If you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. How many times have I heard that disparaging phrase when it comes to cathedrals. I’m afraid it’s so not true. If the first cathedral you ever visited was the one in Porto, and you never went to another, you would indeed miss out on a lot of […]Read Post ›
We arrived here yesterday after a small delay and were met at the airport by a friendly though somewhat taciturn taxi driver ( seems to be the norm here) and rushed to find Auchan so we could buy some basics. We are in an air b and b – always a risk , and this […]Read Post ›
When I went back to Salamanca in 1992 it was still very much a medieval reaching towards the renaissance university city. It had two cathedrals for the price of one, two universities and lots of cafes and bars. It now had a pizza hut and a Macdonald’s, a toy train to take you round if […]Read Post ›
I was very excited to be in Salamanca again. The first thing I really wanted to do was to go and see the Roman bridge which I knew was just round the corner from our hotel. In the whole year I’d been in Salamanca when I was there as a student, I had only ever […]Read Post ›
On a whim recently we decided to go on a nostalgic trip to Salamanca. Nostalgic because I was there for my year abroad from October 1974 -75. Franco era, medieval university town which hadn’t changed a great deal from the 17th century. I had chosen to go there because of its ancientness and beauty and […]Read Post ›
In spring 1987 I went to visit my maternal grandmother in St Mary Abbots hospital in Kensington. It was the last time I saw her. She had spent the last seventeen years or so in various hospitals because she was suffering from what was known as presenile dementia, which was probably brought on, though no-one […]Read Post ›
The Fiat 126 was a very popular little car in Poland in the seventies. Aspirational for many people, it could be bought by paying instalments for several years in advance – you could only collect it after it was fully paid – and then you had to look after it. My husband’s mother joined the […]Read Post ›
Fifty one years ago I was stranded in Barcelona with no money, a few friends and a lot of time on my hands. I was on my year abroad, the universities were shut because someone had thrown eggs at the rector of Valladolid University the previous October, and I had decided to travel rather than […]Read Post ›
or lack thereof. For Al KE Easter Sunday. The Resurrection. New beginnings. Eggs. Family time. All very important in my life. We were expecting 11 adults and two babies for lunch.We only had nine on Easter Saturday and no one complained about the food then. There was enough. Only two more people on Sunday. I […]Read Post ›
Flowers from my garden.
Life Through Basia's Eyes 