Tag: history

Portugal & Spain 2025. – Day 1- On the way….

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We left home at 9.00 am Saturday 10th May 2025. I drove John, the two cases and 2 hand luggage’s to the station. Then I returned home parked the car and walked to the station….not because we’re lazy but because we were trying to preserve our energy for the long airport walks.
We took the 9.36 train to Luton…trust us to chose a day when the line was closed from Luton. Disembarking the train a kind member of the platform staff carried my suitcase up the steps because the train had stopped in the only platform without a lift!!. A quick taxi ride for £15 took us up to Luton Airport.
We soon self checked ourselves and our cases in. Then found seats in the departure lounge for the 2.45 hour wait…..We had lunch early and were astounded that 2 burgers with chips was £21… it’s probably 10+ years since we’ve had a Burger King and it will certainly be more than that, if ever, before we have another. No problem boarding the plane and we fortunately had 3 seats to ourselves…

The flight was uneventful and we seemed to be the only plane arriving at Faro airport. We made our way to Avis car hire. Although we had used Holiday Autos to book the car, it was exactly half the price of booking direct with Avis, even though it was a Avis car. Unfortunatly the Ford Kuga we had booked was no longer stocked and we had to take a brand new Nissan Qashqai with only 2900km on the clock……I had to ask the helpful staff how to get into reverse !!!!! Then we were off and on our way…The A22 is a good road and we tanked it along to Lagos and followed the. Signs to Luz….Only then did our instructions fail us and as we drove around the narrow cobbled streets, we had no idea where we were heading for. Eventually we saw an aging couple taking an early evening walk and we stopped and asked them the way. They had very little English and we have no Portuguese……after a lot of hand gestures they stopped talking and I expectantly got into the back of car….where upon we had a delightful 15 minutes of hand gestures from the back seat…what a gem this couple were. We weren’t actually that far from the apartment complex Baka Da Luz. But the streets are mostly one way due to their narrowness. The couple showed us the reception and got out of the car. I gestured I would drive them back but they gave us the thumbs up and set of back up the hill walking…..We thanked them profusely.
On entering the reception we were greeted by the receptionist… who promptly showed us on a map where our apartment was. It was on the 2 nd floor and the furthest away from all the amenities, down a very steep hill. I asked if there was one closer to which I was told “ you booked and economy, this is the economy apartment” ….Well!! Firstly I booked a one bedroom apartment on booking.com and it was £650 it didn’t say anything about “ economy”….. and secondly I’d really have liked to give the receptionist a lesson in “ welcoming behaviour” !!!
Anyway, we drove to our apartment, knowing that we were going to be driving backwards and forwards as there was no way we were walking backwards and forwards up the hill several times a day. The apartment had a lift, so all good there. It is huge, a nice big lounge, dinning room, master bedroom with en-suite including a bath tub and a separate shower bathroom. The kitchen has everything we need. There is also a spiral stairway with two extra bedrooms up there…..ummmm a one bedroomed apartment with seating, dining table and bedrooms for 6 …..hey Ho it suits us fine.

By now it was 7.30 pm and with growling tummies we drove down to the beach front. What a pleasure to find a carpark and a row of restaurants. We selected “A Concha”, as I had read it was good on trip advisor. We ate inside as it was a tad chilly outside. We both choose fish, John had sea bass and I had rare tuna. We had a Coke Zero each and a rather naughty but extremely nice dessert…all for the princely sum of €56 .

Thankfully our earlier guides had given us a good understanding of the village centre and we managed to navigate the one-way system back to our front door with ease. An early night was required as we both felt the tiredness that airports tend to cause…. A great day to the start of our 18 day adventure.

Day 3 – Wednesday 29th May 2024- Greek Island Cruise and other places!!

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Our alarm woke us with a jump at 7.30am. We were soon washed and dressed and heading for the buffet for breakfast. It was total mayhem and although I am certain all the usual components for breakfast were there it was too crowded to actually see. A couple of tiny croissants, a bowl of Greek yogurt and a banana sufficed. We were in the theatre by 9.25 awaiting the start of our excursion… a trip to Olympia. We had docked at Katakolon on a Greek headland jutting out into the Ionia Sea. This is where the first ever Olympic Games took place in 776BC. There were 5 events – running, jumping, wrestling, javelin and discus.
We were soon on our coach for the 45 minute journey to Olympia. Our guide spoke in about 6 different languages and we were thankful that one was English. We were told that the area is world famous for its olives and it’s fine virgin olive oil because evidently it has close to zero acidity. The area is very fertile and produces wine, watermelons and honey… everything was very green.

Arriving at the Olympia UNESCO site we were divided into language groups.. so our group was a total of about 12, it was made up of Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and another couple of Brits, who nearly pushed me down the ships steps in order to get to the bus first… typical Brits!!!! Ther was my favourite mode of transport, horse and cart waiting to take people to the ruins….. but alas our guide was all for walking…

We first saw the remains of the gymnasium. Our English speaking guide gave good information, although for someone with the attention span of a fly I soon switched off…. But I did learn that they used to run 192 metres and the men all ran naked… this surprised me as from the history of athletics which I had briefly studied in my degree years I seem to remember ancient pictures depicting them running in loin cloths… but who am I to question…. When someone asked about the ladies our guide made a derogatory comment but did later say that when they were allowed to compete they only ran 100m and wore white tunics.


When the statue Zeus, which was 14 metres high and over saw all the area, was removed to Istanbul the town of Olympia became abandoned. I think he said this was in about 400AD. The only resident of the original old town today is the cat!!!!


Earthquakes were and still are common place but a big one around 600AD lead to the collapse of the buildings. Having been abandoned the town lay covered in mud until exploration by archaeologists in 1876.


We wandered around looking at the various ruins before going through the arch to the actual Grass Olympic arena/ stadium…. This was fairly unspectacular as a flat ground for the running, standing long jump and Javlin neither of which needs todays run up as they were all performed from a standing position. There can still be seen some starting stone blocks and the space where the water flowed around the outside of the field so that the spectators, who viewed from the mound had drinking water.

The original Olympic stadium with starting block for the sprint


Walking back to the coach we passed the place where the Olympic torch is still lite to this present day. ( it is at present in Paris for this years Olympics) The area is next to the oldest ruin…. I think our guide explained that a mirror or a piece of glass was positioned under the Olympic torch so that when the sun was in the correct position it’s rays would hit the mirror and set light to the torch. To this day that is how the torch is lite.

where the Olympic Flame is lit.


We wandered back to the coach park stopping at the Olive shop to purchase a very small, very expensive tin of premium virgin olive oil… a gift for my son who likes the finer things in life, a T-shirt for John and a pen for Johns Granddaughter. We decided that was enough shopping and so we sat and waited our time out having a Pepsi Max in the shade of an olive tree overlooking the ruins of Olympia.

We returned to the ship and had a light salad in the buffet for lunch before returning to our cabin for a siesta.

We showered ( you need to be a contortionist in our shower) and washed hair and put on some suitable glad rags in time for a rather nice mock-tail, called a Magic Island, before supper. Once again we got a wake view table and Saleem served us very well yet again.

Tonight’s menu

After Supper we wandered down to the theatre for the evenings 10.00pm show. … more about that tomorrow… Goodnight from us both!

Day 6 & 7 – 10th & 11th February 2024 – Historic sites of Sri Lanka

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We left Cloud Nine Wilpattu and headed to the former capital and Sacred City of Anuradhapura. We made a visit to Jethawanaramaya Stupa. On entering this ancient stupa we viewed some magnificent figures and a huge one of Buddha  in passing position. Suminda taught us all about the 3 stages involved with Buddhism. These are the birth, the enlightenment and the passing. There were many artefacts including the gem encrusted foot. We learnt about the various traditions, such as tying a coin in white fabric and making a wish. This wish would quite often be families wishing for the birth of a baby boy.

We visited another important stupa The but didn’t go in as it was crowded and we didn’t fancy burning our feet on the very hot ground. We walked to the royal gardens and viewed one of the ancient bathing pools. John and Suminda walked on to view the kings pool where he would watch his wives bathe. They also walked up to look at the lake. Our final stupa of the day was quite magnificent in its appearance. John and I were quite amused when we read that King Dutugemunu (161-137bc) had built as penance for eating a chilli garnished curry without first offering it to the monks.

We then continued to the Hotel 4U Salina Gardens in Anuradhapura. It’s entrance is a little difficult to find as you turn down the side of a cement factory and wonder where on earth you are going. However when you get there you are greeted by really nice people. They kindly changed our room to a downstairs one, as I am struggling with the humidity, temperatures about 31/32 degrees and I twisted my knee getting out of the Safari vehicle in Wilpattu, so down stairs rooms are preferable at the moment. Our room opened on to the swimming pool and the room was big and cool with all the necessary requirements. Our evening meal was selected from a nice menu….we had another laugh when we both selected buttered chicken and buttered prawns…something had got lost in the translation/spelling and they actually meant “battered”. It was great to overload on protein and they even had Coke Zero so I didn’t have to drink water….a really great place. 

When we checked out in the morning we had a lovely chat with the owner. He had designed and built it and had used lots of reclaimed teak from colonial times in its construction. We would definitely recommend this hotel and you could stay there to go into the main entrance of Wilpattu rather than stay where we did as we went in the back entrance.

On leaving Anuradhapura we stopped off at the Bodhi tree. It is said to have been grown from a branch of the tree Buddha was under, in India, when he was believed to have attained enlightenment. The car park was extremely busy as was the walk to the tree. Not wanting to get hot and bothered like I had on the previous day I opted to stay in the air conditioned car while ZJohn and Suminda went to view it. The tree is secured by gold supports, John said it was a really nice sight, but he also said it was crowded and the ground hot and gritty under our “delicate, western feet”.

We continued our days sightseeing and stopped and walked some some distance up Avukana Ancient Rock Temple where we viewed a 13 meter high statue of Lord Buddha carved out of solid granite, the replica of which we had seen in Colombo. It was quite an awesome sight.

Having continued our adventure we stopped at Sigiriya for a nice light lunch before proceeding to view the Rock Fortres. It was built by King Kasyapa (477-495 AD) for the purpose of protecting him from his rivals. His main rival was his brother who was the rightful heir to the throne. Today the rock is a UNESCO world heritage site, also know as the ‘ fortress in the sky’ . The climb to the top is an arduous one so we opted to view it from the bottom.

Some time later we arrived in Polonnaruwa. The city was founded in 11th century AD and was governed by many kings. King Parakarmbahu I’s reign was considered the most significant for this ancient kingdom. During his 12th century reign, this second Kingdom of Sri Lanka was known as The Golden Age of Polonnaruwa, as Parakarmbahu ruled during an era where trade and construction flourished. It is regarded by many as one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. We looked around the many relics of the kingdom, including the royal palace and council chambers, the Satmahal Prasada – a square pyramidal tower in seven tiers, the Gal Potha- a stone book and many more. Our favourite was Gal Vihare, which is a rock shrine. It is a cluster of carved Buddha images which would have formed part of an extensive monastery on this site. The standing Buddha is 7 metres high and all the carvings are carved from a single piece of rock.

We probably didn’t do Polonnaruwa justice as we had had a bit of sightseeing overkill. On leaving the area we noticed quite a few Grey Langurs and some splendid Banyana trees.

We headed off to Wasgamuwa where we were booked into the Lavendish Wild Safari hotel. We were grateful to Suminda, Jetwing Travel and Rosie Price at DialaFlight for sorting out this change of accommodation . The previous accommodation was far too far from Wasgamuwa National Park. It was over 2 hours away and was booked when we were going to go to Minneriya Park. However, due to the heavy rains the elephants have mostly left that park and it was thought we would see more in Wasgamuwa. Our thanks go to Jetwing Travel who kindly picked up the bill for the accomodation change. Lavendish Wild Safari hotel was US $66 per night dinner, bed and breakfast.

We retired early, exhausted from the day and wanting to be ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ for the next days 6.00am Safari.