Cheddar--not just cheese

Mary and I are so happy to have our friend Bill visiting from New Hampshire--he was working in Africa and was coming home through London, so added on a few days to come see us. We went to the village of Cheddar--yes, the original place where cheddar cheese was made, and is still made, and it is delicious!

but it is also the home of Cheddar Gorge, the largest gorge in England and now I know where the word gorgeous comes from haha! really you can see the amazing limestone cliff in the picture--we went up on top and went for a 3 mile hike, and it really is beautiful. There are tons of mountain sheep, or goats (I am revealing my ignorance of animal species here--maybe we saw both?) I took pictures of them but when I looked at them after, all you could see was a hillside with a vague brown speck on it so I thought I would spare you all the sight.

Bill and I went to the Roman Baths yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't think to take my camera but they really are spectacular. I had seen them once before but was impressed all over again. Those Romans were incredible engineers! Tonight Bill Mary and I are going to the Thermae Spa to enjoy the natural hot springs in a visceral way. Looking forward to it!

Mary and I are leaving next Tuesday for the holidays. We are heading to Jerusalem, to visit her friends Ellen and Anat. Another friend of ours from Galiano Island in BC is there too, so we are looking forward to a sociable time. Then we will head to the Sinai in Egypt for New Year's. Mary has been to these places before but I haven't, so I am very excited. We are leaving Dec. 18 and returning Jan. 6--what an interesting way to spend Christmas! Mary seems to think we will be posting to the blog while we are away--personally, I am not so sure, so if there is nothing new here for a few weeks, you'll know it's because we are just enjoying ourselves too much.

Look forward to hearing from all our friends about your holidays too. Hope they are happy, restful and fun for all.

Karen

Lisbon

Here are some pictures of Lisbon, which was really a lovely city. It wasn't hot, but much warmer than here, and sunny, so we really enjoyed the chance to sit outside on a patio, having a coffee or a beer. It was such a laid back city, easy to walk, friendly people, and very safe feeling too--we both just really liked it. It reminded me in some ways of Vancouver, being right on the ocean, two huge bridges as well as a ferry to get to the other side of the city...but then Vancouver doesn't have a gigantic statue of Jesus overlooking it (which is fine by me!)

The yellow tram or funicular climbs up the steep hills of Lisbon so we took it--because the hills are kind of steep, but mostly just because I wanted to take it. We also went and heard fado music Saturday night, while having dinner--we liked it, but got shushed by the management when we started to have a conversation over dinner while the music was on. Luckily they took lots of breaks so we did get to talk as well as listen.

I love all the pastel colours of the buildings, the tile work, the clay tile roofs. I thought there was a LOT of graffiti though (you can see it in some of the photos) and I thought that spoiled some of the beauty. Mary didn't agree--she liked seeing the expression of political views, so we agreed to disagree on that one.

The other thing that took me aback was that smoking was allowed everywhere--taxis, bars, restaurants--so we were in a lot of smokey places, and I am not used to that. I think we washed every item of clothing we took once we got home!

We didn't do so well on finding other lesbians. A couple of places we found on the internet were closed or no longer existed...and the bar life started a little too late for us (they didn't even OPEN til midnight, and not get going til 3 am.)

Mary has developed a bad cold, so is coughing and sneezing away, and just trying to rest up. We have company this weekend--Bill, from New Hampshire, who has been working in Africa and is coming back through England, so will stay with us for four days. We are SO looking forward to his visit.

Hard to believe it is December already. Weather here has been pretty good--not too cold, nt too rainy. We missed two stormy days while we were in Lisbon, which was nice.

All in all, life goes on and we are happy in our little country home. Hope you are all well too!

Karen