Hippie paradise La Gomera 3

On 21st wed, we went up to the mountain. It was a bit cooler than Vallie Gran Ray. Took my hoodie and gillet with us. There were lots of people walking that day. Loads of cars were parked up at the car park, i cud see more cars parked different ares. Due to various walking paths. We prefer quiet. So we went up there on 25th, on our way to Hemigua too.

We saw different plants. Dandelions were huge! I never seen anything like that before. Very green, beautiful!!!! Here's some photo of Garajonary.

After walking up the mountain, we went for lunch. Water cress soup! There was a little mountain restaurant called La Vista. It had camping site too. When we went there, there were some hippies were camping. some of them were packing up to leave. i wondered where they were going. Some waked into the mountain, some had a cab to El Cedro.... Anyway, we had lunch. We wanted to eat canary potatoes with mojo sauce. They didn't have it. We enjoyed our soup. I was looking forward to this soup. It was very simple soup, and tasty.

They have loads of foods on the menu. When Marcus came here long time ago, he ordered something else, but only food they had was watercress soup. If they didn't have any other foods, why did they bother putting up menu there? When we paid, We saw this guy went through all the foods on the menu, but he was told they only had soup and bread. His mate didn't look impressed. I think she was very hungry, poor thing. Here's their menu on the wall.

After our lunch, we went for walk to the forest. it was magic. I thought that last year. It was still beautiful and soft, almost as if I was melting away in the forest. Apparently, they didn't have rain since last September, there was no waterfalls. last year, waterfalls were everywhere. it was awesome. Loved the sound of the water, cool air, watching the water went by, felt as if I was one with the water.

Then we found some water!!!!! Tasted lovely and fresh!

This is us drinking fresh mountain water. it was very refreshing. I wish I could drink this magic water  here in England.

Beautiful forest♥♥♥

Marcus was wearing this bright green top and those pair of shades, kind of camouflaging into the background, it was kamereon effect.Coooool!

These are my favo photos taken in El Cedro. Lovely weather, we were above the cloud. It was very warm.

Hippie paradise La Gomera 2

First 2 days, we went to the beach. We called it "wild beach". I can't remember the name of the beach, but I think it's called " playa del ingles" (according to the map I have here. ) I just loooove beach Holiday. I can lying on the beach all day. I was going to read a book or handout from my qi-gong session.

 What did I do as soon as lying on the sand? I fell asleep! I slept a lot during our holiday. I'm sure Marcus did too. We were really busy before we went away with work. We enjoyed our holiday even more!!!!
 

Anyway, while we were on the beach, we saw some German people with cameras taking photo of something. Nosy Norie wanted to know what it was. So I went to have a look. Then I found this!

What a funny thing! It was a jelly fish! Looked weired. I poke it with some twig, it was hard and wobbly. It rolled really well. I wasn't quite sure if it was alive or not. I saw quite a few of them on the beach. Everyone looked very curiously.

 And it was funny to look at naked Germans with camera taking photo of this jelly fish, discussing them, calling their mates to have a look, etc. Germans were funny!

By the way, this wild beach wasn't nudest beach. But I think Germans made it that way. The most of them were naked. So, I decided to take my bikinis off on my 3rd day. I took my top off to get more tan and went into the water. Felt good.

 I came from the society to hide naked body in communal mixed bath, we are not very open to these kind of thing. We do have mixed spring bath or same-sex bath, but quite often people hide their tits or private area to hava bath. So, when I first time saw Germans taking their clothes off, became nudest beach, I was shocked. They were so open, they didn't care. I liked that.

 Anyway, I enjoyed people watching on the beach. 

We went back to the beach on our last day in the Valle Gran Ray (24th/March), the sea was rough. Waves were really high. I never seen that before. It was really wild. We went into the sea a bit, it was fun too. Wave reached to us and some people lost their shoes, sandals, towls got wet, and time to time it was a bit chilly too. We all sat on huge rocks and just watched the sea. Not sure how long we were watching the sea, it was calming, although sea was rough, it made me forget time.

Hippy paradise La Gomera 18th-28th/March

Hooray, I couldn't wait for my spring holiday. this time, me and Marcus went to La Gomera again! I had such a fantastic time, I was really looking forward to this holiday.

This time we hired a car at the ferry port in Gomera. We flew from Stanstead air port to Tenarif. About 40-50mins from Tenariff ferry port. It arrived in San Sebastian.

When We got to the Tenarif, I realised... Weather forecast on Internet lied! It said average 21c, actually, more like 27c! Yes, When we got to Gomera, it was hot. Lovely. Getting some winter/spring sun on my back. Last year, it was a bit chilly, but this time, it was hot. I thought "shit, I might not have enough tops!" Well, I had enough clothes anyway. I packed to minimum.

 My goal this time was: to wear all clothes I was taking. Always ended up wearing the same clothes. I didn't want to carry a heavy bag. Me and him had back pack each, and we shared a suits case. It wasn't too bad for 10days. I even bought two dog towls(clean old towles people donate to our charity shop for pets. nothing wrong with them, just a bit worn out.) for beaches. It was brilliant idea, the end of our holiday, we chucked them in Tenarif.
 

Anyway, Marcus quickly qued up to Cicar counter to get our hire car at the ferry port.

 Then we were off to Valle Gran Ray!!!! Beautiful views. We across the mountains, looking down Vallie's, it was clear sky. Then suddenly clouds dropping in between trees in the forest. Changing energy and scenery all the time. beautiful. I loved every minutes of it. After a couple of hours driving, here we were, we arrived in the Valle Gran Ray.

I love the place. I saw lots of people there this year. I suppose, it was season then. I saw lots of hippies chilling out on the beach. Where we stayed this time was by the harbour.

Little apartment owned by Spanish family. Great thing was: they had Hippie land at the back of the house. The house contained 5 apartments and land lady's living dwellings downstairs. Her granny was very sweet, didn't know what she said, but kind of, understood every time.

 Anyway, this is the hippie land!

It looked good fun to live there. It had communal kitchen and dining area, 5 or 6 wooden shed and 1 brick shed. Maria( land lady) charged 35euro for a night for our apartment, we wondered how much she charged for those accommodations. Looked like there were always people staying there. When someone went, new hippy arrived. First a couple of nights, we stayed room 5 which was back room, room4(I think) was the best view to the harbour. Room 5's bed room was very close to the hippy land. They were quiet lot, didn't play loud music or anything. Very chilled out! Every morning, I saw someone was cleaning their kitchen floor, making cuppa for their mates, chatting, reminded me of  the camp out I used to go in Norfolk with frends. There was community. I wondered how long they usually stay/live there??? And how much?
 

Anyway, this is the view from our room4 balcony.

In the night time, we could hear some strange noise from the sky. We saw something... I thought it was a shooting star. It wasn't. It was birds flying round, they were kind of sea gulls. Apparently, they hang round on sea in the day time, night time, they start their party in the sky. They made such a funny noise. Wondered what they were doing up there! (I thought it was some cheeky kids messing round.)
 

Oh, I saw a huge shooting star under Olions on the second night. It was huge, it had a tail and looong too. It was second time for me to actually see such a big one! It was sooooo coooool!!!! We were lucky, the night sky was pretty much clear while we were there. A couple of nights, it was chilly, but rest of our stay in the Valle Gran Rey was quite pleasant. 

By the way, this is the security to our apartment. There was no lock from inside. And really dodgy!

Luckily, no one broke into our room and kill us while we were sleep. Apparently, crime rate in this island is very low. So, it was safe. It was basic apartment, but it had all we needed. A big fridge freezer, gas cooker, nice kitchen with view, clean bed room, bath room and hot water. Loved it! We even had a cat to visit us. And our new neighbour was lovely German lady who was travelling on her own and sounded a little hippy. She recommended to visit El Hero next time. Yes, that's the island we'd like to visit next.

Suffolk walks---Copford, Essex

11th March was my birthday. I went to see Marcus that weekend. On the Sunday, we drove down to Colchester, visited TK-MAXX for quick shopping. And I found some nice tops for our holiday this weekend!

 After shopping, we went to Copford, Essex. I'm not sure Copford is the name of the area, but, it says on the church yard. Do you remember previous blog, I mentioned a story Marcus said " Norie, I'm nearly 50 you know" place he said and I thought it would be lovely to visit the place again.

 So here it was, we drove to St. Micheal and All angels church in the Copford. We parked the car outside of the church. and off to walking!

As usual, Marcus didn't quite remembered where we were going, but managed to find a way. It was quite muddy and sometimes I found slippy too. We thought we got lost one point( it always happens when I'm with Marcus, bless him) due to sign post were taken out.

The farmers were digging earth inside out, they took path sign down too! very naughty. We could hear shooting sounds. I thought "I don't wanna get shot by the farmers for tress passing... " Sounds were really loud, they probably were shooting far away from where we were anyway.

 Then I wondered... What were they shooting???? Human? Empty cans? or pheasants? I hope not... Pheasants are cute and beautiful birds. Poor thing, They get their wings clipped and not be able to fly properly...then they get shot. Where they are going? Restaurants in London. We used to cook games. Now? Oh, no, no, no, don't want to do that.

Anyway, our walks were lovely. We eventually found the swing, Marcus tried last year and got wet legs!

Can you see blue rope with wood behind this little lad. He and his friend(the dog) were enjoying messing round when we walked passed. their mum and dad, siblings were also having good time too.

It was a bit chilly but lovely day out walking. We saw lots of daffodils and snowdrops. they were cute.

It took us probably 1½hrs to do the big circle. On our way back to the church( where we started our walk), Marcus showed me some fresh spring coming out from ground. It looked really fresh and yummy.

By then I felt a bit thirsty... the fresh water looked really nice, it was tempting to scoop out to drink. then I thought, because it was right next to the water filtration plant, I was a bit suspicious. It might get polluted from there!

Apparently there used to a Roman bricks around it. So that means it was a very very old spring in Suffolk! Water filtration plant ruined it!!!! Just like building the Sizewell next to the beautiful place. Always happens...

here's the water!

And this is the where Roman spring used to be:

Can't see anything. It's totally covered with over grown weeds and leaves. Wouldn't it be wonderful If it was opened up and be able to collect fresh water from the source!
 

After walking through fields, we were back to the church. This is the back of the Copford church. It had pretty grave yard with daffodils, snowdrops and primrose. Very quiet and peaceful. Ideal place to have a rest after visiting busy Colchester city center. 

I really had lovely time on my birthday. It was lovely quiet walk. I love the quietness, no sound(guns), no music, no talk in open nature. And just listening to birds singing... We'll have some more that next week... in La Gomera!

I went to Assisi in italy! 24th feb - 27th feb/ 3rd day

This was on our 3rd day there. We took our hire car to outside the city. Marcus wanted take me to the mountain behind the city. But unfortunately, there was some snow left, we couldn't go up there to have our little snack. And it was cold.... We tried and tried. It wasn't possible so we parked our car bu the road and walked a bit. but couldn't find anywhere to sit down.

 So decided to go back into the car. We visited a few different places. One was St Frances's cave church. It was awesome. It was situated in the middle of the mountain near the city. Apparently after his death, monks built church around it. We saw caves St Frances's mates lived. They lived very nice area.

 Surrounded by trees and river, waterfalls (when in season), and birds singing.... But I would imagine it was bitterly cold in the winter....

 the front gate to St Frances's cave. 

What an awesome platform to chill and do qi-gong!

 This is the where St Frances's cave is.

And, this photo shows that how much snow left in the mountain behind the city.

After this, we visited where Santuario S. Damiano. I liked there too. 

This is the front of the church/monastery. I saw two nuns standing and chatting about the building. I thought it was sweeet! This building looked like it had lots of extensions.

This statue was sitting along the path to the monastery from the car park. I loved how he meditating. Must be fantastic to chill out there. Oh, I saw another out of place thing. We saw three Japanese tourists (young lads, about mid 20's) visiting the monastery and taking photos. And one of them had a large designer shopping bag with him. Obviously, they just had shopping spree! Then went there to chill out from shopping.... nice thoughts! 8points!!!☺☺☺

Oh, there was pretty olive grow. We had our snack there. It was very peaceful.

I'd love to visit there again, and would love to stay in the Italian country cottage in Umbria. Cor, so many places I want to visit! I need to save up!!!! Starting......NOW!!!

I went to Assisi in Italy! 24th feb - 27th feb

This is 2nd day at the city of Assisi. I wanted to go round to see some of old churches and cathedrals. We had a map.

Well, since it was Marcus's 3rd visit to the City, really we didn't need to get a map. But I wanted it. So that I could see where we visited.

 I was bizzy looking round. Everywhere I looked, it was old and ancient and beautiful wall paintings, fixtures on the walls, cute pray area, fountain and I thought even chemists were rustic and beautiful. Didn't look like ones we have here. I remember in Spain, they had some rustic funky chemists. They had lots of homeopathy and herbal cosmetics, soaps, and oils! Big different from England.

  Anyway these are the photos where we visited on our 2nd day!

Me and the public phone. I love somehow taking a photo with me and a phone. Not sure why. I just love different things from what I'm used to, I suppose....

Look! how cool is that? Alfa Romeo police car!

Nice lions on the door!

This shop, actually not only selling aprons, but ALSO they embroider your name etc on the apron you buy. I never seen such a funny shop. Is it Italian thing, to give these to family or friends as a souvenir from Assisi???? It was funny shop. I had massive smile on me face when I saw this.

Apparently, this is one of the oldest roman pillars in Italy...

He's cool!

Rocca Maggiore. Marcus firstly told me it was a castle. When we got there, (it was on the top of the Assisi hill)I saw it was a fortress! COOL!!! It had awesome view of the city and surrounding area.

We went inside. It had loooooooong straight pathway to other part of the fortress. It was a bit spooky, but loved the every moment!

This is the loooooong corridor, couldn't even see the end. It was dark too.

View to the Basilica di S. Francesco

Other part of the fortress. It's massive. It had the other side as well.

I think we visited the fortress first and the we went down to different churches. when we started walking down, I spotted some strange things. Ar, Italians are funny. It was just outside the fortress.

Can you guess what it is? This is a metal wire fence with hundreds of chewing gum stuck on. Sounds disgusting and looked a bit disgusting but as I watched long enuff, I started see an art  in this...??????????????????????☺☺☺
 

These chewing gums had different colour as well, and it showed that young Italians liked chewing gums! and I wondered how many of them to cover the metal wire???????

Here's more pretty pictures.♥♥♥

Me and bus stop. I like the simplicity of this bus stop. And beautiful sky! ♥♥♥

Look, snooty fountain! 

When I saw this, I couldn't stop laughing. It was the funniest and very out of place thing I ever looked on that day. Looked like some karaoke night flyer or maybe a gig???? How those people posing were unreal. So funny and I gave this poster 10 points!!!!! ☺☺☺☺
 

We visited lots of churches and cathedrals. some were nice, some were o.k, some were fab, different energy....Now I don't really remember what inside was like on those churches.... I remember big ones and cute ones though.
 

By the way, I was told (by Marcus, of course) there were appollo and fino line across the city. No wonder why lights were funny over there. Bury St Edmund, where I live has two layline across too. sometimes lights are funny, but Assisi had more frequent on light flickering. It happened very often. Coool.
 

One thing I can say about this city is; can get fit! Eat lovely foods and up and down in the city(lots of hills, stairs every where. loads were narrow ans still cars drove passed), drink lovely espresso and ice cream! Been spoilt again!