All Keyed Up

Well, here we are, back in Brexitland for Christmas festivities, but the point of this post is to log our excellent time at the evening Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London courtesy of our Daughter and Son in Law.

This was a great chance to see the ceremony that's been going on every night for over 700 years, hear some of the history again and, thanks to the invite procured for us, have a couple of G&T's in the Keys bar, run by and for the Yeoman Warders; a tie is essential wear for gentlemen but, even so, I wear one too. Anyway, I have to keep up with the sartorial elegance of my dear family. No photos allowed and, in any event, Look up London does the description better than I can, so follow this LINK for more info.

What a privilege! Wonderful. Thanks to all.

Malaga Lights Revisited (again)

Our annual trip to the Malaga (Christmas) Lights takes different forms; this year we travel by Alsa Bus with friends for what turns out to be a brilliant evening taking in a rooftop bar, tapas, the lights and general, well, fun.

From the moment these guys get on the bus we realise this could be a fun evening...

Málaga from the top..

The Lights

With street performers

Viva España!

Nerja Notes

Still learning...

Ancient Córdoba with the Nerja History Group

A fascinating trip to see Las Ermitas and the ancient city of Madinat al Zahra ( the Shining City).

Las Hermitas, high above the thriving city of modern Córdoba are the renovated austere dwellings of hermits who set up the commune at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Fascinating - and a wonderful balcony and viewpoint, too. The full story's HERE.

The Church at Las Hermitas

The Balcony

Moving on to spend time at the heavily renovated (...and continuing) ancient city of Madinat al Zahra again reminds us of the outstanding and barely comprehensible engineering abilities of the Moors. 

Abd al-Rahman, the Caliph, took twenty-five years to build Madinat al-Zahra and it was deserted at the end of his reign. To date, only around a tenth of this vast site has been restored. The story's HERE.

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Velez Málaga with the Arts Society

A fascinating morning looking at familiar Velez through the eyes of the Moors living in a thriving trading town of those times. Looking at history through actors' performances is always an illuminating experience for us as we travel but seeing it in familiar surroundings opens our eyes even more somehow. 

Yes, this could be back then - or Morocco - with a slight suspense of the senses... and a mental photo-shopping of the power lines and air-con units. This really emphasises the Moorish roots of this place though, which is a powerfully evocative feeling.

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It's a while since we've explored Andalucía on one of our road trips from David Baird's book 'The Backroads of Southern Spain' and we must do so soon - but in the meantime it was great to meet David and to put together a PowerPoint for him of fascinating images from the days of the Guerrilleros during Franco's time here. His presentation for the History Group: 'The Last of the Guerrilleros' was an opportunity to understand the motivations of the Guerrilleros in those difficult times.

He was kind enough to sign our well-used copy, too! Thanks David.

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We find time to take a short trip back to the UK to see family and attend the Camping and Caravanning Club's Worldwide Presentation Day - a day of presentations and information gathering about the Club's escorted motorhome tours of far flung lands. It was also great to meet up with many like-minded friends made on past tours. Great Day. We've put a deposit on a motorhome adventure in China; more on that later.

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And last, but certainly not least, we, very sadly, say farewell to our friend and neighbour, Penni, who passed away on Tuesday 19th November. 

Penni Wilson

Enjoying life to the last moment and contributing so much to our community, Nerja has lost a shining star; we'll really, really miss you, Penni.

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On the Road Again

Back in our home on wheels.

Slightly less ambitious than St Petersburg, we head off to the North Devon coast to complete more of our coastal tour of the UK...

...and, later, we explore more of the North Kent coast. Although we've been to these places before, we haven't explored them in our obsessively detailed way yet. Discoveries await.

The 2019 coastal trips are HERE

Heading back to the UK

After an  uplifting trip with our caravan around the Baltic Countries, St. Petersburg and Poland, we're heading back to the UK; we'll be there in a couple of days, all being well.

Where are we now?.....

It will be great to see family and friends again - but the country we have grown up in feels less like home somehow. We spend half our lives in the rest of the EU; will that have to change?

2019.. We have a plan

What to do in 2019 apart from locking ourselves in a dark room and singing la la la until March 29? Actually, that's not a good idea; we might emerge to find that our worst fears have come to pass......

When we return to the UK in April, it's going to look different whatever is going on, so, after family hugs and kisses, we won't stay long; we're off on tour in our trusty Touareg + Sterling Continental caravan, meeting up in Poland with adventurers on the Camping and Caravanning Club's tour of the Baltic States. That's Poland > Lithuania > Latvia > Estonia > Russia - and back. As always, we plan to linger on the way back, perhaps having a better look at Poland. You might notice that we have an eastern European thing going on for recent adventures...

So that means a new blog and lots of planning to keep us amused: see you there, all being well.

Meanwhile: