Salud! Cheers! Chris and Sue

Loved catching up with Chris and Sue.  Over the years we have met up in so many places and done some great walks - Larapinta Trail in Australia, Hadrian's Wall in England, Praia da Luz in Portugal and much more.      Maybe the Portugal Camino next year.... Who knows?

Good luck with the Marathon... Keep well, safe and happy!

Triana Sevilla

 

Our apartment is right next door to the Triana Market (Mercado de Triana) and we couldn't wait to fill our baskets.  First stop breakfast where the waiter couldn't contain his laughter at our pathetic Spanish.  He was fantastic and everyday he greets us with a huge grin and handshake and a hearty Buen Dia!

Off to try out our rusty Spanish once more but what to buy?  Cheeses, salamis, jamon, crusty bread, oysters, prawns, chickens, tapas, olives, veggies....BLISS!

Shopping in the market has become one of the delights of our day... BUT the mercado has a hidden secret Casala Teatro! More to come!

Sevilla here we come!

The weather was rainy and the view misty as we left Taddington.  Vueling had changed the flight twice and so we set off at the crack of dawn to be sure we caught the plane... only to have a smooth journey to Gatwick, a friendly and efficient return of car and quick check in.  Hey, nothing to do but drink champagne!

Arriving in Sevilla, a quick taxi ride (100km the slowest speed and 4 red lights didn't slow us for a moment).. Usual rip off for tourists but straight to our apartment.  We arrived at midnight, Osman met us there ... thank goodness... 5 flights of stairs not quite what we remembered in the booking, but hey its fab!

Farewell Taddington - Hello Farewell Challenge!

What a wonderful home exchange this has been... So good to catch up with so many people.  If we missed you this time we'll catch up next time... If your photo is not in the blog I will have emailed it to you!

Fabulous to catch up with the bellringers at Taddington - brought back memories of my futile attempts to ring peals... oh my goodness what hard work that was! Will have to give it another go in Sydney or next time I come to UK.

The song 'Jolly good luck to the Blacksmith, Good luck to the Barley Mow' flooded through my brain as we drove past Tideswell & Youlgreave.  It was the song that we always sang to finish the night at Folk sessions.  Then it was the race to catch the last bus home, bumping along the dark country lanes hoping to arrive home before midnight - my curfew!

 

As we left Taddington I posted the next Beans challenge which is to write a 400 word FAREWELL story or poem .  Maybe I can tempt some of you to have a go.  Next Post Sevilla!

Where in the world will we meet next?

We first met Anna and Ben in 2010 on a yacht sailing around the Galapagos Islands.  We were footloose in South America when the volcano erupted in Iceland which meant all flights were cancelled. Yacht owners were desperate to fill their boats and so we struck lucky and got a luxury trip for a bargain price.  My memory is ten guests and fourteen staff.  Each day we had breakfast and then our guide would outline the day which was usually swim, walk, refreshments (repeat) - swim, walk, refreshments (repeat) He would list the animals we would see and we would have a wet or dry landing!  Of course my wet landing was wetter than everyone elses because they all had longer legs!!!!

It was fantastic! Every island was so different with different flora and fauna and always something quirky. Like Floreana Island which was a favourite supply post for whalers in the 18th century. Sailors had no means of sending letters home and so they set up an ingenious mailing system. Most ships stopped at Floreana.  So in 1793 sailors left a wooden whisky barrel where sailors could leave a letter but they had to pick up a letter and deliver it to the next place they docked. 

Not the fastest or most reliable system but better than nothing.  The system still works today as tourist leave a card and are duty bound to pick up and deliver. We picked one up and delivered it to Sheffield UK when we got there a couple of months later!

The BBC ran a story about a couple who visited the island in 2011 and spent the next three years hand delivering 22 letters to people in 17 countries.

We hit it off with Anna and Ben and were sad to see them leave the boat after 4 days but as they left invited us to stay at Hutton Rudby when we got back to UK. 

That was the start of our friendship.  Since we met they have had two glorious girls and over the years we have met up in Sydney, Melbourne (where they lived for 7 years) and of course England.

Lots of chatter and laughter as we shared memories and made more travel plans!

Walking the. Peaks

Writing this from Gatwick as we wait for our plane to Seville... I'm always behind with my blog, but here we go! This is a long post so make sure you go down to the end!

We usually walk the Dark Peaks but this year have spent more time in the White Peaks...Ashford in the Water, Monsel Dale, Hartington and a visit to my old stamping ground Manor Castle.

When I grew up on 'The Manor' the castle was just a ruin.  We all knew Mary Queen of Scots had been imprisoned there and there were rumours of secret tunnels (now proved to be true).  It was well out of bounds for me but we would set off on our bikes with apple sandwiches (I know disgusting but we liked them!).

We were terrified of the ghosts and of our parents finding out we had been there so really we cycled there ran around crazily and then cycled madly home again - so good that it has been restored!

We went with our friends Maria and John who kindly helped us to to tidy up the family graves which are in the nearby cemetery and then we cheered ourselves up by going to a fabulous pub.  The Travellers at Appleknowle that has the most wonderful choice of cheeses!  YaY!

Another cheesy experience was Hartington.  Thanks Mark for recommending it. A bit of a rainy day but the cheese shop is famous around the world - rightly so.... We bought delicious stilton.. Yum! See Roger's history notes!

Chatting with the owner of the shop she picked my Australian (?) accent and told me she was off to visit her son in Brisbane next week.

Ashford in the Water is a typical Derbyshire village, one of our favourite places especially for Well Dressing in July which we will miss this year.  I'm sure I have written about it previously in the blog.

In 926 the village was known as Aescforda and means ford where ash trees grow.  In the late 17th Century 'in-the-water' was added to highlight its closeness to the meanders of the river Wye.

In the Doomsday book in 1068, Ashford was named as one of the places where lead was mined, by 1786 it had mills for carving and polishing local black marble and by 1848 it had 950 inhabitants.

The village passed to the all powerful Cavendish family in the 16th century and was finally sold to pay off death duties in the 1950s.

Today it is the start of our 10Km walk to Monsel Dale.

Another of our favourite walks is part of the Monsel Trail.  Up past the cows, over the many stiles to the viaduct which is a part of the Monsel Trail, which we are not walking today.  The viaduct was built by the Midland railway over the river Wye to the disgust of many who believed it destroyed the beauty of the dale. Today it's Grade 11 listed and a hugely popular tourist spot.

Once we had climbed to the top of the dale we then clambered down to the river and followed its bends and weirs until we came within 1 km of Ashford once more, BUT disaster struck as the path had been washed away by the rains... a more treacherous kilometre of walking I can't remember.  Clinging to trees as I edged my way through the mud was not how I envisaged the walk.

A restorative glass of bubbles was required at the Bull's Head in Ashford!

How fabulous to meet up with Steve Fuger one of our most popular writers

Had a fabulous Beanschat with Steve Fuger, who lives in the charming village of Wensley in Derbyshire.  Watch out for her stories and video which I'll post on our website spillthebeans.net.au

New challenge out today I wonder what 'Farewell' stories and poems we will get on line!