Read this blog: The one where we go beyond the walls Friday 7th March 2025 Venturing out beyond Intramuros into Manila for the first time made Matilda feel quite anxious as she had read that tourists are advised to exercise a high degree of caution in the Phillippines. However, there is a very obvious police presence: men (almost exclusively it seems) stand watch in plain pale blue/grey uniforms on street corners and at all the tourist sites we visited and there was a different Manila to be found outside the old city walls, beyond the golf course. The narrow historic streets were replaced by wide multi-lane highways and grand buildings such as the National Museum of Fine Arts [below]. There are plenty of jeepneys on the streets. After WWII the Americans left behind vehicles which the Filipinos modified and have been using for public transport ever since. They can accommodate between 15 and 20 passengers and are often highly decorated with heavy metal inspired names. There are plans to upgrade the jeepneys to make the engines less polluting but people fear this will also mean an increase in fare prices. We looked back across the golf course to the walls. […]
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Read this blog: The one where Robert eats crocodile for the first time Saturday 30th March 2024 We arranged a tuk tuk, through our hotel, to take us to some of the sites in Angkor Archeological Park, leaving shortly after breakfast to try and avoid the hottest part of the day [see Video of the day]. There is so much to see that this plan was not entirely successful. The whole site covers around 400km² and it is difficult to do justice to such a vast and varied place of such historical significance, particularly in 42° heat. Cambodia has had several capital cities over the centuries. Between 802 AD until the early fifteenth century the centre of royal power was at Angkor. The capital was subsequently moved to Phnom Penh, later Longvek and then Oudong before returning to Phnom Penh in the nineteenth century. Angkor was therefore the centre of the ancient Khmer Empire for over 600 years. Unfortunately, the term Khmer has negative associations following the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge, but Khmer refers to an ethnolinguistic group which includes most of the Cambodian people as well as their ancestors and the rulers who built this extraordinary city. Angkor […]
Monday 23rd May 2022 We had originally planned to make our own way to Graceland when we docked but the house is about nine miles south of the centre of Memphis and so we felt it was too far to walk there and back. By booking on the disembarkation tour from the American Queen we found we could have our luggage delivered to the hotel opposite ours and get transport out to Graceland and back. The other advantage was that people on the tour from the boat were to be allowed into Graceland earlier than the general public. Unfortunately, there had been some confusion over the number of guides needed for coaches and our driver spent sometime trying to sort this out. We did manage to bypass the introductory video and eventually, although we were not let in early, we were some of the very first visitors of the day. The social distancing notices were obviously specially commissioned. The address of the property is 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard also known as Route 51. Visitors are given a pair of headphones and an iPad so that they can listen to the commentary at their own pace. A minibus takes visitors from the […]
Friday 8th to Sunday 10th April 2022 Leaving the gingerbread heritage of Market Drayton behind us we prepared to ascend the five Tyrley Locks leading to . . . . . . the picturesque Tyrley Wharf. This was built as a private wharf but developed into a vibrant hamlet according to a notice on The Old Stables. This building dates from 1838 and although now a charming residence, in the past it has been used as a parish hall, meeting room, Sunday school, reading room and polling station. Between 1917 and 1932 Cadbury leased the wharf and used it to load and transport milk churns from local farms to the chocolate factory at Knighton. Both Matilda and Robert commented that there was no risk of hitting the chimney on the bridges on this stretch of canal. Tyrley Wharf was not the only place we passed which had formed part of the Cadbury supply chain. An old, faded sign on this wharf informed us that it was used between 1911 and 1961 for the processing of locally collected milk products and the shipment of chocolate crumb by canal to Cadbury. The striking High Bridge or Bridge 39 on the Shropshire Union Canal […]
Tuesday 21st January 2020 Although we had a flight to catch we wanted to pay a visit to see some of the places which had been closed the day before. We therefore walked to Halės Turgus, the oldest market in Vilnius. The exterior of the building is picturesque but the stalls were not as universally interesting as some of the markets we have visited recently. It seemed to be in the process of redevelopment as a tourist attraction, with interesting displays of local foodstuffs rubbing shoulders with people who looked as though they were selling homemade jams, woollens and second hand goods off makeshift tables. Curiously, although both Lithuania and Latvia have flourishing wool and knitting stores, we did not see any sheep in the fields during our train and coach journeys. Perhaps they are kept indoors at this time of year as the weather is expected to be much colder. From here we went to the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania which offers visitors several different colour-coded tour routes: History, Archaeology, Architecture; Reconstructed Historical Interiors; Weaponry, Everyday Life and Music as well as an exhibition centre. The Palace was originally built within the lower castle of Vilnius during the 15th […]
Tuesday 26th March 2019 We had our bespoke breakfast [no pre-prepared buffet here as everything is cooked to order] ready to go into the town to look round the sights. Staff were very helpful in stopping us from over-ordering food in the evening and again at breakfast. We both asked for hash brown potatoes, expecting a portion, but we were wisely advised to share what turned out to be a single hash brown the size of a desert plate. The combination of the view and the food made this one of the best breakfasts we have had. Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City because of the colour of the stone and indeed it has the lovely, warm, golden tones of a Cotswold village. Partly because it is built out of sandstone and partly because of the rounded crenellated battlements, Jaisalmer Fort does look like a child’s sandcastle, made by up-ending those shaped buckets you can find at all British seaside towns, whether they have sandy beaches or not. Jaisalmer Fort is described as ‘India’s only living fort’ as, rather than a monument, it is a walled city where an estimated 4,000 people live and work. We took a tuk-tuk […]
Friday, 24th August 2018 The day was spent cruising through Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, passing through the 140km scenic gorge on the Danube between the Carpathians and the Balkans, known as the Iron Gates. The two hydroelectric dams, built as a collaboration between Yugoslavia [now Serbia] and Romania are called Iron Gate I and Iron Gate II. Before entering the gates we passed the point where three countries meet: Romania on the starboard side and Bulgaria and Serbia on the port side separated by a small tributary to the Danube. The completion of the dams in 1970 resulted in the Danube rising by up to 45m and there are now three locks to pass through. The geography of the area had to be changed and buildings and communities were sacrificed, including a whole island, Ada Kaleh, which was home to a thriving Turkish community. Prior to the dams and locks it would take ships four days to navigate the shallow waters through this part of the river, now it takes about 15 hours. The Iron Gate II lock is a double lock [one lock immediately adjoined to the other with a common gate] the combined lock has a drop of 34m […]