Cramming it in With Visitors....

We have just had a really lovely week with visiting friends from down south... the weather mostly held and the southern softies managed to cope with a bracing walk on the beach at Hartlepool.

The next day a visit to the big city of Newcastle - I haven't been actually into the toon since pre covid but even this time, due to unforeseen actions we were running late and only had time for the The Biscuit Factory - very lovely art works, jewellery and other interesting items on display and for sale- and then an educational evening at Cosmology Night held in Ernests Bar in Ouseburn.

It was an interesting evening - Dr Fred gave an excellent well received talk about the James Webb Telescope and Dr Dave gave a fairly - to me at least- in comprehensible talk about science of the Terminator.... to be fair the audience enjoyed it but I wasn't even aware that there was more than one terminator film although I suppose hasta la vista is a bit of a giveaway... anyway most of it went straight over my head but was defo appreciated by the crowd! it was a good evening - fun people, interesting talks, good food - these nights were always very popular before life went on hold and they are set to return monthly - check out Ernests website https://weareernest.com/

So we managed fresh air, shopping, education and on Thursday we managed a bit more culture... we went to look at the Threads of Creation - an exhibition of amazing 'wall-hangings' by Jacqui Parkinson currently on display in Ripon Cathedral. They were absolutely fantastic. A friend from our star weekend had mentioned them to me knowing I liked that kind of thing and had shown me a photograph of the hanging depicting the universe - the photo did not do the work justice.

The twelve hangings tell the story of the Creation as described in the Bible. You don't need to hold any religious beliefs to appreciate the workmanship, talent and beauty of this spectacular textile art. the work is mostly applique done both on a machine and by hand. It looks like there are some hand painted and embellished areas overlaid - its detailed and exquisite.

Each picture was incredibly well thought out and the details were just amazing- they were colourful and vibrant - telling the story really succinctly in a very splendid way - they are only there for another week or so but so well worth a visit.

The cathedral itself is a very lovely building and Ripon has many nice cafes and shops so its a very pleasant afternoon out.

We aimed for a quiet weekend - and so it was - with a final decision made on paint for the hallway - watch this space - and a pint in Caps Off - a local micro brewery, followed by a very good discovery of an eatery serving delicious home smoked meats and sides- 'the Smokehouse Railway Street' and a fab firework display over the town.

Almost last chapter... In which our Go Stargazing team watch Astonishing Aurora Borealis seen from the deck of the Astonishing Borealis!!!

The weather brightened considerably and the snowy peaks lining our sail down the fjiords looked glorious and sparkly in the sunshine against a (mainly) blue sky back drop. More awesome scenary.... the Go Stargazing team wrapt up their lectures ... only searching for the illusive Northern Lights remained. The tension from the night before dissolved in the sunshine the forecast for Aurora borealis was looking fairly positive - it was the captains farewell cocktsil party so everyone had their gladrags on.. We ate dinner and sky remained clear so we headed back to our room and donned as many layers as we could move in and proceeded to deck 10 in anticipation of stars and northern lights..... it did not dissappiont - just we got there as the bridge announced that the lights could be seen on the starboard side of the ship. It was stunning. Slowly the intensity built. The auroral green became brighter and bigger areas appe...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

verdant lushness

Its a never ending island hop... today we hopped of the boat at Kingstown, on the island St. Vincents and Grenadine. Once through the usual port duty free - cheap booze and diamonds to go milarkey we were straight into the town... crazy noisy smelly chaos... refreshingly no tat shops for tourists, just local markets and street traders all vying for local sales. Music blasting from everywhere, cars (very battered and often very pimped) all over the roads - parked in the middle of the street, loading, unloading, chatting seemingly oblivious to the total traffic jam caused behind them... We walked through this mayhem - the temperatures were rising probably about 30 degrees - tourists evident by trying to walk on the shady side of the street - even when we turned off the main drag and there were less people it was still like carnival time with music blasting everywhere. Its very atmospheric and mostly promotes a good vibe although I have heard '3 little birds' everywhich way a...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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