What I did on my Holidays

Bosisio Parini

2006-08-19T18:06:00.000+01:00

This summer we decided to do a house swop in Italy once more. We got to love the Italian culture a few years ago and K has been studying the language for a number of years on and off.

So far we have visited the fantastic Ligurian coast, the Venice area, Rome and it's surroundings but this time we were off to Lomardy, which is the area of Northern Italy. Most of it is flat country centred on the city of Milan but the really good bit includes the fantastic Italian Alps and the lakes. We were bound for a small village near Lake Como called Bosisio Parini. This is a village which lies on the line that separates the highlands from the flat plain and it sits on -the edge or a lake.

This time we were going to drive!

Heathrow Airport in the Frost and Fog

2005-11-19T11:07:00.000Z

Monday and back to Glasgow once more. At 4:15 it was foggy outside my bedroom window but by 04:30 it was gone! When I finally hit the road at 5:15 it was very frosty, the first cold snap of the approaching winter.

At Heathrow, the sky was incredibly clear with a very bright Venus in the pre dawn sky and an almost full moon accompanied by an incredibly bright Mars!

As we taxied to the runway though, we entered a dense bank of fog, which appeared almost like a wall stretching across the field from one side to the next. It didn't seem to stop proceedings though and as we rose into the air I could see why: the fog was hugging the ground and the tail fins of all the aircraft were visible above the fog, just like a load of sharks, and the new control tower was high above the entire scene. As we rose higher we could see the whole of the South East corner of England, with fog banks hugging the Thames Valley…..beautiful.

A few minutes later in the dawn light I could see the obvious shape of Rutland Water to the East below us and the air was so clean that I could clearly see as far as the Wash with the whole of East Anglia spread out into the distance. It makes you realise just how small our country really is!

Anyway, I spent three days up there and ate in the Stravaigin 2 just off Byres Road after a couple of beers in the church. The following night I met with some friends in the Grosvenor Hotel and moved on to Antipasti. Eurgh!! Too much food. Too much seafood. Pasta Pasta Pasta!!!

Hyndland

2005-11-10T19:56:00.000Z

I've just completed another Trip to Glasgow. I have just returned from a very busy three day trip where I stayed on the Great West Road which must be one of the most fashionable areas anywhere, lined with enormous stone built mansions with high ceilings, stone columns and fancy plasterwork. These houses are truly wonderful and probably make up for the awful weather!

Went to a couple of restaurants while I was there (Stand back Michael Winner!). The first was the Boffy just off Byres Road. This is one of those pub-cum-restaurant type of places. The food was OK but lacking in vegetables and there was an overpowering attempt to Scottish-ise everything such that the menu was full o'neeps and tatties and stuff like that. Even the cappuccino chocolate was in the form of a Scottish cross of St Andrew (though not the right colour of course!). A little bit of this is fine but it can be overdone!
I went all fishy on Monday night so I started with a bowl of whitebait (could have done with some bread) and had bream on a bed of mash which was dry as hell and stuck to the roof of my mouth.

We went on to a new (well new to me) pub at the top of Byres Road (opposite the Botanical Gardens. It used to be a church but now they dispense the other type of spirit!

The second night I went to the Stazione at the other (out of town) end of the Great West Road. Established in one of the smaller mansions 9actually it used to be kelvinside railway station), it is along the same lines as The Boffy but forget all the Scottish motifs. The food is similar but there is no comparison in sheer eatability. I started with a pint of Heavy, and then went completely mad on lamb: Koftas with a minty yogurt sauce followed by a shank of lamb, and just as in the the Boffy, this came on a bed of mashed tatties but this time it came with a rich glutinous gravy. We had a bottle of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon and I finished off with a glass of Talisker. Not bad. This place is recommended!

Gailey

2005-11-05T19:54:00.000Z

We decided to hire a barge from a company called Viking Afloat and we booked nearly a year in advance. This was probably the best planned holiday we have ever had!

We booked a barge from a little place called Gailey on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. The depot was typical of many found on the British canal system: a few portacabins in a boatyard and a cinder patch to park your car and that was about it.

However, the boats looked tremendous. There must have been half a dozen of them all lined up in the cut.

We filled in some forms and were escorted to our boat. Ours was a 65 foot boat called Freyia some Norse goddess I guess. It had two double bedrooms, a lounge, two toilets and a shower, a kitchen a pointed end and a blunt end with a rudder.

It had a TV and central heating so we weren't roughing it!

It took us a few minutes to get our luggage loaded on, food, clothing and a week's worth of food and wine. Then we had a guided tour of the boat, a short lesson on steering and how to operate the lock gates without sinking the boat or emptying the canal and then we were off

They suggest that you don't get too drunk while you are steering, but that is about the only rule!

Moscow, St Petersburg and beyond

2005-11-03T06:36:00.000Z

My 17 year old daughter rang me from school yesterday to ask if she could go on a school trip to Moscow and St Petersburg over the Christmas Holiday, someone has dropped out and there is a spare seat. The only catch is that there has to be an immediate decision! No turning back!

Despite the fact that we are travelling to Belgium round about the same time, and that she has critical exams a week later and that I had no chance to consult everyone (especially Kate, I said "Yes".

Jeez I hope I made the right decision!

Since this is a potential travel situation, I will post the outcome of this here. Hope it's not a big disaster!

Interstitial Trip: Rubens at the National Gallery.

2005-10-30T22:21:00.000Z

Yesterday we drove up to London to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square for a private viewing of a new exhibition there.

Here is a live webcam on the square!

We do this from time to time.

This one was not really my cup of tea, it was an exhibition of Rubens' work whereas I love the impressionists (maybe not fashionable right now).

I am no expert on art but it seems that Ruben's paintings are based upon two things: sex and violence. The execution of the work is very complete, the composition is full of movement, action and energy. They are often based on Greek Mythology or religious subjects. His mastery of the human form developed over his life. Earlier, I don't think he got the perspective or the form correct but after some study he got the form, musculature and perspective bang on.

I could write a lot more about his work but really that might be a bit boring…..best to take a look at some links or check him out on the web. Here is another link.

We were subjected to a talk by a semi inebriated Australian expert on Reubens which was quite amusing.

We joined a queue for a glass of wine which we thought was complimentary but in fact we paid £4 a glass. Oh well.

A few years ago we visited Rubens' house in Antwerp but more of that on another occasion.

We were in such a rush to park the car because we were a little late. It's not easy to find a parking space in central London. In the end we parked on Northumberland Avenue (purple on the Monopoly board) but we were in such a rush that we locked the car with one of the windows open. When we got back the car was actually unmolested and nothing stolen. Amazing! This is the city where the crooks nick Mercs for export and the city authorities clamp or remove cars for slight misdemeanours. Phew we were lucky!

I was pretty well impressed by Trafalgar Square. It's quite a long time since I went there. It used to be famous for pigeons but nowadays there are none to be seen. And no guano. Pretty handy now that bird flu is on it's way!

On the way back we took a stroll on the New Hungerford Bridge. For a brit London is a great sight from here at night time, for a tourist it must be an amazing sight.

Here is an excellent website for you high bandwidth types depicting some of the bridges of London.

New Holiday!: Along the Canals of Old England!

2005-10-29T16:35:00.000+01:00

This year we decided to take a late summer holiday week on a barge. This, despite our complete lack of experience of controlling large boats!

Canal

In the UK there are hundreds of miles of narrow canals which were constructed during the industrial revolution. They were the motorways of the country two or three hundred years ago before the railways even. Many of them are still navigable and stretch all over England, linking the main industrial cities with their markets. Hills don't stop them, instead they wind round the hill, following the contours of the land. Where they have to they rise up and over the hills using a series of lock gates and even lift systems. Where there are deep valleys, the canals sometimes cross them using towering aqueducts. Although they sometimes pass through industrial landscapes they are somehow completely separate from the hurly-burly of today's world and it is almost as if you are living in some sort of parallel England maybe written by Philip Pullman, where Lyra and Pantalaimon might live amongst Gyptians.

To have a holiday on the canals is romantic and one steps back in time to a world where the pace of life is slower when there was time just to sit and think and watch the world go by.

Coincidences

2005-10-29T16:34:00.000+01:00

A few months before we were to set off to Vancouver we were out at an Office gathering: a skittles evening in fact! We were in the Duke's Head in my town which is good for beer and the old coach-house has an old fashioned skittles alley. One of our friends had a cousin and spouse, over from Canada. Since we were about to go out there for a holiday we started a conversation.

"Hello. I heard you're from Canada. We are going there soon for a holiday"

"Is that right! Where are you visiting?"

"We're going to Vancouver"

"Well we live in Vancouver"

"Is that right: where do you live?"

"We live in a place called Burnaby"

"Fantastic! We will be Staying in Burnaby"

"Which street?"

"Suncrest"

"What a coincidence! We live on the next street!"

As it turned out we were staying no more than 6 houses away from one another! Every now and then you get a coincidence like this. It seems to happen to me all the time!

In this case it meant that we had some ready made friends when we got to our destination.

Would anyone like to comment on any coincidences that they have experienced?

All Good things come to an End

2005-10-25T17:32:00.000+01:00

One of the most photographed whales in the World!

We went to many other places in and around Vancouver such as the wonderful Queen Elizabeth Gardens, where you can see parrots and beautifully landscaped gardens: Science World where we learned about the San Andreas Fault and where our hair stood on end during a talk about static electricity and the Aquarium in Stanley Park where we saw Beluga Whales. Much of the time we used the Skytrain which is a metro on stilts and way better than the London Underground. We poked around Downtown Vancouver, we ate in the China town area. All these things are worth seeing.

Queen Elizabeth Park in full bloom

Vickie learned to play '' Maple Leaf Rag" on the house piano which seemed appropriate.

All too soon it was time to fly home.

There was a little sting in the tail though: the last thing you have to do before they let you out of the country is to pay....they will not let you go before you have done so! The money is supposed to go towards the improvement of the airport, but let me tell you, it is already one of the best airports in the world; they should see our Heathrow! I did think that it was a little off but never mind: we had a wonderful time in British Columbia, everyone was so friendly and the landscape is out of this world.

Once more we were faced with the sheer enormity of this country. For an hour we flew over the mountains and since it was daylight we had some more fantastic views of the Rocky Mountains.

After about an hour it was the end of mountains and the start of the plains. Another couple of hours saw us crossing Hudson’s Bay followed by enormous islands and sounds. I think we had been in the air for perhaps five hours and we were still over the same country!

Time to settle down to the crossing back to the Old World now and all the cares and worries that awaited us back home.

Speedboat

2005-10-19T19:41:00.000+01:00

Speed Thrills!

A little way up the Sechelt Peninsula, beyond our wooden cliff top house lies a little inlet called Secret Cove. It was here that we decided to hire a speed boat and head off into the ocean!

You pay you money, sign your life away, get a few brief instructions and a map and off you go!

There is a strict speed limit as you slip out of the inlet, but once clear, you can let rip as much as you like! The girls loved the speed as we bumped and bounced across the tops of the waves, and the view was fantastic as we looked back at the land: range after range of mountains, the more distant ones covered in snow.

There was just one slight worry, how to find our way back! It's funny how the coastline looks straight and even when you are five miles out at sea, even though you know it is full of inlets and promontories.

We did find our way back eventually though otherwise this note would be floating to you in a bottle.

First Nations

2005-10-18T18:39:00.000+01:00

In Stanley Park there is a famous group of totem poles which are probably photographed by every tourist that ever went to Vancouver. They are wonderful to see and are very photogenic. We were no exception to this rule so here they are:

Stanley Park Totem Poles

However. The Museum of Anthropology is not to be missed if you want to gain some real insight into the cultures and lives of the pre-european peoples. I just did not realise how many different peoples lived in North America and just how different their culture was compared to Euro-centric culture.

In this building there are wonderful artifacts and we had a great guided tour. We learned a great deal about thunderbirds and the myths relating to the origin of he world.

Here are some images of some ancient (and not so ancient) carvings from the Vancouver hinterland.

Totem

Kayak

2005-10-10T20:03:00.000+01:00

We went canoeing a couple of times: first of all we went for a paddle in Sechelt inlet.

K and Alex had a canoe on the outward leg and Vix and I had a Kayak.

We paddled off across the sound with the wind at our backs and about half way across we ran into a massive shoal of milky white jellyfish. They were everywhere all round our boat.

A small grey head with two coal black eyes appeared above the water. It was a sea lion, popping its head up a couple of feet from our kayak to have a look. Also there were sea eagles hunting around us too; fantastic. It was the sort of experience you don't get in the UK.

The starfish are pretty weird here as well. They are the same colour as the purple tomato sauce that has recently been invented......Yuk! Anyhow, here is a picture of one.

Scary coloured Starfish!

We came to a beach after a while and pulled our boats ashore for a picnic and it was at his point that we decided to swap boats.....

Well, Alex and I had the canoe and this time it was into the wind! It took us 3 times longer to cover the same distance as on the way out and I am sure it was very good for the cardio-vascular system especially on top of a beef-burger!

Granville Island

2005-10-06T05:37:00.000+01:00

Downtown Vancouver from Granville Island

Tucked away under a bridge on the South side of the inlet lies Granville Island. A cross between Covent Garden, and Hayling Island, vibrant and full of life, you can buy anything here; the latest fashions, fresh fish, groceries, gifts and bespoke arts and crafts. Full of the joys of the morning, we bought a CD from one of those Andean pipe bands that you find in market squares all over the world. You know the sort of thing: Los Paranoias, pochos and pipes, they are proof that cloning is already with us. As I write, it sits un-played on the shelf just as we knew it would be the very same moment that we bought it…..seemed a good idea at the time!

More Sun Yat Sen

2005-10-06T05:36:00.000+01:00

Acid-eroded rock formations

Screen

The Sun Yat Sen Garden

2005-10-04T19:51:00.000+01:00

The Sun Yat Sen Garden

Being on the East Coast of the continent, there are many links with Asia. Vancouver has a large Chinese population and there is a thriving Chinatown area. Great for food, but one of the best experiences with Chinese influence is the Sun Yat Sen Garden.

Don't be fooled by just going into the public garden; pay your dues and go into the inner sanctum. It is beautiful; it is peaceful and you get a very good guided tour.

The garden is a very faithful copy of a courtyard garden of a rich Chinese family. It is filled with detail after detail of authentic Chinese artisan work. For instance, this photo shows a detail from a screen. These screens are made using joints and wooden pegs. No adhesives and no nails used at all.

The weirdly sculpted limestone rocks come from a particular highly acid lake in China where, for generations, the local people placed the limestone to be etched into the weird shapes.

The jade pond is coloured green by applying the correct type of clay.

The garden contains elements of earth, air, fire and water; there is a pagoda, there is a grotto. It is a miniature representation of the world…..

The design goes on and I don't pretend to remember everything I was told, but the whole small garden is a haven of peace and you could spend a couple of hours just sitting there and contemplating…..

Here is their link

Capliano Suspension Bridge

2005-10-03T19:57:00.000+01:00

"Would you please not rock the bridge!" The tannoy blared. My girls were in the middle of the drooping wooden footbridge and were enjoying it to the limit!

It's an amazing fact. But Capilano is so close to the centre of Vancouver, it's embarrassing! You cross into North Vancouver and enter a fairly well-to-do suburb. Park the car in a fancier-than-normal car park, cross the road, pay the entry fee and there you are: back into the early days of BC. The hosts were dressed in early costumes, but the star of the show is the bridge.

It crosses a gorge way up in the treetops and it feels just a little bit creepy as you step out into the middle.

On the other side of the gorge, the aerial walkways continue, up in the canopy of the trees.

This is one of the Vancouver 'must see tourist sights'

This shot was taken by Vickie.....I am in the middle....the one who's knees are knocking together.

The trees are very tall but I am told that they are really only juveniles. The original forest has all been logged. Here and there you can see the stumps of the original trees where they have been chopped down. The lumberjacks cut slots in the trees to use as a ladder and then they hammered a plank into a slot say 5 feet above the ground. They used these planks to stand on while they were chopping a tree down. It must have been hard work and a little scary from time to time.

Although looking at these photos again, I guess that the ones on the side of the gorge are originals....they seem very big!

Here is Kathy and me!

Of course, once the tree was down, they had to be moved……in the days when there were no big tractors.

Here is their official website

Falconry on Grouse Mountain

2005-09-29T20:33:00.000+01:00

Falconry on Grouse mountain

and I'm OK

2005-09-28T22:29:00.000+01:00

.....and I'm OK!

I'm a Lumberjack......

2005-09-28T22:20:00.000+01:00

Lumberjack on Grouse Mountain

Grouse Mountain

2005-09-28T06:37:00.000+01:00

Grouse Mountain is right on the edge of Vancouver and you can drive there in half an hour. There is a car park at the side of the road at the base of the mountain and we took the cable car to the peak. This is a great ride and you get the most wonderful views of the valleys, lakes and Vancouver spread out below. There seems to be some sulphur extraction going on here because there is an enormous pile of yellow stuff on the side of the sound in North Vancouver.

View from the Grouse Mountain Cable Car

File Name : Vancouver from Grouse Mountain

The top of Grouse Mountain is a tourist spot where there are restaurants and you can get a Lumberjack Show, which is very entertaining! They have log chopping competitions, log hopping competitions and all sorts of other things……great fun!

We also took in a display of birds of prey, which is fantastic to see against the background of the mountains. Up here the air is crisp and clear and you can see for miles. We saw the occasional deer walking across a mountain track in the distance, and the birds of prey were occasionally distracted by the indigenous eagles that flew by to see what was going on!

We took a ski lift down the side of the mountain which was fun and gave us a view of the surrounding woodland. All the snow-blowers were in action creating mist and drizzle to help prevent forest fires. Soon after we were up the mountain it was closed because of the risk of approaching fires and the chance of tourists creating new fires.

Harrison Hot Springs

2005-09-24T20:49:00.000+01:00

Harrison Hot Springs

We wanted to try Hell's Gate Airtram which is a cable way over the river but it was closed because of the proximity of the forest fires…..so we carried on!

The lower Fraser River Opens out into the flat river land upon which the conurbation of Vancouver is built, but up here, it is still rural. We headed off to Harrison Hot Springs in the hopes that we would find geysers, bubbling mud and the like.

But this place is a real disappointment. It is s resort town with a beach on a lake and the lake is beautiful and surrounded by mountains but the hot springs….its just a rectangular building a bit like a low grade swimming pool and you have to pay to go in. Not what I expected.

Anyway, we made the best of it and lunched in a restaurant overlooking the beach. Then we had a quad bicycle and cycled round the town.

Forest Fire

2005-09-23T22:58:00.000+01:00

Our trip to Canada coincided with the worst forest fire season for many years. There were hundreds of fires burning all over BC and several towns were either cut off or closed to incoming traffic. As we drove down the Fraser River we got a bit close to one of these fires.

We could see fires running up the hillside next to the road as we went along. There were helicopters dipping down over the river to refill their buckets, then, flying up the mountainside, they would drop their water on the fires raging on the hillside. I Think the main fire on this occasion was over on the other side of the ridge but the sparks had lifted over the top and were starting small fires on this side of the hill.

One of the most amazing things I saw were teams of fire fighters stood at the side of the road, taking a breather and yes….and smoking cigarettes! Weird or what?

Actors

2005-09-22T21:50:00.000+01:00

Outside the Hotel

The Hotel was full of actors because a film was being made in the town but that meant little to us. We just enjoyed being in a remote town. Apparently this town is at 'milestone zero' on the gold rush trail but even so it must have taken weeks to even get here in the old days, with your mules travelling without roads.

We bought some provisions at the local supermarket and set about cooking in our room. Pretty soon afterwards, we were all asleep.

The next morning we breakfasted with some of the cast of the film and then set off on our way. Now we were driving down the valley of the Frazer River and here the road was beginning to break up a bit. Here and there, there had been landslides that had carried parts of the road away, but we did manage to get through. This valley is fantastic to drive down and as we drove southwards the the terrain got less scrubby and more forested, but whatever the flora, it was all fantastic!

Here is a Wikipedia article for Lillooet

Lillooet

2005-09-21T06:35:00.000+01:00

As we crossed over the head of the valley we passed a lake, crossed a couple more trestle bridges and finally entered the broad junction of valleys and saw the lights of Lillooet ahead of us in the deepening twilight.

It looked like a remote town surrounded by the artefacts of older industry, rusting mining machinery and the scars of quarrying here and there.

It wasn't hard to find our Hotel: It was on Main Street, which was pretty much the only street. A Hotel Victoria has been here since the Gold Rush days although this is not the original one. It is wooden construction and quite unlike a city Hotel. The rooms were basic but large and had their own kitchen area……just right for us.

Our Hotel

The Middle of Nowhere

2005-09-20T06:30:00.000+01:00

We continued, and the roads got narrower and narrower, the air got cooler and cooler but the scenery just got better.

I noticed that in many places along the road where there was forest, all the branches on one side of the trees were badly damaged or missing. It took me a short while to figure it out but I think that this was the result of avalanches in the winter. All the damage was on the uphill sides and the mountains on each side were getting steeper and steeper. Winters in these parts must be intense and the scattered communities must become very isolated then.

The road crossed the occasional wooden trestle bridge….one way traffic only. Of course this is not a problem since there are hardly any cars. This is normal but completely alien to a European……we are never more than a good spit away from the next person……even in the Alps.

And here we are, just less than a day's drive from a major city.

My hat comes off to the early explorers, the people involved in the gold rush but most of all to the original nations who have lived here for thousands of years. How did they survive? There were not even these small roads in those days.

File Name : DSCN0939.JPG

Lions Tigers and Bears……..and Mad Axe Murderers!

2005-09-18T19:37:00.000+01:00

As we got up beyond Whistler we entered more remote country. We passed fewer and fewer cars as we traversed this beautiful valley. At one point we passed through a small hamlet (as we would call it in England….but I don't know what we would call it in Canada). It is called Pemberton. At this point the valley widens out and I guess the river makes a sort of a flat flood plain. There are just a few farmsteads here; wooden colonial style bungalows, a few pickup trucks, some without wheels, a few dogs and that's about it. I guess living here would feel very strange, remote and in some ways, claustrophobic to someone from the South East of England.

We drove on. The road takes a loop into a narrow rising valley and the air starts to cool down. We rose to the head of the valley where there was a little pull in for cars. We stopped here to take a walk in the woods. As soon as we got out of the car we realised just how remote we were. There was no sound at all, the air was cool and the twilight was coming on. We started walking in the woods past a notice telling us what to do if we came close to any bears and then we got it! The creeps!

Suddenly we understood the American films where someone lives in a house in the woods, or Dances with Wolves or the X-Files. Out here there is no sound, there is no telephone signal, there are no people and if you get stuck, you can be in real trouble!

We sort of tip-toed through the trees looking in front and to the right and the left of us as we went along, until we came to a small lake. Here we has a view across to the mountainside on the other side. The lower slopes were covered in pine forest and above it all was a hanging valley with a glacier in it. The air was cool and as still as it can get and the twilight was forming, making the whole spot feel rather spooky. And more, although there was no wind there was a rushy-wispery noise coming from across the lake. I could only imagine that it was a cold wind descending from the glacier and wispering through the forest opposite, but not reaching us.

Remote!

It reminded me of the poem by William Wordsworth, where be describes his encounter with the pantheist God as he rowed a boat across a lake and saw a dark mountain rising above him. It is a feeling of the overwhelming power of nature and the fact that we perhaps are intruding into a place that we don't understand. I will post this poem if I can find it.

Or maybe the Piper at the Gates of Dawn in the Wind in the Willows!

Well, the light was fast fading and the bears were sharpening their teeth behind each tree so we walked back to the car and continued our journey!

Further on

2005-09-18T13:24:00.000+01:00

North of Whistler

Carrying on past Whistler we entered a fantastic valley. Here are a couple of views.

At this point I must mention Google Earth. Once more, Google have hit the right spot with this Geographic Information System. It 's possible to zoom into any location on the planet in 3 dimensions with almost photographic precision. Here for example is a photograph I took just North of Whistler, with a Google Earth representation of almost exactly the same view.

If I can figure out how it is done it might be possible to fly to the exact spot using this application.

Amazing.

Google Earth Version....as near as I can get it!

Whistler a bit of a Toy Town

2005-09-16T19:54:00.000+01:00

A bit like the 'Village' in the Prisoner!

Our next stop on this circular tour was Whistler. This is a toy-town of a place; all the buildings pristine and all the streets clean and free of traffic, and being a ski resort, it could be anywhere in the world. We stopped here for lunch and had a wander round. Actually we found a pub that sold beer that they made on the premises. It was actually to my taste since it was a bit like English beer but icy cold of course!

Being summer, the ski runs were used as mountain bike runs. This looked like great fun.

The Winter Olympic Games are going to be hosted here. My house swapping mum was instrumental in winning the games for Canada and BC……well done!

Brandywine Falls

2005-09-15T19:01:00.000+01:00

Joiner of the Brandywine falls

A little further up the Sea to Sky Highway we came across the Brandywine falls. This is easily missed because there is only s small car park at the side of the road but if you stop there and walk a few hundred yards, you come across this.

Sounds like something out of The Lord of the Rings!

This photograph is a composite of 3 separate images because my puny camera does not have a wide angle setting. The sky is actually stolen from a holiday I had in Brittany, France the previous year.

Feeling a bit Squamish!

2005-09-14T19:02:00.000+01:00

Somewhere further up this road at the head of the Sound you get to the small town of Squamish. To European eyes this place already looks like you are in the backwoods but in reality it is only a couple of hours from Vancouver if that. Nevertheless, it looks like it is made up mostly of rectangular factory units, though this may not be the case.

One thing it is famous for though is the Squamish Chief which is a mountainside with a side missing: a rock climber's paradise.

And here you really begin to feel that you are getting into real BC country!

Here is a website about the Squamish Nation and here is one about the town itself.

Britannia Beach

2005-09-13T19:53:00.000+01:00

We decided to take a two day trip up into the country. So we booked a small hotel in the middle of nowhere and headed up the coast road to Whistler and beyond.

Once you get out of Vancouver in a Northerly direction you very quickly get into wonderful mountain and Fjord country. I think the first major mountain range we came across was called the Garibaldi Range….wonderful to see. We stopped off at a copper mine at Britannia Beach mainly because I recognised the spooky mine building from an episode of the X-Files…..it has loads of dark dust laden passages just right for Mulder and Scully to wander about with their torches.

Judging by the website there have been quite a few other films shot here too!

Skookumchuck Rapids

2005-07-27T20:01:00.000+01:00

This is an extract from my diary on the day in question:

Today we went for a drive and a walk to Skookumchuk Rapids. This is right the way up the top of the Sechelt Peninsula. You stop just before you hit a town called Egmont; a one horse place if ever there was one. Nevertheless it has a sort of beauty in it brightly coloured houses, and then of course there is the inlet and the mountains. Magnifique! The highest peaks have a small piece of snow here and there in hollows, but I suppose its about as far away from winter as you can get right now. Today was really hot with not a cloud in the sky.

The Path to Skookumchuk

To get to the falls you have to walk for an hour or so through some excellent temperate rain forest. All the big trees were logged a hundred or so years ago. You can see the slots cut out of the stumps where the lumberjacks slotted planks in to allow them to saw the trees. It looks like they sawed them eight or ten feet from the ground using these planks.

Temperate rain Forest

What’s left are mere saplings apparently but they are still taller than any tree I’ve seen back home. Already they are perhaps 100 feet tall already and covered in moss. They will reach 160 feet before too much longer apparently. We are told that the forest is mostly composed of Douglas Fir, Red Cedar and Western Hemlock, but underneath all is a carpet of ferns. Ancient landscape and lovely to see.

After a while you come to Brown Lake, though the water is as clear as gin. The edges are covered in fallen trees and water lilies.

You get to the rapids. The tide was falling so the water was flowing out of the fjords.
Impressive. Enormous maelstroms of foaming water. The water was so clear that you could see the funnels of water go deep, and I guess that anyone who fell in would not be seen again; lifejacket or no.

The rapids are caused by the tides. When we saw the rapids the tide was flowing out and all the water from Sechelt Inlet and Porpoise Bay was trying to join the Ocean. A few hours later and all the water would be trying to get in again as the tide rose in the open ocean. And so it goes, day in and day out for millennia I suppose, until the granite rocks are worn away, and the water has no battle to get in and out. Skookumchuk means ‘Strong Water’ in the local native language; apt.

Skookumchuk Rapids

On the way back we were all feeling a bit hungry so we stopped off at a little café built to feed the tourists I suppose. It was run by a big Frank Zappa lookee-likee Canadian guy and I guess it would be his wife who did the cooking. They take pride in the fact that the café is made of local timber and that all the food is organic and that the coffee (help yourself) is the best Ethiopian something or other. Well, it is good and it is well worth it when you have a thirst and an appetite.

Later, we drove down into Sechelt to the supermarket for a few provisions, after which we hit the pebble beach across the road so the girls could have a swim. The pebbles were a bit painful on the feet though. Nevertheless, the girls had a splash around.

On the way home we saw a very large deer at the side of the road. Don’t know what sort though. We have also seen tons of eagles, purple starfish; I saw a snake as soon as I stepped onto the beach at the bottom of the cliffs. We have seen squirrels. No whales or porpoises though.

In the evening K cooked a veal dinner, we sat out on the terrace and watched it get dark. We were all in good spirits and had an ear wiggling, nose flaring and burping contest. K won!

Sechelt House

2005-07-14T06:34:00.000+01:00

On this journey we were getting two houses for the price of one ! We had a country residence as well! This was up on the Sechelt peninsula and could not be reached entirely by road. This turned out to be a wonderfully rambling wooden house perched on the cliff-side overlooking the ocean and surrounded by forest.

Relaxing after a hard day's relaxing

It was a magical place built on at least 4 levels as it sprawled down to the bay where a jetty ran down to a few small boats. On the jetty lay the jawbone of a whale.

On one occasion I was walking alone through the woods there when I bumped into an old lady and her dog . We had a few minutes conversation and we passed our separate ways

Each night we would have our evening meal and a few beers on the top balcony overlooking the sea. Far out in the sound great rafts of logs would be towed along by a powerful tug. Each one must have been a mile long and took several hours to pass from one side of our view to the other side.

Sechelt Peninsula

Greenland

2005-07-11T19:15:00.000+01:00

We flew over Greenland to get to Canada on a great circle route. First we flew the length of England and perhaps a bit of Scotland and before too long the captain announced that we were passing over Iceland and not too long afterwards: Greenland.

All the passengers moved over to the appropriate side of the aircraft and I guess the pilot chappie had to do a little "left hand down a bit"!

Below us stretched Greenland. Great icebergs were floating in the ocean some gigantic and tabular like desert mesas and some small, dangerous looking and surrounded by angry water. Ocean rollers were crashing against the ice shelf. There were glaciers snaking down to the ocean. There were occasional mountain peaks cutting through the snow and ice, each one eroded into knife edged pyramids of rock. Here and there lakes of turquoise meltwater sat on the ice, the only colour in the entire landscape. It was beautiful from the air but I imagine one's lifespan would be measured in minutes down there and there was absolutely no sign of humanity, none whatsoever.

In the hundreds of square miles that I could see at a glance was there any human being at all? Probably not. Was there anything else? My mind drifted to that old horror film "The Thing" maybe somewhere under the ice lies a flying saucer waiting to be discovered .....or maybe there are armoured bears and gateways to another universe!

That was he only exciting part of the flight; which is how I like it!

Gas Town

2005-07-09T09:37:00.000+01:00

You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles....

Another 'must see': Gas Town and it's steam clock……pretty weird! Gas Town is one of the oldest parts of Vancouver but has this weird clock! It's powered by geothermal steam. Vancouver is in the same series of fault lines as most of the West Coast of the US and it has the occasional earthquake. This clock though! When it comes to chime the hour, it blows steam whistles rather than ringing bells in the usual way. What's more, it blows off the Big Ben chime! Absolutely surreal…..love it!

2005-07-07T06:38:00.000+01:00

Proof that we were there

I just had to put a photo of us all here.

Behind is the Lions Gate Bridge which is one of the bridges that join Vancouver to North Vancouver. Did the usual tourist thing and asked a chinese couple to take the picture.

Stanley Park

2005-07-07T05:57:00.000+01:00

One of the first things we did was to take off to Stanley Park. This is one of the must-do things when you are in Vancouver. We hopped into the car and drove into Downtown Vancouver and through into the Park.

The Park is on a promontory which sticks out into the Ocean and is a refuge of Wilderness cut off from the rest of the natural world by the city and by the sea. The first thing we ran into was a gang of Raccoons that were taking their chances with the tourists. Brought home to us that we were thousands of miles from home.

Stanley of Stanley Park

St Asaph look-you

2005-07-05T06:42:00.000+01:00

Title: A pathetic attempt to infuse the title with Welsh-ness.

Well this week I had the need to drive to St Asaph, which is the smallest city in the UK I think.

Here is a link to an article about the town. Since it has a cathedral many of the locals call it the smallest city in the UK. Hmm. The sheep population is probably higher than the human pop.

Anyhow, it is set in a beautiful bit of countryside and is well worth a visit and in fact my hotel was full of an American coach party.

Supermarket Checkouts: An Intercontinental Review!

2005-06-29T20:08:00.000+01:00

In England:
Unpack your trolley.
Ignore the person behind you in the queue
Look around you carefully avoiding everyone's eyes
Whatever you do keep quiet.
Bip…bip…bip
£98.37 please
Ta!
Repack trolley

In British Columbia:
Unpack trolley.
Hi!
Hello!

Bip

Oh you English?
Yes from London

Bip

Great!

Bip

My (brother/sister/cousin) lives in London. She (owns/runs/works) in a pub
Yeah?!

Bip

Yeah, do you know the Red Lion?
Where is it?
London!

Bip

Oh….I'm not sure!
I love England - and Scotland. My Great-Great-Grandfather came from Aberdeen.

Bip

Wow!

That'll be one hunnerd and twenny nine dollars

Just one thing…..I couldn't find your wine and beer section?

Oh! You have to get that from the Government Liquor Store!

Is there one round here?

About 9 blocks to the east but it will be shut till Monday!

Burnaby

2005-06-27T20:55:00.000+01:00

We hopped in a taxi and got ourselves taken to the swappee house in Burnaby (you know who you are!!) As we walked up the drive there was a voice from across the road. "Good morning Mr Davies!" We had travelled half way around the world and someone knew my name!

When we got into our house there were beers in the fridge and a stew simmering on the stove. What more could we ask for? Well, no jet lag for a start. There are 9 hours of jet lag between London and Vancouver and we all felt it. Either that or it was the beer!

More about Burnaby here!

And now for Something completely different

2005-06-26T16:47:00.000+01:00

The plane slid through the lowering clouds to reveal a windswept river crossed by an iron bridge

The rain streaked across the window as we circled the Semi industrial scene below.

"Cor Blimey Kate, we've just travelled half way round the world and it looks like we've ended up in Erith in November! And left London in the middle of the hottest summer this last 100 years"

A very unpromising start to our New World adventure.

Yes we were jet lagged, but we wanted to examine the Fir, the Larch and he mighty Scots Pine, we were in Vancouver BC.

Vancouver Skyline

Glasgow Again

2005-06-23T21:49:00.000+01:00

I went to Glasgow again on Tuesday morning. This was the same itinerary as last time but this time the air was clear and I had an excellent view of Windsor, Reading, Bracknell and the whole of Oxfordshire. Lovely and green to see. It stayed clear until we got past Northampton where I used to live and I easily recognised it. Soon afterwards the clouds came and we could see no more. It stayed the same all the way up to Glasgow and when we landed it was raining. Not bad, we have been smothered with 30 degree temperatures in the South so it was nice to have some coolness!

My work was a bit slow though which meant that I had to stay the night. This was a problem. Apparently there was a U2 concert, a UNESCO conference and preparations for the G8 summit meeting going on; result; no beds in any of the Glasgow hotels. The nearest one that could be found was in Irvine which was nearly an hour's drive away. I got there about midnight to find the place full of US servicemen. There was an American aircraft carrier anchored just off the coast and some lucky members of the crew had an evening off. I suppose they were there to look after the punk Bush when he turns up next week!

When I woke the next morning and opened the curtains I found that my room looked out onto a tropical beach, complete with palm trees! Thought I'd been transported in my sleep, but no such luck. What with the Yanks I thought I was in the South Pacific!

No time for breakfast: straight back to work!

There was not a cloud in the sky on the way home so I had the best view I have ever had all the way back to London. We flew over the Solway Firth, skirted the Lake District, keeping out to sea and we headed inland at Liverpool. I could see the River Mersey and the Dee Estuaries and all of the city laid out below. Then straight over the top of Birmingham.

Route to Glasgow and back

We got stacked over Aylesbury for 15 minutes or so and then flew round the M25 to Canary Wharf. The new Wembley Stadium Arch looks fantastic from a couple of miles up in the air and so does London Docklands. We descended over Tower Bridge and The London Eye and I could see the whole of London laid out below. I have to take it back about the approach to Heathrow….if you get a good evening to fly over London, it is the most fantastic sight! Touched down at 09:10p.m on the day after midsummer's day and it was still light.

The temperature in London was about 10C warmer than Scotland; it was like touching down in another country. Whereas the grass is green in Scotland, it was scorched and dry in London.

Arriva Homa!

2005-06-19T11:08:00.000+01:00

A short drive to Ciampino airport, a short wait for the flight and we were off. Had an excellent view of the Alps on the way home. I didn't recognise any of the mountains though. On other occasions I have seen the Matterhorn for instance.

As we crossed over into England it was quite noticeable just how green the countryside was: lush green Springtime fields and small woods scattered here and there. The occasional car boot sale or Some Such event.

A different type of scenery to that of Italy where the general impression was of dusty late summer with the grasses already dry and gone to seed.

Cruising into Gatwick airport provides a better impression of England than Heathrow does what with it's gravel pits, reservoirs and sewage works!

2005-06-18T14:33:00.000+01:00

On our final day we decided to get lazy. It's only perhaps half an hour's drive to the coast from the edge of Rome. We just drove along the coast until we found a managed beach that we liked the look of :sun beds, parasols; golden sand; restaurant. I spent the entire morning on a sun bed under a parasol reading my book (Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby). Alex had a couple of swims and all was well with the world! At lunch time we moved to the restaurant where we ate the local seafood. Unfortunately this infused me with a touch of Mussolini 's revenge.....but that's another story!) The afternoon was a repeat of the morning but it also included added sleep. The only movement was to ensure that the sun bed kept in the shade!

Homelink

2005-06-17T20:44:00.000+01:00

Over the last few years we have taken family holidays through the Homelink organisation

This is nothing more than a catalogue of people who are willing to swop houses for holidays for free. All you have to do is make contact , get to know each other a bit and agree to an Exchange. As a by-product we have made friends with many people round the world through homelink

It was worked well for us over the years and we have enjoyed holidays all over the place

We've been to Paris , A Coruna, Vancouver , Bordeaux , Cornwall all through homelink

I'll write a little bit about each of these trips as time goes by.

The Pantheon

2005-06-16T20:34:00.000+01:00

The Pantheon

This day we decided to take a walk through the old part of Rome. We wandered about the old streets and saw many wonderful piazzas and churches but the highlight was the Pantheon! This is an original Roman Empire type building that is still standing and still used today. Fantastic! Apparently even the massive bronze entrance doors were Roman and they are still in use. Inside it is a massive circular space, all marble and frescos all set below a massive dome with a great circular hole in the top so that you can commune with the gods. When it rains, (which it didn't for us) a great column of water falls through the roof , hits the marble floor and drains away through the sink holes in the floor. It is said that on hot dry days the rain evaporates before it hits the ground!

Just a little bit of the inside!

More about the Pantheon Here

Interstitial Trip

2005-06-16T20:23:00.000+01:00

Instant Live Action! Today I am flying to Glasgow from London; so I have just got up. It's 04:30 a.m

05:30 driven down the M4 and parked in the long stay car park
05:45 through check in and Security.

Luckily I have a business ticket today so I am able to use the business lounge (coffee, nice chairs, newspapers)

Now I have a little time to read and write

06:40 Boarding
07:05 Take to the air (cloud as soon as we head North; full English breakfast!)
08:15 Land at Glasgow Airport (rain)
08:30 Taxi
09:00 15:00 Business meeting
16:00 Taxi to Glasgow Airport with 2 colleagues
16:30 Lounge (glass of wine bag of nuts) met another 3 colleagues!
17:15 Boarding
17:30 Take to the air (Spicy Chicken and rice, glass of New Zealand wine!)
18:00 Stacked over London
18:20 Final approach (ears popped, no view because of low cloud)
18:30 Landed
18:40 Bus to longstay car park
18:50 Drive Home

Harumph!!

So it goes; I have made this journey a hundred times and so it is all very routine for me.

Glasgow though is an excellent city full of wonderful in-your-face people . I have stayed in many of it's hotels both summer and winter; a mixed bag, but it's the pub and restaurants that are great. More about Scotland and Glasgow in particular later perhaps.

Nemi

2005-06-15T20:25:00.000+01:00

We drove over the ridge to Nemi. Lake Nemi seems smaller wilder and deeper and is also a volcanic crater. The traffic was at a crawling pace, such that we had some great views of the lakes but we couldn't get into the tiny village of Nemi which seems to hang precariously over the lake, hundreds of feet up. Nevertheless we drove about in these little villages and forests for a while.

Later when I was home I checked out these hills and lakes on the World Wind application which belongs to Nasa. With this tool you can centre a satellite view anywhere in the world and view it obliquely in 3D. It uses Landsat images and if you live in the USA you can zoom in to really fine detail: you can see cars on the roads and at closer zooms you get presented with local maps. All integrated nicely together. Try it!

Anyway here is an oblique shot of the entire range where you can see the lakes and the entire Volcanic Caldera. The town of Rocca di Pappa sits right on top of the central peak….hope it's extinct!

The whole nine yards!

Albano the Volcano!

2005-06-15T06:42:00.000+01:00

Although it is an amazing sight, it was very hot indeed so we didn't stay long. There's not much shade there. I think the road thermometer in the car read 39 degrees that afternoon…..too much for me.

It was so hot that we wanted to look for a lake so the girls could have a swim, so we drove through Frascati to a couple of Lakes; Albano and Nemi. I wasn't expecting what I saw. As you crest the surrounding hills you can see the lake spread out below. To the right, about 1/3 of the way round the lake and perched on top of the ridge is the Castel Gandolfo. This is the Summer residence Of the Pope and I think it must be this which featured in the Da Vinci code.

As I looked around, I realised that the lake has no way out of the surrounding hills and that it is in fact one massive volcanic crater.

We stopped off at a roadside cafe, also perched on the inner crater wall, which was no more than a trailer with a few tables, chairs and umbrellas. We ordered some food and drink and sat down to take it all in.

Down below under the Castle we could see a resort with beaches, swimmers and boats, while the left hand side of the lake was wooded and had no resorts as far as I could see.

We drove down to the resort but he car parking there is truly awful. You have to pay by the hour and it is almost impossible to find a spot let alone a traffic lady to pay. There were loads of cars with parking tickets plastered all over the windscreen!

We did manage to park though and Alex did manage a swim.

Villa Adriana

2005-06-13T21:14:00.000+01:00

Also Just outside Tivoli we found the Villa Adriana which apparently was the Summer Palace of the Emperor Hadrian. Amazing to think that he was also responsible for Hadrian's Wall which separates England from Scotland. Anyway this villa is not just your run on the mill bungalow with a courtyard in the middle. It is enormous, more like an entire town rather than a residence. Of course it's all in ruins now…..a bit like the ruins of Gormenghast or something.

Although it is an amazing sight, it was very hot indeed so we didn't stay long. Theres not much shade there. I think the road thermometer in the car read 39 degrees that afternoon…..too much for me.

Check this site if you'd like to know more!

Tivoli

2005-06-13T19:38:00.000+01:00

We decided to take a day out of Roma today and visit Tivoli, a little town perched on the side of the mountains. It seems that Tivoli is famous for a number of things but I think most visitors come to see the Villa d'Este and especially it's wonderful gardens. These gardens roll down a steep hillside and they are famous for it's many fountains. We had a wonderful stroll through this place. The gardens are peaceful and the fountains help keep the air cool. If it's really hot there are grottos with seats outside. You get cooled by the air pouring out of these caves. The air is heavy with the smell of Jasmine and, well it's an antidote to the noise and bustle of Rome.

Here are some pix:

View across the Gardens to a little village

Loads of Carp in Here

Cool or What

Just another Fountain

St Peter's Basilica

2005-06-13T19:03:00.000+01:00

Dome from the Vatican Museum

Vatican Museum from the Dome

Later that day we scaled the dome of the basilica and for me that was the best part of my visit to Rome. You can go half way up in a lift if you want to but I reckon you get the full effect if you can manage to walk all the way. We walked. Actually the first part of the climb takes you onto the roof of the Basilica. You walk across the roof and into the base of the dome. It's a whispering gallery and it actually works! Give it a try if you get the chance. The most amazing thing is to look down to the floor of the basilica below…..not good if you suffer from vertigo!

We climbed another spiral staircase to take us to the base of the actual dome. After that it gets a bit scary. A passageway winds its way up the inside of the dome between the outside skin and the inner skin and as it gets higher the narrow passageway has to conform to the shape of the dome so it actually leans over quite a bit. What's more the lean increased as we got higher!

Tied very hard not to think what was under my feet, which was a few stone blocks and then a whole load of nothing.

A few zig-zag steel steps and we are on the top of the cupola and gawping at a brilliant 360 degree view of Rome in all it's glory. Wonderful!

The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel

2005-06-11T10:28:00.000+01:00

You have to go into the Vatican Museum to see this and it is well worth it. Although the queue was half way down the street it seemed to move on sharpish and there were no problems getting in.

Not bad but I must be a Philistine because I thought that a lot of the other rooms were more beautiful than the chapel. You pass through room after room and gallery after gallery of the most wonderful art works: frescos, statues, tromp l'oeil etc.

The Map Gallery. This picture is the best I can do, but it does not do justice to the subject!

In the Sistine though I think they keep the lighting down to preserve the colours. I do like the famous God/Adam finger thing though; also Adam and Eve and the Serpent and the famous 'chucking out' from the Garden of Eden; of course the room is just stuffed with world famous frescos. That alone has an effect on a person! Quite exciting to see it in the flesh but unfortunately I kept thinking of Melvyn Bragg and his theme tune. It's a major piece of work though and you just gotta see it.

Of course the room was full of tourists together with a guard who's sole job seems to be to go shhhhhh! Every 5 minutes though I suppose he would shoot to kill if the need arose! It's a chapel and everyone is supposed to keep silent, but of course no one does. You are also supposed to refrain from taking photographs but many people were happy snapping away.

It gave me a bit of a crick in the neck and I reckon the best way to take it all in is to lie down flat on your back on the floor. Didn't do that myself though and I didn't see anyone else doing it either.

Pope Ahoy!

2005-06-09T19:47:00.000+01:00

He's the one in the white gear!

On the Wednesday we went to the Vatican.

Once more it meant a journey on the dreaded A line with all it's crowds heat and general mayhem. No matter. Most people get off at the same stop because most people are tourists and are also on the way to the Vatican so you just join the general stream of people all heading off in the one direction.

As we approached San Pietro I could feel the holiness factor rising step by step and the nun count hit the roof!

As we approached the square we could hear great breathy cheers arise from what turned out to be a major crowd gathered there and surprise surprise the new Pope entered the square in the opposite direction riding on his pope-mobile. That was something I didn't really expect. Well. He did a load of the arm waving stuff that Popes are famous for and it was all projected on giant TV screens set around the square. Then after a while he starts talking in Italian and everyone goes a bit quieter. People hold their mobiles aloft so that the folks back home can here.

I noticed a few men in black suits mingling with the crowd and speaking into their pope-phones.

It's interesting to note that you have to pass through an X Ray machine to enter the square; perhaps to locate any sin that you may be carrying about your person!

Very interesting but after a while we decided to head off to the Sistine Chapel.

More about that later!

A Bite on the Beach

2005-06-08T23:12:00.000+01:00

I have a sneaking suspicion that you can only take so much Roma per week, so we took a day out in the country in the car that we hired. (Renault Scenic- a bit too big for Italian conditions. (By the way, the Italian drivers are truly the maniacs they are supposed to be. I would say I saw roughly one accident per day involving serious injury. These people just dart about all over the place in all sorts of unforeseen ways!)
We drove down to the coast about half way to Napoli to a place called Circeo. Here there are excellent beaches and (miracle) you don't have to pay, unlike the beaches in other parts of Italy that I have visited.
I broke my oath never to eat Mediterranean seafood but I suffered no ill effects this time. (I made this oath in 1984 after a particularly bad experience in a flash restaurant in the Duomo in Milan. Sheesh! The octopus was fighting back I think. Talk about Mussolini's revenge. On that occasion I was visiting a factory that made turbines for hydroelectric stations and the stand up facilities were few and far between……only just survived intact ( both me and the porcelain).

Anyway nice beaches and here is a sample of the scenery.

Seaside and free beaches!

Trevi Fountain & Spanish Steps

2005-06-08T20:49:00.000+01:00

We wandered up the Via del Corso, which is one of the trendy fashiony type of streets. Not exactly my cup of tea. A few minutes up here though and you can turn to the right and find the Trevi Fountain. This was designed by a guy called Bernini who seemed to do loads of fountains and bit and bobs all around Rome.

Now the Trevi turned out to be a bit of an anomaly, at least that’s how it seemed to me. It's an enormous fountain which seems to be tacked onto the end of a house. It almost fills the square where it lives so it seems too big for its home. You have to push your way through two or three ranks of tourists to see it well. It's something you have see though. Apparently an enormous quantity of money is thrown into it every year. I wonder where it ends up.

Trevi

Later we cooled down with some real Italian Ice creams. Mine was a lemon sorbet frozen into a very large half lemon.

After that we took the Spanish steps and walked up to the Piazza del Poppolo. The steps are along another main shopping drag which enters the Piazza di Spagna. It's a bit like the Sacre Coeur steps in Paris since there are street artists at the top. There is an English link here. Some English poets lived close by, Byron Keats and Shelley I think.

There are some very interesting and flash looking residences round there with great roof gardens. You walk along an escarpment to the Poppolo and you get some great views over the rooftops. I would love a crash pad here. I can just imagine sitting in a roof garden under a Wisteria with my glass of vino! Dream on!

That just about finished us off for Day 1 except for the dreaded pickpocket incident. If you catch the Metro from here to Termini, watch out, it is dreadfully hot, cramped and full of pickpockets.

View from the top of the Spanish Steps

And that was just day 1; quite tiring but hardly scratched the surface really.

Forum

2005-06-07T20:50:00.000+01:00

We walked the walk through the ancient Forum. Again. It must be seen. No choice. And it is wonderful. I suppose there is no greater antiquity this side of the Bosphorus.

Many of the ancient buildings are in ruins of course but amazingly some of them are still standing. Boy it was hot though. Luckily there are drinking fountains scattered about and the water is icy cold and pure. No worries about catching some horrible disease or anything. Just cup your hands and have a drink. Then splash it on your face. Finally, stick your feet under it (sandals and all). No messing. That keeps you going for a few minutes. I've no idea what the temperature was…..somewhere in the mid 30s I expect. Very dry and very dusty. Luckily the humidity is low though and therefore it is just about bearable for a weedy English.

Forum and Colloseum in the Background

If you pay to go into the Colloseum then your ticket is also good for the Palatine Hill. This is where the Emperor's palace is (was) and there is an interesting garden up there with olive trees and orange trees and it's high enough to provide a fairly good view over Rome but best of all it's a great place to see the whole of the Forum from and to gauge the ancient streets and walkways.

Another part of the Forum

2005-06-07T06:40:00.000+01:00

The Colloseum and the Cup

My name is Maximus Decimus and I will have my revenge

2005-06-06T21:06:00.000+01:00

The Dreaded Colloseum just outside the cheap seats

The first thing we wanted to do was to see the Colloseum what with it being a tube stop an' all.

First impressions. Lot's of tourists and.....hello what are these sad guys doing in centurion gear; plastic breastplate, plastic sword and everything. Jeez what a shame for them.

Second impression. It's not wonderfully preserved or anything but it is THE COLLOSEUM. Stood in there for a while trying to imagine Gladiators fighting to the death; the emperor putting his thumb up or down; christians and lions etc. It was probably a bit like a Millwall home match.

Lowlife

2005-06-06T20:49:00.000+01:00

Could have done with a pickpocket defender yesterday. On the tube coming back from the Forum (a funny thing happened!). This lowlife geezer decided to try and pick my pocket. Luckily I felt him and gave him the evil eye and a few choice words. It was a classic. The carriage was absolutely crammed full and we had to push our way on. The guard just keeps slamming the doors until the unfotunates who are half on and half off can't take any more pain and let go!

Anyhoo, this dipper's tactic was to cram on behind you so he is near the door. He did the classic 'coat over the arm' trick so what with the crush and the coat, you can't see what's happening. These blokes try and keep themselves insignificant and almost invisible and they keep their eyes down so as not to make eye contact.

I had a pocket with a zip and the cheeky little sod tried to get into it. Luckily I sort of half heard and half felt the zip slowwwly click click down and I managed to stop him with a bit of choice Anglo Saxon. He dropped off at the next stop and he was gone. I don't reckon it's safe to do more though because these guys don't work alone. I reckon he was with at least two other blokes; there to stick up for him and to pass the booty to.

You know, that is the second time I've been dipped, both times in Italy and both times I managed to stop them.

Arriva Roma

2005-06-06T20:27:00.000+01:00

Well this time we are in Rome. Actually we are staying in a little village somewhere to the south of Rome. Don't ask me what it's called. The house is fairly new and quite large. We occupy the ground floor. Outside there is a yard with an enormous steel gate operated by electricity. Probably put there to keep the Mafia at bay. Also there is a tiny dog which probably keeps the mice at bay. The windows cleverly have mosquito shields that keep the insect life at bay. What else?

We chose Easyjet this time, although it being a bank holiday weekend it was not cheap and on Saturday the Italian Air Traffic Controllers were on strike. Not a problem though. The mess was cleared up by the time we flew on Sunday afternoon.