The Spalding Flower Parade

The history of the Spalding Flower Parade stretches back to the 1920s when the sheer number and variety of tulip bulbs grown throughout the area surrounding the market town became an annual feast of colour.

The crowds that came in created many problems for the town and coaches and cars caused chaos on the narrow lanes around the fields and this continued to happen until in 1948, the Growers’ Association became involved in organising a Tulip Week.  With the help of the Royal Automobile Club, a twenty-five mile tour through villages and country lanes was planned to show the best fields.

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Greek A to Ω – P (Rho) is for Ρόδος or Rhodes

The island of Rhodes is one of the most interesting and has been inhabited for six thousand years and due to its geographical position on the major Mediterranean Sea trade routes is situated at a natural crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and this has given the city and the island many different identities, cultures, architectures, and languages over its long and varied history.

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Greek A to Ω – Π (Pi) is for Πειραιάς or Piraeus

A bus ride to Piraeus is a truly unique experience.

The roads were busy but the driver of the blue Solaris flexibus seemed totally oblivious to other vehicles as he charged along at high speed, switching lanes, clattering over tram lines and tossing the passengers about like the Saturday night lottery balls on hard unyielding plastic seats.  Luggage flew out of the overhead racks and passengers not gripping on tightly were thrown from their seats.  Suitcases were scattered along the floor and little children were thrown into the air.

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Entrance Tickets – Córdoba and the Mezquita

I began this series of posts about Entrance Tickets in April 2014 and this was one of the early ones.  I cannot really explain why but I have always kept my Entrance Tickets and they remain safely stored in a travel memory box.

The series of posts cannot go on much longer however.  I am running out of material, not because I no longer visit places when I am travelling but because so many places no longer issue paper tickets.  Booking is done on line and instead of a ticket there is a QR code on a mobile phone to swipe through a scanner.

I like the feel of a ticket, I like told it between my fingers and judge the quality, this one at Cordoba was especially fine and then I like to carefully put it in between the pages of my guide book to make sure that it doesn’t get creased.

I think that this is rather a shame.  Places generally need to be booked in advance with an allocated time slot.  It is no longer possible to wander up to a entrance booth, hand over cash and  receive a nice shiny Entrance Ticket in exchange.  Somehow it takes the spontaneity out of city break travel, everything has to be done according to a timetable.

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Greek A to Ω – O (Omricom) is for Oύζο or Ouzo

Ouzo is an anise-flavoured liquor produced from grape must (the remnants of wine-making) and it can only be made in Greece and Cyprus .  No other beverage is as uniquely Greek or as closely linked to a culture as ouzo is to Greece. Greeks drink the most ouzo and ouzeries serve it alongside appetisers called meze. Often drunk on its own or gently diluted, ouzo has a very strong anise  flavour that takes some getting used to.

The ‘Boss Bar’ really had been an excellent place, the staff were attentive and friendly, the food was good, the beer was cold and the prices were reasonable.  It has taken me a while to get to the point of this story but there was always complimentary ouzo to finish the evening (except when there was complimentary melon which quite frankly wasn’t so good) but the place had my fullest recommendation.

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Greek A to Ω – N (Nu) is for Νάξος or Naxos

After taking the bus into Naxos town we walked to the top of the town to find the Venetian Cathedral tour that was highly recommended in the Island hopping guidebook.  We waited around in the courtyard outside the Cathedral and not a lot seemed to be happening and we wondered if we were going to be disappointed.

Eventually an old lady in an extravagant floral blouse and with a worn out old dog for a companion ghosted in from a secret door in an adjacent room and enquired if we were there for the tour and we told her that yes we were.

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Greek A to Ω – M (Mu) is for Μῆλος or Milos

As we walked around the town and couldn’t help noticing that there were three distinctive smells.  Proctor and Gamble Tide detergent (no longer popular in the United Kingdom) which clung like velcro to the fresh linen hanging on the washing lines outside the houses, then incense, leaking out under the doors of the churches and finally the divine aroma of fresh moussaka and other Greek specialities being prepared for lunchtime in the tavernas and the bars.

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Greek A to Ω – Λ (Lambada) is for Λιβάδι or Livadi, Serifos

Whilst these string of Cycladic islands are all the same they are all completely different at the same time and Livadi had a unique quality that set it aside from other places we have visited.

Serifos is not a popular holiday destination for overseas visitors and a bit like Amorgos (in my opinion) a place that the Greek people have sensibly kept back for themselves because close to Athens it is convenient to reach and it doesn’t suffer from the excesses of, say, Santorini or Mykonos.

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Greek A to Ω – K (Kappa) is for Κουφονήσια or Koufonisia

Every time we travel to Greece for the annual island hopping holiday we have to make room in the itinerary for a day or two of beaches and in 2011 we chose Koufosinia and we travelled there from nearby Amorgos on a six o’clock ferry.

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Won’t Be Doing That Again (1)

In June 2012 we travelled to Russia for a two centre holiday in St Petersburg and Moscow.  Given the state of east/west relationships this is not something that I expect ever to do again.

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