A week in London

 We travelled to London in mid-March. Arriving to Stansted at eleven in the morning, we took a bus to Stratford; that's London, not Stratford Upon Avon. It turned out that there's a massive shopping centre there called Westgate. Having time to kill until we could check into our hotel, we stayed there for a while and lunched on Marks and Spencer sandwiches. 

Found a churros van. Churros, but not as we know them!

While we're on the subject of the shopping centre, I found an inclusive toilet.

From Stratford, we took the Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich. It takes you through the heart of the  docklands, which is an area of modern skyscrapers. Pretty amazing.

Greenwich 

Away from the centre of London, on the south side of the Thames lies this quite picturesque, historic town, home of the Royal Observatory, the Greenwich Meridian and the Cutty Sark. There's a great big, lovely old park with a steep slope leading up to the observatory. 

The Cutty Sark

A map of the park

View from the Observatory

Ancient tree

They call this one Queen Elizabeth's oak

The old Naval College, now university and music school

 

A

A sculpture by Henry Moore

It was a nice place to stay; not in London itself. There were places where we could eat and I really enjoyed running in the park, even though the ups are very steep.

On the Friday we went to Hampton Court. 

It really is a very impressive palace, although we missed the Great Hall and the kitchens; the chapel was definitely closed.

the other side is quite different

The chapel we didn't see

These are the "ghosts" of King George's ladies

We were lucky with the English weather all week.

Saturday: the South Bank

A quick train ride to London Bridge took us to the south bank of the Thames and the crazily busy Borough Market. It was fun last time I went there. This time it was so crowded it wasn't nice at all. I'd been out running in Greenwich beforehand, not many people about. On the Thames path, both sides of the river, all the time, there were runners weaving through the crowds. Lots and lots of people! We visited the lovely Southwark Cathedral to the sound of organ music; an organist was practising. 

Sunday, the City

Tower Bridge

Skyscraper

The Shard, seen from the platform at London Bridge

One of the things I wanted to find was the Queenhithe Mosaic. We had to follow the GPS and even so, it wasn't easy; it was on the other side of the Anglo-Saxon dock.

The other place I wanted to find was the church of St Batholomew the Great. My only photo is of the gate. 

It doesn't look like much

St B

It's a high building with graceful Romanesque arches. It was Sunday and there was a service. The seating is strange, because what remains of an enormous medieval abbey church is the choir. Impressive, but we went back on Tuesday to see it properly.

Tuesday was our free day in London. We re-visited St Bartholomew and ate our sandwiches in St James' Park. The daffodils were lovely in London.

In the wild

 We went for a short walk to La Garcipollera yesterday. There's a tarmac road, rather spoilt and broken, which goes as far as the village with the strange name of Villanovilla. We've done it many, many times. Yesterday was the first time we'd seen a stag. It stood below us, frozen until we went away.

On the way back the flock of sheep and their little lambs we'd seen ealier had moved away, but their guard dogs came to see us, one of them with a confused lamb.

There was a nice view of the Ciudadela in the evening.

Cordoba

 The most important building in Cordoba is the mosque-cathedral.  The highlight of our trip to Cordoba was the opportunity to sing in the mass on Sunday. In the Andalusian heat; even in October it was sandals and shorts weather, we had to wear our uniforms. 

As we were outside the closed outer door waiting to be let in, we saw a bridal couple having romantic photos taken, so we sang them a romantic song; luckily they were pleased!

Zaragoza heroines

We spent a week in Zaragoza, and on one of our walks we found the door of the church of El Portillo open.- we hadn't been in it before, so we went in. There were a couple of ladies there and one of them took us to see the heroines. At the beginning of the 19th century there were two terrible sieges where the people of Zaragoza resisted Napoleon's troops. Many of the streets are named after the heroes and heroines who are still remembered. 

It turned out that several of them were buried in the church, honoured and commemorated there.

This statue is one of the heroines, Agustina Zaragoza

Wikipedia says:Agustina Raimunda María Saragossa i Domènech, better known as Agustina of Aragón, was a Spanish woman who defended Spain during the Peninsular War, first as a civilian and later as a professional officer in the Spanish Army. 

Born: March 4, 1786, Reus

Died: May 29, 1857 (age 71 years), Ceuta

Battles/wars: Peninsular War: First Siege of Zaragoza; Second Siege of Zaragoza; Battle of Vitoria

Casta Álvarez Barceló was an Aragonese insurgent, who fought in the First siege of Zaragoza. This took place during the 1808 to 1814 Spanish War of Independence, or Guerra de la Independencia Española, part of the Peninsular War. Wikipedia

Born: 1786, Zaragoza

Died: April 29, 1846 (age 60 years), Cabañas de Ebro

Battles/wars: Peninsular War

Manuela Sancho y Bonafonte was an Aragonese revolutionary who participated in the defense of Zaragoza during the Peninsula War. Wikipedia

Born: June 16, 1784, Zaragoza

Died: April 7, 1863 (age 78 years), Zaragoza

The bones of the three women are in the casks. You can see that there is a wreath which has been laid recently.

Cordoba and Granada

 In the afternoon I went to the Alcazares Reales. Free entry for senior citizens. 

Nice gardens

The 3rd century Roman mosaics were spectacular

The Granada photos start here

Let's pass on to Friday. After breakfast we walked to the meeting point for the coach. The journey to Granada takes 2 hours, with a coffee stop. We were taken straight to the Alhambra.

Spectacular palaces and lovely gardens