The Trees Still on Tour: A Bath in Boroughbridge....

 

Spain Tour 21: Oviedo

We stayed in the Hotel Castro Real, on the Calle de Bermudez De Castro. Not a great neighbourhood and the hotel seriously oversold its proximity to the centre (and, indeed its closeness to the attractive “San Julián de los Prados pre-Romanesque church”).

Google maps suggests that the church is 800-900 metres away at least - if not further - and the city centre is about the same again. Although the capital of Asturias, and a World Heritage site, Oviedo is not that large – it has a population around 220,000. So I would have expected that ‘near to the centre’ would have been a bit, well, nearer. Unimpressed. OK, the distances still aren’t that far – but we felt it was a clear case of misrepresentation and said so (but only as we left!)

This was the view from outside the hotel. Ok, yes you can see the cathedral in the distance...
The hotel was pretty modern, with lights going on and off automatically as we walked through hallways, and windows that didn’t open. Quite annoying, really.

Parking in the underground car park was difficult in our little people mover. On one occasion I got the thing jammed on the tight curve of one of the steeper ramps. It took some effort to extricate it.
Anyway. All of those irritations aside, the centre of Oviedo was pretty pleasant. This is the cathedral closer up:

But the real charm - and tourist trap - of the city are the pedestrianised medieval streets.
Aswarm with cafes and bars - competition to get an outside table is severe.
We met one or two inhabitants...
... and strolled around


The orange, we found was really orange...
... and building sites were really blue.
So were some buildings.
After some looking around, I finally had a huge Asturian fish soup. Delicious, full of multi-legged, complex-shelled creatures, plus octopi and fishy bits. I suspect I was given soup for 4. Anyway, not understanding I ate the lot as a main course. Yum. Waddled a bit after, tho'.
We spotted these in the main park. I don't think they were being prepared for soup...

And, of course, where would we be without a tree?

Bodiam

A few weeks back we went to Bodiam, a beautiful fourteenth century castle overlooking the River Rother in East Sussex. As it says on the National Trust Web site:

One of the most famous and evocative castles in Britain, Bodiam was built in 1385, as both a defence and a comfortable home. The exterior is virtually complete and the ramparts rise dramatically above the moat. Enough of the interior survives to give an impression of castle life. There are spiral staircases and battlements to explore, and wonderful views of the Rother Valley from the top of the towers. In the impressive gatehouse is the castle's original wooden portcullis, an extremely rare example of its kind.

The man who built the castle/manor house was Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, who got permission from the king (Edward III) to build it.

Approaching from the Rother in the South, past the car park, there are some fine old trees and ducks.
Actually we have no idea how old this busy duck was.

To enter the castle, which looks intact and perfect - pretty much - from the outside, you need to go around to the North side.


This is where there is a wooden bridge, leading past some of the ruins of the defences, to the castle gate.
Above the gate are the coats of arms of Sir Edward and some of his superiors.
A simplified map Inside, it is all tumble down and far less well preserved; we had fun wandering around and climbing the spiral staircases in the towers to the battlements.



The view through one of the windows into the centre of Bodiam:
And the view from the battlements:

On the day we were there, there was a hop festival a short distance away (less than half a mile), at Bodiam station on the Kent and East Sussex Railway. Just south of the Rother. From the station you can see the castle:

The festival included lots of different elements, included some steam engines and vintage cars.
You'll see on the side of this machine that it has the name of William Forster on the side. I went to a school of the same name (then), named after the nineteenth century educationalist William Edward Forster. The owners did not know what the relationship might be with their engine-manufacturer. But the festival was mostly about the families from th East End of London who used to come down to Kent and East Sussex to pick hops. Grainy black-and-white photos of whole families coming down and living around for a few weeks in the countryside, on holiday, and picking the hops. Living in shacks like this one.
And hanging up their washing by the hops growing all around them (these are a few seasons too early to harvest apparently)
Around Bodiam the hops were grown for Guiness, we were told. I bought a bottle of locally-brewed ale (we couldn't try the draft beer as we were driving back). It was foul when I opened it a few days later - probably been in storage too long, I guess.

The Kent and East Sussex Railway runs from Bodiam to Tenterden, and is a beautiful, simple preserved steam railway. Previously, we'd been to Tenterden - where there is a small Museum to Colonel Stephens of light railway fame, and Northiam - where we had met and had a book signed by Christopher Awdry. Amazing. But this was our first visit to Bodiam.
The festival, as noted had attracted traction engine and other steam and vintage enthusiasts.





Which seemed to fit in rather well with the local bees and a presentation of historic rolling stock.

This was an absolutely marvellous day out (well I thought so). Castle, preserved steam railway and beeric history. Smashing.

The trees around Nunhead on Tour 10: Scotland: Lake of Menteith

We here at The trees around Nunhead are very keen on Scotland's only lake, the Lake of Menteith.

Or at least, everyone told us that it was the only lake, and that it wasn't called a loch because it was named for Sir John de Menteith, who betrayed William Wallace in 1305; no Scot would name a loch after such a traitor.

In fact, Wikipedia (currently) tells a different story - that there are a few other lakes in Scotland, including Pressmennan lake and the Lake of Hirsel. It suggests that lake in lake of Menteith is a corruption of the lowland Scots dialect word laich meaning "low place".
Whatever the source of the name, after leaving Edinburgh we had a week from the 10th in a rather nice chalet on the lake. The weather was a little damp, but we got out and about a bit and used it as a base.

To my eyes, the lake is shaped rather like a deformed space invader. The chalet is a few feet from the shore in the bottom right hand corner of the space invader's right toe.

So we had fantastic views across the water, particularly at sunset, as you can see.
It was very quiet, and even the nearby Nick Nairn Cook School (!) was almost wholly invisible. There was a small games room and grounds to explore - we were surrounded by the Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) which also hang over the lake:
The chalets were also surrounded by innumerable ducks, which congregated wherever there was food.
Occasionally the team took a boat out on the lake, or ignored it and went indoors to watch the Olympics on widescreen TV. As I said, we went out and explored the surrounding area on several days - and Doug Gray also came over with his family for a supper (and Guardian crossword).
But mostly, I just sat.