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!

Barcelona and Cadaques

Sorry for the long silence - we will plough through what we have been doing since Madrid.

We caught the fast train (oh why can't they do it in Australia or UK?) to Barcelona for a night and re-acquainted ourselves briefly with its stunning architecture and buzz. Would love to have spent more time here but we were craving some beach walking so we boarded a bus up the Costa Brava to beautiful Cadaques.

Cadaques is right up near the French boarder and is surrounded by very high hills over which the bus goes, skidding around hairpins. It is a small town curved around a bay of stunning blue water lapping a craggy rocky coastline over which we tromped that afternoon. Dali lived for 40 years in nearby Port Ligat and the rocks are reflective of his paintings - weird shaped outcrops and bald hills.

Next day we went for a long walk along the coast and found not one but two completely deserted beaches in June on the Costa Brava. Brilliant. Swam, hiked back, swam some more and arrived back in town for sunset cervezas. Bliss!!!

Madrid and Segovia

So, we arrived in Madrid late in the evening and then queued for over an hour to arrange our tickets to Barcelona. They really don´t get queuing in Spain. So, to make it fair in the stations they have a number system. Of course this only works if those serving pay attention to it and not the loudest and most persistent person in front of them. Anyway that and the heat in Cordoba just about finished us off. We found our hostal and flaked out in front of the football. Wandering around Madrid we were struck by its youth - much younger than roman Cordoba etc. Surprising that it is the capital. It feels like it would be a better place to live than to visit. We wandered all day on Saturday, found a market and bought provisions, found a nice park for lunch and then went to the Reine Sophia gallery in the evening and saw Guernica and assorted Dali´s, Miro´s and Picasso´s. Then out into the teeming streets to find tapas and cañas - tiny little beers. Madrid is packed on a Saturday night, especially Plaza Santa Ana which was just near our hostal, with everyone from locals to American tour groups and English bucks nights. Sunday we explored the beautiful old botanical gardens and then the lovely park just next to the Prado. Lazed around reading and people watching until the free session at the Prado where we were very impressed by the el Greco´s and lots else besides. They also had a really interesting exhibition on renaissance portraiture. Some excellent Tapas and cañas rounded off a very nice day indeed - especially the grilled asparagus.

Segovia, an hour and a bit on a bus from Madrid, is a stunning town. Mainly due to the most awe inspiring roman aqueduct running from the walls about a kilometer off out of town. Absolutely amazing engineering. The only down side was the rain. First day of bad weather we have had and did it rain. Turns out the arches of roman aqueducts provide insufficient shelter in heavy downpours. We got a bit wet. But not before we had explored the town and seen the astounding cathedral and the Alcazar which is a real sleeping beauty castle with witches hat turrets. We headed back early due to the rain, which followed us back to Madrid. More early morning high speed train adventures the next day - on to Barcelona.

Granada and Cordoba

From Ronda we caught the train to Granada and spent the best part of three lovely days wandering through its old and new towns. Although a bit shabbier and more gritty than both Seville and Ronda, it grew on us after a while with its lively shopping areas and its great funky little bars which didn´t open until 10pm and went on until the wee hours. Found a brilliant tiny middle eastern tapas place serving a bottle of wine or jug of cold cerveza with a load of tapas for about 12 euros. You can tell it is a student town! We thought a similar concept would work really well in Fitzroy or Carlton. Spent about 7 hours wandering all over the Alhambra and were suitably impressed, awed and exhausted by it by the end! Stunning intricate decoration and simple elegance which we loved about Seville´s Alcazar. Caught a ridiculously early train to Cordoba and watched the sun rise from behind the Sierra Nevada.

Cordoba was hot 38 degrees both days. We had to retreat to the cool of the Mezquita almost as soon as we arrived. It is possibly the highlight of Moorish Spain for us - its age and the simply beauty of its hundreds of arches stretching off into infinity were spellbinding. Pity about the ridiculously over the top baroque Cathedral plonked right in the middle of this gracious building. The continuing attitude of the Catholic Church to it has to be read in their propoganda brochure to be believed. Cordoba itself was amazing with its winding narrow lanes and cool tiled patios filled with flowers and greenery around which old houses (and our hostal) were built. You could feel the cool air coming out from them as you wandered around during the heat of the day.

Caught the new high speed train to Madrid which took an hour and a half. The new high speed trains here are great. More from Madrid...

Magnificent Ronda

Well we wandered and wondered at this truly astonishing town, perched high up on a rocky outcrop with old and new towns connected by two stunning bridges across a 120m deep gorge. It was an independent islamic state which held out almost to the end of the reconquister thanks to its impregnable walls of rock. We were staying in a lovely hostal near the old walls. Everywhere you walk in Ronda there are old (11th c) islamic buildings, mosques converted to churches and stunning views of the mountains surrounding it. We spent Sunday walking an 8k circuit through the beautiful countryside nearby with astonishing views of the town on its cliffs. The holm oak and nut pine woods and the fields were dotted with lovely wildflowers. We went past a chapel carved into a cave in a cliff and down into a gorge where two rivers met. Then up long hot dusty white roads through barley and wheat fields back to Ronda for well earned icecreams! We then enjoyed a picnic in the gardens watching the sunset over the mountains. Monday was a last wander and an attempt to sketch the Puente Nueva (c1780) and then pack and catch the train to Granada.

Swimming in the Atlantic

We think it is the first time we have done that. beautiful beach on the Andalucian coast just near Cadiz. Found a great Hostal right on the beach and a room with views of the sea. Activities included swimming, walking, and watching the sun set into the sea while drinking Cerveza´s on the beach.

Day trip to Cadiz which is shabbier than Seville but has an amazing exposed location stuck out into the sea at the end of a long causeway. Great winding streets and sundrenched plaza´s filled with orange trees.

Now in Ronda after 6 hours on various Spanish buses. Great winding roads into the Sierra Grazelema with tiny white villages clustered on the hilltops - each and every one of which the bus seemed to have to visit and get stuck in doing a three point turn... Finally arrived to find amazing hilltop town and a cozy Hostal at the bottom of the old town. Off to explore....

Sevilla

Greetings from Seville. So we arrived last night to a balmy 26 degrees and blue sky. Headed to Tapas and Cervezas. Spent today meandering through tiny lanes and plazas covered with clever sunsails against the heat. It reminded us a bit of Venice (narrow winding streets opening onto tiny plazas) and Verona (marble pedestrianised streets). This afternoon went to the Alcazar which was amazing - moorish palace much added to over 1100 years. Truly astonishing architecture and intricate decoration. Nothing like we have ever seen before. Looking forward to exploring more of Moorish Spain. Highly recommend Seville. Tapas and Vino Tinto are excellent!

Goodbye London

So, we have finally packed up our flat and are sorting ourselves out in Oxford at John & Lisa's place for a last dose of family before we head off on Monday to Andalusia, first stop Seville. Feels a little weird at the moment. After the last few months slogging it out at work for both of us and then non-stop for the last few weeks getting ready to go, it all seems a bit surreal. Sure we will be fine once we get our first Cervezas! So, this is an experiment. We will try to keep it updated as and when we can.