London and Whitstable

We are on our way back from London to France by train after a week in the UK.




When we left Beziers last Tuesday when there were magnificent views of the snow on the Pyrenees from the plane.


The first two nights were spent with Helen, Nick and Ernie. On Wednesday, Pat looked after Ernie while Helen and Nick worked and John visited Cambridge to do a little maintenance on our house.

Ernie and Pat went on their usual tour of parks and coffee shops while doing the small amount of shopping that Ernie will tolerate (I'm a boy Nana - I don't *like* shops!). Usually, Ernie will fall asleep in the pushchair in the late morning, especially after a baby chino and run around the park, but he had a bad cough, so each time that he nodded off, he woke himself up with a coughing fit.


Eventually, after lunch and with no intention of lying down for a sleep on Ernie's part, we went out to the closer Elthorne Park, where the result was inevitable.









Meanwhile, in Cambridge the parents of one of our Chinese tenants were visiting. They had prepared a delicious lunch for John. They are here for about a month and this was their first trip to Europe, so they are making the most of it, seeing Paris, Venice, Rome and other cities.





On Thursday, Helen and Ernie travelled to Whitstable on the Kent coast by car while we took the train (by the time that Ernie and his equipment were in the car with our cases, there just wasn't room for us!). We were to spent 5 nights there while Helen and Nick looked around the area.







Whitstable is a fishing port and there are many interesting houses.



















The town has the usual collection of shops for visitors: book shops, toy shops, children's clothes etc.

Apart from a Budgen's and Boots', it's mostly small shops and restaurants including a very good cheese shop, which Pat made several visits to and which has cheese and wine evenings on Fridays and Saturdays.



Wheelers is an oyster bar and restaurant where Helen and Nick ate one evening and on their recommendation, we made a reservation for the following evening. It can seat a maximum of 16 people.





On another evening, we ate at a splendid pub style Michelin one star restaurant just outside Whitstable, The Sportsman. While the food is of the quality one would expect from the Michelin star, the ambiance is that of a pub with very good service. We started with lightly poached oysters and then enjoyed smoked salmon and smoked mackerel before moving onto lamb and duck. We had to admit defeat on the pudding menu!





While it was cold and raining some of the time, we saw some sun and managed to get to the beach where Ernie enjoyed walking and sliding on the stones, examining them and throwing them into the sea.





He has a passion for slopes and can spend ages just going up and down.



















We found a couple of good playgrounds, one is at Whitstable Castle, originally a private home built as an octagonal tower in 1790. This is the entrance.








As well as gardens, there is a very good playground










Ernie particularly liked the strange shaped swing










At the other end of town there is another playground with more conventional swings, so we tried that too. We had seen the little girl, Hope, in both playgrounds
.











We left Whitstable on Tuesday and made our way to James in Hackney, where we spent the night before taking the train this morning.



- Pat and John on tour

First trip of 2014

Since we first bought our house in France, the time of the train journey from Beziers to Barcelona has decreased from the original 4 hours as the track has improved. The high speed Spanish lines are now the same gauge as the rest of mainland Europe, but until very recently, it was necessary to change trains just over the Spanish border at Figures from where one could see the empty high speed track just waiting to be joined up to Barcelona.

While planning John's Christmas present of a couple of nights in Spain, I noticed that from December 18th, we would be able to get on a train at Beziers and get to Barcelona in 2 hours 7 minutes compared with the usual 3 hours plus. It had to be tried!

On the day of the trip, we were in good time at the station so that we could have breakfast. The train was late, and kept getting later, until we were concerned about our connection - we had left 33 minutes between trains. Eventually it arrived 25 minutes late and we set off. The journey was speedy and pleasant. The train passes through salt water étangs (shallow lakes) and we spotted flamingos on both sides.

When we arrived in Barcelona, anxious to make our connection, we were met by a fleet do RENFE staff who were there to gather us together into groups and escort us to our connecting train which had been held back for 15 minutes! When the train rolled into the station, we were delighted to see that it was just like the 8 am train that we used to see from Beziers to Barcelona on its way between two large ports, Marseille in France and Cartegena in Spain. Moreover, its passengers were just like before, ready for a long journey with their picnic baskets and pets.

We arrived at our destination in search of a taxi. We could see one in the car park, but no sign of any driver. Eventually, we called the advertised phone number and the driver appeared, hopped into the taxi and drove it round to where we were standing. There were signs that we had interrupted her lunch!

We had chosen to stay in a Parador hotel. We had come across Paradors before and they had always been in superb locations and looked luxurious. In fact the Paradors are almost all historic monuments and are owned by the Spanish government. The income from the hotel helps to pay for the upkeep of the building.

The Tortosa Parador is a 10th century Muslim castle overlooking the Elbo river not far from the coast. It is also known as the Castillo de la Zuda - castle of the well.

Tortosa was a Roman city and conquered first by Muslims in the 8th century and then captured in 1148 by Ramon Berenguer, then Count of Barcelona, together with allies, Genoan, French and Anglo-Norman crusaders. It had been a prison and a royal residence before it was abandoned. Eventually, it was destroyed in the Spanish civil war and then rebuilt in the 1980s to become a hotel.




The hotel is large (72 rooms) although in early January, we didn't see more than 10 guests. We has a balcony and this was the view.




The views from the hotel car park would have been very good if there hadn't been so much cloud, but we did catch the odd glimpse of the surrounding mountains.

Old walls from the siege of the 14th century




Tortosa from the citadel



Towards the hills on our side of the river



In the town, the bishop's palace



The Cathedral of Santa Maria was built on the site of a Roman forum. The first cathedral was built in 1178, a later gothic cathedral was constructed between 1347 and the middle of the 18th century, it looks as though it is missing its top - spires etc and indeed, the cathedral has never been finished.


Front of the cathedral




Side chapel




The main altar



The nave




The entrance to the Cathedral cloisters




The cloisters




The church of Sainto Domingo




On our full day in Tortosa, we started by looking around the fortifications and were amazed at just how extensive they were. All around the town there were hilltop castles some even larger than that of the hotel. This is the view of the citadel from a fortress on the other side of the valley.




Inside the citadel Saint Joan







Later, we went down to the town for lunch and more sight seeing.

This house, Casa Grego, was originally built in 1909 and has just recently been restored.




Escorxador which is now the museum



The foot bridge across the Ebro river was once a rail bridge





The mountains on the other side of the river finally made an appearance at sunset.



Les Halles (the market)



After a lot of walking, we retired to our room for a rest before eating in the hotel restaurant.





Our journey back the next day was much smoother than the way there. We had a couple of hours to spare in Barcelona, and so had lunch there and returned home in time to eat out with friends.


- Pat and John on tour