Lisbon

I took a short trip to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal very recently. Lisbon has the oldest bookshop in the world and is known for being quite hilly and also near the coast. I spent several days there and whilst it was a bit rainy it was still a really nice city to visit. Here are a few snaps, but my favourorite thing was seeing all the tiles on the buildings of various colours and styles.

Livraria Bertrand - world's oldest bookstore

Goodbye 2025

Today is the last year of 2025. There’s been highs and lows and sadly still too many wars being waged in this world. I pray that next year these come to an end and that people find peace and justice. Here are my favourite photos of 2025. May 2026 be a better one for us all. Happy New Year.

V&A East storehouse

There’s a new V&A museum that’s due to open in East London. Nearby they have opened to the public, their storehouse, a building that houses all the art pieces that are not officially on display. It’s right by where I work so I went to have a look. It has three floors with a wide range of beautiful and interesting art works.

V&A East storehouse, showing 3 floors of items

They also have a huge mosaic ceiling saved from a church which is definitely worth a look.

Mosaic ceiling

The store house is free to visit and I like that what it holds will change as the displays in the main museums update theirs.

Knole house

I recently visited Knole house. It is said to be a calendar house, having 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards. The house was built by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1456 and 1486. We didn’t have time to look in many the rooms but we did climb up steep spiral staircase in the tower up to the roof which gave us great views.

Knole house

Knole house also has medieval deer park, with deer roaming the grounds for 500 years. The deer we encountered were quite timid and let us get fairly close, which was amazing.

Deer

With large grounds to walk in and with the deer and nearby stream Knole house is a lovely place to visit.