Reset search
Tim Lynette Wilkins
Tim Lynette Wilkins

Tim Lynette Wilkins

traveled in 12 countries Read more
FollowMessageStatistics
  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Semana Santa

    February 17, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    They are truly insane here with their preparations for Semana Santa - the big processions carrying statues of saints through the streets in Holy week. At 11.30 tonight, after Tim had gone to bed, we heard the sound of the ponderous music they march to getting louder. Opening the shutters and looking over the balcony we saw dozens of men carrying one of the platforms up our street. As it's a narrow pedestrian street with two bars at the top they had to stop whilst they moved the tables and stools out of the way. Then with a mighty heave back onto their shoulders they were off again. Crazy!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Sunday

    February 16, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Lynette went to mass in the cathedral today so I went with her to remember what it was like. We've been many times before of course but last year the bell tower was covered in scaffolding so it was nice to see it uncovered and cleaned. On the way we came across a group of men practising with one of the huge heavy floats ready for the Easter processions. They are carried on the backs and shoulders of maybe twenty men (or maybe more!) and they are so heavy that they have to have relays of teams to carry them. After the cathedral l went for a walk around the Sunday flea market in the castle square.

    We had lunch in the sun in the local plaza where one of our favourite restaurants has just reopened, and the food is as good as always. On to the football stadium, with a good big crowd today, and another win!    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler
    Castle
    CathedralCathedralLunch in the sun

    El Puerto 2

    February 13, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After the bullring we wanted to see the castle. It's not big but a very good looking castle and we've never found it open. Today there was supposed to be an English tour (and sherry tasting) at 11.30, but, guess what, it was closed for a private function. So we went to the town museum, which was very small but had artefacts from excavations in the nearby hills. They were OK, but nothing spectacular, so we gave up and went for a coffee in the cathedral square. It must be the most hideous cathedral in Christendom! Then went for lunch in a restaurant that we know, that is owned by the daughter of the family who own and run our favourite bodega, and has wonderful food right by the river where many of the Spanish ships sailed to the new world from.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler
    Misty morning coming out of Jerez
    Bullring main entranceBullringBullring royal boxCome on you bulls!Nice statue outside

    Day trip to El Puerto de Santa Maria

    February 13, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    We took the train to El Puerto (de Santa Maria) and for once didn't go there to visit our favourite sherry bodega. The bullring there is famous, it's the third biggest in all Spain, and in the season (May) gets all the top toreadors, and we had never been there. It is spectacular and well worth the visit.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Night out in Jerez

    February 12, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    We went out to eat at a very old favourite restaurant and on the way back stopped for some sherries and flamenco. Jerez at night can be very pretty, I'm not sure why , maybe it's the colour of the street lights. Or maybe it's the sherry!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler
    Interior of the flamenco centrePlaza outside the museum

    Oranges

    February 11, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    The amount of walking that I'm doing here is certainly helping my foot. Today I walked for a hour and a half inside most of the walls of the medieval city. It gets swollen and sore afterwards but at least I'm not now using crutches or a walking stick except when I get tired - I still intend to use the crutches on the journey home in a few weeks, and get all the help I that I can through security and the rest of the queues!

    The city harvests all the Seville oranges around the end of January. Last year we were just in time to catch some to take home for marmalade, but this year they were all gone - disaster! Then in my walk today I passed just one small square where they had missed them so managed to pick some, they were even low enough down that I could reach them easily. I'll check again before we go home to see if they are still there in case we need more.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Lunch in the sun at Fundador

    February 9, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    The day started a little overcast but brightened up and I walked down down to buy a paper. By lunchtime it was nice and warm and sunny and we walked across the city to have lunch in the courtyard of the sherry bodega Fundador, where we had lunch this time last year and really enjoyed it. The food was excellent again. A lie in the sun in the afternoon on the roof, and a dinner of chorizo and lentils rounded off a pleasant last day with Janet.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Tasting at Diez Merito

    February 8, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    The morning started with thick fog, and it looked like it had rained. Breakfast on chorros and chocolate , followed by a tasting a at a bodega called Diez Merito, that we haven't been to before. The lady doing the tour and tasting give us, at our request, a tasting of different quality sherries of amontillado and oloroso so we could compare their cheaper wines (6 euros a bottle) against the better ones ( at 15 euros a bottle). We found that the more expensive were better, but not by much, and certainly not by the difference in price. We bought the cheaper amontillado and then this evening tasted it in comparison to the one from Dios Bacco that we'd bought a few days ago. Pleasant surprise, we preferred the cheaper Diez Merito one. This afternoon the heavy clouds broke up and were able to sit on the sun for a while.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Janet arrived for the weekend

    February 7, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Janet came on the morning flight ( it was an hour and a half late) for the weekend. The weather changed yesterday afternoon so this morning it was heavy black cloud and quite chilly. Thankfully by mid afternoon the sun came back and it's warmer. And a flamenco guitarist was playing outside the sherry bar at the end of our street so all is well again!

    The picture is of the one that hangs on the wall of our bedroom and is so very Spanish!    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Quiet couple of days

    February 4, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    The last two days we've pretty much stayed in and just enjoyed being here. It's been 23 or 24 degrees and beautifully sunny although a chill wind got up yesterday and through the night last night, and today the temperature has dropped to 18. It's been quiet, apart from the noise of people in the street below the apartment, the only noise has the clacking of the storks on top of the church at the end of the street. There seem to be two birds there and they are really big so I think must be about time for them to fly away and go wherever they go in spring and summer.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler

    Climate change?

    February 3, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Yesterday and today it's been hot - 23-24C in the shade and really hot in the sun - too hot for us! The locals say it is unusual just like spring weather in February. We only brought a small amount of sunscreen and are using it up quickly. It's ironic that we came here for some warmth and sunshine and are avoiding it in the middle of the day. Then the temperature plummets to 7-8C in the evening and we put the heating on in the apartment. The forecast is for it to remain warm, sunny and dry for the next fortnight.
    Out this evening it was still very mild. The weather apps say 14C but it was really pleasant sitting outdoors having a sherry after a good tapas dinner.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler
    Penalty - and saved!

    Sunday football

    February 2, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Went to buy my Sunday paper and was delighted to find that my paper stand has discovered the Sunday times. A couple hours in the sun doing the crossword then off to the football. Previously I would walk the 20 mins to the stadium but this time I took the bus. Xerex deportivo are in the playoff places again - another promotion would be their fourth in five years, (or is it five in six years!) having only been founded in 2013. It was a really good match and Xerex won 3 - 0, and also missed a penalty. The other Jerez team, Jerez industrial, are also doing well, clear at the top of the table, although two divisions lower. Maybe I can get to one of their games too!

    The spiral staircase is from our living room up to the terrace. One of my targets in doing the physio on my foot was to be able to get up this to sit in the sun ( and get down again!) I'm pleased to say that I seem to be managing ok!    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler
    Finlays favourite square for playing with a football

    Settling in

    February 1, 2020 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    After the journey yesterday, a long good nights sleep last night was very welcome. Today a trip to the supermarket to get stocked up, but first breakfast in a cafe next to the market. Last year it was closed for refurbishing (actually complete gutting and redesigning) so it was good get back and find that their churros and chocolate was as good as always. From the market we bought a huge fish called corvina. It's very popular here but I have difficulty finding the name in English. I think it's a type of sea bass called "meagre" - anybody know better? Anyway with the head and tail cut off, it just fits in the oven, on a bed of potatoes, and onions, garlic and parsley, doused in lemon and dry sherry. In the Afternoon a couple of hours in the sun and listening to the Barnet match on the radio. They won. I still have a sore ankle but I can walk for a while before it hurts and I have to rest on the sun lounger!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsJerez 2020Traveler
    Sun went in over lunch

    Brilliant start

    January 31, 2020 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    All the arrangements worked perfectly and we are here safely. The taxi arrived on time at 3.30 and got us to the airport on time despite the M11 being closed and needing a long detour around the countryside. The assistance people at stanstead met us at the taxi drop-off and took me in a wheelchair (I wasn't complaining!) all through bag-drop, through the priority passport control and to the front of the line for security, then all the way to the gate and out to the aircraft steps. All done with perfect charm and friendliness. The Ryanair people on the plane had no idea what to with my crutches but managed to put them on the luggage rack, and a minivan was already waiting at the bottom of the steps at Jerez to whisk us to the front of the queue at passport control, get our cases in baggage reclaim and out to the front of the taxi queue. I couldn't have asked for a better service at both ends. In fact I think I'll carry crutches now every time I fly!

    The apartment is just as it was, and the weather is 20 degrees and with patchy sunshine, so lunch in a tapas bar just around the corner was lovely.    Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsChristmas 2019Traveler

    Chrismas day

    December 25, 2019 in England ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    I went out a walk this morning in the sunshine and walked round to Natalie and Andy's new house. I think this just about the first sunny day we've had since we got here! Then they all arrived about 11 and we spent all morning doing presents. Lunch at 1 , turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, parsnips in maple syrup, carrots, shallots in port, gravy, followed , some time later (!) ,by Christmas pudding with clotted cream, with a fine claret, and an Australian white sticky. Oh wow! First Christmas dinner in our new home!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsMove to WendoverTraveler

    Its been a week!

    October 17, 2019 in England ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    I can't believe we've been here a week already. We haven't really done much other than unpack boxes, and construct furniture. We got a few book cases from ikea so we've been building those, and lots of other stuff, and banging and hammering, and drilling and sorting things out. At least the walls of boxes are going down, and tonight we treated ourselves to a visit to the tapas restaurant on the corner of our road, and it was really good! I could see us going there a lot! Not at Spanish prices of course!Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsMove to WendoverTraveler
    1

    We're in!

    October 10, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    After the final packing and cleaning was done we waited and had a call about midday to say the money transfer for Longland drive had gone through, and to drop the keys off at the estate agents. She then suggested we should drive to Wendover and wait there. It took two more hours to get the money transferred and for us to get the keys and get into the new house. The movers were brilliant and we went from a completely empty house to a home full of boxes and furniture by 6 o'clock.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsMove to WendoverTraveler

    Nearly all gone!

    October 9, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Today pretty much all of the boxes and furniture have gone. Tomorrow just the last bits of furniture, pot plants and tubs and the rest of the garden stuff to do. The expectation is that we should get the go-ahead to hand over the keys about midday, depending on the banks and the solicitors then we will be on our way.Read more

  • Tim Lynette WilkinsMove to WendoverTraveler

    Another day, another lot of boxes

    October 9, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    The movers worked really well yesterday, from 8.30 to 5.30 with barely a break, as a result all our stuff from cupboards, wardrobes, kitchen etc was packed up in boxes and ready to go. Today they have started to shift all the furniture, starting with the top floor, so we have a clear room to hide in all day. It should be all done by tonight apart from all the plants and tubs and garden stuff, which will done in the morning along with the last minute stuff like the phone and router. If every thing goes to plan, and the banks send through the money on time, we could on our way around midday.Read more

Get your own travel profile

Free

QR code

FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android