Cornwall

and here I am back again. It's been a while and as most of you will know, I'm now back in my home in Auckland, New Zealand. And, yep, it's good to be back, mostly. It was simply fabulous to see Thomas again and then everyone else who I've met up with, still some people I haven't seen yet. I have to say it - already I've had enough of the grey rainy days! Still, summer's coming.

Now, I must go back to where I finished off last time - London, Cornwall, London,Bruges, London, Leeds, London, then home. 

We arrived in London, Stansted Airport to be exact. It's so easy - just off the plane and onto the train direct to Liverpool Station and there we were, in the middle of The City, more or less. Usually the 'EU/UK passport holders line is enormous while the 'All others' line consists of one or two people but this time the 'all others' was really long and so it took ages to get to the front and then, the woman checking my passport etc, was more interested in watching the burqa-wearing lady than in me and my passport, but finally I was done and met Barry, who has a British passport and was through quicker than me, and then onto the train we went. We arrived at Emma's later than we thought but they still had dinner waiting for us - such beautiful people. It was great to see them again and to be back in Brixton. 

We had Monday and Tuesday in London and then on Wednesday morning we got the train to Bodmin Parkway in Cornwall.

Barry's Aunty Hazel and Uncle John live in Wadebridge, Cornwall, and every time we've been to London we've talked about going down there but didn't until, finally, Barry went there before he came over to Azpeitia at the end of March and then, finally, I got down to see them this time before heading back to NZ. The last time I saw them I think was in 1992, I'm not 100% sure but some time about then and it was great to finally get down there. 

Another train journey, this time watching the English countryside heading south-west:

 the city of Plymouth!!!

another view of Plymouth - why are there so few trees???

and then there are cabbage trees! not in Plymouth.

For a good chunk of the trip it was raining so the photos aren't any good. The countryside was very green and rolling gently of just simply flat. 

It's about a 31/2 hour train journey and it all went according to the schedule. Hazel and John were there to meet us. It was wonderful to see them, they are warm and friendly and were very happy to have us stay for a couple of days. From the station we drove to their little village of Wadebridge which sits on the edge of the River Camel 8kms from the town of Padstow on the Cornish Coast. 

We stayed with them for 2 nights leaving on Friday on the 16.04 train to Paddington Station, So we had almost 21/2 days with them. 

After we'd had something to eat we had a walk around the village, not that it took a lot of time but  it's always interesting to me to see places with locals who make such walking about so interesting with all their local knowledge.

here they are - Hazel and John in their back garden

In Wadebridge - this is the street leading out of the village to their street.

part od Wadebridge taken from the bridge looking down the Camel River inland.

 On Thursday we went to the Royal Cornish Show and on Friday, before catching the train, we went to Boscastle and then to Bodmin Moor.

The show was fantastic and took me back to the days of walking about the Gisborne A & P Spring Show (Agricultural and Pastoral) only there was nothing 'Royal' about that show although we did wear our new summer dresses. I must say that the Cornish show is about 50 times bigger than the Gisborne show, which is still going, I might add. Interestingly, what they didn't have which the Gisborne show has, is a baking and preserving section. 

We walked around with Hazel and John for a while and then they went off to do 'stuff' and we decided to go and see the animals and what fun we had. First we sat in the sun watching huge bulls being paraded around for judging, making our pick of the winner based on no knowledge what-so-ever. My gosh, there were some enormous bulls there. We also wandered through the big barns where the bulls and cows were resting up, and through a bit of the rare breed barn but there were so many people there we walked in one door and out the next. From there we watched some sheep judging and then it was time to find our way to the designated meeting point to meet up with Hazel and John and then it was time to wander our way to the exit. It was rather cool to just walk around with the locals listening to their 'English accent'.

I couldn't get over how big this show is. It's on for 3 days and around 130,000 people go each year, it was first held in 1793 and covers an enormous area but I don't know exactly how many hectares/acres. It would take the best part of the 3 days to get around it and that's not counting the time spent looking at things.

Anyway, we had a great time - oh yes! we had very delicious Cornish Pasties for lunch and one of the most disgusting coffees I've ever had the displeasure of tasting and then throwing away.

Here's some photos:

 this is the 2014 champion ? breed bull.Yes, his tail is brushed and fluffed up to make it look like this.

a strange owl

A tawny owl - they can swivel their heads 180°

there was a group of antique sideshow thingys

the horse and chooks looked like they'd terrify little children

 and one of these music things 

and then the next day we went to Boscastle on the coast and then to Bodmin Moor. Boscastle is on the Cornish Coast about a 30 minute drive from Wadebridge. It used to be a fishing village but the fishing is rather depleted and it is now mostly reliant on tourism and also, apparently, a lot of people have holiday homes there so that the population of the village dramatically increases in the summer, just like the viiages on the Basque Coast. 

looking from the seaward end of the village. The big building on the left is a hostel.

 

the entrance to the harbour and the village. The only bit of the Cornish Coast that we saw

It was quite a walk up to the top of the hill to see the view, not that this would ordinarily deterred us but time wasn't on our side. I was keen to see 'the moor' and we had a train to catch at 4pm. We had a good walk-about and then lunch and off to Bodmin Moor

On the 16th August 2004 there was a flash flood through the village caused a huge amount of damage, most of the buildings were destroyed totally or partially but happily no one died. This house was almost destroyed and then rebuilt to be almost the same as it had been even replicating the sagging roof! Most of the buildings are eating places and/or accommadation places and most of the people who work here don't live in the village.

and so to 'the moor' - I was very excited to be going to a 'real live moor' having read many, many books featuring English moors so I was finally going to see one -  woo hooo! 

and here it is - Bodmin Moor

my first view - this part was one of the airfields from which planes took off for France in WW2 and there are still remnants of the concrete runways.

this is what's known as the rough part looking towards Rough Tor on e of 2 hills on the moor. The other one is a bit taller, 420 metres, and is called Brown Willy! We didn't see Brown Willy, just wandered around here for a bit

apparently it's unspoilt and there are still many bronze age hut circles on the moor and herds of wild moor ponies

there were quite a few more ponies but these were the closest ones

a very old bridge

and then it was time to head for the station. I really liked the moor, the rugged wild and ancient feel of it and one day I'd love to come back for a close up explore.

Just after we booked our train tickets to Cornwall I thought that it might have been better to hire a car and have an explore of the byways of the English countryside HOWEVER - what does one see as one drives along the byway - hedges - that's what one sees, and occasionally glimpses of what's on the other side of the hedges. Oh, I was very happy that we hadn't hired a car.

finally the station

This time we had to change at Plymouth for the London train and ... train to Plymouth was 10 minutes late which meant that we missed our connection to London and had to wait for 11/2 hours for the one after the next one. The next london train was fully booked, the thing for us to remember is to allow for more than 5 minutes between trains. We were rather late in to London and then Brixton but the lovely ladies in Brixton had our dinner waiting again!! What treasures they are.

Well, I'd hoped that I would have also included Bruges and Leeds in this post but nope, that's not going to happen. I shall get more done tomorrow.

Zaragoza

Finally made it back to the blog. It's been a bit of a busy time since we left Azpeitia - Zaragoza, London, Cornwall, London, Bruges, London, and right now we're speeding through the English countryside on the train to Leeds to visit my niece, Alysha, and her family - husband Paula and almost 4 year old daughter Jennifer plus her father and mother, my brother and sister-in-law, who arrived from NZ 4 days ago. We're only in Leeds for the one night and will return to London on the 4pm train tomorrow and then the countdown for home really does begin. Funny to think that this time next week I'll be back in Aroha Avenue, Auckland.

However, before I get there I must finish off here and so - Zaragoza.

As always, Zaragoza was wonderful, even the unexpected and out of character seriously heavy downpour early Saturday evening couldn't put a damper on my enjoyment of being there with my Zaragoza amigos -  eating and drinking, walking and talking and laughing, a lot of English and a little Spanish. 

To finish the night off Saturday night, Barry and I went with Yolanda and Jose Antonio went to watch some flamenco dancing which is the thing in Andalusia but not in Zaragoza. For one week a year at the end of May, under a very big marquee people gather - some to watch and some to dance 'The Flamenco'  Some of the dancers are dressed in the colourful flamenco gear and some are not and it doesn't seem to matter. Everyone seems to be having fun. There's nothing formal about it - a wooden board about 2 meters wide ran the length of the marquee and this was the dance floor. The dancers were almost shoulder to shoulder and seemed to manage to have enough space to dance with verve and energy. The spectators were right up to the 'dance floor' - standing room only although there were table and chairs on one side. We were standing right a long side the 'dance floor' so got a very good view of the dancing, costumes, expressions etc. I thought it was fantastic.

 first thing on Sunday morning under the blue, blue Zaragoza sky on the Roman Bridge on more time! 

We all met up again on Sunday around 11ish and more walking and talking and laughing and eating etc etc. We went to the big park for one last walk up to the top of the waterfall/fountain and the obligatory photos at the top.

the park

the people

 I was full of conflicting emotions that was for sure, cherishing this time with these people who'd become such good friends, in the city I very much enjoy being in, knowing that this time there was no 'see you in September', this time it would be 'goodbye'. 

All too soon it was time to head back to the hotel, load our bags into the car and off to the airport. This time Yolanda and Jose Antonio took us to the airport and then we were on our way to London.

Yes, I was looking forward to seeing Emma and Sam and everyone else but boy oh boy I was very sad to say goodbye to Zaragoza - the city, the people, my Spanish interlude. 

Sergio, Lourdes, Yolanda, Jose Antonio - gracias y hasta luego, besos y brazos.

My farewell to Azpeitia

I ended td previous blog with 'getting out the door to go to Kew Gardens' - we didn't go there because there were dark clouds looming and sure enough, before long it was raining.Instead we went to a Matisse exhibition at the Tate Modern, then chilled out at Sam and Mikes' new flat in Soho and that night we went to see the extremely popular musical 'The Book of Mormon'.

The Matisse exhibition was fantastic. I'm totally unknowledgeable about art, artists and related things so I didn't know anything about Matisse or his art and didn't have any idea about what I was going to see.

What I saw was amazing. All the exhibitions were from his 'cutting period' from how his cut out shapes evolved from being a precurser to a painting to becoming an art form in its own right. His work called 'Jazz' was there along with 'The Snail' both of which are apparently famous. The four of us thought that it was one of the best exhibitions that we've seen, not that I've seen a lot but Sam and Emma certainly have

But, I'm getting ahead of things - my final week in Azpeitia was indeed a week of goodbyes - to all the people i've come to know, to the teachers and hundreds of students, to the bars I frequented (understand that bars here are very different from the bars in NZ)  and the people working in them who were always friendly, the buildings, the river, my apartment - it was one hell of a tiring week. Also, a sad one because this was the end of my Spanish experience and all that that entailed. Miren and her partner, whose name I know and can pronounce but cannot spell, took Barry and I and our luggage to San Sebastian to get the bus to Zaragoza and off we went. 

Here's some photos of 'my Azpeitia' 

my home away from home which is in the 2nd to last building on the right, with Xoxote behind it. 

My school

with my last class and the Basque Flag which they gave to me to bring back to NZ.  The students brought in food and we had a feast. I ate chocolate on a bread roll for the 1st time. kind of delidious and kind of sickly sweet.

part of my walk along the river to or from school, sometimes on the. left side amd sometimes on the right. I loved walking to amd from my workplace.

  My Azpeitia home away from home - Etxe Zuri where Miren works and Daviah is the cook

 inside Etxe Zuri with Miren and Oiane

 Ametsa, locally known as The Green Bar, is the bar which became 'my office' where people met me to practice their English speaking and listening.

 inside Ametsa during siesta time which is why it's looking rather empty

 Pastorkua, the bar where we had dinner most Sundays

 my internet cafe where I did almost every blog from - the internet here was always reliable and gast inlike the internet at my place.

The library

a little drop of NZ - one cabbage tree in the park at Loiola

The enormous Loiola Cathedral which has the house where San Ignatius was born inside it. Tis is about a 15 - 20 minute walk from the apartment.

looking down the river to the Loiola end of Azpeitia. I lived at the other end of the town.

the milk vending machine, the only place where we could buy fresh milk, everywhere else sold only long life milk

  A vegetable garden coming to life in spring. This garden is in front of the library. I really enjoyed being close to the gardens, river and the countryside

 one of the many 'old town' streets. This one is opposite Etxi Zuri and leads  to the Town Square

 The Friday mini market beside the town squareI couldn't gat a decent phot of the big Tuesday market because it's so big and also the stalls are covered so all I got was not much of the market or a mass of white canopies. The milk vending machine is on the other side of the square from this little market. Most Fridays I would buy delicious bread and occasionally cheese, a lettuce, tomatoes etc.

 My end of Azpeitia looking right from the bridge

and finally Azpeitia mestled among the hills of Gipuzkoa in The Basque Country

so ends my Azpeitia experience and to everyone in Azpeitia - eskerrik asko hainbeste guztia xxxx