The Stones Return

No, not those old gits Mick and Keith...but the real Stones.....

....Stonehenge.....

Its been nearly ten years since I visited....they are till there and slightly more worn than then....and you still cant go and touch them...bah!

They have a super new visitor centre....

....I didn't like to show everyone up by pulling this light stone.....

....and they have reproduced what a village nearby would have looked like....

...thatch.....

More Henge....which of course means ditch....not stones....so stones by the ditch....Stonehenge...

We moved on to Avebury where of course they ask you to keep off the ancient monument...but then allow you to go and touch them anyway....

Winston

So off we go for a cultural visit to the home of a bloke that saved the sane world....and here I am with him....

Me and Winston....

That's right, Winston Churchill....here I am lounging on the lawn outside the house....

....and in the gardens is one of these big leaved plants, all hairy and trying to be giant rhubard...

Holidays

Well...I wasn't the forgotten Monkey this time....having been left in the car in the car park at Gatwick last time...so the olds had to make up a lot of lost ground!....so....where did I go....?

The land of el toro.....the bull.....

Yes....Spain.....this picture was taken outside the bullring in Ronda....they still fight the bulls...one of the most dishonourable one sided fights you are likely to see once you leave the Grouse shoot here in the UK....

We flew in to Malaga.....luckily we had a hire car and headed to the luxury villa at Almogia about 15 miles inland...

....I relaxed for a while, allowing them to unpack....

We soon headed out to the famous cliff face walk...the Caminito del Rey....

I'm safely on the updated new walk...

...but over my right shoulder is the old walk that people used to fall off!..

over my left shoulder is the train track that goes through the mountin....

...and heres a piture of some looneys walking the old path...!

...from the sublime....to....

....enough said.....mind you...in times of need....!

So we visited Malaga for a bit of culture...yes....its not just sand and...er....sand...we visited the fabulous Alcazaba....a Moorish castle basically...the enemy would have been slaughtered endlessly trying to attack it....and for many years they were....

...its like a small version of the Alhambra in Granada...

Awayday to the cosmopolitan town of Antequera...very nice...and a splendid Spanish meal in the small square was enjoyed.....

El Torcal, a small nature reserve....or natural park....one of the most impressive 'karst' formations in Europe....

...and because its in the Sierra del Torcal range....a rather impressive...

....view.....

....and back to Ronda....and the thing that all the tourists go for....the bridge.....

Hemmingway....spent a lot of time here in Ronda...a few of his books include references to both the town and bullfighting, which he loved....so he and I might be in the same league, but I am above him...heh heh...

....and a visit to....

....and a bit of Monkey ice cream too....

....and here I am not making an ass of myself on a donkey....

May 2016

It seemed like a good idea at the time....

Im guessing it also seemed like a good idea to Scott to go walkabout at the South Pole....and look how that turned out!

So...off to Norfolk for a...break...!

Went to a couple of very interesting places....

Cromer pier in the misty mist and wind....

Blickling Hall....National Trust...very interesting and it was a shame it was so cold...and rainy...but at least I look angelic in the first picture here.....

Zoo visit....

A trip to London Zoo....a fabulous day out for me....seeing all my friends stuck behind bars and in all sorts of captive situations....

The giraffe house was designed by Decimus Burton...(called Decimus because he was the tenth child)...and of course the same said Burton designed many parts of St Leonards-on-Sea which eventually was encompassed by Hastings....,

I have rights you know....

....in fact....

We all do....and a lot of it...and even many countries around the world...owe their freedoms to this...

An interesting exhibition about Magna Carta was held at the British Library...

Above is the library building....although modern in design its been squeezed in to a space so looks all hotchpotch as far as im concerned.....but whats this below....

Its a naked Sir Isaac Newton actually.....apparently 'interrogating the geometries of the universe with his dividers' by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.....who was Scottish!

Holiday time 2014

Off for the Grande Tour of France.....no idea whats going on....but it appears to be a walnut....must have been south somewhere...

However....I know where this is...Lascaux...we must have headed south quite quickly as this is quite a way down south western area.....

The original caves are preserved and no one goes in them...but they utilised modern technology to re do the whole thing and its amazing....what an experience...

The Dordogne.....

You wouldnt stand much of a chance if someone lit the blue touch paper with this interesting gun...!

We reached the Med at La Grande Motte....and whilst trying to get to the beach we passed a few interesting carvings.....like  this fabulous shark

Lets just say the beach was crowded....urgh!....

This model was in the middle of a roundabout....

These are the very impressive medieval walls surrounding the town of Aigues-Mortes....

...nearby are these amazing salt pans...and in the salt pans, apart from salt....are Flamingoes....

....and ice cream.....

Heading back north...though not that far.....we stopped at Arles where there is an amazingly impressive amphitheatre that they still use for bullfighting....

....and right next door was the theatre where they staged plays....

Arles is probably best known I suppose for Van Gogh where he spent several years enjoying 'the light'.....

Still near the Pyrenees....Roussilon....the ochre-red village famous for the towering red rock formations....

....and this is Gordes....

....Abbaye de Senanque....unfortunately they had already picked the lavender which features in all the famous photos....

Thought I had missed the famous lavender crops...but on the way to a very famous mountain...here it was before us...

....and here it is....the Ventoux....one of the most famous mountains in France thanks to Le Tour....one of the most intense climbs in cycling...a bit misty to start....

....but at the top...which must be a relief for anyone to reach on a cycle...the sun was out....

....back to the red ochre....

Im not quite sure what the French think of this....I know what I think of this...some kind of ice cream with mental issues...

This might just look like a hole in the ground....and indeed it is a hole in the ground...but its the Fontaine-de-vaucluse....a fabulous village and nice walk....

We made the treck to Italy....as it wasnt far to go....and just to prove it....

More Le Tour fame....off to the Galibier from  the Lautret.....absolute shrines to cycling....not that you will catch me cycling up any of them when theres a perfectly good car to ride in....!

On the mountains of the Lautret....

....and heres the top of the Galibier....

La Grave.....and here I am in the chair lift up to the top of the mountain....

....what a view....WHAT A VIEW.....down there somewhere is my tent....