Archive for the 'General' Category

I have just spent two tiring days in Florence and am not really ready to leave to go to Pisa tomorrow.  Yesterday I began with a wander around the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore.  I had been here before but this time decided to take my time with the audio tour so I actually [...]

Venice had a festival last night. This is one of the cool things about travelling in the summer: you are far more likely to stumble across such things, especially on the weekends.  This festival was held on the harbour near St Mark’s Square.  The idea (I think) was that a temporary bridge was built between [...]

I am in Venice, and I have to say, I am in love! Shabby and worn this city may be, but it is fabulous. Now if all those other tourists would just disappear and leave me to it! I am staying here for three nights; not long enough, but Florence awaits. [...]

Ah, sweet Verona.  What a lovely little town!  So yes, Verona is a real place.  Shakespeare didn’t make it up.  Didn’t really have an original bone in his body, the Bard.  Liked to take tiny threads of truth and weave marvellous tales about them, never letting that truth get in the way of a great [...]

So on Monday I transfered back to the train station at Avignon TGV to await my train to Nice and then Milan.  I had 15 minutes between these trains, so you can imagine my concern when I discovered the train was 15 minutes late!  I asked about it at the ticket counter, and the woman made [...]

The aim of my week in Provence was to walk from village to village with the occasional transfer by taxi.  On the first day I walked 19km from St Remy to Les Baux and back again. It was a hot day, but the walking was quite managable.  The views from the range were lovely and [...]

I woke early again, dang that jet lag, had, breakfast, then went for another walk up all those stairs to Sacre Coeur and around Place du Terte.  I was due at Gare Du Lyon to catch my train to Avignon, and decided to spend the money on a taxi so I could see a little [...]

So I am in Paris, typing on a keyboard where if I touch type and don’t look at the keys it pretty much makes sense!  This current trip is strictly a holiday; no students, no school, just holiday.  The main reason for this trip is to go to my friend Carlas wedding, but I decided [...]

Well, I never did find the time to finish this off, so a quick summary will have to suffice.  The rest of the year went smoothly.  I developed an appreciation for Christmas lights in the middle of an English winter, enjoyed the Charles Dickens Christmas festival at Rochester, saw fireworks over Leeds Castle, managed a [...]

My friend Sue and her teenage son (and former student of mine) Daniel came to visit me in October.  They used my house as a base for a few days and when the half-term came we met in Edinburgh for a week’s holiday in Scotland.  I decided not to drive up but rather to take [...]