Going Home

Unfortunately the day came when we had to return. We flew back on one of the new Qantas A380s which was very roomy and comfortable.

This is Chris in his seat before we took off and this is the view i had from my window over the wing.

Other than a very bumpy bit around Singapore we had a pretty good flight home.

Now we are at home dealing with all the washing and unpacking.....sigh.

Many Thanks everyone who helped us have such a fantastic holiday. Thanks to everyone who took us out to meals, cooked for us, let us stay with them etc etc. Thanks especially to Chris's sister Jo who put up with us in her London flat for many many days.

I guess that's it until next holiday, can't wait.

Chris's Birthday

Thursday was Chris' s birthday so we had a lovely last day in London celebrating .

We started with lunch at a very old pub in London called The Anchor. It was built in the 1600s.

This is Chris and Jo just about to order lunch.

Afterwards we went and had a cup of coffee and this was Chris's birthday cake. Just one piece and 3 spoons !!

After wards we went to Shakespeares Globe Theatre , Chris's choice for his birthday and watched Love's Labor's Lost. It was very funny and lively, always something to look at.

Cornwall Walk

Over the weekend we did some more walking, in Cornwall this time. There is a coastal walk all around Cornwall and we just did a very small part of it. We started in Mevagissey and finished in Fowey. The walk was very enjoyable but quite hard , lots of hills, we were very tired each night.

This is us having breakfast on the first mornng in Mevagissey.

We stayed in a little town of Charlestown on our way to Fowey. The second day was beautiful and sunny.

This is on the path walking towards Fowey. Polruan is in the distance which is just across the water from Fowey.

This is a picture of Fowey taken from Polruan.

Campello, Switzerland

After spending a lovely evening with our friends from Zurich we hired a car and headed back towards Italy to a little town called Campello.

Last year I found a website all about my family tree on my mothers side. My second cousin has done an amazing about of research and found that we come from a Swiss family who used to live in a tiny little Swiss village called Campello. I just had to go and see it. These are just a few of the many photos that we took.

A plaque for my Great, great, great...grandfather, not sure how many greats !!

The terrace in the hotel where we stayed. This is the view from our room.

We looked over the main route from Italy. We were very high up which didn't seem to come out in the photos.

Milan

We had a lovely morning walking around Milan it really is a beautiful city. This is a picture of a shopping arcade just near the cathedral.

There seemed to be a gathering of the Ferrari club and the streets were full of them, all different models. Chris had a lovely time.

This is a picture of the Duomo , cathredral. The picture was taken in the evening so its a bit dark.

Then it was off to catch another train to Zurich. It was a spectacular trip amongst the Swiss alps and lakes.

As the train was moving pretty fast it was hard to take photos. The next couple of photos are ones I found on the net of the area we travelled through.

Leaving Bomerano

Satuday was the end of our tour and after many sad farewells it was off to Naples on our last bus trip down the mountain. This is a picture of Chris outside our hotel.

After leaving half the people on the trip at the Airport the rest of us headed for the train station. Naples has a very bad reputation for crime so we tried to get on an earlier train. The only spare seats they had were in a beautiful compartment ! So we travelled to style to Milan.

This is the first of many train photos as we work our way back to London !

We stayed in a lovely hotel very close to the train station. After checking in we spent the evening walking around the centre of Milan. It was very lively with Saturday night shoppers and a very large police presence. Not sure way there were so many police.

Walk of the Gods and the end of the boots

Friday was our last walk and it was a fantastic day. The weather was fine and warm. We walked on 'The Walk of the Gods' to Positano. We started the day with a visit to a local cheese factory where the father and son made all the cheese.

Then we started on the walk. The views were just stunning and the steps didn't seem as steep. I think that meant that our legs were stronger.

Chris's boots finally fell apart even after several attempts onprevious nights to glue them. They were 25 year old Italian boots so we felt it was probably fitting to leave them in Italy. This is Chris leaving them in a rubbish bin in Positano.

It was a really warm day and Chris went for a swim in the Mediterranean. The beach had lots of stones infact it was all stones ! Very hard to get in and out.

The day finished with a boat trip from Positano to Amalfi which was spectacular. We could see a lot of the walks we had done earlier in the week.

Sorry yet another picture of a white little village. This was taken from the boat.

Herculaneum and Ravello

This was our day off so we could choose what we wanted to do. We chose to go on an organised bus tour from our hotel that went to Herculaneum in the morning and a small mountain town in the afternoon.

Herculaneum was covered by the eruption of Versuvius but instead of being bombarded by rocks like Pompeii it was covered by a mud slide. This meant that the buildings didn't collapse. Many building still had their roofs. I think the most amazing things about both these towns was the work it must have taken to uncover them.

After Herculaneum we headed to Ravello which is a very pretty little town in the hills behind Amalfi.

We started by having lunch in a lovely restaurant and I think I had the best fish dish I have ever eaten !! It was fish cooked in Lemon sauce on lemon leaves.
After lunch we walked around a garden in a Villa perched on the edge of a cliff, very pretty.

Rain and Thunder !

We had had thunder over night but when we woke it was looking sunny. However...not long after we started the rain came and the thunder and the lightening. Although we all got very wet everyone decided it was one of our favourite days.

This is me talking on the phone to Jason. Chris had just explained how to cook rice ! gave everyone a big laugh as we were in the middle of nowhere and trying to negotiate a very steep hill in the rain. You can see my trousers were soaking.

One of the things we saw on the walk was this beautiful waterful in a grotto covered in moss.

The walk finished again in Amalfi and then we caught the bus back up to Bomerano.
This is a picture of part of the road we had to go up in the bus !

Pompeii and Vesuvius

We have just arrived back in London so there is a lot to catch up on. A week of action packed days so i will have to be brief. Probably a good thing i can hear you say ! We have only taken 1070 photos so far and still a week and half to go. I promise we won't make you watch them when we return.

Last Tuesday we spent the morning looking around Pompeii and the afternoon walking around Mt Vesuvius. So here is a summary.

This is a picture of Pompeii with vesuvius in the background. This shows where the ash came from. We had a very interesting guided tour around Pompeii and learnt a lot. It was very warm so it was really nice at lunch time to have our packed lunch under a shady tree.


After Pompeii we got back into the bus and headed up to Vesuvius. Yet again up a very windy and steep road. At the top we had to walk up another steep path but my poles came to the rescue once again. Passing all the tourists in their high heels at lightening speed !!

The view from the top was amazing and the guided tour very interesting. The volcano is still active so it was nice to be returning down the mountain.



Better go and finish the washing. More later.

Walk to Amalfi

Day 2 was a walk to the town of Amalfi. We started off from our village and walked down through beautiful countryside and then many many steps. We all had jelly legs by the time we reached Amalfi but the views were fantastic.

This is us at our lunch stop just above Amalfi.

Amalfi.

This is a picture of the cathedral in the central square in Amalfi. We had a lemon soda in a little cafe just off the square, in the sun, which was a wonderful rest. We then looked around the town and were just about to head to the bus stop when the heavens opened !! Boy did it rain . We had been watching the storm clouds off the coast all day but they hadn't got any closer or so we thought. The town became one river and we just had to shelter in shop doorways. The bus trip up was spectacular with water rushing down everywhere. You just had to stop yourself thinking of the slippery road.

In the evening we went into the kitchen for a cooking lesson. We learnt how to make pasta and Tirimasu.