Jul 2007

This old claim to fame probably still stands because there certainly seem to be a lot of pubs - one on every corner. And there is no shortage of churches especially in the old town, there are at least 6 significant, old, stone churches and cathedrals.

In the street we have just moved to (today) there are 4 pubs to choose from – The Fat Cat, The Nelson, another by the river (name unknown) and The Alexandra. We haven’t even looked down the side streets or cross streets yet. They all look like typical English pubs - low heavy wooden ceilings, lots of old pictures on the walls, jugs and pewter mugs hanging from the ceilings, dark wooden bars, dart boards, and of course a roast for Sunday lunch.

Just walking into our closest pub, The Nelson, at lunchtime on Sunday, the smell takes me back to those family dinners at my grandparents’ house, where we always had a roast. Today for 5.95 each we had a roast dinner large enough to fill even a growing and always hungry 15 year old. There was a steady flow of customers who must have also decided it was easier to go to the pub than to try to cook the same meal at home - choice of lamb or beef roast (or both), potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbage, swede (whatever that is) cauliflower, all drowned in gravy, horseradish or mint sauce. We had to reveal ourselves as inexperienced roast eaters though and ask what the strange bowl-like pastry things were and how you eat them – Yorkshire Pudding of course! A slightly amused chef said he like to put them on top of the plate of food and fill them with gravy. It was pretty good and for our first day in the neighbourhood we felt like locals. Pity about the warm ale though …

Folk music is alive and flourishing here and some pubs also provide a venue for music nights where anyone if they know the jigs and reels by heart and are brave enough, can join in. It is more entertaining for me to sit, listen and watch. Looks like we might be spending a fair bit of time at the pub down the road.

There is a real sense of history as well as old world charm when you enter the city of York. The Normans invaders reached York in 11th century but the history of York goes back to the Romans, Saxons and Vikings before that.
The city centre is surrounded by great stone gates and medieval stone walls which you can walk around for a good introduction to the city and to appreciate just how long it has been there and the battles it must have faced. There still are many old and fascinating buildings in the old town. At the centre is York Minster, an enormous medieval cathedral which dates back to 1220 but has been extended rebuilt and repaired several times since. The Shambles – the original butchers markets – with its narrow street and leaning tudor style buildings is a wonderful step back in time. The Shambles leads into the market place just where it has been for hundreds of years., and still selling locally grown fruit, veg and smoked fish. You feel like you are living in history in York. There is Cliffords Tower from the 13th century which stands on the same mound as the original Norman’s tower to guard the city.
We now rate museums on their ability to keep 15 year olds interested and the Yorvic Viking Museum gets full marks. On the actual site where a Viking street was discovered and excavated they have recreated the street.
Using s system of suspended chairs you are shown around the old street to watch people at their trade – the leather worker, the blacksmith etc. Explanation in a language of your choice comes from the headrest in the chair. It gives you a very good impression of how daily life was carried out by the Vikings in about 800 AD. After that there are artifacts found at the actual site, bones and skeletons where the injuries sustained on the skeletons are explained and possible cause of death determined…. archeological forensic science.

There are certainly some advantages to living in Europe – lots of nearby countries to visit and cheap flights. This is a whole new way to spending the weekend quite foreign to Australians.

Everything is so close – 2 hour from Spain to Britain, 2 hours from Germany to Italy. But the real surprise is the price. There are a few airlines that really take price wars to the maximum. We thought we were very lucky to find some tickets from Barcelona for 30 euros each and then from Granada to London for 15 euros each one way. We even bought a seat for the guitar because it was cheaper than paying excess luggage for it. Lily bought a ticket a week later with the same airline and paid 1 cent!! It seemed incredible. Unfortunately they don't fly to every airport and if it is not a popular travel time the prices are higher.

In some towns they use outlying airports if the runways or late night flights cost less, and there are airport taxes of course. Big penalities apply for changing flights etc. They cover a few costs by charging 6 euros for each item of luggage and manage to get a bit more back by lowering the luggage allowance. From Australia the allowance is 20 kgs/person but if you fly with Ryan Air - one of the main cheap airlines - it is only 15 kgs. And they charge 8 euros for every kilo overweight. This of course means everyone carries a lot more in their hand luggage and wears all their heaviest clothes

We saw them weigh some people’s hand luggage but luckily they didn’t weigh ours. (They would have made a fair bit of money).

The other price saving strategies they use are that the flight a strictly No Frills – that includes no food or drink provided - we saw quite a few passengers bring out their own packed lunch and cans of beer or soft drink. There are no seat allocations so you can sit wherever you like, the seats don't recline and they sell raffles tickets during the flight to win free travel!

All this still seems amazing that they are able to operate an airline with full staff and to safety regulations, where only a small percentage of the seats are sold at full price and the other tickets are sold progressively cheaper and cheaper.

It doesn’t stop with the airfares - some agencies can arrange package tours where the flight may only cost a few euros or pounds and hotels accommodation for a couple of pounds each per night. We have yet to explore this option. I have heard of a buck’s party going to Latvia for the weekend from Britain.

Air travel is a much harder, longer and more expensive option for Australians.

It feels like stepping back in time. Think pounds not dollars, miles not kilometers, inches not centimeters, pints not liters and pence not cents. The people are polite, genteel and friendly, The villages are small, the roads are narrow and the houses are ever so cute. This is what we have found in North Norfolk about three hours north of London.

It is like stepping onto a film set for a BBC production of Heartbeat or All Creatures Great and Small. The villages have narrow winding streets, sometimes not wide enough for a car. The houses open directly onto the streets. They have low doorways (one advantage to being short), low ceilings, attic windows and some still have thatched roofs. There are hand-made stonewalls and buildings from the local round flint rocks everywhere. Cottage gardens straight from the gardening books and almost impossible to achieve in Australia are in.

We are staying an 18th century cottage in a small village called Wells-next-the-Sea in a street called Knitting Needle Lane – how cute is that! The village and street names are quaint and very descriptive - Rose Lane, Oak Street Mill Road, Northfield Lane, Polka Road, Bolts Close, Chapel Yard, Mill Road, Marsh Lane and High Street.

Allotments are popular. People from the city and towns like to have their own place to plant potatoes, beans and gooseberries in a communal garden area. It is a nice way to grow your own and make up for limited garden space at home.

Some other great names we spotted in our travels in England so far include Upper Goat Lane followed by Lower Goat Lane, Great Snoring next to Little Snoring of course, Adam and Eve Lane, Unthank Road, Two Furlong Hill Road, Blackhorse Yard and Jolly Sailor Yard.

To give you a bit of background - the Alhambra has had a colourful and eventful past which is reflected in its architecture and gardens. It started out as a Moorish fortress in 9th century and converted into a palace in 13th century. Granada was the last Moorish stronghold until the Spanish regained control in the 15th century. The large sections that remain of the Moorish buildings and gardens are what make Alhambra the magical place that it is.

A lot has been written about the Alhambra in Granada and you wonder if such beautiful descriptions could be true – they are. A few words that come to mind are: beautifully proportioned, ornately decorated, intricately moulded, beautiful tiled, delicately carved ceilings, Arabic inscriptions – you get the idea. Even the bathouses have star-studded roofs. Each room, each garden, each view, each angle is picture perfect. The cameras were non-stop from the other 1000 or more visitors today (except mine which ran out of batteries!) It is such a big complex it is hard to take it all in and we were all suffering from ´Gallery Foot´ and over dosed on arches and carved wall patterns by the end of the morning.

One of the most pleasing aspects to the Alhamabra is the use of water – water is an art form. Water is the link between patios and gardens – it can be either seen or heard everywhere creating a soothing, cooling effect although it must be 38 degrees outside. There are pools in every courtyard, aqueducts transporting water beside or below the streets, fountains, ponds, trickling and splashing, even hand rails carrying water.

The Alhambra is really an amazing place where every aspect has been considered and beautifully constructed to reflect the Islamic beliefs of God, the earth and beauty.