Reflections

Wow, we’ve walked a long way today. Lesson of the day is that teenagers need feeding at regular intervals to avoid getting VERY HANGRY!!
We weren’t up or out of the house particularly early and when we did manage to get out, we headed straight for ‘Bagels and Beans’, a fantastic restaurant not far from the house. We’d booked a boat trip at 1.30 so that was our next stop. We went for a live skipper who was great fun and gave us loads of information about the city, it’s history and architecture, rather than having a recorded tour. He was very entertaining plus we could buy drinks on board! After that, we did a lot of wandering. Poppy and I went shopping and the boys went guitar hunting. We met up and went for a drink and a pancake then D took the children round The Torture Museum which I didn’t fancy. We then found a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner then wandered home, stopping to take a few night time shots.
Other notable events were a wander round the red light district, the flower market, a very strong police presence due to a big footy match here tonight and a lot of groups of rowdy men in football shirts. The overpowering smell of marijuana out of every other door and the wafts of smoke from people walking down the street is starting to turn my stomach. There are some very pretty parts of this city but, like most other places you visit, there are some quite seedy parts too.