We woke to find ourselves already docked in Messina, Sicily. Today’s excursion took us by bus to Taormina, about an hour south. Taormina is most famous for its Roman ampitheatre, and as the location for series 2 of The White Lotus TV series (which we don’t watch). The bus ride took us across some very […]
We snuck past Ischia and sailed into the Bay of Naples, Vesuvius towering over its southern end. Naples is a very large and very busy port, with multiple ferries, an icebreaker in dry dock, and the Costa Smeralda at the berth opposite ours. We passed the little lighthouses at the end of each breakwater at […]
The past few days have been spent on the move. On Sunday we were up at 5am, to catch an airport shuttle at 7am. We flew from Toulouse to Madrid to Rome, and I spent the day trying to remember which language I should be using. Toulouse airport, being the home of Airbus, has an […]
On our last full day in Toulouse, we left the apartment early. Everything here is very quiet until mid morning, and we enjoy the peaceful streets and the cooler temperatures. An extensive fresh fruit and veggie market was in full swing as we walked to Jeanne d’Arc metro, crossed the road, and entered the Capitole […]
Toulouse is France’s centre for aviation and aerospace. So it was off to Cite de l’Espace, to learn more about Europe’s role in the space industry. Unwisely, we left Captain Kumamon in charge of the ice creams. Set out similarly to Kennedy Space Centre, but much smaller, Cite de l’Espace features a range of indoor […]
Make that four gold medals … Today I left Ian behind, ostensibly working, although there seems to have been ransacking of the icecream (for which he blamed the Captain), and online purchasing of Lego. I took a bus tour to two medieval towns – Albi, and Cordes Sur Ciel. Ian thought I said Aldi, and […]
Ian has been putting up (mostly) gracefully with being dragged around old cities, medieval walls, courtyards, balconies and doorways, for much of this trip. Today it was time to visit Aeroscopia, the aviation museum at Toulouse airport in Blagnac, for something much more recent. First we had a new metro system to come to grips […]
Yesterday was a long and exhausting travel day. Very early start before leaving the ship. Passports stamped, marking our official entry into the EU (apparently if you are on a ship overnight, it doesn’t count). We took a taxi to Barcelona-Sants station, waving at familiar landmarks such as Montjuic and the Sagrada. It was very […]
Our final port of call on this cruise was Palma, the capital city of Mallorca, which is the largest of the Balearic Islands that sit off the east coast of Spain. They speak Catalan here, in what is something of a mini Barcelona. Before we left the ship, we could see the Cathedral which completely […]
An hour drive to Winchester followed by a ride on the Park & Ride bus from the car park on the outskirts of the city centre meant a late start for my first day walking the South Downs Way (“SDW”). It was soon after 11am when we found the first sign pointing to the way […]
dipidydoo 