Weekend in Liege

Saturday 30 April

Serendipity struck when I realised I could gate crash JC's pre-planned trip to Belgium for free!  He'd already paid for the Euro tunnel and the hotel so I booked the time off and joined him.  Whilst he spent the weekend photographing, I took the opportunity to explore this new (for me) city.  

Our hotel was a few km walk from the centre so it was pleasant stroll up La Meuse.

 

I started exploring in the old part of the city.

As my day progressed I realised that religious buildings were going to theme highly during my visit.  This was the first I passed, Collégiale Saint-Barthélemy.  It didn't dawn on me for a few churches that most of them were open (you just had to push the closed door) and were free.  

 

Lots of interesting small alley ways, 'impasses'.

I made a beeline for the Montagne de Bueren, all 374 steps of it.  I plodded my way up and was rewarded with amazing views. This stairway connects the citadel at the top with the barracks below.  

 

Wandering around the top I discovered that the Coteaux de la Citadelle has beautiful gardens, les Terraces des Minimes, which are a delightful, peaceful haven above the city.

I passed the not-very-externally-beautiful Collégiale Saint-Jean-en-L'isle de Liège and didn't enter.  Fortunately I returned the next day and did go in (see below) - it was really interesting!

Next up was Liège's cathedral, Cathèdrale Saint-Paul.  By now I was well and truly visiting a few fair of the 7 Collegiate churches of Liege.  Not only does the cathedral have glorious tiles and an amazing ceiling, the stained glass was wonderful.  As well as the 16th Century works of art, they also had a host of modern stained glass to replace those damaged in the First World War.

 

 

Then I headed for the Collegiate Church Saint-Jacques, a former Benedictine abbey established in 1015.  It has remarkable, intricate stone work which I was able to see from the vantage point of first floor room I discovered by chance (I go up any staircase I can find!).  

 

I loved the painted walls.

I'd been hours on my feet but hadn't finished yet.  I chose to walk back down the east side of La Meuse and enjoyed this quirky walkway under the bridge.  

Then it was into the riverside Parc de la Boverie - lakes, beautiful gardens etc - then back to our hotel by the central station and its striking architecture.  

 

Sunday 01 May

Today I started with the botanical gardens.  I'm a bit of a sucker for these, as well as sculpture gardens, and paid my 4 Euro to explore these Victorian glass houses.

 

 

Back to the historic centre I popped into the Palace of the Prince Bishops.  You can only stick your head into the main courtyard but the cloisters were beautiful.

 

Returning to the historic churches trail, I visited the Unité Pastorale Saint-Martin (St Martin's Basilica).  Once again, there were really beautiful and creative stained glass windows.  

 

I passed the Collégiale Saint-Jean-en-L'isle de Liège and decided to give it a quick look and I'm delighted I did.  Firstly, in the cloisters I found a line and dates on the wall.  It turned out, as expected, these were heights of the two major floods, the most recent one being in 1926.  A portion of Liège's centre used to be on an island and, although the river was blocked up land it still at risk from flooding.

 

Inside I discovered a rare feature, an octagonal interior.  A guide came over to chat to me in English, and explained that there are only a few of these types of church buildings in the world.  He said there was a similar one in Aachen, Germany, and Israel (and somewhere else?).  Sounds like a trip to Aachen is on the cards as it's beautiful.    

I sometimes wish I had a step count for weekends like these as I was on my feet for hours each day.  I adore a new city, a map in my hand and a flat pair of shoes.  Bliss.

Herefordshire and The Map

Just had a long weekend away in Herefordshire staying just north of Ross-on-Wye and exploring this part of the country.  I get excited just crossing the bridge!

Of course, a visit to Herefordshire includes an essential trip to Hereford Cathedral, which is the first thing we did on the Saturday.

For cartophiles this holds one of the most wondrous maps ever, the Mappa Mundi.  It is the largest known T in O map dating back to the 12th Century: the rivers Don and Nile are the top of the T, and the Mediterranean is the stem, East is 'up' and the O holds the heavens.  This is the third time I've visited it and each time I am awestruck by its size and magnificence.

The chained library is also fascinating to visit and holds books dating back to 800 AD and is the oldest known surviving chained library in the world.  Hereford Cathedral rocks.  

On Sunday we did a circular walk starting at Kilpeck.  Kilpeck Church is renowned as being one of the most perfect examples of a Norman Church.  It was built around 1140 and boasts some magnificent stone work.

The views were wonderful as we climbed up onto a ridge and had far reaching views to the Brecons and the Malverns.

The local name for a small hill is a Tump and we found a little Ruth treat on top of Coles Tump.

Late afternoon we popped down to Monmouth for supper.  I remember first seeing the Monnow Bridge when walking Offa's Dyke.  Nice to see it again.

It was grey and damp on Monday morning, so we decided to visit some of the Black and White villages of Herefordshire.  First off was Weobly which had a sign posted trail around the village highlighting its key buildings, the first of which wasn't even black and white!

The richer you were the closer you could afford your wood beams to be, so you'd see houses with closely spaced beams at the front, where they would be seen, and more widely spaced ones further back from the public eye.

Loads and loads of black and white houses, of various states of verticality!  The building below on the right was the old school.

It had started raining so we drove off to Eardisland.  As I had an Ordnance Survey map in my hands I got distracted by a trig on the way, so we stopped, hopped over a fence into a muddy field, and bagged this one.

Back to the villages...Eardisland is the 'jewel' of the Black and White village trail, and I can see why.  It is very picturesque even in the drizzle.  It also regularly floods which is, sadly, unsurprisingly as it sits on a river which has been split to feed a water mill.

The last village was Pemberton which had an interesting bell tower set apart from the church.

And more photo opportunities.

On Tuesday, on our way back south, we stopped at Tintagel and walked the Angidy Trail which follows the wire work industry which date back to the 16th century.  You start by walking up old leats amongst worker cottages, discovering dams designed to generate a head of water to drive the water mills.  

Although the guide book talked of furnaces, kilns etc, on the whole there was little evidence except for overgrown walls and the dams.  The only surviving feature is the depilated furnace buildings, with placards telling you that, once the furnace started, it would be kept going for months at a time.   

The walk back down to Tintern was through a pleasant wood and the fungi reminded me of Luxembourg over the New Year. 

St Mary's Church was an interesting fine.  The stile to keep animals in/out was made from a re-used grave headstone. 

The church was destroyed in a fire in 1977.

Back down the River Wye, a pub lunch and then a quick photo of the Abbey before homeward bound. 

Eden Revisited

I've been to the Eden project a few times.  The first time was in the early 2000s.  There was a large tyre in the tropical dome then and we took a picture of the girls on it.  I remember this day well as Caitlin had just had a bike crash and her lip was bloodied and then, poor thing, she shut her fingers in the toilet door!  Riona, meanwhile, was wearing no shoes.  We were camping locally and we'd swung by the playground in our van to scoop her up. We only realised once we got to the Eden project that she was shoe-less!

In 2007 we were a tad more organised.  Caitlin was in one piece and Riona had bought shoes.

I visited again in 2009. I like visiting the Eden Project but it's expensive, and I didn't feel I needed to keep re-visiting.  However, I was jogged to visit recently as I had a free ticket, and I'm never one to turn these things down.  JC and I visited last Saturday and it was pretty much as I've remembered it.  

The crested partridges are still running around, but, sadly, the big tyre as gone.  

The sausage tree was going well.  

In the temperate zone I found the giant lemon.  Which doesn't look to scale unless you're next to it.  But, trust me, it's massive.