Cadiz at last: Day 4

172 steps!! 

We arrived at the Tavira Tower for our tour and were told to climb to the top where the tour would start!   There are 172 steps as a notice at the top announced and it seems that Tintin had got there before us!  The views from the top were quite something.  On the third floor is a camera obscure and we were treated to a demonstration and views of Cadiz.  We saw people walking about and washing flapping on the roofs!  It was an interesting experience.

Cadiz

Cadiz

Rooftops and towers

 We found a cafe near the market where we sat and enjoyed a coffee and people watched.  We remarked on the number of wheel chairs in use, also mobility scooters, grandmas pushing prams and young people taking old people for walks.  Then we headed for the cathedral and paid our 5€ each for an audio guide and religiously (!) toured the cathedral.

The main altar

Some impressive silver work

Another short stroll to a square we've been to before and an examination of menus in the various restaurants there.   We decided on a beer in a modest cafe and then had some tapas - langoustine salad, potatas bravas and meatballs in sauce putannesca.   Then back to the apartment for a rest!

Refreshed, we spent a while packing up and then went off in search of supper.   We cruised round the restaurants on the Plaza de Mina and chose a cafe with tables on the square which looked well patronised and had some slightly different dishes on offer.   We had tortillas de camerones and a tomato and burrata salad for starters and Peter ordered a grilled sole for his main and I ordered the chicken and chorizo paella.   After the starters, Peter's sole appeared but my paella didn't.   When we could catch the waiter's eye, which was some minutes, during which Peter had almost finished his sole, it turned out that he hadn't actually placed the order for the paella.  Much apologising, but that didn't help and I had to resort to choosing something quicker off the menu as the paella takes half and hour.   I was very disappointed!

In the morning our taxi was very prompt and we were off on the start of our journey back to Norwich.  A good break.  Very relaxed and an interesting town with lots of people watching opportunities.  Friendly people too.  We wouldn't rate it very highly on the food front though.  Too many restaurants serving the same dishes and a lot of fried food.   A good place for a winter break - it was very hot when we were there. 

Cadiz at last: Day 3

Another late start!   This is the most laid back holiday, what with late starts and long siestas!  

Inside the museum

Still hot outside, though maybe a tad cooler than yesterday.  Our first stop was the Cadiz Museum, just around the corner from the flat.   Cool and quiet inside with a small collection of fine art, modern art and archaeology.  The museum is arranged around an open courtyard.   Made me feel slightly vertiginous!

Corrugated cardboard

Coffee stop

A dog/man chained to a TV!
a metaphor for our times...

We spent about an hour there and then headed across the Plaza de Mina  for coffee.  We stopped to buy a fan for Laura (spoiler alert, if you're reading this Laura!)   From there we walked to the Tavira Tower, but the map was misleading and we wandered about not quite finding it at first.  Eventually we stumbled on it.   Can't see the camera obscure without being on a guided tour, so we've booked ourselves on the tour for tomorrow morning - I couldn't face the climb up the tower today!   Then to the nearby central market, where we bought our rolls and two oranges, and back to the flat for lunch.  Simon What'sApped us so we had a long chat with him.

A little later we went on a short shopping trip for shoes for Peter (unsuccessful) another couple of fans (the choices are not great) and two bottles of Manzanilla sherry, which we are re-developing a taste for.   Then back to the flat to drop off the purchases and enjoy another glass of our host's wine and some tortilla chips before heading out for supper.  

The restaurant Casa Lazo

After much research we chose a busy looking place not far from the market, Casa Lazo.  We were amongst the earlier diners (at 8.30pm) but it soon filled up.   The waiter had all the dishes in colour on his phone!   It wasn't a sophisticated menu but we enjoyed calamari and octopus as starters with our sherry, then cod in a tasty sauce with a few limp chips for main course with a glass of white wine.  Deserts were non existent but we had some ice cream thingy straight from the packet!   We'd forgotten there was an ice cream place just round the corner!

The remains of the octopus

Cod in sauce

Cadiz at last: day 2

Looking down on the lobby of the block of flats

We got up fairly late, understandably, and had a frugal breakfast of cornflakes and banana and a cup of tea.  After much consultation of maps and newspaper cuttings, and taking the advice of Pablo, we walked up our street to the sea and then along the front where the path circles the 'nose' of Cadiz!   It was hot and the humidity was high, the sea was sparkling and clear and the sky was blue!

No idea what kind of tree this is

We admired some amazing trees, and some topiary.  We searched for a coffee stop but rejected the large modern Parador with its trendy furniture made from pallets, in favour of a bar, Quilla, that had been recommended for dinner in the evening.
 

Pallet furnitu

Topiary and blue sky

The waiter was a little surly, but we had two coffees and a much needed glass of water.  From our seats we could admire the sandy bay and the beach covered in bodies, with more bodies standing about in the shallow water.   There were also a lot of boats moored.  The shallowness of the beach and the fact that people were just standing about and not swimming, made it less of an attraction for us.

Central market, Cadiz

We turned inland along Rosa and headed for the central market where we admired the fish!   We decided on a light lunch and a siesta so we bought two freshly made sandwiches, some plums, a bottle of Coke Zero and a packet of corn tortillas.   Armed with these we threaded our way back to the apartment through the narrow streets.   After lunch we checked out a few restaurants and Peter rang and booked at Codigo de Barra, which has got good reviews.   Stand by for food pictures!

The Cathedral

Royalty at the Cafe Royalty!  

After a long siesta, catching up on reading and emails etc., we sampled the wine our host had left for us with some corn chips before setting off on an evening saunter before supper.  We went down Calle San Francisco which was lively and had a mixture of shops.  At a large square we turned right and found the even larger square in front of the Cathedral (which was closed for the evening).  On the steps a bride was having her photo taken and appeared to be undressing!   We moved on from the hot square to a shady street which took us to the plaza where our restaurant was located.   At first we were dismayed to see that the restaurant showed no signs of life, but we had time to spare so we went to the Cafe Royalty for a glass of sherry and admired the decor.    Through the window, Peter kept an eye on the Codigo de Barra and we were relieved to see that just a few minutes before our reservation time of 8.30pm the restaurant sprang to life, the tables were laid on the square and all was well!

We went over and sat down and the meal began!  We started with another sherry, and some tortillitas de camerones - shrimp fritters served with a pink mayonnaise.   While we were enjoying these we were presented with what looked like two olives in olive oil.  Turned out they were a surprising explosion in the mouth of icy green shell and something tasty inside.  We also had a glass of some kind of warm meat broth with a piece of dried jamon balanced on the top.  Our waitress explained that this represented the first tapas when some king (?) had asked for his glass to be covered to prevent flies falling in - I think that was the gist of the story.   Then our starters.  Prawns in sherry for Peter, in a froth of something delicious and unidentifiable.  Sweetbreads for me.  Small, rich and very tasty.   By now, beginning to regret the bread we had been dipping in the olive oil, we were feeling quite full and had to find room for our steak and mashed potato!  Actually, the steak was not that good.  The flavour was fine, but there was too much gristle.  The red wine was good though.  We consoled ourselves afterwards with a shared cold soup of mango with cardamon ice cream.  And threaded our way home.

Sherry

'Olives'

Sweetbreads

Prawns in sherry

Steak

Cadiz at last! Day 1

When we last tried to get to Cadiz in February, we were thwarted by high winds creating havoc at Amsterdam airport and after a day in the lounge we aborted and returned home. When we checked up on our flights this time, we found that the ground staff at Amsterdam were striking between 8 and 10, the very window between our arrival and departure for Madrid!  When we landed at Amsterdam, we sat on the tarmac looking at the aircraft steps tantalisingly near but not attached.  The captain was humorous and promised coffee, but not for everyone as they only had 72 cups!!  Just when we were wondering how they were going to decide who went without, the two bus drivers who were waiting, took matters into their own hands and moved the steps themselves. The aircraft door opened and they got a round of applause!

From Amsterdam we took a flight to Madrid and then a yellow bus to the Atocha train station and got our seats in first class for the 4 hour train  ride to Cadiz, travelling through a dry, brown landscape peppered with olive trees and vines.

Atocha station

View from the train 

Our Airbnb host Pablo was waiting outside the apartment building and took us through the essentials. The apartment is in an old building built round a covered courtyard. 

The courtyard 

Waiting for tapas

The apartment is spacious and white!  Our immediate excursion at about 8.45pm  was to Carrefour for milk and cornflakes!  The narrow streets were busy with amblers and  the squares alive with little footballers!  We returned our shopping to the flat and headed to the nearest square for supper and  a glass of wine.

And then home to bed!  We had been up since 4.0 am

Askham, Cumbria: Day 6

Coffee shop

Well, the good weather was too good to last and today we had drizzle.   Just enough to wet the garden, but not enough to stop us going out for the day.   We collected Joe's paper and drove to Carlisle and found parking for the day.  We ambled in the direction of the centre on the lookout for coffee.   We spurned Costas in favour of something more individual and spotted an old fashioned coffee and tea emporium with tables.   It was a delightfully old fashioned place with a long list of different types of coffee served in cafetieres.   We chose a medium roast Colombian.  It was a little weak, but had a good flavour and it washed down a fruit scone (half each) very nicely.   I ventured downstairs to the loo and passed through storage and what looked like a museum below stairs.

Tullie Museum

Refreshed we went to the tourist office and got a street map and then made for the Tullie Museum.  We had been here before but it seemed to have had a make-over.   We started in the old house and saw an exhibition of items from the collection mixed with Japanese prints.  Then upstairs to an exhibition about pre-Raphaelites and into the main part of the museum.   Peter and I lost each other and were finally re-united with the aid of Peter's phone which, amazingly, he had with him.   We had lunch in the elegant museum cafe and then returned to see a film of Carlisle life and rounded off the visit with the exhibition of automata.  They were delightful and funny.  Cleverly the models were interspersed with examples of mechanisms (ratchets, gears, levers, cams etc.) that you could operate.  We had great fun making everything work.

Back at the house we did some packing and sorting as we leave in the morning.  Then we walked down through the village to the Punchbowl Inn, which Joe and Helen had told us wasn't very good in comparison with the Queen's Head.   However, the Punchbowl did hot food in the evening so we chanced it.  The waitress was extremely good and friendly and the food was good pub food.   Peter had fish and chips and I had sausage and mash which was well done.   We had a taster trio of three beers served in small glasses on a wooden holder which we hadn't seen done before.   The pub was hopping with a weird wedding party from Scotland.   Half the men wore kilts and the other half identical suits and the ladies wore an assortment of close fitting garments!   We asked the waitress if the bride had already left and were told that she and the groom broke up between the church and the reception and had gone their separate ways!!!!   Apparently they had both come from New Zealand to get married (and the waitress said the wedding had cost £12,000) and we could only speculate at the story behind this.   A coach finally came and took some of the guests away, but not before an argument had broken out in the bar between a regular and a tipsy Scot over the swearing that was going on.   I thought this was a bit unfair as, although they were downing vast numbers of pints and going in and out to the loo, they were quite quiet and kept themselves to themselves.   Who knows what had been going on!   Anyway, it made for a different and amusing end to our Askham holiday.

Askham, Cumbria: Day 5

Another fine day.  The temperature promised to rise to 17 but it seemed warmer.   We collected Joe's paper from the village store and then drove to Great Strickland across the M6 in the Eden valley.   I had found a figure of 8 walk in two sections which rotated around the pub in the middle of the village.   I had called the day before to ask about food and was disappointed to find that they don't serve food until 5.0pm.   Forewarned, we took a packed lunch and parked in the pub car park as directed by the walk instructions.

This walk was a farmland walk with some forest thrown in....and an awful lot of stiles, wooden and stone.  Each section was 3 miles long.  We took the southern loop first as the route looked more complicated and we thought we'd tackle it when fresh!  We made one mistake and toured round a field to locate the gate but eventually found the way.   Great countryside with herds of sheep, inquisitive heifers and darting hares.   Also a wonderful view of the Pennines across the fields.

We arrived back at the pub salivating over the idea of a pint of beer...only to find that they don't open until 5.0pm, which hadn't been clear from their website or my telephone conversation.  Still the publican was very apologetic and pointed us in the direction of drinking water and allowed us to eat our lunch at his picnic tables.  Eliot phoned just as we arrived at the pub and we talked to him all through lunch!

The second stage of the route was equally varied with some very overgrown paths, some good bridleways and sunken paths.   Towards the half way point we couldn't make sense of the instructions at all and had to resort to my phone satellite image.   We went wrong at some point and reached a road, but it was the road back to Great Strickland so we stuck with it.   On the way into the village we met a woman who had helped us find our path when we were setting off.  She joked that if we'd turned the other way we'd have come to the ice cream farm!   Back at the pub, the publican also mentioned the ice cream farm so it seemed fated that we should pay a visit.   We had a tub each of strawberry and hazelnut (2 separate flavours) and very good it was too.   We felt we needed the reward!  My fit bit tells me that we walked 7.5 miles.

Back in the car we went into Penrith and bought food for supper, which Peter is cooking.  Spag Bol!

Pennines in the distance

Path through the wood

Orchid???

Mmm!   I earned this!

Askham, Cumbria: Day 4

Acorn Bank front

Up at a relaxed hour and after breakfast went to the village shop for milk and some bread for toast tomorrow morning.   Then off to a National Trust property not far away called Acorn Bank.  It was a large sandstone house with a chequered history going right back to the Norman Conquest!  Not the actual house of course, but a dwelling on the site.  We had a cup of coffee and then explored the gardens and the vegetable plots and the orchards and then dived back into the cafe for a quick lunch before the house tour at 2.0pm.

The sunken garden

Border

Sunken garden

The guide at first seemed nervous, but she was very knowledgeable and had us walking round the outside of the house picking out the evidence for the various stages of construction and re-construction in the brickwork and windows.   The house was enlarged at one stage to cater for a family that had 21 children - some of whom survived beyond infancy.   The house is empty, the then director of the National Trust having so seriously annoyed the owner who was trying to gift it to the trust that she emptied it of its contents before moving out.   For many years it was a home run by the Sue Ryder foundation and is now in a curious state...not derelict, but dusty and bare.   It will cost millions to put back into an interesting condition, though the guide made even bare rooms come alive.  

After the tour we walked in the grounds to visit the nature hide and then returned, as if magnetised, to the cafe for tea (and cake - sh!).  

We made supper at home with 6 eggs and all the left over bits and pieces we brought with us - potato, spring onion, one small home grown courgette, half a chorizo, garlic - and two tomatoes found on the kitchen window sill.  They combined into a tasty fritatta. 

Askham, Cumbria: Day 3

Glorious weather for walking.  We set off from the front door and walked up to Askham Fell and then over the top and down to Pooley Bridge.  I was puffed in places on the way up, though the views were stunning and rewarded the effort.  All downhill into Pooley Bridge, the last part on a tarmac road that seemed to go on forever.   I couldn't face the walk back (hip playing up a bit) and after lunch, called a taxi and headed home leaving Peter to walk the 4.5 miles back.   He wondered what I would do with the afternoon, clearly forgetting that Wimbledon is on!

New sign posts - very reassuring

Looking back to Askham

Peter

First glimpse of Ullswater

Peter made good time on the way back, no longer held up by me!  He was pleased with himself.  We spent a leisurely afternoon reading in the sun, knitting etc and tackled the hose again and watered the veg and the pots.   Peter rummaged in the garden shed and found a different hose connector which seemed to click in better so perhaps when we water tomorrow we won't get soaked!

In the evening we drove to the George and Dragon for a meal.  Peter had scallops with 'truffle peas' which were very good.  I had a crab and prawn cocktail which promised to be good but was spoilt by a rather harsh dressing and a lot of cold wet salad underneath.  Peter followed his scallops with rump steak with the usual trimmings and excellent, really hand cut, chips.  I had locally reared pork chop with black pudding mash and green veg.  The flavours were excellent but the whole dish rather heavy.   We finished off with coffee ice cream.  We are creatures of habit.  We read the whole menu and study the specials and then Peter invariably chooses steak and I go for some heavy, meaty dish.  Afterwards,  feeling bloated, I wondered why I almost never choose fish!    Next time we eat out I'll make myself go for the really light dishes and see how it feels!

Askham, Cumbria: Helen's garden

Summer house and veg

I've mentioned the garden several times already.  It is clearly a labour of love.  This is  the back garden.  There is an equally beautiful, though much smaller, front garden.   Helen has a great way of combining plants and shrubs, colours and shapes. 

Looking back to the house

Alongside the wildflower meadow

Wildflower meadow

An example of clever planting

The main lawn

Something to look at at every turn

The side path alive with bees

The lower terrace

Shed and water butt

Looking up the garden from the house