Our coach pulled up in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires and we gathered outside the walls of the cemetery to hear some of the details of the location from our guide. Naturally, I wandered off and took some photographs of the surrounding area and its concrete-friendly architecture and missed all the information.

We then entered the cemetery itself for close to an hour to explore its street-like layout of above ground crypts. As it would turn out this would not be the only cemetery filled with above ground crypts we would visit on our South American cruise aboard the Star Princess; it turns out they’re fond of these things down that way.

Other than tourists, a few relatives (perhaps), and a few workers, the only other living things wandering the impressive alleys between the equally impressive crypts of the cemetery were cats.

La Recoleta cemetery’s most famous inhabitant is, of course, Eva Perón, whose body lay within the crypt marked by her family name of Duarte.

We had time for a few more photographs of the Recoleta district surroundings and buildings outside the walls of the cemetery before boarding our coach for the next stop on our organised tour of Buenos Aires.

As with other places that we visited in South America on this cruise there were a number of dogs, whether stray or simply part of the scenery. They seemed well looked after and content.

As a group we stayed with our guide and I made sure to not wander off too far when snatching photographs of the attractive cemetery. While the grounds weren’t huge there were quite a lot of tour groups shuffling around and looking at the Chilean national monument and it would have been quite easy for me to lose track of which particular gathering of coat-wearing Americans and Australians (for the most part) I was with.

Both La Recoleta and Punta Arenas Cemetery feature in a list of most beautiful cemeteries in the world compiled by CNN Travel.

Our coach parked more-or-less right by the attractive main entrance gateway to the tomb complex and we gathered there as a group while our guide went ahead to purchase tickets for our visit.

The fourth Nguyễn dynasty emperor Tự Đức lived in interesting times, many of them of his own doing. His ascendancy to the throne at his father’s wish immediately caused conflict as by Confucian traditions his elder brother should have inherited the title. This triggered a rebellion in which Tự Đức was victorious but was just one part of the troubles he faced. By continuing and expanding policies that saw Vietnam increasingly shut off from the outside world and intolerant towards foreign influences and non-Confucian religious practitioners (particularly Christians) inner turmoil in the country soon spilled over into the outside world and France stepped in to assert some order. European weaponry and tactics were more than enough to overrun Vietnam and even the Chinese coming to Tự Đức’s aid were only a slowing force. Tự Đức eventually signed away part of southern Vietnam to the French and agreed to become a colonial protectorate, acts that were not well received by others in his country.

Having been largely responsible for mass persecutions, contributing to rebellions, angering his own people, and signing away sovereignty it’s subsequently difficult to decide whether the peaceful, sprawling, yet still modest tomb of the emperor came as a surprise or not when we saw it. The tomb, built between 1864 and 1867, was designed by Tự Đức himself and was made to be a place where he could escape from the problems ravaging his country (even the building of it precipitated an attempted coup as it involved forced labour and increased taxation of locals) and wander the grounds in peace with his wife and concubines. Smallpox when younger had left him impotent so despite having over 100 concubines he fathered no children.

Upon entering the grounds of the tomb the first thing we came to was Luu Khiem Lake. As the sign above explains, the lake and its small island were artificially created. The island was regularly populated with small animals and the emperor would take a boat across in order to hunt them. The emperor himself was a small man, standing only 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall.

Along the left hand side of the lake as we walked further into the tomb complex there was a small boat landing area opposite which was the Khiem Cung Gate. This was the entrance to the Ritual Area which had previously been the palace in which the emperor and his concubines would reside when he was visiting. As a sign near the gate explained, the buildings in the palace were a scaled-down version of the Imperial City.

Passing through the gate took us into a courtyard around which were the buildings of Hoa Khiem Palace. These buildings house many of Tự Đức’s possessions, gifts, and furniture.

The two thrones were used by the emperor and empress. Interestingly, the smaller of the two thrones was the one on which Tự Đức sat. As his wife was somewhat taller than him already this arrangement served to further emphasise his small stature, the reason for that not being known.

Continuing through the palace buildings took us to the Minh Khiem Chamber, a theatre in which Vietnamese cultural plays were put on, many of them sponsored by the emperor. It is possible to pay a small fee, dress up as the emperor, and sit on a throne in the theatre and someone duly did just that while we were there.

We came out back through the Hoa Khiem Palace buildings and through the Khiem Cung Gate then turned northwards towards an entrance that ran parallel to the palace buildings.

This took us to the Necropolis, the first part of which was a forecourt lined with an honour guard of statues – elephants, horses, and mandarins – for the emperor. Just like his throne and the man himself, Tự Đức’s statues were smaller than is usual for this type of memorial.

Up a few steps was the Stele Pavilion which houses – as its name implies – a stele containing a biography of the emperor, written by himself. A self-written stele is an unusual thing in Vietnamese traditions with this typically being undertaken by a son but, of course, Tự Đức didn’t have any of those. The stele weighs over 20 tons and it is the largest stele in Vietnam. The emperor’s biography remarks on his childhood illness and admits mistakes he made during his reign although his dying words were allegedly curses against the French (probably quite common) so it’s not clear how much of that modesty and remorse in the inscription was genuine.

A common architectural addition to imperial tombs in Vietnam are towers which are there to represent the power of the emperor.

Beyond the Stele Pavilion was a small lagoon and a wall with a single entrance into the Sepulchre. In deliberate contrast to the ornate designs on the walls and around the gateways everywhere else the actual tomb of Tự Đức was very plain. Importantly, the tomb was a point of respect and worship but the actual remains of Tự Đức and his most favoured treasures are nowhere near it. Indeed, nobody knows where the emperor’s body was buried; the location and honour of burying the emperor was given over to 200 workers who upon completion of their duty were beheaded to ensure it remained a secret. Not the greatest job in the world then.

The views from the Sepulchre back across the lagoon and towards the Stele Pavilion and its flanking towers made for very pleasant ones.

This concluded our visit to Tự Đức’s Tomb on the outskirts of Huế and, indeed, our full day cruise excursion in the Vietnamese city so all that remained was for us to retrace our steps out of the Necropolis, head back past Luu Khiem Lake, and leave via the exit to our waiting coach for the journey back to Diamond Princess.

It was busy in Sidmouth when we arrived. The roads are narrow and pedestrians and other road traffic were plentiful. After two unsuccessful attempts to find car parking nearer the town’s shops we ended up at Manor Road Long Stay Car Park, necessitating a walk down Peak Hill Road towards and along the seafront (with the unwelcome promise of a walk back up the road to return to the car later).

Our walk initially took us past a couple of thatched cottages and it was here that we saw the first of what would turn out to be a lot of blue plaques in Sidmouth. If you have the time you could probably walk around and find them all. One of the cottages was likely the first building to be constructed in this part of the town (officially Clifton) while the other was, for a while, the home of an American member of the Chubb lock-making family. Not the hugest claim to fame but an indication of how proud the locals are of Sidmouth in general, and the plaques themselves are part of an annual community dividend from a Canadian millionaire’s bequeathment.

The Victoria Hotel opposite the cottages was built in the early years of the twentieth century and boasted modern facilities such as en suite bathrooms which attracted visitors along with its views over the water. Over the years it has hosted famous literati such as Sir John Betjeman and George Bernard Shaw, and indeed Sidmouth has many connections with the writing world, featuring in works by Thomas Hardy, Beatrix Potter, and H.G. Wells amongst others. In addition to literature Sidmouth has a royal history with Victoria as a baby spending time in the town with her family in 1819. Much of Sidmouth’s growth from a fishing village came during the surge in popularity of seaside resorts during Georgian and Regency periods.

To the Sidmouth shoreline then since that’s the title of this post. We are – and you’ll know this already if you’re familiar with my writing and pictures – very fond of the sea, and it’s a rare thing for us to travel and not spend time beside it or on it in some fashion. If a town or city has a beach and we’re passing then we’ll almost certainly take a look. As you can tell from the photos below the weather had changed quite a bit from the clear skies of the previous days. The ambient temperature wasn’t too bad but the wind was occasionally fierce, churning up the water and adding even more murkiness to its colour than was being reflected from the cloud cover above.

The prominent red colouration you can see in the cliffs and the beach is an indicator of Sidmouth’s location along what is known as the Jurassic Coast. Despite the name, this is a part of the English coastline that exposes a lot of geology from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods of history, and it’s the first of those – the Triassic – that was a particularly hot and dry period and which is the source of that particular hue of rock.

Sidmouth does suffer from erosion and has had several failed attempts to construct harbours in its history due to its exposed location. There were, however, some jetties jutting out from the town and acting to protect the beach from losing its sand and stones as much as possible.

Reaching the end of the esplanade at the eastern end of Sidmouth beach allowed us to get up close to the mouth of the River Sid from where the town gets its name and to see some of the cliffs that form part of the southwest coast path walking trail. The bridge that forms the start of the trail was a recent replacement for another that had been constructed in the early twentieth century, itself replacing one that had been fashioned from the timbers of a wrecked vessel half a century earlier.

That concluded our look along the seafront at Sidmouth so we took a wander through the town’s streets next to see what it had to offer apart from views of the water. It all seemed pleasant enough and it was easy to imagine even with the partial lockdown in operation just how lively the place would be in the height of a normal summer, but there wasn’t a huge amount to see and nothing to really do on this short stop; we found the local museum but it was shut. We did go to a pub to avail ourselves of the need for a loo break and to rehydrate for the remainder of the south coast drive to come.

Our final walk through Sidmouth before heading back to the car was along a path that took us through the grounds of St Giles & St Nicholas’ Church and towards Blackmore Gardens. The church tower is medieval, dating to the fifteenth century, but the rest of the building was rebuilt in the latter half of the nineteenth century and includes an assortment of styles in the design. One of the church’s windows was donated by Queen Victoria in 1867. The nearby gardens were spacious and had some fancy topiary and flowers. Like the rest of Sidmouth this felt like it would be a place of pleasing interest and vibrancy in a normal year.

Sidmouth did have a feel of the classic Victorian seaside resort, although it was a little on the small side. That said, it seemed like a great location to base daytime exploration along the Jurassic coast with enough pubs and that all-important sea view to make for good evenings afterwards. We’d consider it if we were thinking of visiting this part of the UK in the future.

Our rest stop in Sidmouth at an end we set off for the next segment of our 2020 UK break in the West Country and our first visit to Weymouth which will be covered in the next part of this travelogue series.

We like country estates and gardens so it should be no surprise to see us picking this particular tour option from those available on this port stop, but anyone who knows us in real life will know the real reason we wanted to visit Powerscourt Estate and Gardens. You don’t know us in real life, though, so I’m afraid I can’t tell you. Ooh! Secrecy! And on this, my site, where I tell you things you don’t need to know or don’t want to know all the time!?

Powerscourt Estate stands on the site of a former thirteenth century castle although much of what’s there today, both in the buildings and the formal and landscaped gardens, owes its look to extensive changes undertaken in the eighteenth century and renovations in the 1990s after a serious fire in the 1970s. The Palladian architecture and style of gardens were very familiar to us with lots in common with many of the National Trust properties we’d visited over the years in England.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the main building as there wasn’t a whole lot to see there with the gardens being the main draw for this visit. Actually, one of the main draws of the estate is the famous Powerscourt Waterfall, Ireland’s second highest, and something we’d assumed we’d be able to see. But, following the theme of the day in Ireland – mild disappointment – we were told that it was possible to walk to it but not within the time limit we had for our visit. More on that time limit later.

This post is therefore mainly photographs from our wander around the gardens with a few elements pointed out. If you like landscape and formal gardens then it’s a fabulous place to take a stroll.

We started off above the Triton Lake with views down to it and some lovely landscape sights across the countryside.

The black and white pebbles arranged to form patterns reminded us of the Risseu we’d seen while visiting the Ligurian region of Italy in 2019, and particularly our trip to Camogli.

We first entered Tower Valley, named for the tower within it, Pepperpot Tower, itself named for the condiment container after which it was designed. Yes, really. Scenes from the TV series The Tudors were filmed here, although a great many TV series and films can claim to have used some portion of Powerscourt Estate as a shooting location over the years.

A meandering, downward-sloping walk along trails and past a variety of trees, bushes, and flowers brought us above the gorgeous Japanese Gardens. This was easily the prettiest and most interesting part of Powerscourt Gardens although the time of year and general overcast conditions of the day might have accentuated its vibrancy.

Fans of mossy grottos – that’s everybody – will enjoy the mossy grotto just off the Japanese Gardens.

We walked in a broadly circular route, taking us around the far side of the lower lake where we could look back up towards the building that we’d entered. The trees and some of the views through them were genuinely spectacular from here.

I can’t say we were expecting to see a pet cemetery on the grounds of Powerscourt Estate and if I had expected it then I’d have also been expecting to find it a little creepy, but it was actually quite heartwarming to see the names and dates and some of the writing on the grave markers on this small plot of land.

Another lake brought us to a small formal garden area adjoining the main building at the top of the estate and gardens and brought this walk to an end.

Time limits. Time. Time and excursions. There’s either never enough or there’s too much, and this day’s excursion as a whole was a great example of this problem. Of course you have to compromise when you’re on a group tour but we weren’t alone in thinking this while we waited for our bus to return because we got talking to fellow passengers who said the same thing. Our conclusion from the full day of first visiting Dublin, having free time there, then heading off on this excursion to Powerscourt Estate and Gardens was that we could have done with perhaps half an hour more in Dublin and half an hour less at the gardens. The gardens were lovely but we’d seen all we could really see well within the amount of time we had to spend and ended up just hanging around at the end. We had too much time at Powerscourt for what we could admire in the gardens, yet not enough to get out to the waterfall and back, and we felt that with this in mind we would have appreciated longer in Dublin to perhaps hit a museum.

But we did enjoy Powerscourt Estate and Gardens, and later in the year with more colour and interest around and the likelihood of a warmer day and slower walking then the time there might have felt more suitable and made the cruise excursion overall feel better-balanced.

In the next short post in this Regal Princess British Isles cruise travelogue series there are some brief views of Dún Laoghaire as we tender back to the ship – and some thoughts about that – along with the evening meal aboard as we head off towards the next port of call, Belfast.