Southwest England walk

We took a break from the European continent and traveled to Southwest England, a place that has many connections for us through literature. We arrived at the town of Okehapmton at the edge of Dartmoor National Park on a Sunday and had a nice dinner that night at the White Hart Inn, "the only worthwhile eatery in town", according to Janie Ramsay, in whose house we have a lovely and large bedroom.

 Janie is a potter and you can see her work at https://theartonlinegallery.com/artist/janie-ramsay/  Beautiful stuff.  We met her often in the kitchen over breakfast or some of our simple salad and pasties dinners.  We also joined her at a rehearsal of the West Devon folk choir she is part of and ended up joining their practice session as their choir leader insisted anyone can sing.  (www.wrenmusic.co.uk)  This folk choir is only one of the many production of Paul Wilson, a veritable whirlwind of activity, and the choir director.

This beauty of this town in Devon lies in its proximity to Dartmoor and the moors.  But here, as in all of England, there are public footpaths in and out of the town and connecting towns to each other that are truly a joy for those of us who like to walk.

The paths that led us to the moors sometimes followed an abandoned railway path, led us to country that was refreshingly rough to us.  The castle gardens can get a bit stifling for these two American oldsters.  The footpaths go through fields where lambs, cows, and horses graze.

     

 

There is evidence of people populating the area of Dartmoor national park since around 3500 BC.  Over the centuries, the land was heavily used for many things - agriculture as well as quarries- and eventually, the railways as well.  There are some small villages still in existence in the actual park and we visited Princetown, which is dominated by its prison, which has an interesting history. (. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Prison_Dartmoor)

A bit of trivia:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the Hounds of the Baskervilles at the Duchy Hotel in Princetown.

We spent one day riding around a local bus through the moors and 3 days on the footpaths.  The weather in the moors is very changeable.  We had wet weather only 1 afternoon despite the fact that this is the most common weather in these parts.  One morning I watched a snow shower come down hard and quick and within minutes it was over and the sky cleared.  The result was a beautiful sheen on the geraniums and other flowers that are still in bloom.  

One beautifully sunny day we walked to the village of Belstone.

 A small enclave of thatched roofed cottages with a great pub where we had some warm soup and cheese tart washed down with the local draft beer.  It was lunch on a Thursday and the pub was populated by people our age and older.  Two tables down was a group of women, probably in their eighties, were having a great time.

This walk was particularly fun as we had to climb over stiles between fields to follow the footpath to the village.  At one stile we had to share the steps with a group for very determined Dartmoor ponies.

 They can be seen everywhere in the moor and they are very small.  They followed us for a while hoping we had something to add to their lunch.  

We ended the week at Swanage, in the island of Purbeck, after an absolutely gorgeous bus ride from Exeter along the coast and its many towns. Wymouth, Lyme Regis and a village called Corfe Castle (Images for village of corfe castle) were some of the most memorable ones.

Actually Purbeck is not an island but a peninsula, and it is quite a majestic place in this season.  We are told by some natives that in the summer "it is crowded with folks covered in tattoos". But this weekend, it was just fine.

We walked on the South West Coastal Path which is, according to Wikepedia, England's longest marked long-distance footpath and stretches 630 miles from Poole Harbor in Dorset, near where we are, to Minehead in Somerset, a place we visited many years ago.

A castle, this one a rebuilt one at Durlston, complete with a cafe and an exhibition space featuring local artists.  Beautiful work and amazing views of the Isle of Wight and other cliffs.

The sunny day and the views of the sea proofed to be what these travel-tired bones needed.

We ended the day with a trip to the Black Swan Pub.  Great atmosphere, cozy fire, fine food and a fun dog.  What else could one ask for.

We spent our last day here walking from Studland to Swanage.  We wanted to see Old Harry, an outcrop of rocks that is worth walking for, I think you'll agree:

And then we had Cream Tea at a lovely Tea room.

We are winding down our trip.  We travel to Paris and meet up with Miguel and Tama on Tuesday and then return to London for a couple of days before we go back to PA.  We will be happy to leave our bags in the closet for a while, but I don't know for how long.  Traveling is such a learning experience!

Missing the sun

As it turns out, we have not seen a fully sunny day since October 28th in Zurich  Had some sun in Vienna, Budapest and Prague but not enough to call any a sunny day.

Our week in Augsburg did not include any sun at all.  While it did not rain much, we had cold gray skies throughout our visit to Bavaria. We chose Augsburg because it is one of the largest towns in the Romantic road and sort of in the middle so we might travel from there to other towns, which we did.

The Romantic Road was actually marketed as such after the second world war, but it loosely follows an old Roman road linking some of the towns.  Like so many of the places we have visited, this town has a long history, but unlike other places it has not needed to be totally rebuilt due to war devastation or other natural disaster.  Of course WWII did  cause damage to many old buildings and some of them were rebuilt.

Augsburg was the place where the Lutherans proclaimed their definitive statement of faith, called the Augsburg Confessions.  There is quite a bit of the medieval town still standing and we were lucky enough to live near one of the preserved walls and canals.

Jim coming down from our staircase to the common area          

            

     The neighborhood was an interesting blend of restaurants and small local crafts people shops, as well as boutiques.    

On one of the canals we found the kayak below, which was 'dressed' as a gondola and was called a Kanondel - a mixed gondola/kayak- The town prides itself in having more bridges over canals than Venice.

Since it was rather cold, we did not spend our days walking around as in the past few months.  We spent part of each day in the apartment resting and reading as well as finishing plans for the next leg of the trip   We had one warm room and that was the kitchen.

Cozy and simple but homey enough to be cheerful despite the lack of sun. Eventually I bought a heavy sweater, a hat and gloves for Jim and went off on our explorations.

The Schaezler Palace

Because of the cold, the fact that we were there on weekdays, and we are not in the Christmas season yet (the streets and shops are getting ready for that now), there were few tourists in these parts and we were able to have the local museum to ourselves.  A large palace
full of the work of local painters except for some remarkable Holbeins and a couple of rooms with some interesting Italian masters from the Renaissance. The Schaezler Palace also included the Rococo room, a large hall full of mirrors and chandeliers that invited one to waltz.


The Fugger family's name is everywhere in this region.  Fugger, the Rich, was a very successful banker in the 16th century and among the things he created and have endured is what they call here "the Oldest Social Settlement for poor people in the world" and it is still in existence.  There are some 147 apartments in The Fuggeri, a church, a cafeteria,a park surround the apartment and a museum to tell the story.  We did not go in because the information from the tourist office was very clear about the history.  I understand some 157 people live there paying less than 1 Euro per month for rent and taking care of their utilities.  They must say 3 prayers a day for the Fugger family and pay a small fine and enter via a special gate if they arrive home after 10 PM!  It turns out Mozart's great grandfather, who was a craftsman, lived there.

We discovered wonderful paths outside the city gates and found an amazing restaurant to try some typical Bavarian food and drink. The Weinbaeck would be a great wine bar during the summer as you can see from the pictures,but in the winter, the basement cave-like eating area was totally what we needed.

Adding to the touch, the music being piped in during most of our dinner was Cuban music!!!








We decided to take a train to Nodlingen, there should be an umlaut over the o, a town on the Romantic Road that is located on a meteorite crater.  For centuries they thought it might be a volcanic crater but NASA and other scientists in the 70s made the final findings that it was formed by a meteorite.  There was a very informative little museum that we visited that would have enchanted the scientists of the family.  I enjoyed it even if I did not quite understand a lot of the information.

Lodingen also boasts about having one of the only totally preserved town walls and we walked on them and followed them all around the medieval section of town.

The town featured in Willie Wanka and the Chocolate Factory scenes from the sky (town roofs) was shot here.

Neat as a pin the medieval section had the feeling of being a show piece.  We enjoyed it anyway as we seldom see buildings like these in our neck of the woods.

A beer garden complete with mural    

We packed up our bags and will fly to London and spend the next week in Southwest England first in Devon and the Moors followed by a few days on the Dorset coast, also called the Jurasic coast.  Much to learn about all that.  Will keep you posted.

Meanwhile enjoy some interesting things we found along the way in Augsburg.

A building on St.Moritz Square

A street name

An interesting way to grow cabbage

Smoked fish to buy at a fast food store front

Once upon a time...........

This week we entered the land of fairy tales.  We spent the week first in Budapest and then Prague. Two cities that have been ravaged by invaders, wars, dictators, fire and floods and yet, even as they rebuild, the dreamy, decorative and handsome style of their buildings and the warmth of their citizens are palpable.

I found Vienna's buildings solid and at times pompous. On the other hand, I found Budapest's decorative and sometimes down right playful.

 There was a dreamy quality to many buildings, even those on Buda hill, where the castle is located. Fisherman's Bastion was one of my favorite spots.  Easy to see why, I think.  There is a bar where that red light shines.  The light is actually a heater warming up the place as it is an outdoor space and folks in these parts refuse to go in yet!


Budapest is divided by the Danube into Buda and Pest.  Buda was one place where we actually got lost, but once we found the right tram we were rewarded with amazing views from one of the bridges across the Danube.


We did some exploring of caves that are found on Buda Hill and found ourselves in a Labyrinth that was well presented and at times down right scary.

There was smoke and operatic music and wax figures in full regalia in some areas.  There were markers explaining in Hungarian and English the historical and other uses of the caves over the centuries.  Very effectively done.




Our lovely apartment in Budapest was on the Pest side of the city.  We spent 2 dry days and one  rainy day walking around and being impressed by the resiliency of the people who live here.

A walk on Andrassy Street, a boulevard lined with beautiful palaces and leading to City Park, a lot like Fairmount park in Philly - except they have a castle- took us by the Museum of Terror.  We did not have to go inside to understand what this was about.  The outside of the building was lined with photos of the men who lost their lives during the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes and also a memorial to those who were detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building. Votive candles lined under each photo.

Also in the are was a slab of the Berlin Wall as well as an Iron Curtain with very moving words about the importance of freedom.


















A very moving testimony to the struggle for freedom.  There are many reminders all over the city about the 1956 Revolution and its cost in terms of lives.  It brought back many personal memories especially the memory of a young Hungarian orphan who was adopted by a neighbor of ours in Havana in 1956.  To learn more about the Hungarian orphans and their plight check out:  http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-01-21-nove-en.html

Despite the difficult times, this is a city that enjoys life and food.  We found the Central market, Nagyvasarcsarnok, at the suggestion of our airbnb hostess Zsofi.  A beautiful building inside and out.  We stuffed ourselves with every manner of stuffed vegetable:   stuffed cabbage, peppers, potatoes, and wonderful home made beer and chocolate cake for dessert.  Quite the feast.  The market looks a lot like the Reading Terminal Market but much more organized.  Crafts and prepared foods in the upstairs landing while meats, spices, cheeses, veggies/fruits and bakeries line the fist floor.

OUTSTANDING STUFF!





Our last early evening in Budapest gave us some beautiful sights I must share:

Fisherman's Bastion on Buda hill

View of Pest from Buda Hill.

                                                   






                                                                                                                                                         When we arrived in Prague, we were immediately reminded of fairy tales.  Maybe the fairy tale books from our childhood depicted buildings like these....I'll let you be the judge.

Very colorful and decorative buildings depicting the life of the upper classes mostly.  One building of interest was the black and white house where Franz Kafka once lived.  A very interesting looking building from the outside.

Prague was packed with tourists
 which made it difficult to take pictures that did not include some random folks.  The older parts of Prague are more concentrated than in Budapest and therefore more accessible TO EVERYONE!

Nevertheless, the Charles Bridge still impresses as well as the rest of the Castle Hill which, like in Budapest, is one side of the river Vltava. 

We took a break from the crowds to wonder around the gardens in Petrin, a beautiful spot with amazing rose gardens still blooming!

Jim consulting the map on the funicular on the way to Petrin Hill

We had delicious food everywhere in Prague, from the corner bars to the kiosks on Wenceslas Square where we had some hot wine and Langos.

We also took a tour of the underground in the Old market square and found that most of the city is full of tunnels that were houses and shops in medieval times, storage areas, bunkers and a network of passage ways to protect from bombs and are now used for underground wiring and water and sewage pipes.

Having spent the last few weeks wondering around massive buildings and cities that delight in showing their treasures in castles, palaces, houses of worship - cathedrals, basilicas and synagogues alike- we have become keenly aware that there is much celebrating of the ruling classes and find ourselves hungry for more information about the folks that made it possible for the nobles to lead such lavish lives.

There is a section in Prague Castle called the Golden Lane, where goldsmiths and other castle workers could build their own places.  Their one room spaces are an amazing contrast to the surrounding castle (above). 

We are on our way to Augsburg, Germany and the Romantic Road, just in time to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary.  It seems like only yesterday!