Rubystarrs in Paris episode 4 (Finale)

We are citied out... we arecompletely cream crackered...4 solid days of tramping round this beautiful city and we havent even touched the sides. But we have done what we can and we are ready for some peace and quiet.

Today we walked up through Monmartre to Sacré Coeur..

Its a vibrant busy area - packed with tourists, locals, artists and people trying sell you beer, drugs, water, mini eiffel towers (which I bought to hang on the christmas tree). It was manic - crowded and very warm.

We admired the art and then the view. We had lunch at a pavement cafe by the church.. it was pleasant but we both were starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by constant souveiner shops and flashing towers

We walked back down the hill through a wee flea market - managed to resist more tat and back along via the red light district and of course the iconic Le Chat Noir and the Moulin Rouge.

Paris has delivered a brilliant experience but really you need extreme stamina and more days... there is so much more to see. I can think of several more galleries to visit, I'd love a river trip, theres some lesser known squares with amazing buildings to explore - graveyards to check out - theres areas we havent managed to get to and we havent had the energy to begin on any nightlife🤣🤣🤣.

We have been very lucky with our airb&b .. its an oasis of quiet and calm and has kept us sane. And despite the bad reputation airb&b have - this place is true to the original idea... its someones home which they let out occaisionally to supplement income.

We went to the local bar for a couple of reasonably priced beers and a bit of french bar culture but we were tired and quaffing beer didn't seem to help. I think the thought of the 70 very steep winding wooden stairs before we could hit our bed was lingering in our weary feet... the stairs are quaint but a killer after a long day!

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

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...

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