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Two More Cities

Hello everyone This is the final set of notes for this six week trip, the highlight of which was easily Tim and Kate’s Wedding. We’ve driven up from Parma in no great rush, taking three days to cover the 700 miles and I’m sending this from Belgium where we think we’re on a different site to the one we meant to be on but it is very pleasant.  The local town has a theme park called Plopsaland which we’ve given a miss and tomorrow we catch the ferry from Dunkerque. Regards Les Weddings are great occasions but I always think that it’s a bit of a shame that it will be a group of people who are never all going to get together again, however much fun the wedding and attendant celebrations are.  So various people began to leave during the week for home via Pisa or Bologna airports and Louise went to Certaldo station for her continuing journey to Sienna and Rome  While we stood on the station with her I realised that no platform tickets are now require...
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The Wedding (mostly)

The focus of this trip was Tim and Kate’s wedding.  We would have been away somewhere in Europe anyway but almost certainly not ending up at a villa for a week right in genuine Chianti Classico country.  We’re in a tremendous spot about equidistant from Florence and Siena near Certaldo with a view from our hill-side terrace southwards across a shallow valley to the towers of San Gimignano.  While we’re here it’s been renamed San Jimjams in the same way that Ypres was renamed Wipers by British troops in WW1, but the new name hasn’t yet been adopted by the locals. In medieval times (probably not strictly accurate but my version of a long time ago) it was the custom in Tuscany to build a tower which was taller than your neighbour’s tower.  Not just for showing off your wealth but so that in the event of an all too common dispute you could pour boiling oil and fire things at them in relative comfort.  Of course everyone with the money was at it and Flor...
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On to Chiantishire

As usual I’m several days behind with this writing and we’re now post-wedding and near Pisa.   Late evening sun, Heather drying up after doing the washing up because I cooked. Not straight on, remember we’re pootling.  The great Italian cities are well known, Florence, Rome, Turin, Bologna, Naples, Genoa, Venice, Verona and a dozen or two more than that but clearly there are many lesser known but little visited places and we called in at Ferrrara, a place with a decent write up but which I’d never heard of.   Ferrara’s claim to fame is the old city wall which apart from a couple or road entrances still entirely surrounds the old town.  It’s 7.5 kms long, much of it 20 to 50 feet wide across the top with a footpath and cycle path along it.  Down here in the Po plain there is clearly a lot of clay and the wall and the castle plus many other buildings are made of brick.  This construction material made the castle look very austere ...
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End of the Lakes for us and a Classic Italian City

Hello everyone This is No.4 for those of you who are still reading.  We’re into the heart of Chiantishire now although these notes lag a few days behind. One piece of news which refers back to the first blog is that H’s cousins David and Martin did complete their walk.  In the absence of a map they had followed my suggestion (which I’d forgotten having given) of walking along the canal straight into Birmingham.  I didn’t think they would complete the walk so they very well.  I think the odd canal-side pub helped. Les    Leaving Lake Maggiore was on a Sunday morning and there were more cyclists whizzing up and down in brightly coloured lycra than there were cars.  Almost all of them were men in groups up to about twenty five and with the lakeside roads being pretty flat it would be fairly easy riding compared to climbing up the hills away from the water.   Our driving mileage per day has dropped considerably and w...
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Over the Hills and To the Lakes

Lucerne was wonderful for the ambiance but Interlaken takes the prize for the location with the easy access it has to high Alpine walking.  So we now head east again, this time towards Liechtenstein, unless something catches our eye between here and there.  We’ve driven a fair amount of Swiss roads and what they do not do (or do very rarely) is have laybys (pullouts).  There are often dozens and dozens of miles with the only stopping places being car parks in towns or villages.  This means that we cover the ground quicker than expected because there are no photo or tea stops.  We have got our 40 Euro motorway vignette which all drivers have to have or run the danger of a 200 euro fine but so far we’ve not been on a Swiss motorway. We were surprised to find a perfectly good pull in for lunch at about the right time after Lucerne and suddenly we find that we’re in Liechtenstein.  This is as you will all know a country but it’s a country with a ...
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Switzerland – too perfect to be true ?

Hello everyone Well here’s the second one and we’re a little over two weeks into the trip.  This one is being sent from the shores of Lake Maggiore, currently bathed in early morning sunshine with a bit of snow still glittering away to the north on the mountains. Les For those of you who don’t know, Switzerland has four official languages, French in the west, German (Swiss-German to be strictly accurate) for most of the rest of the country, Italian in the south, and in the far south-east in the Engardine, Romansch, derived from Latin is spoken. We’re heading towards Fribourg on the border of the French and German areas, where in the same town French is spoken on one side of the river and German on the other.  A dispenser of cash is required because having got some Swiss Francs before we left home I managed to leave them behind for safe keeping.  Euros are accepted everywhere but I don’t expect the Swiss to offer a generous exchange rate.   S...
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A Scattering, A Sobering and on to Switzerland

Somewhat bizarrely for our journey to the Dover/Dunkerque ferry we head north.  To Malvern as it happens where Heather’s Auntie Ann’s ashes are to be scattered on the Malvern Hills where she grew up and at the same spot where her sister Peggy’s ashes (Heather’s mother) were scattered.  Equally bizarre was the event.  Her sons David and Martin had custody of the ashes which turned out to be in a cracked plastic pot in an undignified scruffy paper bag.  I think she might have seen the funny side of it.  So, the leaky pot meant that at the designated spot Ann, or a bit of her had unceremoniously dribbled down Martin’s leg.  I found out later that a bit of her had also ended up on the floor of the lift in the Premier Inn. The scattering was bounded by a very enjoyable family and friends dinner the evening before and the following day by the start of David and Martin’s sponsored walk between Malvern (their Mother’s home town) and Measham (their Father...
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