Bremen - November 2nd - 9th 2017

In November last year we went to Bremen for a few days. It is a very pretty place. Lots of lovely buildings and interesting art to see.

Of course, Bremen is famous for its story about the musicians of Bremen. Here is the statue in the centre of Bremen.....

... but there were many more around the town.

There was also quite a lot of wall art.

The museum was one of the best I've seen. It kept us busy all day.

Finland 5th-12th February 2017

It's been a long time since I posted anything so I thought I would bring you up-to-date on our travels. In February 2017 we went to Salla in Finland (Lapland). It is a really beautiful place and although it was cold the lack of wind and moisture made it much more comfortable.

Salla is within the Artic circle and is a very quiet holiday village. There is only a very small shop so after landing we stopped at a supermarket to stock up on foodstuff.

This is the small airport where we landed.

This is our log cabin in the woods. It came with a log burner in the living room, it's own sauna off the bathroom and a combined cooker and dishwasher.

Dotted around the countryside were fire huts which contained fire pits. Nearby was always a shed storing logs. Anyone could use these to warm up and/or cook food.

After spending a couple of days skiing we swopped the skis for snowshoes. These were quite fun to walk with but you did still sink into the deep soft snow.

Many of the people working there wore traditional clothes.

We went out for a traditional meal: smoked salmon, braised reindeer and cloudberries. Also whilst out on our sleigh rides we always stopped for coffee and sausages cooked over a fire.

These give you a taste of the beautiful surroundings. 

Of course we had to go for a reindeer sleigh ride. We each had our own reindeer and sleigh.

We also went on a snow mobile ride. This took us even higher into the mountains.

And of course we had to go on a husky sleigh ride. One person sat in the sleigh and the other stood on the back and operated the brake. Those dogs really wanted to run and it was sometimes impossible to keep them still.

Peru - collections of things

If you've looked at my travels before you'll know that I like to collate images on the same subject matter. This is what this post shows.

Peru is famous for its woven fabrics and we had the chance to see the whole process from the animals to spinning and dyeing and then the weaving. At Awana Kancha, a weaving cooperative, they had Llamas, Alpaca and Vicuna.

They had examples of the different natural dyestuffs that they use. It was interesting to see how different the colour of the dyed wool was to the colour of the plants, insects, etc.

The dyeing process was very simple but produced beautiful colours.

The spinning was done mainly by drop spindles.

All the weaving we saw was being done on waist strap looms although they did have a frame loom there. The patterns woven are traditional designs from local villages. You can tell which village the women come from by their clothing and hats.

I loved the way that babies and small children were carried. In all the time we were there I only saw one buggie. I watched a woman wrap her baby and put it on her back, it was very impressive.

In Cusco and the Sacred Valley women dress in quite a traditional way. Again you can tell where they come from by the way they are dressed. The brown felt hats denote a woman of Andean heritage, the white a woman of mixed Inca and Spanish heritage and the flat hats, called montera, shaped like fruit bowls are worn throughout the Sacred Valley. The woollen hat with pom poms worn by the man is also a traditional design. A boy's first hat is given to him by his father.

These were some mummies found in the mud pyramid in Lima ...

... and these were dolls in Chinchero

The markets were full in interesting fruit, cheeses and chocolate.

There was a huge variety of corn and quinoa available ...

... and soooo many varieties of potatoes.

The picture on the left shows a bakery in Pisac and on the right is one of the many small cafes that sell a local drink called Chicha brewed from corn. You can tell if they have some for sale by the red plastic bag on a stick.

As we travelled through the valley there were many roadside stalls selling guinea pigs - usually on sticks. We didn't try any.

All through the valley we saw houses made of mud bricks and loads of bricks laid out to dry.

In the towns and all important buildings like temples stone was used. Inca buildings were built without mortar and the walls inclined inwards for stability. Many later buildings were built on top of these walls.

Ceramic bulls like this and always in pairs adorned many buildings. They are for good luck and prosperity.

Throughout the valley, up the mountains were these terraces. This is how the Incas used to grow their crops.

One of the strangest things we saw was this hairless Peruvian dog. There were also very many shops selling clothing for dogs.

Peru

Okay I am very late in posting this - I was actually lucky enough to go to Peru in September 2015. We flew to Lima on the 8th and on the 9th transferred to Cusco - no taking it slowly and aclimatising for us. We were met by our lovely guide Maria and went to our hotel. We spent the evening with a family friend.

On the Thursday morning we had a walking tour of Cusco. It was very lovely but surprisingly tiring and we got very breathless. The square in the centre of Cusco contained many wonderful restaurants with very tasty food. Of course we had to have quinoa - I had never seen so many different types.

There were plenty of churches and a cathedral. What was interesting was that many of these had been built on top of Inca temples.

Here you can see the monastry arches on top of the Inca wall. This is our guide Maria explaining how the Inca walls were built using no mortar at all. 

The interesting architecture was matched by the wonderful textiles on sale everywhere.

In the afternoon we drove out of Cusco and visited four temples: Saqsayhuaman, Qorikancha, Tambomachay and Pukapukara.

On Friday we left Cusco to travel through the Sacred Valley towards Machu Pichu. Our first stop was at Awana Kancha where they keep a variety of Llama, Alpaca and Vicuna. There is a large cooperative there where women from neighbouring villages come together to spin, dye and weave (more in the next post).

Next stop was Pisac. More temples to see, a wonderful market and a stop for lunch.

Our last stop this day was Ollantaytambo. Although the temple does not look very steep in this picture - it was. It was also extremely windy. Again in the village you had the original Inca walls with modern buildings on top. The bottom picture on the right is a granary. It is half way up a mountain!

From Ollantaytambo we caught the train to Aguas Calientes. The train tracks go through the centre of the town and apart from the train and the buses to Machu Picchu there are no vehicles at all. Everything is transported manually.

On Friday we caught the bus to Machu Picchu. As we climbed higher and higher you could look down on the road to Aquas Calientes. As you walk through the entrance and round the corner this is the first glimpse of Machu Picchu.

Here is the well known view.

Although the Llama looks as though he has been photoshopped onto the picture I assure you he was really there. I have many, many photos of Machu Picchu but have only included these few. It was a fantastic day.

On Sunday we got the train back to Ollantaytambo and drove back through the Sacred Valley to Cusco. On the way we stopped at Moray. The terraces were used to grow crops with the inner circles being upto five degrees warmer than the outer.

We then stopped at Salinas de Maras. I have seen salt flats and marshes near the sea but never in a valley half way up a mountain. It has been here for hundreds of years and the individual pans have been owned by generations of one family. These families still gather the salt and work as a cooperative to sell the salt.

Lunch was in the village of Chinchero. At nearly 3800m high it was almost 400m higher than Cusco and the highest we went. The three people are peeling potatoes that have been dried by leaving them in the sun, then left overnight to get frosted. They are then left to dry again. This preserves them.

On Monday we flew back to Lima and on Tuesday set out to explore. The centre of Lima, the sea front and Larcomar, a posh upmarket shopping area.

The Cathedral was one of the nicest I have been in and was very ornate.

The Peruvians have taken Catholism and adapted it in their own way. The Virgin Mary is shaped like a mountain and her halo has rays like the sun.

Churches in Lima

In Britain fishermen's boats are followed by seagulls - in Lima they are followed by pelicans and big black vultures flew overhead.

Can you spot me walking through the crowd?

I loved visiting Peru, the people were wonderful and I would like to go back.