Rupit to Mas La Serra : 10.5 miles

Jun2

Often on ATG walks you’re offered a choice of routes to reach the next point on your itinerary. Needless to say we chose the longer walks on this trip.

“Day 2 Rupit to Mas La Serra via La Salut: From Rupit, pass the Salt de Sallent, follow paths along the edge of the Collsacabra with splendid views, then walk through open grassy pastures and woodland to the superbly situated Santuari de Nostra Senyora de la Salut, before continuing on to accommodation in a spectacular setting (10.2 miles, 5 hrs).” [As usual we made some detours and covered more mileage than this … and took longer, of course]

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Walking in the Hills of Girona : Rupit Circular

May29

Last week was my annual summer walking trip with my sister. For the sixth consecutive year we chose an ATG Independent Footloose holiday; our first in Spain. I say Spain, but we were very much under the impression that we were in a country called Catalonia with its own language, flag, foods and distinctive geography.

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Llanrhaeadr : The Jesse Window and a Holy Well

May16

Welcome to St Dyfnog’s

On our way back from Foel Fennli we stopped in the village of Llanrhaeadr, bypassed by the main road, to visit the church of St Dyfnog and its famous Jesse Stained Glass Window. The church gains 3 stars in the Jenkins Wales book. Apparently, the “rhaeadr” part of the name means waterfall.

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The Llangernyw Yew : The Oldest Tree in Wales and a Forgotten Poet

May13

… And one of the oldest living things in the world! I don’t know why we don’t all know about this phenomenon. From The Pulpit Yew we drove on to the village of Llangernyw in order to find this ancient yew – more than 4,000 years old.

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Saint Digain’s Church also features in Simon Jenkins’s best buildings in Wales book.

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The Pulpit Yew : Nantglyn, North Wales

May12

Earlier this week I spent a few days in North Wales with two friends. We stayed in a lovely old Landmark Trust property, Dolbelydr, near Trefnant in Denbighshire.

Here’s an extract from the Landmark Trust website about Dolbelydr :

“Meadow of the Rays of the Sun

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La Laguna: the Old University City of Tenerife

May2

On Tuesday we had a change from hiking and took the bus from nearby Los Cristianos to the capital of Tenerife in the north of the island, Santa Cruz. The journey takes about an hour. After coffee at the Opera House we took a bus and tram to the former capital and university and cathedral city of La Laguna.

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Ickworth Grand Tour

Mar13

The weekend before last I spent three nights staying near Bury St Edmunds at a National Trust cottage on the Ickworth Estate. A friend and I stopped to visit Ely Cathedral on our journey down from Yorkshire on Friday; we visited Bury St Edmunds Cathedral and The Moyses Hall Museum on Saturday and our plan for Sunday was to walk The Ickworth Grand Tour Walk. The IGTW is a seven mile walk that begins at the NT car park. In our case, we could begin it from our Horringer Park Gates front door.

Horringer Park Gates at Ickworth Main Entrance

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Meet the Neighbours : The Grange Tour

Feb22

Welcome to The Grange

St Edward’s Presbytery on St Augustine’s Road, Ramsgate is just part of the original religious community that was Pugin’s master plan.

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Festive Greetings

Dec25

I hope you will enjoy this post reblogged from Echoes of the Past. The beautiful Nativity windows are in the parish church of Holt in Norfolk (my home county). Christmas Greetings to you all and thank you for visiting here throughout the past year.

Echoes of the Past

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I found this beautiful Nativity stained glass window today, Christmas Eve 2016, in St Andrews Church in Holt, Norfolk. We had a lovely day, and I’m not sure where everyone was, as the roads were quite empty and we just visited some of our favourite small towns and villages in Norfolk. I got to visit two churches, one working water mill and we had lunch in a converted mill, so quite a good day really, although I still have a cold, it was not going to beat me……well only a little.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone, and I hope your day is truly blessed 🙂

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Back in Bern!

Dec13

During November Milady was called to the Jury at Leeds Crown Court and those two (harrowing) weeks were followed by a week busy visiting family and friends in Norwich, London and Surrey and last week preparing for Christmas – writing cards, shopping and buying presents – and planning and packing for THIS week in Switzerland!