarter of what there is to see in Salamanca. It wasn’t on our radar in any way before visiting – it definitely is now 🙂
We had considered staying an extra night at the Orbitur Guincho, but decided against it when they wanted 28Euros for the night.
So we used the extra night to just go a few hours up the road to a site near Figuera de Foz, Orbitur Gala in Vila de Sao Pedro. This site wasn’t as nice as the one at Guincho although many aspects were the same.
We set up and then went off for a walk down to the beach, which is just about 1/4 mile from the back gate of the park. When you arrive at the beach there is a steep dune to negotiate to get down to it! It is another beautiful beach though.
Another wonderful day out on our travels! We had been looking forward to Sintra having been advised to go there by a couple that we met in Alicante. We didn’t manage to see everything that they told us about, and were gutted to have missed the gardens – Quinta da Regaleira which looked absolutely amazing.
First things first – how to get there. We were staying in Guincho, near to Cascais. To get to Sintra we needed to get a bus to Cascais, 2 miles away, at a cost of 3.60 Euros each, one way, then a bus to Sintra, at least 10 miles from Cascais – I don’t know the cost but would guess it must be at least 10 Euros each, each way, and then the tourist bus (5.50 Euros each) or a tuk tuk (5 Euros each) up to the Pena Palace (a must see).
So quite expensive to go by bus then (remember that’s one way for one person shown above…) We took a taxi with another couple, Jenny and Graeme, on the site at a cost of 26 Euros all the way up to the Pena Palace and 18 Euros back from the centre of Sintra at the bottom of the hill (between 4 people). We also took a tuk tuk down the hill, but this was on our -to-do- list anyway so was a cost we were actively seeking!
So my point is even if there’s just 2 of you going it’s cheaper to take a taxi! We were talking to a taxi driver before we went back to the campsite who told us that taxis are much cheaper but they’re not allowed to advertise the fact – I can’t for the life of me think why that would be the case….
As I said in my last post we were sad to leave this site after just the 1 night, but we had actually booked our next site, and with only 2 weeks to get back to Bilbao we feel under a bit of pressure now!
When we left we headed back to the town in order to follow the road to find the Historic fishing port, that we had seen signposted from the town centre. It turned out that Calv was right when he said he didn’t think we’d be able to walk it!
It was actually a good 3 to 4 miles along a back road (although there was a cycle path a good portion of the way). When we found it we parked outside what we think was a coastguard station. When we got out though we found out that the road did go to a parking area where there was also a restaurant (closed though).
We have no idea what the fishing port was called but it was absolutely charming. The harbour must be quite something to navigate into with the waves that we saw! Calv noticed that the fishing boats themselves had metal skids and he’s thinking that perhaps they haul them up onto the slipway – although he then noticed that they were all tied up so maybe the tide does come all the way up the slipway!
Homes in the Historic Fishing port
The Historic Fishing port near Zumbejeira
There were numerous cages of varying sizes, from which we deduced they were fishing for crab, langoustine, lobsters and perhaps even octopus!
turnrightoutofportsmouth 