What can I say? Beware, other bloggers - if you leave it too long it becomes almost impossible to get back on track! So much has happened - quite naturally - since I last blogged, I think it easier to just pop some photos up with a short description. But then… you know how difficult I find it to be brief once I get started!
First, we had a trip to Mallorca, in September, just to have a break and some sunshine and meet up with our friends Trini and Steve, who live there.
Jim in the square, in the small town of Soller, where we stayed. We began most days with a coffee in the square, before deciding what - if anything - we would do for the day!
View from our patio across the orchard where the two holiday casitas had been built.
Looking down the orchard towards Soller.
The tram we took to reach the beach at Puerta de Soller, a twenty minute scenic route, full of local colour!
Puerta de Soller, with its yachts and fishing smacks, sandy beach, tourist shops, and beach restaurants.
Our seafood lunch. Mmmmmmmmm!
Steve up at the farm, demonstrating how the grapes become wonderful red wine, in his vintnery.
And lastly, one of our favourite places to stop for an afternoon helado or ice cream. We also ate dinner under those sunshades most evenings.
In October, Jim and I met up with some old Naval Medical Branch friends near Brighton. We spent 3 days catching up on old times and having dinner in a different place each night! Our hotel was in Rottingdean.
Our room overlooked the beach. The weather wasn't brilliant, but I rather liked this snap!
Evening number one: Chinese meal for eight. Yes! A rare one of me!
I had barely got my suitcase unpacked from Brighton, when my friend Pat and I flew off to Barcelona!
Pat had been twice before, with her husband Dave, but it was a place I'd longed to visit - mainly, as you'll have guessed, for the mosaics!
Our hotel was right on La Rambla, so we ate out each night at a different pavement cafe. The first night I ordered sangria - and was a tad taken back when it arrived in a half-litre glass. I didn't finish it!
We took an open top bus ride around the city. Some of the architecture was magnificent, some of it designed by Gaudi.
See the sky? It was like that much of the time we were there. No sunglasses required!
The Harbour.
Up at Park Guell
The model of Gaudi's Familia Segrada, which was almost as close as we got, sadly.
The beautiful paint-and-plaster covered buildings at Park Guell I was spoilt for choice!
View from Park Guell across the city to the coast.
Ah! The mouth-wateringly beautiful mosaics - I didn't know where to start!
You just want to take them all home!
I swear if I'd had a sharp knife with me………
Another view over the roof-tops.
More deliciousness!
Mrs County Commissioner - the Natural Poser!
Yet more!
Sadly, we got to Familia Segrada at 1030 to find the next available entrance was 1830 that evening! The crowds were HUGE! So we decided we'd get our tickets and come back later. Only to find that as we reached the front of the queue, all the available tickets had sold out. Come back tomorrow! Well, too late for us, as we were flying out the next day. HUGELY disappointed. We understood the reason for it, but nowhere was it made plain that you should really book the day before to ensure you got inside. So many people were turned away, and more coaches arriving as we left - hundreds of people would not have got in that day. We felt it could have been better advertised.
This is as close as we got. It is really breathtaking, and as you can see, Gaudi's masterpiece remains a work in progress - the scaffolding is not for repairing the building, but for the continuation of the plans Gaudi laid down when he designed it.
Everywhere you look there is immense detail.
We didn't get to see everything we'd intended on our flying trip to Barcelona, but it certainly stood up to my expectations in every way, and I'm sure one day I'll go back - booking some tours in advance!
So, I'm more or less up to date now, I must get back into the swing of things and post regularly. Thank you to lovely Connie who always comments on my posts and has been asking after me during my long break! And now, I must catch up with reading all my favourite bloggers, I've got way out of date with them. See you all soon!
Welcome back to the blogosphere, Lynne!
ReplyDeleteDid you drive down the mountain road at/from(?)Soller? Dave remembers it well -and would prefer not too!
Yes, the gorgeousness of Gaudi. I loved overnight stay in Barcelona - too short, by far.
Hi Jayne! We were very fortunate in having Steve to do the driving when we did some sight-seeing from Soller - the very reason we didn't hire a car was I knew the roads were pretty grim - though they have improved over the years apparently! I could have uploaded so many mosaic piccies, but it would have been silly. I took them for my own benefit, it was SO mouthwatering looking at them! xx
DeleteGood Evening Lynne, It's lovely to see you back from your adventures. I have never visited Mallorca, but it has a familiarity about it, as it reminded me of Cyprus. How wonderful to be given a wine making demonstration by your friend. It must have been fun to see first hand how he makes the wine from his home grown grapes.
ReplyDeleteThe first Gaudi building you shared, was strangely hypnotic. The balconies reminded me of Vienese face masks. I have to admit all the buildings were fascinating.
It was such a joy to share in your trip.... I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Best Wishes
Daphne
Hi Daphne - love your blog by the way - I shall return to it and leave a comment later! You would certainly feel at home in Mallorca - to us it was reminiscent of Malta (we lived there for 2 years when Jim was in the Navy) and also parts of Italy - all that sandstone, and tiny shops crammed with produce and bright veggies.
DeleteThe wine tasted very good too!
Thanks for popping by! xx
Have watched for you daily....happy happy to see you back! You have been a busy girl! Beautiful photos...
ReplyDeleteAh Linda, that's so kind! I promise to try harder! (smiley face!)
DeleteHello Lynne, I am so delighted to see you back on the pages of your blog. You have been missed, sweet friend :) Even more pleased to see that the reason that you haven't been blogging is because you have been jumping into the adventures of traveling. I dream of travel, but I have a husband that loves to sit in his nest, LOL. I am sure that your creative juices where on high speed in Barcelona. I can see how those mosaics could inspire textile work as well as mosaics. That bench actually made me think about purchasing a small concrete bench for the garden and covering the back rest with tile and broken dishes. I haven't done anything in mosaic since my school days. Well, enough . . . this should be a comment and not a letter, LOL. I'm just excited to see you back and to know that your health is good and you're out there enjoying life.
ReplyDeleteHello Dear Connie - thanks so much - and your posts kept me going and finally brought me back to the blog! Yes, it's been quite an action packed summer, looking back, with some mdic festivals thrown into the mix as well; so many photographs were taken and not used!
DeleteYes, the mosaics were inspirational in so many different ways, they were mouthwateringly beautiful, you just cannot describe them adequately. l xxxx
What fab pictures and holidays! Firstly of course I love the name of where you stayed in Mallorca! and the mosaics are beautiful arent they!
ReplyDeleteHahahha! They must have named Soller after you, Sol! And yes, those mosaics - I swear if I'd had a penknife with me……..
DeleteHello Lynne, I am not very technologically advanced and so do not have a blog, or a Facebook account, or a Google account, but I do read your blog with huge enjoyment. I just want to say that I love these photos of your travels, and wondered if you had any musical adventures over the summer too (although by the look of things, you would not have had much time to fit them in!)? All the very best, Lucy
ReplyDeleteHello Lucy - thank you so much for being a regular reader - and for taking the trouble to comment! It's lovely to get the feedback and also to engage in a bit of chat with people!
DeleteYes, there has been a fair amount of music going on - the Burwell Bash wwas its usual fabulous self, lots of music, lots of laughs and time spent with my "other" family. I went to Folk East too - just for the day, met lots of friends there and saw quite a few on-stage too!. We had a small festival in town organised by my friend Adrian who runs a few folk sessions in West Norfolk. Also rediscovering my love for playing my melodeon. Oh! And I attended a weekend in Laundes Abbey for mountain dulcimers… I'm a real beginner but it was lots of fun and I am loving it. hanks again for popping by! Lx
ONE day I will get to Burwell Bash - your reports of it have always made it sound pretty irresistible, but for one reason or another, something always seems to have got in the way. I play the fiddle (badly, no false modesty here, no matter how hard I try I never seem to improve, but hope springs eternal). Hopefully therefore I may see you there at some point. All the very best, Lucy
ReplyDeleteHA! Lucy my own fiddle playing is…well let's say I get by on a session (where anything more or less goes!) But I loved the fiddle class, and Jock and Tola the tutors are fab. DO let me know if you are going to Burwell. If you go on their website you'll see the application forms and more about it. Lx
DeleteHello Lynne, (if you have already received this, please ignore it, my first message disappeared when I tried to preview it, so I am trying again!). I did get to Burwell Bash this year, and in the wonderful, inspiring and action-packed week in the slow learners fiddle class, I didn't get the opportunity to introduce myself as the "Lucy" from my comments above (I loved your melodeon playing by the way!). I had noted in one of your recent posts that you had started to knit squares for charity, and in particular I wanted to tell you about the charity I knit for - Knit-a-Square. A few years ago, to try to increase my productivity for them, I taught myself to loom knit - all very trial and error - and so I decided to make some little instructional YouTube videos to demonstrate what I had learned the hard way. This is the link for the videos on KAS's web page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.knit-a-square.com/loom-knitting-instructions.html
KAS do such a great job, and need all the support they can get, so if you publish my comment, this will be a shout-out to them.
You may recognise my voice from the loom knitting videos, and I do hope that I will be able to be at Burwell next year and that you will too - then we can have a really good chat about knitting-y things!
All the very best, Lynne, I am still coming down from the Burwell experience and I expect you are too! I am not on Facebook so I do hope you don't mind me contacting you via your blog, which I shall continue to read with huge enjoyment.
Hello Lynne, (if you have already received this, please ignore it, my first message disappeared when I tried to preview it, so I am trying again!). I did get to Burwell Bash this year, and in the wonderful, inspiring and action-packed week in the slow learners fiddle class, I didn't get the opportunity to introduce myself as the "Lucy" from my comments above (I loved your melodeon playing by the way!). I had noted in one of your recent posts that you had started to knit squares for charity, and in particular I wanted to tell you about the charity I knit for - Knit-a-Square. A few years ago, to try to increase my productivity for them, I taught myself to loom knit - all very trial and error - and so I decided to make some little instructional YouTube videos to demonstrate what I had learned the hard way. This is the link for the videos on KAS's web page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.knit-a-square.com/loom-knitting-instructions.html
KAS do such a great job, and need all the support they can get, so if you publish my comment, this will be a shout-out to them.
You may recognise my voice from the loom knitting videos, and I do hope that I will be able to be at Burwell next year and that you will too - then we can have a really good chat about knitting-y things!
All the very best, Lynne, I am still coming down from the Burwell experience and I expect you are too! I am not on Facebook so I do hope you don't mind me contacting you via your blog, which I shall continue to read with huge enjoyment.
Hi Lucy - sorry for the delay the LONG delay!!!!! I have not posted for many many months so din't find your comment. I do wish you had come and said hello at Burwell! I won't be going this year (2018) but intend to be at the Friday concert - you can't keep me away from that! Will you be going this year? I hope you enjoyed your experience, it is very special! L x
Delete