Winter walks - 29 January 2006

It was another beautiful London sunny winter weekend, frosty mornings followed by clear sky days. The big advantage of a heavy frost is that it freezes the mud so when you go walking the mud does not cling to you boots making each footstep heavier than the last.

Saturday saw us heading round the M25 to a little village out past Waltham Abbey, called Bumbles Green. The 6-mile walk along ridges through Epping Forest land was supposed to reward us with fine views over London. The haze put paid to that.

We headed west on Sunday out the M40 to one of our favourite walking areas, the Chilterns. Starting from a cute town called Wooburn we walked four and a bit miles to an attractive little village called Hedgerley; had lunch in the White Horse Pub and walked back by a different route.

Ghent - 21 January 2006

Eurostar tempted us away with a weekend to Ghent, a picturesque town between Brussels and Bruges. Since it happened to almost coincide with a birthday, we packed our bags and headed for the continent. The city authorities have done an excellent job of lighting the buildings at night, making the old town just as attractive to view at night as it is in the day.
We stayed in a monastery that had been converted into a hotel, makes a change from the typical hotel architecture!

The must-see attraction in Ghent is a 1432 painting, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. For €3 you get an audio guide with a fascinating commentary about this polyptych altarpiece and it’s history. The fact that you can see it all in one place is amazing in itself, given its chequered history. The painting is a fascinating theological treatise with amazing detail, e.g. the 42 identifiable species of plants in the central panel.

Another interesting piece from the C15th or C16th (depending on which web site you read) is a cannon weighing over 16 tonnes and a little over 5m long that was designed to fire 340kg cannonballs. However, according to the guide on the boat trip, it only ever fired twice and the average distance this massive gun hurled these huge projectiles was 50 cm. Obviously enemies were terrified in the face of this WMD (Weapon of Mass Disappointment).

Russian New Year - 14 January 2006

Went in to London to see the Russian New Year festival and especially the Kremlin Guard who were performing outside of Russia for the first time ever. The set up in the square for viewing when there are tens of thousands of people is totally inadequate so unless you are willing to patiently wait in the freezing cold and slowly worm your way to a vantage point, it is very hard to get a decent view. Still, it was an historic occasion and we had chosen to wait in the warmth of the National Gallery so we had to take our chances. At the end they used a laser to write Happy New Year down Nelson’s Column and although with to the eye it appeared to be there all the time, the camera, not enjoying persistence, saw a different image.

What an amazing privilege, to be able to view the fantastic old masters in the gallery for free, any time you feel like it. There was an excellent photographic exhibition where the artist had used a composition of an old master and re-interpreted it in a modern, Hackney, setting. Some of them were really clever.
We passed by Fortnum & Mason’s store and their window displays were a tableau of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. As one would expect, they were excellent. Unfortunately you have to ignore all the reflections in the pictures to get the effect.

Yellow Submarine: 3rd January 2006

The last excursion was billed as the “Yellow Submarine” and the VJV rep told us we would go 3m under water. The only bit that was correct was the ‘yellow’. We may have been viewing from 1m under water, if that, and in that sense it was “sub” marine. All in all it was a total rip-off that our wiser companions avoided paying for.

The flight home was delayed 2 hours which meant that by the time we had got back to central London the Tube had stopped running. Our only option was a rather expensive taxi ride home, £35 as opposed to £2 each on the Tube. The world famous “Knowledge” for the black cabs obviously does not extend this far as I had to tell the driver where to go.

Wadi Rum: 2nd January 2006

Once again ignoring the tediously tooting touting taxis we walked downtown and did the shops. We met a man who proudly showed us his photos of him and Peter O’Toole and him and Omar Sharif. He had been their double in the filming of Lawrence of Arabia. One of the men on our trip was making his first return to Jordan after being involved with the filming and these two had a good old reminisce.

In the afternoon we boarded the coach for an excursion to Wadi Rum, where the film was set. The first stop was photo opportunity by the “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” a rock outcrop named by Lawrence and also the title of his book. (From Proverbs 9:1) We transferred to the backs of open 4WD, to journey deeper into the desert, ultimately stopping to watch what should have been a spectacular sunset, but wasn’t.

Once back on the buses we were taken to a ‘genuine’ Bedouin tent and campsite for dinner.

Pharaoh’s Island: 1st January 2006

We walked to the Royal Yacht Club to board the Aladdin for a 2-hour cruise to Pharaoh’s Island, just off the coast of Egypt. (Our second Christmas holiday one-day visit to Egypt.) After mooring off the island we were ferried to the island for a quick tour around the fort then back to the boat for snorkelling over the coral reef. Not as spectacular as Fiji but interesting nevertheless. Back on board for a barbeque lunch then it was time to cruise back to Aqaba.

Dead Sea: 31st December 2005

The last day of 2005 saw us at our lowest point since our travels began and arguably the lowest point in our married lives. The only consolation was that we were so low the only way we could possibly go was up. When you get to the lowest point on the planet, 422 metres below sea level, there is no other option.

It was an early start for the coach trip along the ‘King’s Highway’ or Desert Highway to Madaba (Medeba as it is known in the Old Testament). After the obligatory stop at a tourist trap roadside souvenir shop, the first real stop was Madaba where there is a fine C6th mosaic map of the Holy Land on the floor of a Greek Orthodox Church.

Then it was a short drive to the top of Mount Nebo where Moses stood to look at the Promised Land that he could not enter and where, reputedly, he is buried under the church. We should have been able to see Jerusalem but could only just make out Jericho through the haze.

Then it was down from 900m to –422m to the Dead Sea Spa for lunch and a float. It is truly an amazing experience to be able to float vertically without treading water and to experience the buoyancy of 34% salt solution. After sunset over the Dead Sea the return trio to Aqaba down the Jordan valley was, unfortunately, in the dark and we could only see the lights of Israel.

On our return to the hotel, a pleasant surprise was waiting for us in the form of an invite to the hotel’s New Year’s Eve party, courtesy of the tour operator, Voyages Jules Verne. There was special food laid on and a belly dancer for entertainment.