What we saw:

Bologna – guided city tour, guided tour at the Pinacoteca Nazionale & Anatomical Museum

Mantova – guided tour of Palazzo Ducale

Ravenna – guided city tour, Mosaics of St Vitale & Mausoleo di Galla Placidia

Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare at Classe

Padua – guided introductory tour, guided tour at Cappella degli Scrovegni

Ferrara – guided city tour

VISIT TO ANDALUCIA – 10th to 15th OCTOBER 2016

This tour was organised through Tailored Travel Ltd and our group of 24 flew to Malaga where we were met by Paul Richardson, our excellent Tour Manager, who accompanied us throughout our stay.  He was a mine of information, had a great sense of humour, and made the whole trip run very smoothly.

On our first morning in Granada we explored some of the old town on foot and then all squeezed into a local bus to go via steep, winding, cobbled streets up to the Mirador de San Nicolas to view the Alhambra on the neighbouring hill.  Back in town and after a brief visit to the Royal Chapel, the final resting place of the catholic monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, we enjoyed a cool drink and tapas at a local café.  In the afternoon we visited the Alhambra, recognised as the world’s greatest Moorish monument with gardens, fortifications and sumptuous palaces.

Next morning we drove to the Moorish capital of Cordoba, famous for the Mesquita, the grandest mosque ever constructed by the Moors.  We crossed the Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir River and had an excellent guided tour and a wander through the delightful old town before visiting the mosque/cathedral.  This was the only day on which we did not have brilliant sunshine.

Later we continued on to Seville where we were to stay for 3 nights.  The following morning we had a guided tour of Seville, the capital of Andalucía, made famous by the Conquistadors and which was once one of the richest cities in the world.  I think we were all most impressed by the magnificent Plaza de Espagna (see photos on our gallery) and the many pavilions built for the Spanish-American Exhibition of 1929.  There was time for a leisurely wander through the narrow streets and pretty squares and lunch al fresco before visiting the Reales Alacazares, a stunning Moorish palace which was the royal residence of the Spanish kings for seven centuries.

A visit to the Museo de Bellas Artes next morning was followed by travelling to Jerez d la Frontera, the capital of sherry production, where we had a tour and tasting at the Gonzalez Byass bodega which produces Tio Pepe one of the best-selling brands of sherry in the world.

All good things come to an end but our last day was not wasted!  We had an interesting drive to Ronda, one of the most dramatically sited towns in Spain, standing 90m above the gorge with the river flowing below.  The guided tour of the Moorish part of the town was delightful and away from the crowds by the gorge.   Some of the party enjoyed lunch on the balcony of the Parador before rejoining the coach and continuing to Malaga airport for our journey home.

This tour was a delightful introduction to Andalucia and Moorish Spain.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and some are asking where we are going next!

Parham House

What a success!  We had a well informed tour guide who gave us an interesting and amusing tour around the House; he was so carried away we ran three quarters of an hour late!  We then enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine and a delicious lunch outside in the courtyard.

Lady Emma Barnard kindly talked to us before our tour giving us some family insight into the house, which was informative and colourfully presented.  In the afternoon the head gardener's talk was full of interest and he received a barrage of questions from the group.  We ended our day with tea and cakes - some of which went to the chickens pecking by our feet.

We were so grateful to the staff at Parham who were incredibly charming and helpful which all added to a marvellous day out.

We've done it!

We do hope that you will enjoy using it and will find it useful.

You will be able to find the new programme for 2016-2017 at the click of a finger as well as news of all our lectures, visits and other events.

We do hope that members will contribute to the website.  If you stumble across a 'gem' well worth a visit  ( not necessarily local to Midhurst)  then please e mail the Information Secretary who will be able to share your experience on our News page.  Who knows, we could become our own 'Trip Advisor'!

If you find anything that doesn't work as it should or have any suggestions for improvement then please do contact us.

A really good day out, and not too far away, can be found at Syon Park in Isleworth, London home of the Dukes of Northumberland.

The house is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and is well worth seeing.  The gardens open every day. The somewhat stark exterior leads you into fine Robert Adam interiors and there is a superb selection of paintings and furniture. In addition to the public rooms you can also get a glimpse into the private studies of the late Duke and Duchess and the rooms where young Princess Victoria and her mother stayed  when she was tutored in the art of courtly life by the then Duchess.  Newly opened in the cellars is the result of a recent archaeological project to unearth the earlier life of the park as Syon Abbey and before. You will be welcomed by some of the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable guides that I have met in a long time, who give you a real picture of the history of the house, its people and their lives.

The gardens and parkland are magnificent and definitely not to  be missed  is the Great Conservatory – a real hidden treasure!

If you are so inclined there is a garden centre there and a good restaurant attached to it.

The house and gardens are open from mid-March to the end of October.

Well worth a visit!    

Seona Rivett (Information Secretary Midhurst Dfas)

Members of Midhurst DFAS visit Crakow: May 2015

In May a group of members of Midhurst DFAS and friends visited the beautiful city of Crakow which is usually considered to be the cultural capital of Poland.  They flew direct from Gatwick arriving in time for lunch at a traditional Polish restaurant on the way from the airport to the Niepolomice Castle which is about 25kms outside the City.    The castle has a magnificent arched and colonnaded central courtyard and houses a splendid collection of paintings by traditional polish artists.

The group stayed four nights in the very pleasant and comfortable three-star Hotel Wyspianski, close to the city centre.

On the second day the group walked through part of the ‘Planty’, a strip of parkland which surrounds the old city following the line of the old city walls which were mostly demolished during the Renaissance.   Their guided tour took them through the heart of the old city, mercifully left virtually undamaged despite the two world wars of the last century, via the magnificent St Mary’s Basilica, and the huge Grand Square, to the Wawel Royal Castle and the Cathedral at the southern end of the City overlooking the River Vistula.

The following day the group visited Oswiecim, the location of the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps which are about 50kms from Krakow.   In the evening they enjoyed a Chopin concert in one the old “palaces” bordering the Grand Square.

On day four they visited the extraordinary salt mine at Wieliczka with its 200kms of passages, 2,040 caverns including a chapel with a statue of Pope John Paul II and other religious figures carved of the salt rock.  This was followed by a visit to the site of the WW2 ghettos and the Otto Schindler factory, now the site of an extensive and fascinating museum recoding life in the ghettos and the horrors of the holocaust.

The group much enjoyed their visit to this wonderful city, which, despite its recent history, is certainly one of the most delightful of European cities with splendid medieval, gothic and renaissance buildings.