Snapshots from our travels

Snapshots - more pictures from our travels...

Japanese Food

Some snaps from Guimarães, Portugal

Spanish Photo Album

Morocco pix have their own page, click this button

Morocco Slideshow

More bird pix on our birdwatching page, click this button

Birdwatching

Some New Zealand photos

New Zealand

The Mesquita Cordoba

The Pousada in Estoi Portugal

At the warm bread and cheese fair Vacqueiros, Portugal 2013

Inside the church at Cluny in France.

Moon over almond orchard, Cabanas

Not much to say here, lovely full moon over wintering almond trees.

Dawn over the Ria Formosa

Reading through the manual of our new Sony camera we discovered this option where you get a black and white picture but with a single additional colour, in this case yellow.

Cacela Velha

Cacela Velha is a short trip from our winter camping spot, there's not much there, a couple of cafes and restaurants a fort that now houses a radar station but it is very pretty, as you can see in this shot taken at dusk recently.

Sao Joao da Barra Fort

This is the fort at Cabanas de Tavira, inside these days there is a house and a swimming pool - you can see this on Google Earth. According to Tripadvisor it is now a B&B.

Dolmen near Monsaraz

At the aire at Monsaraz

Plaza Mayor Salamanca 2012

Ainsa, Spanish Pyrenees 2012

Cordes sure Ciel 2012

Puycelci church 2012

Albi 2012

Medieval festival Le Puy en Velay 2012

Medieval festival Le Puy 2012

Praying Mantis

We saw this paddling praying mantis at Tavira in Portugal

Boiro, Galicia

Free camping in Spain

Brantome, France

The aire at Brantome, it cost about 5euro a night.

The Wild Galician coast

Cabo Ortegal

Fabulous wild coast,we were hoping to see dolphins but only waves.

La Coruna Celt

Near the Tower of Hercules in La Coruna is this very large statue. The information board was in Spanish and Galician and as far as we could make out this was a Celtic warrier who either came Ireland or went from here to Ireland.way Either way he was meant to be able to see Ireland from here - bloody good eyesight if you ask me.
Galicians are proud of their Celtic heritage which is no doubt why this fabulous structure has such a prominent position.

Fuente De

This is Sheila at 1800 metres in the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain.On a windy day it was a bit exciting - especially standing on this metal shelf.

Oradour sur Glane

This French village is a lasting memorial of WWII atrocities. A very interesting and thought provoking place to visit. For more info click here oradour sur glane info

Potes

This is Potes in Picos de Europa which we visited in September 2010. A lovely little town and a good spot for visiting the Picos - campsite very good too.

La coruna

Mosaic octopus in Coruna.

Our campsite in Romania

For more info on this campsite click here Vampirecamping

Bulgarian folk singer

The blue mosque in Istanbul

Turkish multiculturalism

We came across this very colourful parade near Edermli which was celebrating the various cultures that make up Turkey.

Sanliurfa

Going home time after afternoon prayers.

Red Basilica

This is the red basilica in Bergama. St John the Evangalist called this the church of the Devil, perhaps because there was a bit of Egyptian cult worship going on at one time.It is now merely a shell although the tower in the foreground is now a mosque.

Pergamon

This is the Temple of Trajon at Pergamon acropolis.

Bergama

We stayed at Bergama so that we could visit the Pergamon acropolis. The town is very nice and despite having a tourist attraction overlooking it, it remains very "untouristy" and a pleasant place to wander. While we there the annual festival was on with lots of musical events each evening and one day we came across folk dancers doing their bit in the street - we wondered if these were Greek.

Ephesus

This is the library at Ephesus which is a vast and very popular tourist attraction. We got there at opening time before the hundreds of coach parties (I am not exaggerating here) arrive - otherwise it would be impossible to have taken this picture. See below - by 11am it was like Oxford Street before Christmas.

Pamukkale

Another view of the travertines with the small town of Pamukkale in the distance.

Saklikent Gorge

We thought that we were going for a walk where we might just get our feet a bit wet...

Roman Ruin

This amphitheatre is part of a complex near Edermli that was only discovered three years ago. The Romans started it and then the Byzantines did some remodelling. Sheila is on this picture to give an idea of the size of this place.

Cappadocia

On our first morning in Goreme we were awakened at 5am by the sound of hot air balloons being inflated - when we counted there were about 50 of them - each balloon has about 20 people in and each person has paid 130 euro - do the math.

Cappadocia 2

St Sophia

St Sophia is a massive building and even more impressive when you know it was completed in 537 AD. It was the largest church in Chritiandom until it was converted into a mosque in 1453.

Mosaic in St Sophia

An extract from one of several beautiful mosaics in St Sophia in Istanbul.

Basilica cistern

This was built in 500 BC and is 140m wide and 70m wide. Apparently it has a capacity of 100000 tons of water. It has been beautifully restored and the scale is most impressive. Only a little water these days but there are large carp in the water.

Catherine's Gate in Brasov

We thought that this beautiful building could be an inspiration for Disney.

The Black Church, Brasov

Romanian towns are big, crowded and busy but when you get into the heart of them they can be very attractive. This is the main church in Brasov and is called the black church because it was burned by Austrian troops hundreds of years ago, as you can see it is no longer black. Inside was draped with lots of Turkish prayer mats donated by returning merchants. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside and while this does not usually bother us there were vigilant guards noting our every move. We think this rule was to encourage us to buy their postcards.

Count Dracula's castle

This is the castle at Bran where Bram Stoker said Count Dracula lived - Vlad the Impaler did not actually live here at all. It is however a lovely building with a rich history.

One man and his horse.

We shared our meadow with this horse in a little village not far from Sibiu in Romania. The horse's owner came out every hour or so to move his horse's tether post to a fresh piece of meadow.

Cathedral in Pecs in Hungary

This cathedral was very attractive inside and out. The interior of this church had every surface decorated with intricate paintwork - reminded me of some Laura Ashley wallpaper we had in the 1990s.

Chiemsee, Germany

This is the dock at Seehausl camping at Chiemsee Lake with snowy mountains in the background.

Away Day

Camping Ria Formosa at Cabanas in Portugal is not only a nice place to stay but it is conveniently located for the railway station. This is Sheila and Brian & Mary Lambert waiting for the train to take us to Ayamonte and on to Spain for a day out. Needless to say the train fares bear no comparison to UK prices.

Arthur, Michelle, Sheila and Gilroy at Sidi Ifni

Singing in the rain

When this picture in December 2009 was taken we thought that the weather was pretty bad, we had had to take down our awning in the night. Little did we realise that it was to get much much worse. The three drain covers have been lifted to manage the flow of water.

This was much much worse

Christmas Day 2009, you can just about see those drain covers under a foot of water.

Orange flavoured lamb

IWe can buy oranges for 3 euros for 10 kilos and have enjoyed fresh orange juice each morning, these sheep enjoy a similar treat but enjoy the oranges whole.

Freshly harvested cork

In the Algarve there is a "Cork Trail" and we took this picture there. Make sure your wine bottle has a cork in it and not one of those plastic things otherwise a whole way of life including black pigs and cork oaks will come to an end.

Algarve swimming

This is the rather nice pool at Campismo Ria Formosa at Cabanas de Tavira , in November I can confirm that the water is bracing - but refreshing.

Caceres

Cacares in Portugal is a town we have intended to visit for some time but on our trip in 2009 we finally made it. There is free parking for motorhomes in a municipal aire and the old town was only a 10 minute walk away. There is a very pretty old town and this is a slightly different view of it.

Chameleon

The nature reserve at Olhao advertises chameleons on its brochure but 2009 was the first time we actually saw one. He was very obliging and allowed us to take plenty of snaps.

Tarragona

This is the cathedral in Tarragona, it is very interesting and made more so by the audio guides which are available for 50 cents.

Catalunya camping

This is October 09 - lovely weather and very nice campsite up in the hills of southern Catalunya.Gilroy playing cautious and keeping his jumper on. Our new kitchen tent is just visible and is proving very useful as an additional area for cooking and washing up.

Poblet

In southern Catalunya there are a number of Cistercian monasteries and Poblet is probably the biggest. The bell tower on the left of this photo is medieval, the middle tower is gothic and the tower on the right is late baroque - but I am sure you noticed this.

Ainsa

This is Ainsa and Gilroy waiting for his pitcher of cider and tapas for lunch. Ainsa is a lovely stone town in the Spanish Pyrenees, mostly 13h century and outside the main tourist season a lovely quiet town to visit.

Boltana

This is at the ruined castle of Boltana in the Spanish Pyrenees, in the background are the impressive Pyrenees themselves. Boltana is another pretty medieval stone town, the old towns here tend to be at e the top of a hill for security reasons - it makes the walk or the cycle up a bit of a challenge.

Geants

A number of the towns in northern France seem to have their own giants that come out at carnival time. These are the giants from Arras who spend non carnival time in the town hall.

Balloons at breakfast

The camp site at Haro in northern Spain is 500 metres from town and so a great place to stay. On our trip in September 09 we had hot air balloons taking off in the field next door and then flying right over us.

Clos Luce

Clos Luce is in Amboise and is where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. The house where he lived is now a museum with lots of models of Leonardo's inventions. The extensive gardens contain full size models of some of his inventions too. It is a nice place to spend a few hours.

Chartres

Chartres Cathedral is famous for its wonderful stained glass much of it dating from 13th century . Chartres is a by tourist town but nevertheless we were able to find somewhere in town to park our beast and take the short walk to the cathedral.

Capbreton

This is the aire at Campbreton, room for 200 motorhomes. Alongside the older geezers in motorhomes are bronzed young men in their surfing gear - a curious mix.

Arras

This is the town hall in Arras - our nearest one at home is not a patch on this one which was rebuilt after WW1.

Futuroscope

Futuroscope was opened in 1987 and to date has had 35 million visitors when we visited it was miserable weather and not that many people at all - the good news was that there were no queues.

Amboise

The Loire valley is full of lovely chateaux, we did a couple in September 09 and this is the one at Amboise which is a pretty little town.

Chambord

This modest little place was built as a hunting lodge. The grounds are extensive and a day out in themselves as you can cycle and picnic. When we were there there was opera in the gardens in the evening. Great car parking for motorhomes too.

Czech wooden church

This is one of 5 wooden churches in the Czech Republic, this one is at Dreveny and was vast and rather colourful inside but the taking of photos inside was prohibited and the two middle aged ladies acting as guides were particularly beady eyed.

Trying Hungarian Bulls Blood

Here we are wine tasting in Eger Hungary, the caves were dug into the cliff and were a little damp but atmospheric, the shiny things at the back of us were coins stuck into the concrete walls.

Ugly buildings

I know that in UK we have our fair share of ugly buildings but there was some pretty good ones on our Eastern Europe trip - so good we decided to photograph the ugliest, this is a likely winner to be found in Auschwitz in Poland - it was a hotel.
Looking out for candidates did brighten up some of the duller trips.

Hot Stuff

In a restaruant in Hungary these peppers were the accompaniment to a soup starter - use sparingly.

Lake Lipno

This is the view from our pitch at Lake Lipno in the south of the Czech Republic - there was about to be a huge thunderstorm so it was rather a scary shot rather than evening tranquility.

Hortobagy

At the fish ponds in the national park in Hungary were these friendly water buffalo - fortunately there was an electic fence between them and the cycle path.

Sausages

Sausages are obviously very very popular in eastern europe. This is a small part of the sausage counter in Tesco in the Czech Republic.

Zakopane

The market in Zakopane had a great selection of sheepskins at very very competitive prices - we simply had to buy.

Amiens

Amiens cathedral is the largest Gothic building in europe. It was badly damaged during WW1. It is pretty impressive as you can see. Apparently it was built over a relatively short period of time which means that the style remains pretty consistent rather than a hotchpotch where each new architect wants to make his mark during his tenure.

Vimy Ridge

This is the Canadian Memorial at Vimy at sunrise. This memorial which has over 11,000 names engraved upon it, there were over 60,000 Canadians and Newfounders killed during World War 1 and the 11,000+ names here are for those who have no grave. Newfoundland was not part of Canada at the time of the Great War which is why they are separately remembered on these memorials.

The dome in Florence

The inside of the dome of the cathedral in Florence has magnificent paintings - mostly depicting what awaits anyone going to hell. Pretty scary stuff.

Ponts Naturel

Minerve in France stands on an island which has been created by two rivers the Briant and the Cesse and the rivers also created two fabulous tunnels through the rock, this is Sheila demonstrating the sheer size of the tunnels.

Our house in Venice

No quite in St Marks Square but St Marks was only a ferry ride away from our campiste.

Home of the Bourgoisie ?

This is the 12th century cathedral at Bourges in the Loire. The cathedral is a World Heritage site but the people of Bourges are not called bourgoisie at all which is a pity.

Our home in the Camargue

We do have to stay in campsites now and again to get some of the housekeeping chores done but in Saintes Maries in the Camargue there are a couple of great aires to stay on which cost only a few euros a night but they don't have washing machines.

Portuguese sunset

There is nothing nicer than a cold beer while watching the sun go down. This is a shot taken from Pedro's bar in Armaceo in December 2008.

Pebble towers

In some parts of the world visitors like to leave their mark in the form of a pebble tower and Minerve ( France ) was one of thos places where there were hundreds of these pebble towers in the dry river bed.

Loule market

The model for this charming bronze was a lot smaller than me but Portugal is full of little women like me.

The aire at Bourges

This aire was free, close to town and had water and tank emptying facilities. It also had some electricity sockets but these were in use when we were there.

Fancy a bigger van?

Motorhomes come in all shapes and sizes, we suspect that this may have been a horse box at one stage. What you can't see here is the verandah that the guy puts out when he is staying for a while. There is a big sliding door on the side and then he has scaffolding to erect the verandah.

Portuguese local transport

Portugal remains very much an agricultural country and not a very wealthy one either. We spotted this 3 wheeler in Silves but similar vehicles are not uncommon. Note the wooden chair in the back for a passenger.

Rice Harvesting

On our autumn 2008 trip we managed to see a lot of rice being harvested - in the Camargue and in the Ebro delta. The machinery looks pretty similar to that used to harvest grain in the UK but rice grows in very wet fields and so the machinery needs either bigger wheels or additional traction such as you see on tanks. The little egrets and the grey heron love the paddy fields as it is obviously a good feeding ground with lots of little frogs.

Caterpillars

These little fellers were in the tree next to the van at our site in Burgundy. We don't know what they are but the threads were as strong as silk.

The Road to Dubrovnik

It is a long road down to Dubrovnik but the views are fabulous, this was our lunch spot on our trip, not sure which of the many islands this is in the background.

Our holiday home in Slovenia

We were able to camp on the waters edge at Lake Bohinj which in May/June is wonderfully tranquil.

Eguisheim

It is pronounced eggys hyme and is in Alsace. A beatiful little town and it is all as pretty as this.

Lady of the Lake

This is Sheila at Lake Bohinj

Annecy

A rather bleak looking site in Annecy in April 2008, note the snow on the mountain in the distance and the heavily pollarded tress.

Pretty Butterfly

This pretty butterfly is resting on some animal poo - our knowledge of animal poo spotting is non existent but the butterfly was nice.

Meat or fish?

Near to the Rio Formosa at Olhao (Portugal) is a little courtyard with a restaurant, the smell of charcoal cooking draws you in. When we first found this place you get a very reasonable meal in there for about 5 euro (probably twice that these days) and the choice is either meat or fish and if you choose fish it is whatever has been caught that day. In this picture you can just see a big platter of fish in the bottom right hand corner - and when it's finished the man brings more.

Do these come in a larger size?

This is El Rocio in La Donana in Spain. It is an unusual place that lacks any tarmac roads and has hitching posts outside the buildings for tying ones horse up. It is also a great place for bird watching and people watching. I dont think that this was a tourist shop, El Rocio is the sort of place where you can imagine traditional dress is still worn not infrequently

Burgundy is full of ...

delightful old towns with wonderful ancient buildings such as this one, which looked as though it was nearing the end of a makeover as you can see from the scaffolding outside - or maybe it was just going up so that the top could be plastered and painted. This photo was taken in Buxy which was one of the towns along the Voie Verte ( see France page).

Never buy a showerproof mac...

this is because in a really good downpour the rain gets in through all of the seams and the mac ends up serving no purpose at all. I should have opted for waterproof but of course they are a bit warm. This photo is Burgundy where we got caught in a great downpour and had no choice but to continue to cycle through for another 10kms or so. This picture cannot show just how wet I got but I do look pretty soggy.

Tapas & rioja - the perfect lunch

Haro is at the centre of the Rioja producing area in Spain. There are lots of wineries that you can visit, plenty of wine shops and also a good selection of bars and restaurants, at this particular bar there was a wonderful selection of tapas and we had a fabulous lunch and some very nice Rioja crianza .

He's got his eye on you.

In Nazare ( Portugal) the beach had a number of wooden racks with sardines drying on them which were guarded by little old ladies in black

He's got his eye on you - 2

Some years ago Lisbon hosted the Expo and the area in now being developed for commercial and residential uses and there is a splendid aquarium, promoted as the second largest in europe and in the main it comprises an enormous fish tank that one views from several levels. This is a ray which looks as though he is interested in his audience as he spent some time against the glass wall of the aquarium.

Torcal

I mentioned elsewhere on this site that we had visited Torcal in 2008 and the weather was fabulous, the same cannot be said for our first visit at the beginning of 2007 as you can see from this photo.

Roman aquaduct

Obidos in Portugal is a bit of a local tourist magnet and at Easter and Christmas time this little town gets itself all dressed up for its Portugese visitors . When we went there in November they were just getting the Christmas lights out and we did not quite have the carpark to ourselves although it looks like it from this picture. Note the fabulous Roman aquaduct.

Lisbon

Lisbon is built on a number of hills and so there is a series of elevadores to take you up to the heigher levels of the city. Most are funiculars but this is the elevador de Santa Justa which is actually a lift which takes you to the terrace at the top where you get a wonderful view of the city and which will also take you to another part of Lisbon. At the top is also a cafe so there is barely any room for liftsful of sightseers to get their cameras out.

I think that you can walk up too, but this would be too much like hard work.

Porto

As mentioned elsewhere on this site , parts of Porto are wonderfully shabby, the backs of buildings even shabbier. I am not sure if this would fall under the description shabby chic but it certainly added to the charm of Porto for us.

Meiji Mura

In Japan we came across an open air museum comprising old buildings which had been relocated from around the country.

An old brewery

Hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Scary Tokyo traffic sign

Inside the brewery you can see the wooden construction

Lovely retro dining area in the Hotel

People watching in Japan.

Lady selling dried peppers, Wajima

Punk tourists

Boys preparing to take part in Shinto Festival

It's 8.15 am and it's been raining heavily for the last six hours and the drains on site are not coping with the deluge. We are at the far end of the road from this flood but past experience tells us that the water will creep towards us at Chez Motorhomediaries but for the owners of the caravan in this picture will not be happy this morning. We're hoping it stops soon not least so we can catch up on our sleep as its been a noisy night for us.