The Pride of Hull
Back in August I thought it would be fun to visit my friend Monique in Amsterdam and instead of flying travel the slow way by train and ferry and coach. The P&O Ferries Company sells “Minicruises at mini prices“. Several fellow passengers were just sailing over for the day. But I decided to book the one night version which included two nights on the ferry and a night (you can arrange this yourself, as I did, or P&O will do the honours for you) in Amsterdam.
“Enjoy a mixture of history and horse racing as our walk takes us through the glorious Coverdale countryside to the pretty and interesting Coverham Church. After lunch we will return over the famous High Moor Gallops to Middleham with the opportunity to view the ‘Middleham Jewel’ as we complete our walk.”
This morning I met up with my friend Lynne (dovegreyreader) in Ashburton. It’s our regular annual get-together which some years includes hikes on Dartmoor and others lunch or coffee and a natter at one of our favourite places in Ashburton – Moorish. We sometimes swop a little gift and this time I’d brought a knitting pattern for Lynne; she had kindly brought me a knitting pattern and the yarn to go with it. So, after we’d said our goodbyes I cadged a lift into Bovey Tracey in order to visit Spin-A-Yarn to buy the relevant knitting needles and get started.
But only for an hour!
However, with help from the enthusiastic team of volunteers I managed to fill the hour between 3.30pm and 4.30pm last Sunday without leaving Hull Paragon Station (as we knew it in my student days in the 1970s).
The City has had a changing programme of events throughout the year and I was lucky to catch a day full back in August.
Map of Cape Cod by Consuelo Joerns, a friend of Edward Gorey, on sale in the shop
On our first return to Cape Cod in 2008, after an interval of 29 years, I discovered The Edward Gorey House and made a visit and posted my photos here. On our last Saturday of this year’s trip, after checking out of our Airbnb in Barnstable, I made a second visit to the house.
During our visit to the Lund Botanical Garden we came across a small exhibition at the far end of one of the tropical greenhouses. The display was part of Lund’s 350 years celebration and was dedicated to the selection of plants found in the coffin of former Bishop of Lund, Peder Winstrup.
Lund is a small, compact city so it was easy to walk round to all the principle sites. The map leaflet was very handy to ensure we didn’t miss anything. We included some window-shopping and book shop browsing and a bit of eating and tea drinking throughout the day. The route starts at Lund Cathedral where we joined a tour in English.
Lund Cathedral
After breakfast on Monday 3 July at precisely 9.30am as predicted our taxi transfer arrived to pick us up and transport us to Simrishamn train station and at 10am (also on the dot!) our holiday with Macs Adventure came to end. And so the final couple of days of my Big Adventure were to be spent in the cultured and historic university city of Lund.
The train journey involved a change of train and we decided to take the bus instead; a journey of about an hour and a half.
Lilla Hotellet, Lund
Most of our walk along the Österlen Way was along pretty level paths – always looking out for those orange route markers (sometimes just a dash of paint on a post) to confirm we were on the right track – mostly hugging the coastline but as we neared the end we had to pass through Stenshuvud National Park (Stenshuvud Naturrum). Here there were good facilities and plenty of printed information in English.
Day One
The most ‘commercial’ ancient monument along our route was the Ales Stenar preserved stone ship on the cliffs above Kåseberga harbour almost at the end of our first day’s walking. It is the largest preserved stone ship in Sweden and, on this occasion, we were not the only visitors. I say ‘commercial’ as there were probably about 20 other people on the site. There is no charge to view and the stones just sit there as they have for centuries (carbon 14 dating puts it at 500 – 1000 AD).
miladysboudoir 