MisterMan

We saw Misterman last week, it's a play just finishing it's run at the National Theatre, an Irish play, because literally that's all they seem to show.  The main reason we went to see it was because Cillian Murphy was the main (and only) actor in it.  He was the villain in Batman Begins, for those who may not know.  I have been calling him sillian, because I don't know how to say freaky Irish names, but I've just found out it's killian.  So apologies to everyone who I talked to about this and they had no idea who I was talking about.

Anyway he was pretty good in it, though definitely no Cate Blanchett, sorry Cillian, you have a bit more to go before you rival her.  Both Cate's and Cillian's performances were similar in that the play was basically a vehicle to show off their acting skillz.  Misterman was even more pared back, in that there were no other actors on stage throughout the entire performance, there were some voice recordings, but that was it.  It's just a shame that there didn't seem to be that much meat to the play, I mean Gross und Klein was incredibly weird, but there were still themes in there that you could think about.  Misterman not so much.  You got to the end and you're left thinking, is that it?  It seemed a waste of what was a fine performance.

Wales - Round Two

The start of the beach at Broad Haven

Dave and the lily ponds

We had to go back to Wales the other weekend, to finalise some things for later in the year.  This time it was a long weekend, so we got to spend a lot more time checking out the surroundings.  Plus I made sure I didn't over-indulge quite as much on the wine this time round.

This meant I was actually able to go for a bit of a walk whilst I was there.    I had bought a new sat nav, they don't call them GPS's here, so was keen to test it out with a bit of driving.

I got a Garmin, they are so much better than Tom Tom's, it seems that the Avis hire company are tied to Tom Toms.  After our Peaks District experience, where it would constantly try to take you down tiny, snow-covered, dirt roads, I was keen to not have to use one of those again.

The other weird thing with Tom Tom's is just how bad their search functionality and touch screen technology is.  I mean touch screens are not a new technology, how long have iPhone's been around, and yet the touch screen on the Tom Tom's seem to perversely delight in misinterpreting any and all finger touches.  And lets not talk about what they call a search function.  Basically if you don't know the exact address then the Tom Tom can't take you anywhere.

Dave and the expansive Broad Haven beach

Looking back along the cliffs, broad haven is opposite the rocks in the water

Whilst trying to decide which walk to do out of my awesome walk book, a couple of locals, independently, told us we should go out to the lily ponds and Barafundle beach.  We had been tossing up going out to a broad leaved forest, but when locals tell you to do something, it's hard to ignore.  This walk included part of the 300km Pembrokeshire Coast Path.  As the name suggests, it's a trail following the entire coast of the Pembrokeshire coast, though recently this trail has been extended to include the entire coast of Wales, pretty impressive.

Dave and the lily ponds, no lilies were blooming unfortunately

Part of the cliffs, swarming with rock climbers

The walk starts in the tiny village of Bosherston (no idea how to pronounce this, and I couldn't understand the locals when they said it), which is south west of Narberth, where we were staying.  The lily ponds of the walk are part of an artificial lake, created in the 18th century by damming a creek.  These ponds used to form part of the extensive Stackpole estate, now owned by the National Trust, and these gentry really know how to pick the best spots.

We didn't see Barafundle Bay, we walked in the opposite direction to Broad Haven instead, but it is routinely voted one of Britain's best beaches.  And I know what all the Australians are thinking, as if that is much of an achievement right, being voted the best out of a pebbly, polluted, over-crowded lot isn't much.  But let me say the beaches I saw this last weekend have completely turned me around.  I really was not expecting them to look like they did.

There are no massive carparks on any of the ones we visited, most of them did involve a bit of a walk, never more than 20 minutes, which meant that even though the beach was huge, there was hardly anyone on them.  To add to this, they were normally framed by fairly spectacular cliffs.  If only the temperature had been about 10 degrees warmer I think Dave may have been tempted, it would have had to be about 20 degrees warmer for me, but then I am from the tropics.

After admiring the beach for a bit, we scaled the cliffs to start following the Coast Path.

St Govan's Chapel

The spectacular cliffs around these parts

Through here we pass through a military range, which was open this weekend.  I do wonder how often it is closed, since it was such a pretty part of the coast.  There were signs up warning not to touch any unexploded military material as you may die.  But then there were cows and sheep all over the place, so I'm not sure what happens if they step on any unexploded material, seems like it could get rather messy.

From Broad Haven beach we headed west, along the top of the cliffs towards St Govan's Head, this was a peninsular sticking out into the Bristol Channel, one side of which were these spectacular cliffs, I'm talking Point Perpendicular at Jervis Bay spectacular, and they basically ran the full length of the coast.  Obviously this place was covered in rock climbers, there were permanent tether points in the ground, but I think you had to insert your own shackles into the rock.

The scrub in bloom

Huntsman's Leap

The name of this peninsular comes from a hermit who lived in these parts in the late 500's AD.  Apparently he lived in a cave in a crevice in one of these cliffs. It is possible that he is Sir Gwaine from Arthur's round table, always my favourite knight.  As well as having a peninsular named after him, they also built a stone chapel where he was meant to have lived.  It's quite easy to miss the staircase leading down to the chapel, which is almost completely hidden from the top of the cliff.  It's a tiny chapel, only 5.5 x 3.6 metres and was built in the 13th century.  I'm not sure how many services were held here, but it's certainly lasted the test of time.

Walking on from the chapel there are many more strange rock formations, caves, deep crevices, arches and then suddenly you come upon Bullslaughter Bay.  Pretty strange name, but it's another big beach, nestled in amongst the cliffs.  This one had been taken over by rockclimbers (again).  I really don't know where the name comes from though.

Bullslaughter Bay

The Green Bridge of Wales

The final destination is the Green Bridge, which is a natural arch, surrounded by rock stacks.  These stacks were covered in sea birds, and it's here I was really wishing for either my telephoto lens or my binoculars.  If I'm going to be a twitcher I really have to carry these with me at all time.  I think they were guillemots, merely because these stack rocks are apparently the largest breeding spot in the south of Wales.  They were cool looking birds, like penguins, except they could fly.  The photos I've taken of them don't have enough zoom, so I can't be definitive that they were these, so no addition to my bird list unfortunately.

The rock stacks - covered in birds

After that it was a brisk walk back, that's the problem with these cliff-top style of walks, it's pretty hard to turn them into a loop, particularly if the ground is potentially littered with unexploded military material.  If you don't want to do the full 20kms that we did, it is very easy to drive to the different locations, Broad Haven, St Govan's Head and the Green Bridge all had easy access from car parks.

Back at Broad Haven

On the drive out to Bosherston we had passed what looked to be the ruins of a castle, on the banks of a river, this was probably 10 minutes drive from our hotel.  When the next day was a bit rainy we thought what better atmosphere for exploring old, ruined castles.

Carew Castle and the Mill pond

The Tudor additions on the right of the castle, with the fancy window frames

The castle is Carew, which was built mainly in the 13th and 14th centuries, in the late 16th century the Lord Deputy of Ireland was granted the castle by Elizabeth I and he built an impressive extension to the place.  The castle is still owned by the Carew family, though they now live in Somerset and lease the place to the national parks.

There are stories of ghosts haunting the place, don't all castles have to have a ghost?  This one is pretty special, one of the lords of the castle had a Barbary ape as a pet, one night the lord was apparently attacked by the ape, and both were killed.  Now the ghost of the ape is meant to haunt the halls, I would love to see an ape ghost.

Another famous occupant was Nest, who was the daughter of the last king of south Wales.  It seemed she had a pretty hard life, variously captured and married off to people.  She had an illegitimate son with Henry I, then was married off to someone back in Wales and had five children, she was possibly captured by someone and carried off during this period, before being returned.  Upon her husband's death she was then married to someone else with whom she had another two children.

Carew Castle ruins

The tidal mill and the mill pond

One thing which I think adds to the prettiness of Carew castle is the Mill pond, the castle is built on the Carew river, which is still tidal up to this point.  One of the previous lords had the bright idea of building a dam and a tidal mill.  So not only did the peasants have to pay the lord to grow things on the land, they also had to pay the lord to use the mill, to make flour.  I'm surprised feudalism lasted such a long time with this sort of behaviour.

The dam, with the smelly sea side on the right

The extensive beach at Tenby

The tidal mill is a pretty cool idea, the dam has two gates in it, when the tide is coming in the gates are pushed open and the water level rises, once the tide starts to go out, the force of the water shuts the gates and then the water is diverted through the mill, driving the wheels to crush the grain.  It did mean that the mill workers had to follow the tides, meaning they could end up working in the middle of the night.

Interesting island just off the coast

Last time I was in this part of the world I visited Saundersfoot, this time we went further west to Tenby.  This is a bigger town than Saundersfoot, and again had an amazing beach, it was massive.  The only thing I'm not sure about is how big the tides are here, it is possible that during high tide there may not be much beach remaining.

Where the Victorians liked to promenade

More pretty painted houses overlooking the beach

Tenby is much more of a tourist town than Saundersfoot, it certainly has a prettier harbour for one.  The town was walled in the 13th century.  These walls are really the sign of English occupation, so you wonder what the Welsh feel about them.  The earls of Pembroke controlled this town, these were English, and the first earl was created by King Stephen in 1138.  I don't think the Welsh were too keen on being controlled by the English as they attacked the town in 1187 and again in 1260.  During the war of the roses Henry VII sheltered here before sailing to exile.  King Henry VII was actually born in Pembroke castle, which is just around the corner, and some place we'll have to try and visit next time.

Tenby harbour with the pretty painted houses

No town is complete without an impressive church

After the excitement of all this Tenby started to decline in the 1600's mainly due to the plague and picking the wrong side in the English civil war.  But luckily for Tenby the Napoleonic wars meant rich English people could no longer visit the European beaches for their summer vacations, and had to find somewhere closer to home.  And thus the revival of Tenby began.

View of Saundersfoot from dinner location

Asturian Views

The interesting topography from the lookout

Dave and the snow-covered peaks

The day following the clouds in the Cares Gorge was a bright sunny day. Eating breakfast we could see all the way across to the mountains we were walking the day before.  The sun was sparkling off the snow-covered peaks.  We scarfed our breakfast, wanting to get out into the sunshine, in case the clouds came back.  This was going to be the day of the views.  In a taxi up to the Fito lookout, we noticed how much faster the locals drove around the narrow mountain roads, compared to our slow inching.

There was a bit of a crowd up at the lookout, which was where the walk started, and no surprise really.  It's not often that you can see snow-covered peaks and the coast in the same vista.  Pretty special.  It was such an interesting topography too, it wasn't as if there was just one big mountain range, and then plains everywhere else.  There were folds and peaks all the way from where we were standing to the Picos de Europa.  It was interesting to see the hill we looked out on from the hotel.  I had thought it was quite a large mountain, but up at the lookout, it barely stood out as a knoll.

Me and the snow-covered peaks in the distance, with slightly foggy glasses

Just can't get enough of this view

The coast in the other direction

Walking away from the lookout, we got a good view of the sea and the coastline stretching away.  It looked pretty inviting, though perhaps still a little cold.  I was surprised how many people were out and about, mountain biking, walking, trail running.  It seems that the Spanish are very much an outdoors people, definitely more so than the Australians, and perhaps even more so than the English, who I think are well known for their rambling.

There were quite a few people who stopped us asking the way, or whether other people had come through.  I think they were always a bit shocked when they found out we weren't Spanish.  It's kind of hard to think of a similarity in Australia, just because there's always so many tourists around.  This was more like if we were walking around Toowoomba or something and you came across Spanish walkers.  It just didn't seem to be an area where non-Spanish went. Maybe the Spanish like it that way, but I think the rest of the world is definitely missing out.

OK, so there's a lot of snow-covered peaks around here

It was a bit of a walk of two parts, the first part was up high, with the wonderful views out to the Picos de Europa and the sea, and then the second half was all downhill back to the hotel, getting steadily more wooded and hotter as you descended.

Dave, a tree, and that view

Up high there were a couple of horses, I'm not sure if they were the native Asturian ponies, apparently these were the horses the early Roman soldiers used to ride.  The native Asturcon pony is quite small, only 11-12 hands and they're usually black or brown.  They were also popular during the Middle Ages because of their ambling gait, known as palfreys at that time.  One of them had a really mong foot, it was, I guess, a club foot, because that's almost exactly what it looked like.  Like it's leg was half a metre too long.

A very typical Asturian landscape

At this point we could have climbed the Pico Pienzu, which was another 750m higher up from where we were.  There was a steady stream of people heading up, but after the big walk the day before, we were happy to admire the view from where we were.  We were also keen for some more delicious cider that afternoon.

What country am I in?

As we started to come down off the mountains we were suddenly in a eucalyptus forest, now that's where we could almost have been back in Canberra.  If only Canberra had 2,600m high peaks covered in snow, and a beach.  I remember when I visited the botanic gardens in Barcelona, and they basically just had the same plants as in the Canberra one.  That's when you realise, actually perhaps the climates aren't that dissimilar.

Once you came off the mountain we then followed a valley stream back to the bottom of the hotel.  It was like another world down there, maybe 10 degrees hotter, no wind, no view and thick undergrowth.

And so our awesome trip to Asturias came to an end, with just a drive back along the highway to the airport to finish with.  We did manage to fit in one more bottle of cider and wine though.  Tempranillo is our new flavour at the moment.  I'll leave you with just another photo of the view, just because I think it's so great.  You can always just close your tab now and not look at it.

The stream running by the hotel

One last shot of the view

Kensington Walk

Albert Memorial

I went a bit crazy at the bookshop, when I bought my new, awesome bird book, I also bought a book on walks in London.  I feel that I should be exploring the little back streets of London more.  I have my run home, which is pretty good for aligning things in your head, but outside of that narrow corridor I feel like I can't really string different places together yet.  I'm hoping this book can fix that.  It's a pretty good book, it's not just walk directions, but more a self-guided tour. 

Each walk is described by someone different, this one was written by a biographer, and he took the approach that Kensington used to be very much an aristocratic suburb, but in the 19th century, the bourgeoisie started to invade.  You start the walk near Holland Park, walking though the streets, past massive villas to the actual Holland Park.  Here there used to be a very grand house, one of the original aristocratic residents, Lady Holland in fact, who in 1876 thought the new villas being built around her were dreadful.  Though she did seem to have extensive gardens to escape from the encroaching shopkeepers, the owner of Debenhams built a gaudy house in an adjacent street.

Leighton House from the back, the studio is that massive window, and you can just see the dome of the Arab Hall on the right

Trees in Holland Park

A highlight for me was visiting Leighton House, which is a National Trust house and was built by the artist Lord Frederic Leighton.  This was the guy who made the athlete fighting with a snake statue which I really liked in the Tate Britain.  It's funny, at the time I didn't know that he was the same person, but then walking around and looking at his other sculptures and art work on display I was thinking, wow it looks very similar to the Tate Britain piece.  Maybe an understanding of art is greatly dependent on just how much art you've seen. 

This guy did seem to be a little weird, he had this massive house, two storeys, with this incredible studio, taking up almost the entire top floor, but then he only had one bedroom, which was very austere and had only a single bed in it.  Which was in complete contrast to the rest of the place.  The most famous room is the Arab Hall, which is covered in colourful tiles he brought back from the Middle East, and the room stretches up the full two storeys, with a domed roof, and a fountain.  Yes, a fountain inside the house!   Most of the rooms were covered in incredible tiles or silk, that's right, instead of wallpaper, or just paint, it was actual silk fabric covering the walls, amazing!  And there was an awful lot of his art around, which was cool, because I really liked his style.  What made it more stunning though was that from the outside, it was really quite a drab looking place.  It was only once you walked into the entrance hall and looked around that you were completely blown away.

Leighton obviously has a thing for athletes fighting snakes - it's a recurring theme

St Mary Abbots

After Lord Leighton's House we continued on to Holland Park, this obviously used to be the grounds of that very aristocratic Lady Holland, though there was a prior Lady Holland who perhaps wasn't so lady-like.  An earlier version was a divorcee and and such wasn't invited to the "proper" houses of the town.  Instead she invited society out to her.  This grand old house is now just a ruin, destroyed by bombs in 1941.  Some of it is still standing and a wing is now a YHA, the grounds have been turned into a park.  This house must have really been something back in the day, the grounds are massive, and it's funny to think that in the middle of London someone could have been hording all that land.  Though perhaps in a way it's good that they horded during the beginning of the industrialisation, since it means that now we still have the park, as opposed to just another block of town houses.

The unassuming side of Kensington Palace

On from Holland Park it was through the back streets of London, heading towards Kensington Park, this part had a great feel to it, these tiny little alley-ways, multiple hat shops (if you ever need a 300 pound fascinator I know just the place), and then popping out by St Mary Abbots, a church built in 1872.  It's spire is 76 metres high, and as such is the 10th tallest in the United Kingdom.  This was a nice quiet spot away from the hustle around the hat shops, and had quite a nice stained glass window.

At this point we are getting close to the final destination of the park, but there is still Kensington Palace Gardens to see.  It's a street, not a garden, but it's where a lot of the richer embassies are located, it seems that the poorer ones are all in Mayfair.  I don't have any photos of them though as the Israeli embassy was also here, and along with all the guards with guns and the no photo signs I thought I wouldn't risk it.

The Palace and Queen Vic

Finally though we were in the park, this was my first glimpse of Kensington Palace, the future home of Wills and Kate, and the current home of a bunch of minor royals.  It's really not a very grand looking building, I don't think it really deserves the title palace, more of a hall.  We didn't visit this time, but I'm sure we'll find our way back at some point.

Kensington Gardens are also home to the Albert Memorial, now this thing is just ridiculous.  It was built in 1872 by Queen Victoria in honour of Prince Albert, who died when he was only 42 years.  The memorial is 54 m high and took more than ten years to complete.  I'm not sure exactly what Prince Albert did, apart from marrying Queen Victoria, to deserve such a lavish monument.
And if that isn't enough, just across the road is the Royal Albert Hall.  This was meant to be called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but Queen Victoria changed the name after Prince Albert's death.

The massive memorial

But wait, there's more - Royal Albert Hall

Ransom

I'm reading a great book at the moment, it's called Ransom, by David Malouf.  It's a re-telling of part of the Iliad, the part where Patroclus has just died and Achilles has gone a bit crazy.  What makes it so good isn't really the subject matter, but more the language he uses.  If you've ever wondered if writing can be delicious I would recommend this book, just the sentence structures and how it just rolls around in your head.  It's about the only book I have ever forced myself to read slowly, just to enjoy it all the more.

Regents Park

Beautiful yellows

So whilst these photos really show spring in full force, we haven't had much of this weather lately.  After having the one of the warmest Marches on record, we have now had the wettest April in 100 years.  And the next 30 days don't promise much better.  It is a little sad when you have to go to Wales to get nice weather.  Every now and again London does pull out a cracker day, and this was one of them.  We headed off to Regents Park to check out the flowers in all their glory, and there was a fair amount of glory going around.  I wonder if you were a gardener if working at somewhere like Regents Park is the pinnacle of your profession, or whether that's too mainstream for the hard-core gardeners.

It's nice that there are places like Regents Park, I think I nearly overdosed on the colours though.  After a winter of no leaves, the flowers are a bit overwhelming.

The British think of everything - boot scrapers and taps

Even the trees were getting in on the colour act

Regents park seems a bit more utilitarian than the heath does, what with the extensive playing fields, and tennis courts (I counted 19), and cricket nets.  With all that sport going on, there are liable to be some muddy feet.  But never fear, the British have thought of everything.  Near the playing fields they had these boot scrapers set up (at least I think they were boot scrapers).  There was also a tap, and what you can't see in the above photo is that it is all set above a grate, so the dirty water gets washed away.  That's just forethought, right there.

There was also a rather strange photo exhibit on in the park at the same time.  It was western China landscapes.  Some of them were really nice, and the place looked pretty wild in parts.  Which is impressive for somewhere with such a massive population.  England struggles to keep it's wild parts, with it's fairly small population, granted it's land size is not even comparable.

An eider - where the quilt feathers come from

Flowers

We managed to find the goose grazing area of Regents Park this time round, though there weren't many geese actually in the grazing area, which was just an empty paddock.  All the water birds were hanging out next door in a lake, with island, and fenced, meaning no molestations from tourists.  It seems that not only have the flowers returned, but also the water birds.  After a winter of almost exclusive mallard spotting, it was nice to see a few different birds.  We saw some tufted ducks, like little coots with mohawks, red-crested pochards, ducks with massively over-sized red heads, and eiders.

For those who may be wondering where this weird list of birds is coming from I bought a field guide to British birds, so I'm well on my way to becoming a twitcher, I already have the binoculars after all.  I think if I'm in England I have to take up some weird, slightly nerdy hobby, that's just what they do over here. 

Great clouds over the playing fields

More flowers

I think I may also start a list of birds I've spotted here, I have a feeling there's going to be a very rapid growth in the birds, as I spot things like robins, and blackbirds.  And then it'll just plateau.  But at the moment I'm excited.  It's weird being in a country where you don't know the trees, flowers or animals around you, I feel a little like a child.  I think I might get a plant book next.  Once I run out of birds, then I can begin a plant list.  Though they are a bit more boring, what with the lack of movement and all.

One other cool thing we saw was the trapeze school set up in the corner of the park, they had the full on net, and two trapezes.  It looked pretty safe, not only was there a net, but you were harnessed in to the frame, so you wouldn't need the net even if you feel.  It looked fun, though I wonder how strong you have to be, they had people hanging upside down from the swing when we went past. 

The trapeze school in Regents Park

 Again I'll leave you with far too many photos.

The back of the zoo, not quite so nice from this angle

Incredibly white flower

Crazy shapes and colours in one flower!

The squirrels have reappeared after the winter in hiding

A flower amphitheatre

More crazy flower shapes

Regents Canal from above