Sunshine, sailing and swimming in Sicily!

Hello! We are back in the UK after our last mediterranean sojourn. Jeez we are going to miss swimming in the Med!

Managed to survive a week on Uncle Robin's fabulous boat - sailing around the Aolian Islands. Spent our days sailing (or motoring) between each of the islands, stopping for swims or to pick up fresh seafood from the local fisherman. Tough job but someone had to do it! The islands themselves were fascinating and all very different. Stromboli with its active volcano which put on a great night display of fireworks (people actually live on this island!) Lipari with its amazing archaeological museum of all the Greek and Roman findings from the islands and a beautiful medieval town. Panarea and Salinas - more like Greek islands with their whitewashed houses, tiny winding streets and trailing bouganvillea - and loads of cats! Another great discovery was Tropea in Calabria where the boat is moored. Can't we believe we've never been to this part of Italy before. Stunning beaches, azure waters and Tropea is a lovely medieval town perched high on a cliff overlooking the sea. Highly recommend a trip for some sun, sea, and great food and wine!

Left the boat to meet up with Kat's mum in Palermo - for our week in Sicily. Travelled via a very slow but scenic train down the mainland coast, across the straights of Messina (the train goes on the ferry!) and then across the north coast of Sicily. Right next to the sea for most of the way -fantastic! After a whistlestop tour of Palermo with its fabulous Moorish/Norman architecture, we caught the train to Cefalu and our apartment in the heart of the old town, complete with sun terrace and sea glimpses. Had a fantastic with Kat's parents - enjoying the fabulous food and seafood, and the lovely beach. Hired a car for a few days and toured some hill villages and spent a day at Agrigento - where there is an ancient Greek settlement with astonishingly well preserved 2500 year old temples - the mind boggles!

Came back to the UK last week, and headed straight down to North Devon with Kat's parents to Appledore where we had a cosy little fisherman's cottage for the week. Appledore is a pretty little town with pastel cottages and tiny streets overlooking an estuary dotted with fishing boats. Enjoyed some of the best cliff top walking we've done around Clovelly and Hartland Quay. Spent a day at the Eden Project which we thought was incredible - amazing what you can do with a clay pit these days!

After a fantastic Field Family farewell bash at Kat's aunt and uncle's place in beautiful Wiltshire, we are now up in London for the week, catching up with friends and looking forward to Fiona's wedding on Saturday!

Only 3 weeks to go now before we fly home. Beginning to look forward to it.....

August - Camping in Wales & Scotland

Hi All, A quick update to let you know what we've been up to during August. As it was such "spectacular" weather in the UK, we of course decided to go camping.... First stop was stunning Pembrokeshire coast, where we did see a bit of sun including some stunning sunsets over the sea. Even got sunburnt doing some of the Pembrokeshire coast path - amazing scenery and cliff-tops around Martins Haven and Dale. Lots of mad Brits on the beach with their wind-breaks and rain shelters, "surfing" in 2 inch swell. Tent held up well despite lots of rain and wind. Next stop was Snowdonia where there are allegedly some mountains, and there may well have been some lurking under the mist. Camped in a beautiful sheepfield beneath Cader Idris, and went for a lovely walk along Mawdach Estuary and over a long wooden bridge with stunning views to Birmingham on Sea (aka Barmouth) - full of Brummies! Spent a couple of nights with Dick and Thelma in their lovely new house in Llandovery. The sun even came out so we went for a great scrambly walk down a waterfall!

After some niece-sitting duty, and a nice relaxing weekend, we ignored the rain drenched weather forecast and set off for Scotland. First couple of nights camped in a forest just over the border. Saw LOADS of red squirrels - much smaller and cuter than their grey cousins. Then drove up through a crazy rainstorm to find Loch Lomond in gorgeous sunshine and everyone walking around in shorts and T-shirts! Lovely driving up alongside the Loch. Found a fantastic campsite with lovely views, right on the West Highland Way footpath, a stretch of which we did the next day. Fabulous pink heather everywhere, and brooding mountains with heads in mist. Very scenic train trip to Oban and its distillery. Kat thinks she might like scotch after all... For our last few days we then drove up to magical Glen Coe which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. More walking and another fantastic train on the West Highland line to Mallaig. We were finally driven out of Scotland by the rain and the midge and sought refuge at a hotel in Bamburgh on the Northumberland coast. Went for a walk along the beach at Bamburgh - huge skies, and lovely soft sand - shame about the weather! Finished off our trip "oop north" with a flying visit to Kat's cousin Becs and her family in Newcastle.

Spent a lovely bank holiday back in Oxford with John, Lisa and the nieces. Highlight was punting with lovely blue sky weather (yay!). Also went to Hatfield House near London which we highly recommend. Fantastic house crammed with loads of famous portraits of the Tudors, Mary Queen of Scots and the Marquis of Salisbury family who still live there!

Kat's folks have arrived so we are now off to spend a week on Uncle Robin's boat, followed by a week in Sicily. More on that later!

20th July - Munich

As I said earlier we managed to book pretty much the last couchettes on the night train from Rijeka to Munich. Travelling through the night on a rattling old train was great fun and to our surprise we both slept very well. We arrived in Munich very early to a warm welcome from our friends Tim and Nina who took us out to breakfast and then for a wander in the English Gardens in the afternoon. Munich was great fun and oozes history. We went for a guided walk and saw the Third Reich sites. I also went to Dachau which was sobering but worth it. It was a great way to end off our amazing European leg of our farewell tour! Next stop Oxford before heading off to Wales to go camping.

15th July - Crystal Clear Adriatic

From Villach we travelled to Ljubjana in Slovenia and stayed a night in a pretty awful youth hostel whose saving grace was its close proximity to the main train station. With Kat not feeling up to much I ventured out into the bucketing rain to see if I could book our return journey. Luckily we managed to get pretty much the last tow couchette's available - more of which later.

Ljubjana is a very pretty town with a lovely feel to it and would merrit a longer stay with great looking bars and restaurants. However, our train to Croatia left at 6am so we had a early night and we up with the sparrows...and more rain.

The train took us down to the port city of Rijeka in Croatia. Once a hugely important shipbuilding centre it has seen better days but is still boasts some charming old buildings. We had a day to kill before our ferry at 6 so we caught a bus down to Opatija once the Hapsburg Riviera and swam in the clearest waters we have seen in Europe to date. Then back to Rijeka and onto the fast catamaran to the island of Rab.

We were met at the ferry in old Rab town by our host who drove us back to his home, which he had converted into apartments with a tiny kitchen in the corner! It was fantastic and had a great balcony with a view of the sea. Our host, and all the locals we met, were charming and friendly. All spoke German and it was a mainly German destination, and a bit of English.

Rab is a beautiful island with an ancient old town dating from Roman times with 14th century and earlier campanile's towering over it. The island is surrounded by the most stunningly clear warm water and we spent three lovely days here just relaxing and swimming and wandering around and cooking ourselves dinner in our apartment. Bliss.

We were not ready to leave, probably the only place on our stay we would have liked a day or so more, but dragged ourselves onto the bus on Saturday back to Rijeka for our first ever sleeper train experience to Munich.

Room with a view

We were a little nervous about the hotel we had booked which was 4 kms outside of Menaggio. We found the bus OK and when we eventually found the hotel we were absolutley blown away. Perched high on the hill we had a view of lake Como and were out of the bustle (mainly of American tourists) of Menaggio. The hotel also had a panoramic terrace with great cheap pizza and birra. Bliss. So much so that we stayed an extra night. Spent two glorious days sitting on ferries going up to Colico (one day) and down to Como (the next) and eating pizza watching the sun paint everything golden. Perfect.


So, that brings us up to date. Yesterday we caught a bus, a ferry and two trains to get to Padua where we finally found a hotel and now we are stuck here for two nights because of a train strike. So today is admin day. We are not sure quite where next but perhaps Slovenia. Ciao for now.

(the view from our hotel)

Following the Rhone and walking in the Alps

After spending a week by the side of the Rhone in Avignon we drove up beside it to Lyon where we dropped the car off and stayed for a night before catching a train to Geneva. There we changed to another train which went alongside lake Geneva (beautiful) to Visp at the bottom of the Alps and then caught a tiny cog driven train up up up to Zermatt. We spent the next two days walking amidst the stunning alpine meadows with their amazing wildflowers including one 8 hour walk up (for three hours!) to the holbalmen which is a high meadow opposite the Matterhorn with the most spectacular panoramic views of the Swiss alps. It just about finished us off but was well and truly worth it!


us and the matterhorn!

Next day we caught the Glacier Express across Switzerland to St Moritz. A great train trip which follows the Rhone until it disappears into the Rhone Glacier and then follows the Rhine from its beginnings. Down from 1600m Zermat to Brig (300m) and then up to the 2200m Oberalp Pass and down to Chur (200m) and then up again to St Moritz at 1700m. The last bit from Chur was the most amazing because it is done without rack and pinion just using these amazing spiral tunnels which go like a rollercoaster through the mountains and over gorges.

St Moritz has a beautiful lake which we walked around twice before catching the Yellow Post Bus up and then down down down the most spectacular hairpin road into Italy and down to Lake Como and hopped off at Menaggio.

Avignon

From Cadaques it was farewell to Spain after three fantastic weeks. We schlepped up to Avignon via a night in Montpellier to meet up with Rosemary and Peter (G's Parents) for a week in a nice apartement in the old part of town. It was great to have our own space and to be able to cook for ourselves and do washing! (ah, its the little things...) The night we arrived it was the annual Avignon music festival which was crazy - the streets were rammed with people and bands and orchestras playing in the squares and churches and streets and cafés.

Highlights of the week included visits to the Popes palace, Villenueve des Avignon, and some of the stunning hill towns - Gordes, Rossillion, Vernaques and Les Beaux de Provence. We spent a lovely relaxing day swimming at Pont du Gard and also had a fantastic second anniversary dinner thanks to Mum and Dad!