Cork city

It's an easy 20 minute walk into the city from our digs - we are very comfortable here with full use of the downstairs. Both of the girls work long hours but last night we managed to have a longer chat. Catriona works at a pharmaceutical plant investigating problems.

Yesterday was sunny and warm and we walked right round the city following some self guided walking leaflets. Cork was a walled city in medieval times and there is one section of the wall left and a bell tower from an Abbey.

We had a wander around the English market (so called because it was created by the Protestant or 'English' corporation which controlled the city in 1788) which was a mix of artisan stalls and traditional family food establishments.

We got a takeaway coffee and sat in the sun outside waiting for a rally to begin which we had seen advertised. To mark International Women's Day the rally was about repealing the 8th amendment to allow a change in the law to legalise abortions. One of the chants was "not the church, not the state, let women decide their fate". I went over and talked to a few of the participants to learn a bit more. There were no counter demonstrators which surprised me.

Walking west we went onto the University campus. There is a gallery on site which is listed in the 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die book....goodness knows why. And it was shut for a private function. We carried on through the campus - the older buildings are lovely.

To Ireland!

Up and out by 6.40 am Tuesday morning to catch the ferry from Fishguard. What a luxury to have the car and be able to take what we like. The journey was a bit tedious on the A roads in Wales due to lots of roadworks but we made it in good time. We were randomly selected for the full security check: mirror under the car, inspection of the boot and engine, wands waved over both of us. The boat left 30 minutes late (due to it arriving late from Ireland) even though there were hardly any cars or lorries to load.

Leaving Fishguard

There was plenty of choice of where to sit as there were so few passengers. On board we settled into the pleasant coffee lounge to eat our packed lunch.... ... that is until they started showing a noisy film, Fast & Furious 8 which caused us to vacate to another area.

Planning our route;

Although according to the Captain we should have caught up some time due to the tide we didn't dock in Rosslare until 17.30, an hour late. It was a 45 minute journey to our first overnight stop in a very rural Airbnb near New Ross. We found it without getting lost, just as it was getting dark.

On the way we saw huge piles of snow cleared from the roads. Lucky we weren't here last week especially as our first hosts were snowed in.

We discovered that we were Richard and Eileen's very first Airbnb guests.  We immediately felt at home and chatted with them in the lounge warmed by the woodburner. The house is superb - they designed it themselves and our en suite bedroom was lovely with great views. Richard is English and they used to run a care home in Sheffield. I wished we could have stayed longer. After a tasty cooked breakfast we set off for our first full day.

View from our bedroom;

Richard told us about how drivers all acknowledge each other with a raised finger or wave. We found many drivers who did just that even though we have a UK number plate.

We made a brief stop at Tintern Abbey which was run by monks from Tintern Abbey in Wales. Next we stopped at Hook Head Lighthouse, the second oldest operating lighthouse in the world. It was quite blowy and we didn't stop for long.  We saw 3 dead birds within a short distance and a chap picking up litter said that made a total of 23 he had found in the last few days due to the severe weather. Dungarvan, a pleasant coastal town was the location for our lunch and a cuppa in a cafe.

We then walked on the Ardmore cliffs - a short walk with muddy paths and snow but the views were great.

We had this weather to our left;

And this to our right;

View from the N25;

After a 50km drive we managed to locate our next Airbnb in Cork despite the sat nav not recognising the address, Martin's phone not finding a GPS signal and my phone running out of battery. We met the owner and her housemate, made dinner then walked into town to have a drink in a pub with live Irish music.

Airbnb for 3 nights;

Tomorrow we plan to walk in to see the sights of Cork city.

Last day in Santiago

San Miguel is a fairly run down area south of the centre of Santiago. In an effort to improve the environment mural artists were commissioned to paint huge murals and an outdoor museum was created.

The journey there involved the subway - again it was very crowded. This time Martin got on and the doors shut on his rucksack so squashing our lunch! He had to wait for me at the next stop.

We returned to the city changing twice on the subway. We managed not to get squashed and to get on the same train.  Although at one point Martin was on the escalator, I was on the stairs and after running parallel for a bit they started to go in different directions. It was disconcerting but we ended up on the same platform.

We walked through the city stopping to watch the start of a bike charity ride;

Walking through plazas with wisteria trees in full bloom;

The National Library is mentioned in guidebooks as containing free public loos but actually it's a lovely building with several exhibitions including one showing costumes worn in Atacama desert dance festivals.

We made a short visit to the building which was used as a detention centre by the secret police from 1973-1975. Outside the names of the victims are engraved in the pavements and the banner suggests there are still problems in current times....

We sat in the shade in the main plaza with a singer on our left and chaps playing pan pipes on our right.

We estimated that we have learnt about 140 Spanish words although Google Translate has been a boon. Both of us agree that we prefer Chile to Argentina. The land is more fertile and the people so friendly. After a quiet morning we will catch our flight home on Sunday - keen to see family and friends but sad to end our trip.

A disappointing day out

We decided to have a day out on the coast in Valparaiso, a 90 minute bus ride away.

To get to the bus terminal we had to take the subway which was hot and crowded. I got on just as the doors were closing, one of which slammed into my arm. Martin was left standing on the platform so we communicated through the doors that I would wait for him at the next stop.

On arrival in Valparaiso, we had a 30 minute walk through the commercial sector. There was a street market on and it was a chaotic and noisy walk. I kept saying it will be better when we get to the old town as I had read several travel blogs which extolled it's virtues. It never did get better. There were some colourful houses and murals but on the whole it's a shabby place with poor housing and not at all what we had been led to believe. It was really disappointing.

We kept at it though, climbing up into the hills to follow the route I had marked on the map to see the famous murals.

There are numerous funiculars to assist the residents to get to their homes on the hills.

An impromptu slide;

A local park where people hire bikes for the kids to cycle round on presumably because with the hills they don't otherwise get a chance. There was also a drum group playing.

After our lunch we didn't hang around for long and despondently walked back to the bus terminal.

Smog

Our next step was to climb up Cerro San Cristobal to take in the view of the city and the surrounding mountains. It was a hot and sticky walk up. At the top is a statue of Our Lady and a chapel,  and preparations were underway for the Pope's visit in the new year. We could not see the mountains because of the smog which was a real shame.

It was really hot so we went home for a siesta. Later in the afternoon we went to the memory museum. This was all about the military coup in 1973, life under Pinochet's regime and the atrocities committed by the secret police. It was a sobering visit. No wonder there were always protesters on the A30 outside the house where Pinochet lived when in the UK. 

Murals

Santiago

Because of British Airways we have 3 days here - a month before our trip they cancelled our Saturday flight home and rescheduled us to Sunday.

On our first full day we walked up to the bohemian Bellavista area to see murals. On the way we crossed what I'd hoped was a nice river we could walk along another day but it was just a channel of fast flowing muddy water.

We wandered around taking lots of photos.