Mature-adventurer

Day 3, June 22, 2022

Part one: The House and Gardens, including Lily Ponds of Claude Monet

This was a long day, which began with a beautiful sunrise over Lisieux

En route to Giverney, where Monet’s gardens are, a change was made to the itinerary, and we drove through a charming village on the banks of a loop of the Seine called Les Andelys. This is famous because of the castle built high above it by Richard Coeur de Lion The coach took us to a view point just above the castle and we were able to marvel at both the castle and the view.

View of the River Seine

From here we proceeded to Giverny, east of Lisieux, our base. It was very warm when we arrived, the air conditioning on the coach, keeping us agreeably cool, but also giving us a false impression as to how just hot it was. After a short walk, passing through an underpass, and along the road, we arrived at the group entrance. I was impressed by how pretty the verges were, with beautiful flowers lining the entire walkway. After passing through the group entrance I found myself wandering through the beautiful gardens in front of the house, which were mostly at their peak of flowering. Here there were beautiful arches, covered with roses, and flowering shrubs and perennials, creating height and structure..

I particularly wanted to see the lily ponds, which he had painted so often. One of the things I love about light and reflection,, especially sunlight on the water, is the way the light constantly changes There weren’t as many lilies in the ponds as I was expecting, but it was still beautiful.

It was a very hot day, but there was good shade provided by the many trees. The layout of the ponds and bridges gave a number of charming vistas.

After going round the ponds three times, the third because I couldn’t find the exit, I found the little underpass and returned to the gardens, followed by a visit to the house. This was a long, but relatively narrow. construction The walls were adorned with a variety of prints. I was particularly impressed with the number of Japanese prints.

Downstair, there were two large rooms. The dining room had a very big table for a large number of guests and was predominantly primrose yellow.

In the kitchen, which was also large there were the most beautiful blue and white tiles.

We had been given a good length of time to spend in Giverny so I now wandered along the main street looking for somewhere to find something light to eat. Most places I passed looked full and I suspect required a reservation. Eventually I found an unprepossessing little place with a few chairs and tables in a courtyard. By this stage on such a hot day the thought of shade was very appealing.

I had a simple lunch of a freshly filled baguette and a glass of wine and enjoyed simply relaxing on a lovely day.

Trip to Livarot Pays d’Auge

After a short trip in the coach to Livarot we arrived at Le village fromager, E Grandorge , a cheese factory where one of the authentic makers of Cheese of Pay d’Auge had begun . A tour of the factory with a cheese tasting at the end, had been arranged. On the tour I learned that it was a combination of the type of cows, in this case cows with a rather beautiful brown saddle and while belly, the Sedge grass, which they fed on, and the weather, which kept the pastures lush, that created the distinctive flavour of Livarot cheese.

We were able to watch a couple of short films about the history of Camenbert, confined to the D’Auge region and I learned that AOC is short for “Appellation d’Origine Controlee “. After passing through areas, which were highly automated, we came to the area where the ladies were hard at work putting the cheese into moulds and scraping the tops.

I found there were two other AOC cheeses, which were granted this distinction

The third is “Pont L’Eveque”

Once the tour was completed we were treated to a cheese tasting. There were four cheeses on the plate and we were advised to eat them clockwise, starting at 12 o’clock, which was the ”Pont L’Eveque; the one at 3pm was Camembert; the one at 6 o’clock was “Livarot”; and the one at 9 o’clock was the ”C.oeur de Bray, which I particularly enjoyed.

After the visit to Livarot we returned to Liseux for a general explore. I’m afraid fatigue had caught up on me and I found it necessary to have a rest.

Day 1 20th June 2022

Whitegate near Northwich, Cheshire to Liseux in Nomandy, France

After an absence of four years since I last visited France I am on my way again. In the past I would have never considered a coach trip, but now that I am on my own the prospect has become much moe appealing, and when I saw the itinerary for this trip I was sold Thus I was up at 5am to be ready to drive to meet the coach at 7am outside the home of my former French conversation teacher, who had organised the trip. We are travelling all the way with a company called Lakeside and our first driver, Paul regaled us with his “Fronglaise,” which was rather entertaining.

After stops at Norton Caines, where we changed drivers to Chris, an equally happy chappy, Cherwell, where we picked up co tour guide, Justin, and Chevely, for some lunch to eat en route we arrived at Portsmouth at 1.15pm ready for our crossing to Caen, or more strictly speaking, Ouistreham After COVID passes checks and passports, which ran very smoothly, we were waved through to board our 14.45 crossing. As I was with a group we were allocated a room, but it was way too lovely a day to stay in there and we soon found the outside deck and were treated to beautiful views of Portsmouth harbour as we departed.

After a crossing of over five hours we arrived at Ouistreham where there were delays waiting for a shuttle bus, which we shared with a group of very excited school children, followed by immigration, we boarded our Lakeside coach and drove for another hour to Lisieux, where we are staying at the Grand Hotel de l’Esperance for five nights We were greeted by a very welcoming patron and after retrieving my suitcase I made my way to my room on the fifth floor, typically French with a lovely bathroom A very long but happy day.

My route today began exactly the same as Day 3, up Guilden Sutton Lane, right over the Railway Bridge and under the Greenway, going straight ahead to the A56. Today, however, I turned left just before the Toby Carvery and headed up the little overgrown path to the gate. Once upon a time there were styles everywhere, but most of these have been replaced with these metal gates, which I must say are much easier if you have a dog.

A plank across the ditch takes you to a big open field where you can go around the perimeter. Years ago this was a lovely grass field where cows used to graze and you could walk diagonally across it. Then it was sold and years of a successive crops have chewed up the land and the diagonal crossing is no longer a viable option.

Even the path around the perimeter is not great.

I passed through the metal gate and this time turned right onto the Greenway as it was only 6am and I thought I’d be fairly safe.

Almost immediately a runner flashed by with his dog, but fortunately no other soul. The Greenway was once a railway line, running to Mickle Trafford and beyond, which was turned into a cycle way and footpath as part of the Millennial cycleways project. It is now extremely well used; well was until recent circumstances have changed our lives so dramatically. Halfway down the Greenway is a bridge over the still functioning railway line.

The runner and the dog flashed by again from the opposite direction, but I was able to give him a wide berth. Every so often little vistas opened up and I stopped to photograph a couple that appealed to me.

At the end of the Greenway I turned right and headed back in the direction of Guilden Sutton, past the very popular Meadow Lea, a farm coffee shop, which had been very popular with cyclists, walkers and the general population. It used to do a roaring trade so it was quite sad to see it all closed, knowing it won’t open again for a long time.

Arriving back in Guilden Sutton I resisted the temptation to turn right to return home and carried on until I came to the entrance of another path down to the Gowy, which passes Tile Barn. When I first lived in Guilden Sutton this was a derelict barn, which was then taken on by a couple I knew as a barn conversion. These days it has changed hands a number of times and is an extremely attractive property. It is fortunate indeed that walkers like me still have access past the property. Here there is an entrance to a field with a lovely hedgerow. The sun was trying to break through at this point and there was some lovely light over the hills of Barrow.

I used to love coming on this footpath with my dogs, but it has changed a lot under the current owner, who has built a big barn on it. I was delighted to see he’d maintained a bank for wild flowers to grow on.

At the end of the field the path goes through a little thicket with a gate at the end. Once upon a time you could go straight through the field to the big style at the end, but now it’s down the perimeter again and through an open gate. I was, however rewarded with a lovely view looking over to the Helsby Hill.

I turned right at the bottom of the field and towards the Oxen Bridge across the Gowy. It was interesting to approach it from a different angle.

From here it was back up past Arden’s farm and retracing the steps of a number of previous walks, but there is always something different and today it was the amazing light sky contrasted with the wild inky clouds.

I was particularly drawn by the vibrant sounds of the birds, their calls only interrupted by one passing car. So often nature is blotted out by the noise of modern living. Although I’ve found it hard getting up so early the rewards of nature have more than compensated me

I carried on to turn at the foot of Porters Hill. It was a particularly hard slog today, because my foot, which I broke last September was really starting to hurt again.

I turned into Oakland’s and very quickly spotted the rubbish bin men already hard at work with their distinctive orange suits against their purple truck. They conveniently turned into a cul-de-sac so I was able to pass safely. I paused to photograph them as part of our unsung heroes in our current crisis.

I had covered another 4.7 miles of my challenge.

As my challenge was to walk for 6 days and try to cover 26 miles or as close to, I’ve decided to include my walks from the previous Monday and Saturday as the both fall within the same week. It is now impossible for me to continue walking, but I am pleased to say that with the 6 walks I did from last Saturday to yesterday I covered a distance of 26.5 miles a bit more than the 26.2 miles of a marathon, so I’m very happy to say I fulfilled my challenge.

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I’m extremely grateful to those of you who helped me in my objective of fundraising for Shelter with my 2.6 challenge. Thank you all very much and many thanks to those of you who have read my blog I know that in years to come it will be an historical record of what I did during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

On this third day of my 2.6 challenge I decided to slightly modify the format of the challenge and to walk 26.2 miles in 6 days; the distance of a marathon. This will include two walks of 6 or more miles. Having completed day 3, I have now walked nearly 14.5 miles in three days, so I’m well on course to achieve my 26.2 miles target by Sunday. The other reason to modify my challenge is that I wanted to keep my blogs relatively interesting. This means that the walks on the non 6 mile days need to be around 4 miles

With this in mind I realised that If I wanted to vary my routes I was going to need to use some paths, which are relatively narrow. I chose a route that I felt I could risk taking if I got up really early, so I was up at 5.20am today The route I took turned left out of Guilden Green and headed down Oaklands to turn left onto the main Road into the Guilden Sutton. I was making my way towards the path that leads to the Greenway, a disused railway line, which was turned into a Millennial cycle way. Before I reached the turnoff my senses were accosted by the most beautiful, heady smell of a Lilac tree, which had just come into full bloom.

Shortly after this I turned right off the road into the entrance to the path leading across the railway bridge and past Park Farm

After a quick look down the deserted railway line I carried on down the path. The countryside was looking very lush, recent rain having made everything very fresh. The path here goes under a railway bridge, which is part of the Greenway. I was, however, not heading for this, but instead carried on down the narrow path that lay straight ahead. Years ago this was covered by a series of styles and I used to enjoy taking my Staffy dog Leonie down there. It is quite narrow with little ditches on both sides, which were fortunately not full due to the recent sustained dry weather.

You can see the end of the path just before you arrive, because the occasional car goes flashing by

At the end of this path I turned left onto the A56 and headed up towards part of Hoole Village, the Toby Carvery Pub. There is a path beside the pub that leads back to Guilden Sutton, but that’s for another walk. Today I’d planned to walk a bit further. There was almost no traffic on that main road apart from a police car, which drove past me.

I walked along the A56, under the bridge on the M53 motorway and crossed over the roundabout, turning to carry on past the Doubletree Hotel. Everywhere was so quiet and deserted, much quieter than the A51 the previous morning. Perhaps I was just that much earlier myself.

At the big Hoole roundabout I turned left down the A41. If you take out the main road, the path itself is quite pretty.

I remember years ago when there were major discussions about where to build the missing link between the M53 and the A55. There was a lot of controversy about upgrading the A41, but in the end the event the link was built and a huge number of trees were planted on the central reservation between the dual carriageways. To see the Lilacs now as mature shrubs amongst many mature trees gives me a good appreciation of the forward thinking of the planners. This stretch of the A41 is very pretty indeed.

I soon arrived at the top of Guilden Sutton Lane and debated whether to go through the little hamlet of Pipers Ash again, but decided that I’d already been that way on the two previous walks and I wanted to go to the end of Guilden Sutton Lane.There was a lovely patch of bluebells growing on the corner, another highlight of Spring in the countryside.

After turning into Guilden Sutton Sutton Lane I carried on right down to the bottom of the village, turning right by the village war memorial, now beautifully maintained, then right again into Church Lane. The sun had come out and was casting some beautiful light on Lilac Trees and Japanese Maples, now in full leaf and looking very beautiful.

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It was then back up the steps and around Oaklands, which I decided to do twice to make my walk longer and because no one else was about at all. It had turned out to be a much nicer day than I had anticipated and I had managed to complete 4.6 miles. Another good start to the day

If you would like to support me with a donation to Charity please find my 2.6 Challenge on FaceBook as the web link doesn’t seem to be working, or leave a comment at the end of this blog? There is a link at the end of the first blog.

While I originally started this blog as a travel blog, in the current climate travel it is out of the question. Instead I’m turning my attention to the 2.6 challenge, which has been taking place to help raise money for thousands of charities, who missed out on fundraising by people taking part in the London Marathon. Many years ago I entered the London Marathon only to fall ill on the day, so I’ve experienced the disappointment of doing all that training only to be denied the opportunity to compete. I’ve been very ill over the past few months and am now finally able to do some distance walking again, hopefully at a reasonable pace so I decided to do my walking again for a purpose. I am taking part in the 2.6 challenge to raise funds for Shelter, who provide accommodation for homeless people and work with councils to assist people living in cramped conditions, certainly some of the vulnerable in our society.

For the challenge you can choose to do anything involving the numbers 2 and 6. As I like doing speed walking my challenge is to do 6 miles for 2 days and 2 miles for 6 days. As I am myself vulnerable to Coronavirus, given my very recent health issues, I’ve been in strict lockdown since the beginning Of March. The challenge for me is fitting in the 6 mile days, which I am doing in one go.

Day one Tuesday 28 April

I decided that I would begin this challenge with one of the 6 mile walks so I set my alarm for 5am. It was very dark when I got up, overcast, but at least not raining. The reason that I’m walking so early is that I cannot risk getting too close to anyone else, so, hopefully few people will be about at that time. I managed to leave home at 5.30am and was rewarded by some amazing bird choruses. A Blackbird seemed oblivious to my presence as it hoped around the road very near to me

I was delighted to hear a Green Woodpecker with its distinctive call, which always sounds like they’re laughing to me. As I made my way down towards the steps to take me to the bottom part of the village I espies a clump of Cow Parsley, one of my favourite wild flowers, especially as it lines the sides of the roads with May blossom out at the same time.

Turning to the left on the road I was soon at the cenotaph and the pull up Porters Hill. One of the problems with doing a distance like 6 miles is planning a route that doesn’t take me too far away from home, and I wanted to avoid main roads.

From here it was a slog all the way up Village Road to Piper’s Ash. One of the lovely things about walking at this time of the year is just how beautiful the countryside is and as I turned into Hare Lane I was rewarded for my efforts up the last hill with a few Hawthorn trees in full flower.

From Piper’s Ash I turned into Bellevue Lane and it was another push up the bridge over the motorway.

By now I could feel my energy flagging, a combination of months without walking and lack of food. I decided a little fuel on board would be useful so I returned home for a couple of Nutrigrain bars and the rest of my cold coffee. Feeling better for the food and a fifteen minute gap I set off again on the same route as before, but this time I took the little path by the pub and headed off towards the Gowy River. I came in on the road into Arden’s Farm to avoid people with horses, but still passed one girl closer to the river. I had taken some beautiful photos there on Friday, but today lacked any of that magic. I crossed the meadow to the style on the corner and retraced my steps from there as I now had less than 3k to go.

On retracing my steps I was delighted to come across some clumps of Marsh Marigolds I’ve been told that Guilden is an old name for Golden and Guilden Sutton was named after the preponderance of these pretty little flowers with their fleshy leaves.

After another slog up Porters Hill and a turn into Oaklands I was well passed the 6 mile mark and the welcome sight of my Cul de Sac greeted me. I had walked nearly six and a half miles. I have a few blisters for my efforts so some shorter distances are the order of the day now.

if anyone would like to support me with a donation to my Justgiving page it would be greatly appreciated?

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Having walked twenty one and three quarter miles in the past three days in 32C of heat we decided to spend the last two days at a more leisurely pace. Dan was brilliant at locating what he wanted to see and navigating his way there so I just trotted along happily beside him. He had two main things on the list for the Sunday: one was to go to the crypt of the Orthodox Christian Church St Cyril and Methodius Cathedral; the other was to go to The John Lennon Wall followed by lunch at the John Lennon Pub, just around the corner.

After breakfast we caught the tram again, but stayed on it longer. We eventually got off at a stop by the river and headed for the church, which was up a bit of a hill on a corner. People were coming down the stairs having clearly attended a service.

There was an unpretentious looking door and entering through that we were both amazed to find ourselves in a museum with a great deal of information about Operation Anthropoid, which was the code name for the attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich the Obergruppenfuhrer of the region during the German occupation. A number of films have been made about the operation, which was ultimately successful, but at a huge cost to those involved. The men were trained at one point at Cholmondley Castle near Chester.

There was a lot of information about the planning and execution of the operation. You go through another door modelled on a Spitfire wing. Here you can see the small trapdoor where the men came and went and the window where the Fire Brigade poured water in an attempt to flush them out after their whereabouts was revealed by a traitor. They all perished by their own hands either just shooting themselves or taking Cyanide pills and shooting. Statues to all the men line the sides of the crypt and the large stone that hid the entrance to the stairs inside the church was disguised by a huge concrete slab. I found it all very moving.

We had a quick look inside the church, but as there were still people after the service I didn’t want to intrude. We looked at the window used by the Fire Brigade then retraced our steps to the tram stop where we took a tram to just beyond Charles Bridge, the John Lennon Wall being on the other bank, which was once the Old Town.

The John Lennon wall was a way of the young doing a soft protest against the Russian occupation. They started the wall in 1980 after the assassination of John Lennon and would go there to sing Beetles’ songs and songs of freedom. These days buskers go and sing similar songs. We took a few more pictures then headed to The John Lennon Pub for lunch.

We had lunch in the beer garden at the back. It was a nice cosy atmosphere and the food was good. Star of the day was Dan’s waffle, especially his look of delight when it arrived.

I had seen a nice restaurant for the evening meal close to where we were so I booked there for our last night. By now it had started raining, although it was still very warm.

We decided to visit the permanent exhibition of Mucha and Warhol, which was on the Town Hall square and it was a way of escaping the rain. Having crossed Charles Bridge still thronging with people we made our way through the crowd to the Town Square. The crowds had thinned out here and we were soon in the exhibition of Mucha. I found the style fascinating, particularly his posters of Sarah Bernhardt that I knew more through her association with Berlioz.

Moving on to the Warhol exhibition I learned that his parents had come from Slovakia and he had changed his name from Warhola. The information on him was in more depth than Mucha and part of the exhibition was personal letters to his brother. I particularly liked his painting of his mother with whom he was very close.

There were a number of different colours of his painting of Marilyn Munro

We returned to our hotel to change for the evening and returned for a meal at the lovely restaurant on the canal by the water wheel. We were given a table on the little balcony opposite the water wheel that I had photographed earlier. There were a lot of flowers and it was charming. It was quiet being a Sunday night, but the food was very good.

After dinner we made our way back to the big square where Dan fancied an nightcap looking at the square by night, which was really lovely and a good end to the day and especially our last night.

Having followed me into the French restaurant the previous night, Dan was very keen to have meal at a little Czech establishment, which had received great revues, called Wine O’Clock. We had to email for a reservation and thus were booked in from 5pm to 7pm on the Saturday evening.

We chilled a bit in the morning and headed off into town for some lunch. While our hotel Le Petit Prague Hotel was pretty basic it was handily placed to the trams, which stopped very near by and went every fifteen minutes.

Dan was very keen to watch the Wales v Ireland rugby match and we found this later in the afternoon at a pub called the Dubliner. Unfortunately because of the time difference we didn’t catch more than twenty minutes of it before we headed off for the little restaurant.

Wine O’Clock was indeed small with three tables for couples and seating for eight along the bar. The food was prepared behind this. As with the French restaurant the walls were stacked with wine, mostly from Italy, but a good selection of Czech wines as well. I enquired about one that looked a bit like a Gewürztraminer, but he said it was a very good one so we decided to try that.

Dan loved the ambience of the restaurant declaring it was just his kind of place.

The meal was excellent and the wine improved with every sip. All in all a lovely experience.

After the meal we headed for the Funicular railway to take us up to Petrin Hill. Dan was keen to get to the top of the tower as the sun was setting When we arrived at the station there was quite a queue. Then there was the rather difficult matter of obtaining tickets from the machine. In the end, with a bit of help from a local Czech, we had to use Czech cash, then the tickets were duly produced. The journey to the top was quite short and we alighted just as darkness was starting to fall and made our way through the gardens to the tower. The gardens themselves would be worth a visit. After obtaining our tickets we climbed the 299 steps to the top where there is an observation platform. There is one halfway as well. There is a lift, but we were happy to climb and you caught glimpses of the city all the way up. The observation platform does a complete circle and the views are stunning;

As a good way of rounding off an excellent day we went for a couple of drinks in a little outside bar to the right of Charles Bridge. It was lovely sitting beside the River Vltava looking at the reflections of the lights in the water and watching an occasional passing boat.

Dan had heard that the best way to see Prague was to do an all day inclusive tour. Consequently we signed up for one and an hour later we were picked up and transported to the start We alighted in front of a very large building, which had once been a palace, but was now an official government building.

The rest of the group arrived along with our guide and we set off down the hill towards the square in front of the palace. Our guide pointed out a wall, which was a painted imitation of one built with three dimensional stones.

There were many beautiful buildings, formerly palaces, but now mostly government buildings. The spires of the church inside the palace dominated the immediate skyline. Our guide pointed out the statues over the golden gate, which were symbolic of Marie Theresa’s great power and kingdom.

Once inside you are overwhelmed by the buildings and the front of the church, which was built over a number of centuries. You can see gothic architecture and similarities to to Notre Dame. I particularly like the big rose window.

As with all tourist hot spots the inside was thronging with people and it was hard to take photos. The Nave was very beautiful with a similar high Vaulted ceiling to others built in that style

Our guide pointed out some twentieth century stained glass windows, which had the most beautiful colours and told some historical events,

Emerging from the church we made our way around the other side of the cathedral. From this angle you can see the gradual development and changing styles of the building, the oldest to the right as you face it. The oldest part is much darker in colour, which was due to a fire.

Opposite the cathedral is the official residence of the president and further along a big banqueting hall. The whole area is immense.

We exited the palace under the golden gate, which is ceremonially garden by two soldiers who change every four hours.

From the wall outside the castle there is a good view across Prague and we stopped there briefly while our guide explained how there had been a fire in the district below, and the houses were now of a different material from wood. Their red roofs reminded me of those in Florence.

The town on the castle side of the river was the old town and that on the opposite bank of the Vltava was the new. They were joined in the reign of Charles IV who also became a Holy Roman Emperor. He founded the Charles University. We descended a big flight of steps into an area we there were many embassies.

We gradually made our way down to the river passing John Lennon’s wall on the way. This was a passive protest by the young against the communist regime’s denial of Western Pop music and after Lennon’s death in 1980 they kept coming to the wall to sing songs of freedom.

From here we made our way to the River Vltava where a cruise. boat was awaiting us. Once on board we were offered a choice between an ice cream and a ginger cake; I chose the latter, Dan the former. We were also offered a glass of beer, which we willingly accepted. It was incredibly hot and sitting on the boat while it cruised gently along the river was a wonderful respite from the intense sun. Various buildings were pointed out as we progressed along the river.

All too soon the cruise was over and we were shown the various statues on Charles bridge many of whom were saints. The bridge was full of tourists and local artists and performers trying to part the tourists from their money. We made our way up Charles street until we eventually arrived at the Astronomical Clock, one of the striking features of Prague. I had seen one before in the palace in Venice, but this was on a much larger scale.

The main square to the right of the clock contains many fine buildings, which we would revisit.

By now it was mid afternoon and we made our way down into the cellar of an old building where we were given a medieval style meal. It was very dark, but the relative coolness was very refreshing along with the food.

After the meal our guide took us to the old Jewish quarter of Prague and spoke of the many thousands who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

The tour ended here, but I felt I had gained a real insight into both the history and geography of Prague. Dan and I caught the number 17 tram back to our hotel to return the same way later in the evening for a meal. We didn’t get the same tram back into Prague so were negotiating some streets back towards where we’d eaten the previous day when we came across a very nice looking French restaurant. Dan could tell I was very keen so in we went. Inside was like Aladdin’s cave to a lover of wine, shelves piled high with bottles, which on closer inspection proved to be fine Burgundian wines, well at least in the room where we were directed to a table. I had noticed the menu was from the region with some of my favourite dishes. We were offered Champagne while we studied the menu.

I chose a wine from Santenay near Mersault, a village that Brian and I had stayed in on a number of occasions to buy wine from the region. Everything was delicious, the food, the wine and the ambiance. I particularly enjoyed the Guinea Fowl.

We caught the tram back again and reflected on what had been a long, but rather wonderful day.