The start of our summer holiday in Normandy. After depositing Gordon at the cat hotel we made our way to Poole to catch the ferry. There weren’t many passengers which made the advantage of our cabin rather less than it might have been, never the less it was handy having somewhere to retreat to and it also allowed us to keep the cool box plugged in to keep the sandwiches chilled. We ate on the ferry as we were intending
Category: Holidays
Sedbergh – Day 4
For our last full day at the cottage we took ourselves over to Bowness on Windermere, and on the way we stopped to look at the two viaducts Dad had viewed yesterday from Winder Fell. We visited the recently opened (we only missed the Prince of Wales by three days) Windermere Jetty boat museum. Everything was very new and shiny and Dad was of course much taken by some of the steam engines. Our only real criticism was that information
Sedbergh – Day 3
Today I decided that I would walk to the top of Winder Fell which overlooks Sedbergh and looms over the cottage. As I walked into town I passed an excellent tree stump sculpture of two owls which we had noticed being carved the day before. The route I took to the top started by climbing up to the head of Settlebeck Gill. Mostly this was not too strenuous although there were a couple of rocky stretches and the last few
Sedbergh – Day 2
After a slightly late start, we walked into Sedbergh and then followed a walk Mum had found to the Farfield Mill Heritage Centre where we had a modest but pleasant lunch (very nice soup) and a look round the various artists studios. We then walked back to Sedbergh and then spent rather too long in Westwood Books. Being a proper second hand bookshop (and a very large one) the books were rather more expensive than the charity shops we usually
Sedbergh – Day 1
A long drive from Wiltshire to Yorkshire hampered as always by Dad’s annoyingly slow driving and motorway congestion. Stopped for lunch at a Toby in Worcester where the carvery was as acceptable as usual. Staying in part of an old railway station much to Dad’s delight. Cottage seems very comfortable and Dad can step outside onto the old platform and pretend that he is a Station Master. Drove into Sedbergh to eat and discovered that it calls itself “England’s Book
Rome 2018 – Day 9
Our last day in Rome and actually more of a half day as we had to leave after lunch to catch our flight. We were going to go to what we thought was a Klimpt exhibition not far from the flat, but when we got there it turned out to be some sort of multimedia “experience” so we gave it a miss! Instead we checked out a local church and cathedral which we hadn’t had time to see previously. First
Rome 2018 – Day 8
Today we divided our forces. Mum and Sophia went to see the Hiroshiga “Visions from Japan” exhibition of 19th century Japanese art whilst Dad went to see the Roman port town of Ostia Antica. The exhibition contained 230 prints by Hiroshiga, mostly landscapes from some of his famous series of views. It provided some excellent variety, delightfully lacked large deranged groups of tourists and instead contained mostly educated looking Italians of a certain age. Sophia was able to practice trying
Rome 2018 – Day 7
Dad’s Health Tip – Don’t wander around a Roman world heritage site in the pouring rain if you want to remain able to speak to people or, at the very least, don’t be so pig headed as to ignore your wife when she insists that you take and use an umbrella! A relatively quiet day with Dad’s throat not permitting much in the way of communication! After a late start we header for the Vatican. We weren’t really intending to
Rome 2018 – Day 6
A serious change in the weather. After several warm and sunny days, today it was cold, windy and raining heavily. Dad elected to go the Colosseum as the tickets from yesterday we valid for two days. In the end it was far from successful as the Colosseum is almost entirely outdoors and the rain was heavy and unrelenting. Never the less, it was still heaving with people. On his shivering return Dad admitted that we wouldn’t have been wetter if
Rome 2018 – Day 5
Today we spent the morning at the flat basically having a rest and recovering from the exertions of the last few days. After lunch we headed for the Palatine Gardens. It was the day of the Rome marathon so there were hundreds of runner milling about. Observing a long queue that was for ticket holders only, we proceeded up the hill until we came to the Church of St Bonaventura. There we met a very nice man who for a