Tim Lynette Wilkins

Tim Lynette Wilkins

traveled in 11 countries Read more

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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Weather continued
February 28, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
The weather has been really good this year. Until today we had only had a couple of short showers and one afternoon of rain. Even today there were a few short downpours spread through the afternoon and this evening it is all dry again. We have had plenty of lovely days of warm sunshine and even a few when it got too hot mid-afternoon.

Sadly the forecast for our remaining time is mostly rain. That would be annoying at Clive's place as it's in the middle of nowhere and there's not much to do if you can't go out.

On the way there tomorrow we are going to stop in Antequera to see some prehistoric dolman tombs. We went maybe 17 years ago and they are very impressive- a bit like Mycaenian tombs but older.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Last day
February 27, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Tomorrow is our last day in Jerez as we go out to the airport first thing Saturday to collect a hire car. It's due to be raining hard all day tomorrow and we have booked to have lunch in our favourite taperia. Then we drive across Andulucia to a finca up in the Sierra Subbetica mountains for a couple of days and then to the coast at malaga for another couple of days before coming home. Due to rain all the time i think!

Tomorrow is anducia day. A public holiday and all the schoolkids (and adults!) will be out parading in fancy dress.Read more
And here’s me thinking you were only going for ten days!!! Sorry about the rain but you are entitled to some to anticipate what you can expect when you get home!!! We’ve had fog too!!’ Eve [Eve]
2/28/25Reply
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Football day
February 23, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
We got the kids up 6 am this morning for Natalie and Andy to pick them up and get the train back to seville. Except then the flight was delayed over two hours. Seville airport is not a great place to waste 2 hours of your life!

I went across the city to the southern edge where one of my jerez football teams have their stadium. It was good sitting in the sun, but neither team were very good and it was all very poor. I left at half time and with it being Sunday there were very few buses back so a 40 minute walk home up the hill to the centre. I'm sure it must be good for me after all the tapas and sherry!

After lunch my other team were playing in the opposite direction, so I got a bus there and watched them win a scrappy game 1-0 (the other game finished 0-0, so I don't think i missed much) and walked home in the evening sun.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
A day out in Jerez
February 22, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
Breakfast of churros and chocolate in the sun in the market square, and a wander around the fish market afterwards. Emily doesn't like the sights or smell there, but finlay is fascinated by all the different types of fish, mostly ones we don't see at home.

Then a long lunch at a restaurant that Natalie and Andy love and want to go to everytime they come. An afternoon in the sun on our terrace, and trip to the flamenco bar in the evening. The bar was so packed (the flamenco festival started yesterday) that we couldn't get in to see the show but the kids wiggled through and someone kind helped them to sit at the back up on the bar. They enjoyed it so much.

They go home again tomorrow and we need to get the kids up at 6 am to get the train back to seville and then to the airport. Just a fleeting visit this year!Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Armstrongs here! Yay!
February 21, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
Natalie, Andy, Finlay, and Emily arrived in Seville a couple of days ago and came to Jerez on the train this morning. We met them at the station and lunch outside on the terrace in the sun. For tea finlay requested that we cook clams that he really loves, and we bought yesterday fresh in the market. Tonight Natalie and Andy have a dinner in the best restaurant in town and finlay and Emily and are staying overnight with us. I'm very happy!Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Sanlucar
February 18, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Yesterday morning we took the bus from Jerez to Sanlucar de Barrameda, a town less than an hour away on the coast where the river Guadalquivir meets the Atlantic. We've been there many times before as its famous as one of the three sherry towns, and especially for manzanilla. And also for wonderful seafood.

Lunch in the sun in the main square, but the food was disappointing. The restaurant is one we've been to before and the food has always been excellent, but this time it just seemed rather ordinary.

In the evening we went to another restaurant we've been to before, with wonderful local langostines, but again it all seem a bit ordinary. The langostines are huge (and €8.50 each!).

Thankfully lunch today in the tapas bar of one of the manzanilla bodegas was up to scratch.

Back to Jerez on the bus (bus fares just €2 each) after a disappointing trip. Although we did manage to spend an hour on sanlucar's spectacular beach.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Restaurants
February 16, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 13 °C
One of the joys of coming back to Jerez is revisiting our favourite restaurants and bars and discovering new ones. So far this trip we have really enjoyed Albores, Almacen and Fundador all of which we went to 10 years ago and they have got better. So last night was a big disappointment. We started out to go to the tabanco round the corner which has good hard to find sherries, but it was closed. Then on to another we wanted to try out but they were on vacation. So back to some old favourites that were dreadful. The one that used to be Vina T and is now Dos Esquinas the food was poor and the Tabanco Plateros, where we discovered some wonderful sherries, only had ones from the barrel from an unknown bodega. The evening was saved by calling at the new tabanco across the road which has been beautifully done up - entre tercios.
Today we had lunch in the sun at faithful old Gabrielas where the food is still as good as ever.Read more
Good good, sherry and wonderful weather. What more could you ask for!!! Eve [Eve]
3/7/25Reply
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Lovely weather
February 15, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
I hope no-one at home is reading this but I wanted to make a note for our diary of the trip. The weather the last 2 days has been simply glorious - blue skies, 20c and sunny all day with just the slightest of breeze. We couldn't have asked for better. And a stork came to visit! It sat on the chimney we can see from our terrace for about half an hour. Woke up this morning and it's completely overcast and has remained so, but still warm.
We have cooked some lovely food too - a whole hake last night with leeks and potatoes and for lunch today we cooked a half kilo of fresh local prawns, smoked sardines on toast and papas alinadas, with a salad. Yum.Read more
Come back sunshine! [Andy]
2/16/25Reply
I am going to write a polite response to your comments about your glorious weather, a sun bathing stork and wonderful food…. It’s still freezing here, no bird has taken upon itself to sunbathe, my fridge has nothing tempting in it and lack of milk means I can’t enjoy a warm drink after spending too long in the garden!!! So enjoy the time you have left there because I can’t see the weather matching it here, for some time!!! XxxEve [Eve]
2/18/25Reply
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Museum and cathedral
February 12, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
This morning I walked across the city to the museum. I've been there many times before, but it's still nice to go and see favourite artifacts. There's always something I hadn't noticed before. This time it was a little cylinder idol from the second or third millenium BC. There are two much bigger ones but this one is just a few cms tall and really nicely worked.

Afterwards to the cathedral, especially to see a painting by zuberan of the young virgin mary dozing while reading a book. Given that very few people were literate in jesus' time, is there anything in the bible that would indicate that Mary could read and write,? It's common for renaissance painters to show her reading during the annunciation.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Saying bye to Davina
February 11, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 16 °C
After a busy day on Saturday (Davina's watch said we walked 19000 steps!) we had a quiet day on Sunday. Church in the cathedral and an excellent lunch at the Fundador taperia were followed by a lazy afternoon in the sun on the terrace. She went off in a taxi at 11.00 to the airport to fly to Gatwick via Madrid.
Today returned to normal with shopping and washing. It has been breeze and partially cloudy with even a brief shower.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Day trip to Cadiz
February 9, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Yesterday we took the train to Cadiz, the last time Davina was here the museum in Cadiz was closed, so she wanted to go back and visit it. It's a small museum but with some wonderful pieces, especially from the phoencian period. Lunch in a bar we know with good food from the time we stayed in cadiz a few years ago.

In the evening we tried a new tapes bar just down the street (it was very good!) Then some drinks and a show in our favourite flamenco bar.

Today it's hot hot! 20 degrees and full sun., and lunch at the taparia at the fundador bodega. The food there is spectacularly good, the opposite to what you get in a tapas bar at home, of meat balls, patatas bravas and squid. I don't include the tapes bar in wendover in that - the food there is excellent.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Sunny friday
February 7, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
We walked down to the market for Davina to choose some fish for dinner (she chose slabs of tuna and shark), and took the opportunity to get some churros and chocolate.
That’s quite a combination!!! I trust you enjoyed both the fish and the churros with chocolate. Eve [Eve]
2/9/25Reply
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Davina arrives for a few days
February 6, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
Davina arrived yesterday, and will stay till Monday. At first she wanted to go sanlucar but we realised that the buses are only one each way so we could only go, have lunch and then come straight back so it wouldn't be worth the trip. As it is we plan to go on the train to cadiz tomorrow instead, she wants to go to the museum, which was closed the last time she was here.

On the way home from a restaurant last night we found part of the centre of jerez changed into what looks like a film set, or stage set if the french revolution. I know there's a travelling version of Les Mis, perhaps it's coming here.Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Lovely day!
February 4, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 11 °C
This morning there was a bit of a chill in the air, but the sky was blue and clear and the sun was shining. A trip to the market to get things we couldn't get yesterday, including a great thick slab of tuna for dinner. It was wonderful, tuna is caught all along this coast so it's fresh and so tasty, and crazy cheap. This slab, big enough for three people, was just 10 euros. Then a walk to my favourite sherry shop to get some special finos and olorosos.

Laze in the sun (18 degrees) in the afternoon. It's a hard life!Read more
Yes, such a hard life eating fresh tuna and savouring other local delicacies but the laze in the sun really tops the lot. It’s 5 degrees, drizzly and grey here!!! Eve [Eve]
2/12/25Reply
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
Settling in
February 3, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
There was a bit of rain this morning as we walked to the market to stock up on food for the week, but by late afternoon it was warm (15 degrees) and sunny enough to sit out, with a jumper on. Mmm!

The market is pretty well empty on a Monday morning and especially the big fish section is completely empty. Maybe the boats don't go out on winter weekends. We'll go back tomorrow and maybe get some tuna steak for dinner!Read more
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Jerez 2025 Traveler
First day back
February 2, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Long day traveling yesterday, thirteen hours, mostly because we needed to stop in Barcelona and the wait between flights was 4 hours. Otherwise it was all OK.

Today we spend just pottering and getting settled in, but we went out for a good lunch. Sunday lunch is a big thing for the spanish, it's a time for families to go out and spend all afternoon together in their favourite restaurant so they were all quite busy. Afterwards we walked down to the alameda, which is the open space surrounding the castle, and managed to pick a good bag full of marmalade oranges to bring home before they all get picked by the local council and sold to the marmalade factories.

It was quite cloudy and overcast this morning but the sun came out this afternoon. Due to rain tomorrow.Read more
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A few days in Porto Traveler
Ferreira port tasting
November 28, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
We walked over the top level of the bridge over the river, took the cable car down to the river bank and lunch in the sun. Then a visit and tasting at the Ferreira port lodge. One white port, a three year old Ruby port, a LBV, then a seven year old , and twenty year old tawny. Very interesting!

Christmas: it seems to be Christmas here already: the shops are all full of Christmas stuff, the streets already have Christmas decorations up, and it's still november!Read more
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A few days in Porto Traveler
Sights of Porto
November 27, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
We started today by going to the cathedral, which is quite small, but even more ornate than the Spanish ones, later in the day we visited the church of San Franscico , even more ornate, with every inch of walls and ceiling covered in gilded carvings - quite gross!

Between them we went to see the palacio do balsa, the old convent building that was reused as the stock market and trade centre, and has some spectacular rooms, such a room decorated in gilded, and fake, Arabic carvings and stained glass work.

Lunch in the sun by the river.Read more
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A few days in Porto Traveler
Arrived
November 26, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
An easy journey, other than having to get up at 3.30 for the taxi to airport!

We arrived at the hotel at 11.00 and were able to check in straight away. It was dull, overcast and thick cloud, but by 1 pm the sun had come out and it was lovely and warm. Going for quick walk around this afternoon .

Great wander around this afternoon. Porto is a lot like Jerez in that many of the buildings are originally lovely but now decaying and in bad repair. Many in the centre have been restored or rebuilt, but many are still in need of a lot of TLC. Very sad!

Still , nice to have the wonderful Portuguese custard tarts and a hot chocolate in the sunshine, and later a cold beer in the setting sun on the hotel roof terrace.Read more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Catalhuyuk
September 19, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
We woke up this morning to grey skies and light rain. The rain had stopped by the time we said goodbye to our lovely hotel but it was still dull.
We had a 4 hr drive to Konya stopping on the way at a large well preserved caravanseray dating from the Seljuk period about 1200 ad.
The final archaeological site of Catalhuyuk was supposed to be a highlight of the tour. It is the earliest known town settlement dating from 8000bc until 6200bc. It is thought to have between 5000 and 8000 inhabitants at its height who lived in mud brick houses with no streets between them. They accessed their homes through holes in the roof and ladders.
It was a great disappointment. Apparently the earliest, largest and most significant of the 2 mounds excavated has been closed to visitors for 2 years as its protective roof is considered unsafe. Meanwhile they have built a fancy big visitor centre and are constructing expensive raised walk ways. The mound we were able to visit was small as they have only uncovered 10% of it and was very unclear in the remains. Most of the wall paintings have been removed to Ankara museum (where we saw them) leaving only sandbags to protect the mud brick walls. It was such a sad end to a fascinating archaeological trip.Read more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Frescoes in Goreme open air museum
September 18, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
We came to Cappadocia several years ago. It was April and it snowed heavily. When we visited the open air museum it was just raining but very cold so seeing it again today in blazing sunshine was a treat.
The open air museum is a natural valley eroded by the weather which was used by the first monks in the 4c ad. They carved monasteries and churches in the soft rock and lived there. In the 8-9 centuries they painted the walls with geometric patterns then from 10c painted figures on the walls. Finally in the 11c they plastered the walls and covered them with frescoes illustrating bible scenes.
We visited 6 churches covering the different styles. You are not allowed to take any photos inside so these are examples downloaded from the Internet.

St Basil - painted panels including saints George and Theodore who look very similar

Elmali (apple)church - has patches of the 10c geometric painting and many frescoes from 11c

Yilani (snake) church - painted panels

Karanlic (dark) church - walls covered in frescoes on a navy background, fabulous scenes very well preserved

Carikli (sandal) church - similar to dark church but less well preserved

Tokal(buckle) church - the largest and most richly decorated with more detailed frescoes. They are currently being cleaned and restored and it was interesting to watch.

A very rewarding morning despite the huge crowds from all nationalities.Read more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Goreme
September 18, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
All around the towns of Goreme and Urchisar there are valleys and rock formations created by erosion of the soft layers of rock. Because the rock is so soft many formations have been carved out to form homes. Not many are still lived in todayRead more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Urgup
September 17, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
Our mini bus has fantastic wi-fi!. It hasn't been working till now but they fixed yesterday so now we have good Internet access while we are travelling, and I was able to upload up the blog pictures for the last few days as we were going along.

The rest of the group are going on a bus tour around cappadocia today but having done that before we have opted out. The hotel here is really good, very smart and it has a pool, so we will have a rest day. Maybe just a little walk around the town of Urgup.

It is a boutique cave hotel created out of caves that people and their animals used to live in. Each room has been individually converted to beautiful suites and they are all different. Ours has a sitting room with 2 divan sofas, a hamam with marble slab for your massage, a bathroom with jacuzzi bath and a big bedroom. Quite palatial! The pool is lovely and we spent the morning lying in the sun and swimming.Read more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Ozkonak underground city
September 16, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Pretty much everywhere in Cappadocia, because of the deep layers of volcanic ash now turned to stone, all the houses and villages have dug huge complicated rooms, corridors and houses underground. The one we went to is quite small but still interesting. (Last time we were here we went to one much bigger and more complicated). They served as somewhere to hide if they were attacked, as well as storage space for food.Read more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Yazilikaya
September 16, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Just a few minutes drive from Hattusa in the site of Yazilikaya, a religious sanctuary with wall reliefs of the Hittite kings and gods, from the 13th century BC. Hittites burned their dead so there are no tombs or graves, just offering tables and images cut into the walls.Read more
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Archaeology in Eastern Turkey Traveler
Hattusa
September 15, 2024 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Hattusa is one of the highlights of the trip for us. We know of it as the capital of the Hittite empire from around 1700 BC to 1200BC when it was destroyed and the Hittites "disappeared ". But we have now learned that it was much more than that and the Hittites didn't disappear but moved south towards Syria and were no longer significant.
Hattusa was the capital for a tribe called the Hattians who were indigenous in Anatolia before the Hittites moved in ( probably from central Asia) and took over. They were fierce warriors ( eg. Fighting Ramses to a draw at Kadesh) and built their capital with strong defensive walls. But they adopted the gods and practices of those that conquered or allied with and ended up with a pantheon of hundreds of gods.
The site was both wonderful and disappointing. Wonderful in the size, location and scale of the place but disappointing in that most of the sculptures and carvings have been removed to museums.
We toured the site in the minibus as its so vast stopping at temples (of which the are 32), gates (we visited 3) and the Royal acropolis. The site has a small museum but the best bits are in Ankara that we saw yesterday.
We spent the night in a simple rural hotel with a view over the site.Read more
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