Foggy Arley

On Christmas Eve, Dad and I went to Arley to get roasted chestnuts and look at the trains. It was beautiful clear skies when we left home but some serious fog when we got to the river so got some lovely photos.

However we were very disappointed when we got to the station. Apparently there is no christmas at Arley on Christmas Eve. Which meant no roasted chestnuts. We were both gutted. 

Deserted.

We ended up at the garden centre for lunch.

Barcelona

On holiday, we did a day trip to Barcelona. We picked an interesting time to go with the illegal referendum on the Sunday and protests and strikes on the Tuesday. But when we went on the Wednesday, we didn't see any troubles or signs of them.

It was an early morning, which made neither of us happy, but it meant we got in the city for around 10.30am. The city lies between 2 mountains and first stop was the one on the far side of the city, Tibidabo. There is the Church of the Sacred Heart up there, next to a theme park. 

And there were supposed to be amazing views over the city. But Caroline and I seem to have an issue with getting views. (Have a look at our views from the top of the empire state building when we went to New York.) 

Church of the scared Heart

There is giant bronze Jesus on the top apparently.

Inside.

Black Jesus and Mary.

Tiny glimpse of the city.

We couldn't even see most of the fair ground. The most popular/famous attraction is a plane attached to an arm which propels itself out over the cliff side.

Plane

The second stop was Parc Guell. It was supposed to be an upper class housing site, designed by Antonio Gaudi, but it failed and was opened as a public park. He did finish a couple of the houses.

Tiled roofs.

You can around the park for free but have to pay to go into the house and Hall of One Hundred columns. We were only there for an hour though so just wandered around the park.

The most famous bit is the serpentine bench which we could just see from the park. Apparently the seats are very comfortable and Gaudi has the builders drop there pants and used them to hold the seats.

They are doing so work on it so we couldn't see a lot.

At the top of the park are the colonnaded pathways. The acoustics are great and there were street artists playing inside. 

The walkway at the top has 50 cement/stone balls that make up a rosary. Gaudi was very religious and used to walk along the path each night. Now there are loads of street sellers along the walkway. Every so often, they would quickly other up everything and run into the trees. Shortly before the police walked by. :)

We treated ourselves to some earrings from one of them, which may turn our ears green but they were very pretty!

out over the city

At the top of the parc

After Parc Guell, we headed towards the sea and stopped at the Unfinished Church, Sangrada Familia. This is another one of Gaudi's designs. It was started in 1882. Work stopped on it when Gaudi was killed (by a tram when he tried to cross the road aged 74) and started again after the Spanish Civil war. It should be done by 2026. Again you can go inside (it's on our list for next visit) but we just walked around. 

Only 2 side are finished. The left side is dedicated to the birth of Christ. And is very chaotic.

The right side is dedicated to his death and much more stark and harsh.

As for the rest, I'm not sure. They are going to have to knock down a city block and build a bridge for the road for the front of the church. 

Our final stop was some free time. We were dropped at El Port Vell by the aquarium and told about the fabulous shopping centre with a Starbucks and a Subway and all the shops like Lush and H&M. We were not impressed with that idea, so Caroline and I legged it over the bridge to the Las Ramblas. 

The street stretches 1km and has lots of street artists, stalls and restaurants. We stopped there for some tapas and a glass of wine (so much better than Subway).

Drassanes Plaza.

La Farola (by Gaudi of course)

After lunch we wandered around some of the squares and back streets and found a great little jewellery shop where Caroline picked out her present.

We had to power walk it back to the bus to get there in time and managed a bathroom break. My feet were very unhappy with me at this point. 

We took some more sights in from the bus but we seemed to be on the wrong side of the bus for all of them. It was about 8pm when we got home so we got some wine and a cake and made pasta back at the apartment. And rested our poor aching feet! :)

Cliffs of Mohr and Doolin

The weather Sunday morning was less than inspiring. I had a tour to the cliffs and the first bus driver did not seem convinced we would see anything.  :(

When we got to the bus station, Mick D, the driver from the tour on Friday came on board, spotted and got me put on his bus. And I got the best seat in the bus - the one at the very front next to the driver, usually used by the tour guide! The view from the front window was great. (I was also first off the bus but unfortunately had to be the last on. It was a very cold day!) It did lead to some confusion at the beginning as people thought I was the guide. And I knew nothing! 

The first stop was Dunguaire Castle. The fog made for some very mysterious and dramatic photos.

Through the fog

Dunguaire castle

Frosty

Castle up close

fog on the water

Irish cottage

Susie the sheep, bus mascot

Thankfully the weather cleared up and for the rest of the day we had clear skies. The temperature didn't improve much but at least it was sunny.

Fog clearing.

The next stop was Poulnabrone Dolmen, a portal tomb. This was is over 5000 years old (old than the pyramids). It was the final resting place of the bones  of the people in the area. They found the bones of 33 people in there when they excavated.

Dolmen

We also stopped at Kilfenora Cathedral and the 7 high crosses. Most of these have been lost (mainly due to weather erosion) but these have been saved and are stored under a perspex roof. They are from around the sixth century I think.

In Ireland, if a woman got to 25 and was still unmarried, her parents would turn to a match-maker to get her gone. There is still a match match-maker here and in September they have a month long (well 6 weeks which apparently a month in Ireland) festival of love, where singles from all over come in the hope of finding love.

We stopped off at Doolan for lunch. The pub and food was very nice but a bit busy. There wasn't much to see there but there is a fabulous chocolate shop. I brought some amazing rocky road and some orange and dark chocolate fudge. None of it survived to leave Ireland. 

The main stop of the day was the Cliffs of Mohr. They have been used in the Princess Bride and one of the Harry Potter films. They are all very dramatic. 

These were everywhere and made it more dramatic!

The cliffs

You can walk along the cliffs in either direction. To the right is O'Brien's Tower on Hag's Head. You can pay to go up but the view is pretty good from the ground so I didn't bother. 

Looking to O'Brien's Tower

The tower.

View from in front of the tower

The stack

Sunset

The last stop was at the Mini-cliffs (it's real name) just in time to catch the last of the sunset.

Mick dropped me back at my hotel (which was on the way to the station anyway). I had some time to relax and warm up again before back out and into town for a meal at a lovely little restaurant called Tosnu. If anyone is in the area, it is worth it and will be hard to get a reservation at before long. The meal was lovely.