We are well and truly home now! We became lazy with the log in the last few days in UK and once in Kent spent lovely times with Sue and Steve and Margaret and Peter as well as seeing Marie and Geoff Greenwood. We went out for dinner with Margaret, Peter, Marie and Geoff on the 24th to celebrate Stephen's 64th birthday - Margaret made a booking for us at the "Milk House' wwhich I kept muddling up calling it the 'milking Shed'. It was a lovely, fun evening with these wonderful people who remain our very good friends after the time we spent in Kent in 1997.
Back tracking to add more to the Cotswold blog, In Tetbury we visited the parish Church of St Mary's. It has been a place of Chritian worship since AD 681. That is amazing for us to thinkof the long continuity of faith. The church we visited was built between 1777 and 1781, replacing the medieval church on the same site. It is Georgian Gothic and grade 1 listed building.
While in the small villages of the Cotswwolds we popped into a tiny parish church in one of the villages, negotiating a narrow path that wound around the church to the front door. We walked inside to find a small, atmoshheric church with the well worm and smell of many, many years of worship.
It would seem we spend a lot of time in churches. I just want to enlarge on the visit to St John the Baptist in Cirencester. Stephen has outlined what we saw - it is one of the largest parish churches in the UK. This church in the 'wool' town of Cirencestor has many fascinating features. The most notworthy is the Boleyn Cup made in 1535 for Anne Bolyen by Henry VIII . It is a solid gold chalice cup with a lid - made at the request of Anne her self. She gave it to her daughter Queen Elizabeth and it is said used it to take her last communion before her beheading, The Queen then gave it to her physician - Richard Master, who lived nearby. This was characteristic of the lady who had little money at her disposal - inheriting the kingdom after Henry's big 'spend ups'. The cup was finally given by Richard Master to the church. The cup is housed in a small wooden case with lighting and a very serious secuity system due to its value. The Master family are well recorded in the church - obviously being people of substance and position in the area. We were told by the delightful man, a volunteer guide, that when the Queen Eliz II visited the church and saw the cup her comment was " So you have the other one" - Henry had made 2 cups and the royal family still retain theirs.
The guide told us that when Eliz I was on one of her many progressions around hher kingdom and visited Cirencestor she had been informed about the beauty of the church.lady Upon arriving in the city market place - where it is situated she said "'Tis but a church' how ever, once she stepped inside she said "We must have one in London!" . The church is truly beautiful. We arrived at mid day the next day for the service of Holy Communion - just we two and the minister. A lovely service. He showed us after the service "Tom and Jerry" in the Lady Chapel - 2 wooden carved creatures - a sneaky looking cat and a cute mouse perched up in the rafters ! Gorgeous.
This is a very wealthy church - the Boleyn Cup is a huge draw card for tourists and donations yearly are substantial. Also they are hired as a venue for many purposes, graduation ceremonies, important conferences etc.
We also ate our lunch in Cirencester Park - the Earl of Bathurst's 3,000 acre estate deigned by Alexander Pope.It is spacious, with a lot of paved wolk ways, Chestnut trees and acres of beautifully kept lawns.
Nother notable visit was to The Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens. Stephen was very impressed with the presentation of the park - obviously they have more funding than the Otter Park in the Cotswolds. Their otters didn't have the peculiar fishy scent that the Cornish otters exuded. The park is huge and very popular for a holiday venue for families! We saw the rhinos in their large enclosure vis small train, meercats, giraffes and lotsd of lemurs. The gardens were fascination - flower beds, vegie gardens and a New Zealand garden - a walk through NZ flora with a few exotics thrown in for goood measure - intentionally or not?
One of our tours took us to the Broadway tower - a large stone tower built in the usual honey coloured stone. We didn't climb it - apparently you can see 16 Counties from the top of the tower - on a clear day!! This tower is a unique capability Brown Folly - built by one James Wyatt. It is built on an ancient beacon sight with views of a radius of 62 miles. There is also a secret nuclear Bunker used by the Royal Observer Corps to track enemy planes over UK in WW I and WWII . It was converted into a nuclear bunker during the cold war. It would have been nice to have seen more of the tower. It took us a while to actually see it from the road - there were simply masses of cars and buses and crowds! We decided against the jostle and the bunker is open only in the weekends ,
Another feature of the lovely touring we did was to visit Nailsworh Vallet where I counted 20 plus mills. The neighbouring valleys of Avening, Horsley and Newmarket have a lot of mills also. We were spoilt for choice as which to visit - settling for the Egypt Mill , now a comfortable hotel. It sits by the river with outside, riverside terrace. It was a cornmill in the 14th century, also served as cloth manufacture, fulling, logwood mill producing dyes. Richard Webb was the name of a former owner - a very high handed individual known as the "Pharaoh' and is thought to be the origin of the name of the mill - or maybe beacause gypsies lived on the river banks. Gypsies were then thought to have come from Egypt. The restoration began in 1985. We had a look at the old waterwheel. Amazing to think people were harnessing water right back in the 1300s.
BACK TO GREECE:
I didn't write at the time about our visit to Methoni - the site where my father's POW transport came to rest after being torpedoed by the allies. I have a wonderful book now that describes this event and the debt the surviving soliders owe to a certain German Engineer onboard the Jansen. After the attack on the ship the Italian crew - including the Captain took to the life boats leaving the ship to fend for itself. It was this German who took control of rescue operations and navigated it toward Greece where it was driven onto the rocks at Methoni. I have a very good account now of these events and as I looked down onto the cruel rocks which the men had to come in over I was shocked and horrified in equal measure. The clifs that the old castle stands on is very sheer. The bluff is evidently bufffeted by high winds and storms and it was in one such huge storm that the Jansen was driven onto reef. The facts are well recorded in "No Honour, No Glory' so no need to repeat them. I could well imagine the scene - men desperate to get off the sinking ship having to make a precarious descent along a rope from deck to shore. The rope wildly swaying in the gale , surf crashing over these jagged extensive rocks , men loosing their grip to be dashed to their death on the rocks , men jumping in from the deck to swim ashore - how any survived I have no idea. My father is said to have decided to stay on deck until his turn came to descend via rope. A wise decision even though he was a superb swimmer - or maybe because of his knowlege of the sea.
That night was a terrifying ordeal and it was important to see the site . The day we visited was hot and sunny but it was easy - looking down on that treacherous coastline - to hear the wind, see the surf and , with a shiver, the young men battling to survive. There must have been horrible injuries incurred. I have so much to be grateful for to my father Ernie for the way he dealt with and coped with during those horrific years while he was fighting or encarcerated. Thank you Daddy for your endurance and sound sense.
Saturday 5 November 2016
Wednesday 17 August 2016
Up in the Cotswalds
The last day we spent in Cornwall we headed over the border into Devon to see the Lydford Gorge, apparently the deepest gorge in southern England. It is a very pleasant area with a stream that varies from a torrent through a narrow rock gut and circular bowls card intoe the rock to a series of placid ools in nice oak woodlands. We took the short route which zigzagged down to the stream then followed it up to the series of falls and whirlpools. At this point the path became a narrow ledge on the rockface and the branch to the innermost cavern becam a series of slick rock steps with no exterior handrail - a head for heights was required. We were ging to follow this with a visit to the White Lady waterfall ar the other end of the gorge, but realised the walk would have been a bit much. Still a pleasant dsy out.
The next day we left the cottage and decided to drive across Exmoor on the way to Cheltenham on the western edge of the Cotswalds. Leaving Cornwall it was interesting how the countryside changed. By comparison Cornwall had been slightly bleak with stone walls and a bit of rock in the hills and lower growing trees. By the time we were in Somerset the contours were flatter and there were more lush woodlands. Each county seems to have its own character even though iots hard to put your finger on the difference. Once again we were frustrated by the English habit of hiding the countryside from the road so that the views are visible only in short bursts.. We stopped at a pub in the middle of Exmoor for lunch. The moor itself, while a national park, is mostly farmed but I assume that there are wilder areas accessible by walking.. We passed a hunt in progress and the pub we stopped at was obviously firmly in the hunting stable with signs saying "Ban prejudice, keep on hunting.".
In Cheltenham we are in a small apartment (more a room with en-suite) over the garage of a very exclusive house, surrounded by cricket and other sporting fields. The owners are currently in Portugal so we are dealing with the housekeeper.
On the Sunday we visited the local preservation railway that runs from Toddington to Cheltenham. They started the group in the 1980's after the line had been closed and lifted and it is impressive what they achieved since then with a run of around 30 miles, 5 stations, 3 complete rakes of carriages, 4 operational steam engins, a number of diesels and railcars and a huge collection of other rolling stock waiting restoration. They have a staff of 900, all of whom apart from 3 are volunteers.
The next couple of days we started the round of some of the Cotswald villages, all of them a picture of warm honey coloured stone houses with the occasional thatched roof in beautiful gentle rolling countryside. At Tewkesbury we tourded a mediaeval house that is now the information centre and an exhibit of building restoration and local history. We found that this had been the site of decisive battles in both the War of the Roses and the Civil War. In one the then Prince of Wales was killed and ended up buried in the adjacent abbey. The abbey church was sold to the town when Henry VIII abolished the abbey and it has been the parish church since them, apparently the largest in England. It is certainly large with massive circular columns on either side of the nave.
Today we drove down to Cirencester which claims to be the capital of the Cotswalds. The town is quite small and seems to have a fairly random layout, even though the Romans laid their town out in a rectangular grid. After the Romans left the town seems to have been pretty deserted until the Normans established an abbey around 1100. Again the abbey was demolished by Henry VIII but the church remained as the parish church. There is an excellent museum here covering the history of the area. One of the outstanding features of the town is the patronage of the local earl who has donated his collection of historical artifacts to the museum which he supported and has opened the park of his manor (3,000 acres) as a public park for the townsfolk - the central avenue alone is over a mile long.
We have another 2 days in the Cotswalds before moving down to Kent.
The next day we left the cottage and decided to drive across Exmoor on the way to Cheltenham on the western edge of the Cotswalds. Leaving Cornwall it was interesting how the countryside changed. By comparison Cornwall had been slightly bleak with stone walls and a bit of rock in the hills and lower growing trees. By the time we were in Somerset the contours were flatter and there were more lush woodlands. Each county seems to have its own character even though iots hard to put your finger on the difference. Once again we were frustrated by the English habit of hiding the countryside from the road so that the views are visible only in short bursts.. We stopped at a pub in the middle of Exmoor for lunch. The moor itself, while a national park, is mostly farmed but I assume that there are wilder areas accessible by walking.. We passed a hunt in progress and the pub we stopped at was obviously firmly in the hunting stable with signs saying "Ban prejudice, keep on hunting.".
In Cheltenham we are in a small apartment (more a room with en-suite) over the garage of a very exclusive house, surrounded by cricket and other sporting fields. The owners are currently in Portugal so we are dealing with the housekeeper.
On the Sunday we visited the local preservation railway that runs from Toddington to Cheltenham. They started the group in the 1980's after the line had been closed and lifted and it is impressive what they achieved since then with a run of around 30 miles, 5 stations, 3 complete rakes of carriages, 4 operational steam engins, a number of diesels and railcars and a huge collection of other rolling stock waiting restoration. They have a staff of 900, all of whom apart from 3 are volunteers.
The next couple of days we started the round of some of the Cotswald villages, all of them a picture of warm honey coloured stone houses with the occasional thatched roof in beautiful gentle rolling countryside. At Tewkesbury we tourded a mediaeval house that is now the information centre and an exhibit of building restoration and local history. We found that this had been the site of decisive battles in both the War of the Roses and the Civil War. In one the then Prince of Wales was killed and ended up buried in the adjacent abbey. The abbey church was sold to the town when Henry VIII abolished the abbey and it has been the parish church since them, apparently the largest in England. It is certainly large with massive circular columns on either side of the nave.
Today we drove down to Cirencester which claims to be the capital of the Cotswalds. The town is quite small and seems to have a fairly random layout, even though the Romans laid their town out in a rectangular grid. After the Romans left the town seems to have been pretty deserted until the Normans established an abbey around 1100. Again the abbey was demolished by Henry VIII but the church remained as the parish church. There is an excellent museum here covering the history of the area. One of the outstanding features of the town is the patronage of the local earl who has donated his collection of historical artifacts to the museum which he supported and has opened the park of his manor (3,000 acres) as a public park for the townsfolk - the central avenue alone is over a mile long.
We have another 2 days in the Cotswalds before moving down to Kent.
Friday 12 August 2016
Cornwall
On our way down to Cornwall the motor way was flanked on each side by woodlands, really pleasant and preferable to the concrete barriers we found in many places in Europe, but it does mean that you don't get a good view of the countryside. However once we got to cornwall we would see around us, right? No way - the roads are bounded on both sides by high hedges, stone walls and earth banks. Also once you are off the major roads the country lanes are single lane only and our rental car at times was scraping mirrors on both sides in the hedges.. Even when there is a slight widening for passing traffic it is only possible to squeze through By pushing both cars into the hedges. In any case it has been driving Gillian round the bend as our GPS plunges us down roads that would not in any sesible country qualify as a private driveway.
For the first 4 days the weather has been, in my opinion, miserable with cold windy days. However today (Thursday) we have had a warm sunny day and enjoyed an outing to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. These gardens were part of an estate until the 1920's then fell into disrepair. In 1991 a project was started to restore area to its former glory and the results are impressive. There are 2 area, the gardens and the estate, but we only managed to get around the gardens starting with the New Zealand section which is a path through tree ferns, pitisporums, rimu, titoki and manuka with an undergrowth of ferns.. Other areas included an Italian garden with a small pond, a large walled flower garden and a "kitchen garden" that is more like a large market garden with an area of over an acre containing every sort of vegetable you can think of, many of them being heritage varieties they are trying to save.
The previous days we had 2 outings, the first to the Tamar Otter Park which is a privately run animal park. The otters were in enclosures heavily surrounded by notices warning against putting hands hear the animals as apparently they are capable of removing a finger. The otters movement reminds me of flowing water, particularly when they are moving as a group, but the smell is not that of clean water. They smell pungent and strong. We were given a talk about the otters as they were fed and another about 6 of the park's dirds of prey, though due to the location they did not fly them (the last time they did they lost a peahen to an eagle). In the forest area of the park they had deer and wallabies roaming.
From the park we drove down to visit the Jamaica Inn, an old pub in the middle of wht had been Bodmin Moor. There is a museum in the pub covering smuggling, shipwrecking and the author Daphne du Maurier who stayed there and wrote some of her novels there, one of which is entitled The Jamaica Inn. After laeving the inn we tried searching for Dozmary Pool, the reputed lair of the lady of the lake who gave Arthur his sword. We could only see a corner of it from the road, but it did not sem exceptional being a small lake surrounded by grassland. We then headed east to find a stone circle called the Hurlers mentioned on the map near Minions. This turned out be 3 circles in a north south line on a genltly sloping moorland. At the top of the slope there is supposed to be a prehistric setttlement, but we did not go that far. On the way here we passed a sign to Trethevy Quoit and not knowing what this was we went back to investigate it. The Quoit turnd out to be a megalithic tomb or dolmen consisting of several flat tones set upright supporting a huge capstone roof. This would have been covered with an earth mound.. The habit of ancient people of draging huge stones around the countryside is bizarre given the lack of technology, buyt I suppose they were a status symbol.
The other outing was to Tintagel where there is an ecellent display of information about the castle and the area in the information centre and then visited the Great Hall of the Fellowship of the Round Table, an establishment founded by a wealthy businessman in the 1920's. Here there was a 10 minute sound and light show of one version of the Arturian legend and a wander through the great hall itself with stained glass windows of the shields of various knights complete with a potted history of each. I was astonished by the amount of effort put into filling out the characters of these mythical folk and noted the author had not tried to sugarcoat the sins of the knights who were not perfect beings.
Anyway we have 1 more day here before heading to the Cotswalds for a week.
For the first 4 days the weather has been, in my opinion, miserable with cold windy days. However today (Thursday) we have had a warm sunny day and enjoyed an outing to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. These gardens were part of an estate until the 1920's then fell into disrepair. In 1991 a project was started to restore area to its former glory and the results are impressive. There are 2 area, the gardens and the estate, but we only managed to get around the gardens starting with the New Zealand section which is a path through tree ferns, pitisporums, rimu, titoki and manuka with an undergrowth of ferns.. Other areas included an Italian garden with a small pond, a large walled flower garden and a "kitchen garden" that is more like a large market garden with an area of over an acre containing every sort of vegetable you can think of, many of them being heritage varieties they are trying to save.
The previous days we had 2 outings, the first to the Tamar Otter Park which is a privately run animal park. The otters were in enclosures heavily surrounded by notices warning against putting hands hear the animals as apparently they are capable of removing a finger. The otters movement reminds me of flowing water, particularly when they are moving as a group, but the smell is not that of clean water. They smell pungent and strong. We were given a talk about the otters as they were fed and another about 6 of the park's dirds of prey, though due to the location they did not fly them (the last time they did they lost a peahen to an eagle). In the forest area of the park they had deer and wallabies roaming.
From the park we drove down to visit the Jamaica Inn, an old pub in the middle of wht had been Bodmin Moor. There is a museum in the pub covering smuggling, shipwrecking and the author Daphne du Maurier who stayed there and wrote some of her novels there, one of which is entitled The Jamaica Inn. After laeving the inn we tried searching for Dozmary Pool, the reputed lair of the lady of the lake who gave Arthur his sword. We could only see a corner of it from the road, but it did not sem exceptional being a small lake surrounded by grassland. We then headed east to find a stone circle called the Hurlers mentioned on the map near Minions. This turned out be 3 circles in a north south line on a genltly sloping moorland. At the top of the slope there is supposed to be a prehistric setttlement, but we did not go that far. On the way here we passed a sign to Trethevy Quoit and not knowing what this was we went back to investigate it. The Quoit turnd out to be a megalithic tomb or dolmen consisting of several flat tones set upright supporting a huge capstone roof. This would have been covered with an earth mound.. The habit of ancient people of draging huge stones around the countryside is bizarre given the lack of technology, buyt I suppose they were a status symbol.
The other outing was to Tintagel where there is an ecellent display of information about the castle and the area in the information centre and then visited the Great Hall of the Fellowship of the Round Table, an establishment founded by a wealthy businessman in the 1920's. Here there was a 10 minute sound and light show of one version of the Arturian legend and a wander through the great hall itself with stained glass windows of the shields of various knights complete with a potted history of each. I was astonished by the amount of effort put into filling out the characters of these mythical folk and noted the author had not tried to sugarcoat the sins of the knights who were not perfect beings.
Anyway we have 1 more day here before heading to the Cotswalds for a week.
Sunday 7 August 2016
Once again back in the UK
After the brush fire behind our accommodation near Catania in Sicily we had 2 days to lie back and relax, which of course we did. This was our last chance this trip to enjoy temperatures around and over 30C as from now on we're in an English summer. So on Friday we headed to the airport with expectations of again being shaken down by Alitalia with baggage charges and other hassles. However we were pleasantly surprised as not only did they not charge us and overlooked the overweight status but they raised no objection to changing our booked seats so we could sit together. Our trip down from Rome had been plagued by not being able to change our seats and exorbitant baggage charges.
Anyway we arrived at Heathrow to find the usual endless corridors ending up in a crowd waiting for non-EU immigration with an expected wait of over an hour. However Isnagged a passing official and asked whether our E-passports could be used in the Fast Track lane. She said no, but asked if we had filled in our immigration forms - No we hadn't as they were not passed out as our flight had been within the EU. "OK, come with me"she said and marched us down to collect our forms and then handed us over to the Fast Track attendant who gave us a spot to fill in the forms and then ushered us to a very short queue. Just as well as next to us a woman who had been standing in the main queue for a long time collapsed and was last seen being attended to by the airport staff. Arriving at the immigration desk we had a pleasant chat with hte official on NZ weather and reginal accents - he was from Glasgow. Arriving at the rental car office we had a short wait before being attended to by a young man who spent the time discussing property investment in Morocco. In general the attitude of all we dealt with was warm and welcoming, a change from a lot we had met in Europe. Heading out we immediately felt at home in a traffic jam 6 lanes wide on the M25 before dodging off into Shepperton to our overnight stop. The roads here are so pleasant and edged by trees and substantial houses that it is a complete contrast to the barren and dry environment we have been in around the Mediterranean.
We found our B&B in a road closed at one end by gas mains repairs requiring us to negotiate the only access by way of a road that I wouldn't consider suitable for a private driveway. Anyway we were warmly welcomed into the B&B which was very comfortable and negotiated for a light breakfast for the next day. We were reminded that we should expect big delays the next day as it is the first Saturday in August and it is standard for the Brits to head for Cornwall en masse on that day. Bearing this in mind we decided to go shopping the next morning and make a late start.
In the morning we had a late start and headed to the nearest mall at Staines to look for a replacement jersey to replace the one I left in Turkey and which I am going to need in a Cornish summer. Anyway we found something suitable and then found a small street market to wander round. When we found our way onto the M3 I was surprised to find traffic heavy but flowing readily until we hit the area where the A303 narrows to a 2 lane road past Stonehenge where we crawled for half an hour. Apart from that we had a good trip enjoying the mellow countryside on a sunny day.
Our accommodation in Cornwall is a cottage attached to an old farmhouse close to the border with Devon. As you would expect the doors are small, the stairs steep and narrow up to the bedroom and the kitchen and bathroom appear to be after thoughts. However it is comfortable and well equipped including a 4 poter bed.
Anyway we arrived at Heathrow to find the usual endless corridors ending up in a crowd waiting for non-EU immigration with an expected wait of over an hour. However Isnagged a passing official and asked whether our E-passports could be used in the Fast Track lane. She said no, but asked if we had filled in our immigration forms - No we hadn't as they were not passed out as our flight had been within the EU. "OK, come with me"she said and marched us down to collect our forms and then handed us over to the Fast Track attendant who gave us a spot to fill in the forms and then ushered us to a very short queue. Just as well as next to us a woman who had been standing in the main queue for a long time collapsed and was last seen being attended to by the airport staff. Arriving at the immigration desk we had a pleasant chat with hte official on NZ weather and reginal accents - he was from Glasgow. Arriving at the rental car office we had a short wait before being attended to by a young man who spent the time discussing property investment in Morocco. In general the attitude of all we dealt with was warm and welcoming, a change from a lot we had met in Europe. Heading out we immediately felt at home in a traffic jam 6 lanes wide on the M25 before dodging off into Shepperton to our overnight stop. The roads here are so pleasant and edged by trees and substantial houses that it is a complete contrast to the barren and dry environment we have been in around the Mediterranean.
We found our B&B in a road closed at one end by gas mains repairs requiring us to negotiate the only access by way of a road that I wouldn't consider suitable for a private driveway. Anyway we were warmly welcomed into the B&B which was very comfortable and negotiated for a light breakfast for the next day. We were reminded that we should expect big delays the next day as it is the first Saturday in August and it is standard for the Brits to head for Cornwall en masse on that day. Bearing this in mind we decided to go shopping the next morning and make a late start.
In the morning we had a late start and headed to the nearest mall at Staines to look for a replacement jersey to replace the one I left in Turkey and which I am going to need in a Cornish summer. Anyway we found something suitable and then found a small street market to wander round. When we found our way onto the M3 I was surprised to find traffic heavy but flowing readily until we hit the area where the A303 narrows to a 2 lane road past Stonehenge where we crawled for half an hour. Apart from that we had a good trip enjoying the mellow countryside on a sunny day.
Our accommodation in Cornwall is a cottage attached to an old farmhouse close to the border with Devon. As you would expect the doors are small, the stairs steep and narrow up to the bedroom and the kitchen and bathroom appear to be after thoughts. However it is comfortable and well equipped including a 4 poter bed.
Tuesday 2 August 2016
Etna
After a lazy day in the apartment and around the pool today we decided to check out the largest tourist attraction here. We have seen the volcano Etna vaguely through the haze on a couple of occasions and thought it time to find out more. We had seen a road sign off the main road pointing to Etna so headed back to where we had seen it and found a narrow road between rock walls that headed inland. From then on the direction signs ceased so we pulled out our tablet and tried to use Google Maps to help us (the GPS wouldn't recognise Etna as a destination) with mixed results. After a long series of switchbacks through narrow urban streets we found a new sign pointing to Etna Sud - Hooray! Interestingly the town we had climbed up through had more shops than we had seen in all our travels through Sicily to date.
From then on the signs were mostly visible, but not entirely - Italians don't like to make things easy. As we climbed on generally good roads it was surprisinow dense the vegetation was andwe presumed that the clouds that Etna attracts means a resonable amount of rainfall. Even the relatively recent lava flows were showing signs of green. We passed several obvious vents at around 1200m altitude and about 1500m the trees started to thin out and there were high poles along the road for guidance in snow. Reaching the main centre at 1900m altitude we stopped near a crater formed in 1998 which seemed to have deposited a lot of gravel over the landscape. The crater itself was a little smaller than Mt Eden in Auckland but in many ways looks very similar. The general environment reminds me of the Bruce Road on Mt Ruapehu with fields of rough rock and gravel. Just around the corner was mayhem with a parking area crammed with 100s of cars and buses and a constant flow of people covering the road. Just above us was the cone of the 2001 eruption with a steep trail covered with ants (well people looking like ants) struggling up a 25 degree incline.
We stopped, looked, turned around and escaped. We could have taken a cable car up to 2500m altitude, but the crowds put us off and it would have been cooler up there. Instead we set course for the town of Taomina which we had seen recommended in several places. Deciding to avoid motorway tolls we fought with our GPSthrough several rather drab towns along the coast until we came out on the coast itself on a narrow road above a series of attractive, if stoney, beaches. We would have stopped, but there was absolutely no space. The road then climbed around a sheer point and we found ourselves winding around the coast below the town. The steep hilside above had semicircular bridges hanging in space to allow the road to zig-zag up the cliff to the town. We ended up driving through pedestrian only lanes in the middle of town which was wall-to-wall tourists. The town was really nice - clean, colourful, shops were bright and the houses seemedd to have a lot more character. Perched way above on an impossible peak one section of the town hung on to vertical cliffs and there was no obvious way to reach this section.
Arriving back at our accommodation we found that the land behind the complex was on fire and we watched as the fire advanced. The complex caretaker was at the rear boundary with a garden hose, but it was clear more was needed.. Eventually a pump equipped landroved turned up with wht seemed an impossibly small water tank. Eventually a garden hoe was found to try and keep up the water supply and the low volume high pressure pump they used proved quite effective in quenching bursts of fire that threatened the trees around. Next door a regular fire engine pulled up, but we didn't see any of the action around that. After an hour a helicopter with a monsoon bucket arrived and really started to damp everything down. In the end the damage was restricted to around 2 hectares of scrub and grass land.
From then on the signs were mostly visible, but not entirely - Italians don't like to make things easy. As we climbed on generally good roads it was surprisinow dense the vegetation was andwe presumed that the clouds that Etna attracts means a resonable amount of rainfall. Even the relatively recent lava flows were showing signs of green. We passed several obvious vents at around 1200m altitude and about 1500m the trees started to thin out and there were high poles along the road for guidance in snow. Reaching the main centre at 1900m altitude we stopped near a crater formed in 1998 which seemed to have deposited a lot of gravel over the landscape. The crater itself was a little smaller than Mt Eden in Auckland but in many ways looks very similar. The general environment reminds me of the Bruce Road on Mt Ruapehu with fields of rough rock and gravel. Just around the corner was mayhem with a parking area crammed with 100s of cars and buses and a constant flow of people covering the road. Just above us was the cone of the 2001 eruption with a steep trail covered with ants (well people looking like ants) struggling up a 25 degree incline.
We stopped, looked, turned around and escaped. We could have taken a cable car up to 2500m altitude, but the crowds put us off and it would have been cooler up there. Instead we set course for the town of Taomina which we had seen recommended in several places. Deciding to avoid motorway tolls we fought with our GPSthrough several rather drab towns along the coast until we came out on the coast itself on a narrow road above a series of attractive, if stoney, beaches. We would have stopped, but there was absolutely no space. The road then climbed around a sheer point and we found ourselves winding around the coast below the town. The steep hilside above had semicircular bridges hanging in space to allow the road to zig-zag up the cliff to the town. We ended up driving through pedestrian only lanes in the middle of town which was wall-to-wall tourists. The town was really nice - clean, colourful, shops were bright and the houses seemedd to have a lot more character. Perched way above on an impossible peak one section of the town hung on to vertical cliffs and there was no obvious way to reach this section.
Arriving back at our accommodation we found that the land behind the complex was on fire and we watched as the fire advanced. The complex caretaker was at the rear boundary with a garden hose, but it was clear more was needed.. Eventually a pump equipped landroved turned up with wht seemed an impossibly small water tank. Eventually a garden hoe was found to try and keep up the water supply and the low volume high pressure pump they used proved quite effective in quenching bursts of fire that threatened the trees around. Next door a regular fire engine pulled up, but we didn't see any of the action around that. After an hour a helicopter with a monsoon bucket arrived and really started to damp everything down. In the end the damage was restricted to around 2 hectares of scrub and grass land.
Monday 1 August 2016
East of Sicily
Before we left Tre Fontane I had another look at the surroundings. It is the middle of the dry season and the weeds are high and brown. Everything around sicily would look so much better if they had some control over the weeds and rubbish - the roadsides are strewn with plastic bottles, bags and other stuff that blows into heaps and straggles everywhere.. The roads around our accommodation have a clear area for traffic but beyond that the sand drifts are deep enough to bog a car and are worrying when you hit one of them that edges onto the road as there is a momentary loss of control in the loose sand. In short the town looks a little desolate and this is the middle of the holiday season. I imagine it looks like a ghost town in winter.
On the road again our first stop was Valle dei Templi near Agrigenta where we were promised more tmples than we'd see anywhere. We found the entrance to the park, but couldn't see a sign for parking, so after 15 minutes circling we found a back road that led to a chaotic dusty carpark among olive trees with all the first comers parked haphazardly under the trees with awkward manoeuvring room between them to get to the spare spaces. Anyway we wedged ourselves baside a large 4WDfor protection and headed up the hill in soaring temperatures and humidity. An american I met said he had been there 8 years earlier in August and it had been much hotter. The temples are arranged along the top of a ridge with a sheer cliff below them. 3 of them are partially erect and the others are just the foundations. We gather there is not a lot known about the history of the city in Grecian times and their remains have largely been overbuilt by the Romans, Bysantines and Arabs and as a final insult the area was heavily bombed and shelled towards the end of WWII. The first temple at the eastern end (attributed to Juno) has about half the columns standing with a section of the pediment in place. We viewed it from below but decided the sweat to climb up to it was too much so started the walk to the next temple (named Concordia after a Romen inscription found there) which has been almost completely restored. At this point an electric shuttle paused near us and we hopped on to save our legs, but ended up 1 km down the road at another entrance to the park and the site of the third temple which was in ruins.
At this point Gillian had had enough of the heat so rested under a tree while I poked around and puzzled over a twin water channel cut in the rock - was this separated for fresh water and drainage? Or more to the point why did they have a water channel at the top of a hil in a dry area? We started the walk back to Concordia and came across a man lurking behind a parked van selling bottles of ice cold water - hallelujah! He saw that Gillian was suffering from the heat and donated a large chunk of ice to wipe over here face and shoulders to go with the bottle we bought. However as someone official looking buzzed past on a motor scooter the water seller magically disappeared - obviously unofficial.
When we arrived at Concordia access to the immediate area was blocked by preparations for some big event with lighting and sound towers and seating. However we learnt that the temple owed its longevity to a local bishop converting it to a church in the 600's and it had been restored a few times in last 200 years. The building is magnificent and gave us a feeling of the scale of these buildings that the Greeks scattered over most of the then known world. I would love to see one fully roofed as I find it difficult to see how they spanned the space given the technology of the day. I assume they used wooden roofing as I have never seen indications of roof tiles around the sites.
During the Christian era the area was extensively used as a graveyard with shaft burials and burial chambers hewn out of the rock.
We retrieved our car from the olive grove and headed towards Enna where there are Rmon sites including a large villa, but decided we'd had enough of the old stuff for the day and continued following our GPS to Aci Trezza, just north of Catania.
I must at this point comment on the Italian roading system. While the urban roads are diabolical and the small country roads require care and accuracy and good brakes when meeting other traffic, the main roads are astonishing. The regional road we took had viaducts over shallow valleys that made the Newmarket viaduct look like a toy and reaching a town there was a 2km tunnel to avoid the local traffic. When we hit the autostrada the rule was "Do not go around anything, over or under." 10s of km of bridges and tunnels to achieve a high speed route, much of which is under a 50km/h speed restriction which everyone ignores.
Well the GPS did its best but for a start tried to put us on a ferry so we ended up on the wharves and retreated under the watchful eyes of the wharf police. Heading north again a couple of closed roads totally confused the GPS so we ended up squeezing through a another network of narrow Italian suburban streets with little idea of where we were heading. Eventually we found our way to Villa delle Palmes which is located on the main road north along the coast. The village of Aci Trezza Is about 1 km south and is an area of 3 storey buildings crammed around a small harbour that is packed with small boats. This is not the usual scene of boats spaced along a quay - there are a series of rafts of boats tightly tied together to fit in the available area. Our accommodation is a series of 3 apartment blocks, each with around 10 apartments, and a recreation area with a good swimming pool,and a shaded area with table tennins and other amenities. Very pleasant.
Yesterday we decided to look at the east coast and took the autostrada south of Syracsa. Taking a local side road down to the beach we squeezed between high stone walls past substantial life style type houses to the dead end of the road (no turning option) which ended at the top of a cliff. The shoreline here was rocky with a verticl drop to the water of around 10-15 m. After waiting for another car to clear the road we continued on to a recommended beach at Lido di Noto. Alas we had forgotten it was Sunday and there seemed to be no parking available. Eventually someone pulled out and we squeezed or Clio into a space designed for a Bambina. There was a small area of teh beach that was public, but any suitable space was already cover by towels and sun umbrellas. Not daunted we changed and dumped our towels on an area of concrete blocked and walked into the sea. While the beach is narrow and backed by a high concrete retining wall, the sand is good, there was little rubbish and the water was the warmest sea water we have come across yet in our trip - very pleasant. We continued on down to the Isolle de Cossella which is the southernmost point of Sicily. The area around here is absolutely covered in vast arrays of tunnel houses, most of them empty at this time. The scale of the horticulture is astounding. We headed off down one side road past a huge ruin that we assumed had been a monastry as there was a large chapel perched on the second floor level.to find a lagoon populated by flamingos (white not pink) and a pebbly beach with limited access and no more than 10 umbrellas along its 1km length. Continuing to the cape we found a packed beach protected by a small island with a low modern lighthouse.
This morning I heard what sounded like explosions from behind where we are staying and can only assume it is Etna reminding us that it is still there.
On the road again our first stop was Valle dei Templi near Agrigenta where we were promised more tmples than we'd see anywhere. We found the entrance to the park, but couldn't see a sign for parking, so after 15 minutes circling we found a back road that led to a chaotic dusty carpark among olive trees with all the first comers parked haphazardly under the trees with awkward manoeuvring room between them to get to the spare spaces. Anyway we wedged ourselves baside a large 4WDfor protection and headed up the hill in soaring temperatures and humidity. An american I met said he had been there 8 years earlier in August and it had been much hotter. The temples are arranged along the top of a ridge with a sheer cliff below them. 3 of them are partially erect and the others are just the foundations. We gather there is not a lot known about the history of the city in Grecian times and their remains have largely been overbuilt by the Romans, Bysantines and Arabs and as a final insult the area was heavily bombed and shelled towards the end of WWII. The first temple at the eastern end (attributed to Juno) has about half the columns standing with a section of the pediment in place. We viewed it from below but decided the sweat to climb up to it was too much so started the walk to the next temple (named Concordia after a Romen inscription found there) which has been almost completely restored. At this point an electric shuttle paused near us and we hopped on to save our legs, but ended up 1 km down the road at another entrance to the park and the site of the third temple which was in ruins.
At this point Gillian had had enough of the heat so rested under a tree while I poked around and puzzled over a twin water channel cut in the rock - was this separated for fresh water and drainage? Or more to the point why did they have a water channel at the top of a hil in a dry area? We started the walk back to Concordia and came across a man lurking behind a parked van selling bottles of ice cold water - hallelujah! He saw that Gillian was suffering from the heat and donated a large chunk of ice to wipe over here face and shoulders to go with the bottle we bought. However as someone official looking buzzed past on a motor scooter the water seller magically disappeared - obviously unofficial.
When we arrived at Concordia access to the immediate area was blocked by preparations for some big event with lighting and sound towers and seating. However we learnt that the temple owed its longevity to a local bishop converting it to a church in the 600's and it had been restored a few times in last 200 years. The building is magnificent and gave us a feeling of the scale of these buildings that the Greeks scattered over most of the then known world. I would love to see one fully roofed as I find it difficult to see how they spanned the space given the technology of the day. I assume they used wooden roofing as I have never seen indications of roof tiles around the sites.
During the Christian era the area was extensively used as a graveyard with shaft burials and burial chambers hewn out of the rock.
We retrieved our car from the olive grove and headed towards Enna where there are Rmon sites including a large villa, but decided we'd had enough of the old stuff for the day and continued following our GPS to Aci Trezza, just north of Catania.
I must at this point comment on the Italian roading system. While the urban roads are diabolical and the small country roads require care and accuracy and good brakes when meeting other traffic, the main roads are astonishing. The regional road we took had viaducts over shallow valleys that made the Newmarket viaduct look like a toy and reaching a town there was a 2km tunnel to avoid the local traffic. When we hit the autostrada the rule was "Do not go around anything, over or under." 10s of km of bridges and tunnels to achieve a high speed route, much of which is under a 50km/h speed restriction which everyone ignores.
Well the GPS did its best but for a start tried to put us on a ferry so we ended up on the wharves and retreated under the watchful eyes of the wharf police. Heading north again a couple of closed roads totally confused the GPS so we ended up squeezing through a another network of narrow Italian suburban streets with little idea of where we were heading. Eventually we found our way to Villa delle Palmes which is located on the main road north along the coast. The village of Aci Trezza Is about 1 km south and is an area of 3 storey buildings crammed around a small harbour that is packed with small boats. This is not the usual scene of boats spaced along a quay - there are a series of rafts of boats tightly tied together to fit in the available area. Our accommodation is a series of 3 apartment blocks, each with around 10 apartments, and a recreation area with a good swimming pool,and a shaded area with table tennins and other amenities. Very pleasant.
Yesterday we decided to look at the east coast and took the autostrada south of Syracsa. Taking a local side road down to the beach we squeezed between high stone walls past substantial life style type houses to the dead end of the road (no turning option) which ended at the top of a cliff. The shoreline here was rocky with a verticl drop to the water of around 10-15 m. After waiting for another car to clear the road we continued on to a recommended beach at Lido di Noto. Alas we had forgotten it was Sunday and there seemed to be no parking available. Eventually someone pulled out and we squeezed or Clio into a space designed for a Bambina. There was a small area of teh beach that was public, but any suitable space was already cover by towels and sun umbrellas. Not daunted we changed and dumped our towels on an area of concrete blocked and walked into the sea. While the beach is narrow and backed by a high concrete retining wall, the sand is good, there was little rubbish and the water was the warmest sea water we have come across yet in our trip - very pleasant. We continued on down to the Isolle de Cossella which is the southernmost point of Sicily. The area around here is absolutely covered in vast arrays of tunnel houses, most of them empty at this time. The scale of the horticulture is astounding. We headed off down one side road past a huge ruin that we assumed had been a monastry as there was a large chapel perched on the second floor level.to find a lagoon populated by flamingos (white not pink) and a pebbly beach with limited access and no more than 10 umbrellas along its 1km length. Continuing to the cape we found a packed beach protected by a small island with a low modern lighthouse.
This morning I heard what sounded like explosions from behind where we are staying and can only assume it is Etna reminding us that it is still there.
Intermission - Gillian's thoughts
\We have been away now for several weeks and Stephen has done the 'blogging' as I find not having a cursor on this tablet difficult. However I want to record a few moments so we don't forget.
Turkey: The hotel Miniature was just delightful. The staff was minimal - one person at the dessk 24 hours a day. The breakfast was cooked byone person. The breakfasts were delicious - they would cook what ever you wanted and also had a smorgasboard with the usual cheeses, hams, fruit , croissant and breads. Not to mention the wonderful coffee - Turkish and filter.
The presence of soliders and guards , all armed with a range of serious weapons, was not scary. Some how the atmosphere was just of folk going about their daily lives, although after the bombing that killed 4 police men there was a marked increase in their presence.On our trip to Galipoli peninsula our guide told me that people in Istanbul are very anxious about their safety.There was another bombing just after we left Turkey and s we decided to put off our planned visit back to Turkey to visit Ephaseus , Miletus etc while we were in Samos.Our favourite restaurant in Istanbul was run by a delightful young Turk who Stephen tried to persuade him to come to Onemana and run the cafe there. He would like to of course but it is not exactly straight forward. It was in that cafe that we had their Teste kebab - a casserole cooked in a pottery vase shaped vessel with tin fooil on the mouth of the 'vase". When cooked it is bought to your table and with a serioes of carefully placed whacks with a sharp implement the bottom pops off with an explosive 'POP" and your casserole slides out, deftly placed on your plate. We had seen many of these 'vases' with their tin foil lids placed out side the restaurants around lamp posts etc and wondered what they were.
The rules re clothing worn in the blue mosque are strict. We were both ok but I was amused to see a man wndering around wearing a long blue skirt over his shorts!
After we had visited the Blue mosque we were wandering through the market place. Having decided to exit between 2 stalls I saw a little house made of cardboard complete with pitched roof, window and open doorway. Through the window and doorway I saw 2 little tabby kittens playing with each other. Turning around I saw mother cat arrive with a roll of what looked like paper in her mouth. She dropped the paper when she saw us, greeted us with a 'meow' and went into the little house to check on her young. She emerged to tallk to us some more before we moved off. Just as we left I saw a piece of laminated paper taped to the roof of her house - "Madam Cocoa" . I thought that was quite delicious.
Galipoli: Stephen has written about this so all I will say is that I was surprised tthat it was not as bleak as I had expected it to be. Certainly the site was formidable for an offensive, landing on such narrow beaches with no protection from the Turks above them and the sheer incline that they had to scramble up. I wasn't prepared for seeing it on a gloriously hot day with bule skies and sparkling seas.r guide was very infomative and we learnt more about the campaign. I hadn't realised that at the time of the initial landing the number of Turkish forces present were considerably less than the ANZACs. At the 'Neck' the Turks were shouting to the ANZACs to stop advancing as they were being cut down to 'a man' by the Turks and they wanted the slaughter to cease. The commanding officer however knew best and so sent our men to their death. Of course the stories of the interactions between ANZACs and Turkish soiders are well documented.It really was a very special visit and a place that is beatifully preserved. The words by Ataturk inscribed at a memorial beside a large cemetery were very moving. As was the cemetery itself. Of course there are many memorials and graves - and of course many more men in unmarked graves. One of these is Stephen's great uncle Cyril Dunlop, buried somewhere around Lone Pine. We searched for his name on the memorial but didn't see it.
Troy: This was a superb visit also. Out guide is very passionate about the history of this site.I bought a book written by a well known and authoritative man who was our guide's 'tutor'. Certainly the site fits the legend in many ways. What I did learn is that the wars were most likely related to land goods, naturally! There is plenty of evidence that troops that supported Priam in his defence of Troy were folk from the surrounding countries and lands. It appears from the excavations that the Troy of Priam was about 1250 - 1180 BC. This time frame sits along side when Agamemnon rules Mycenae.
There are many layers of occupation at Troy - Troy I ( 3000 - 2500 BC) , Troy II ( 2,500 - 2,300), Troy III ( 2,300 - 1,700) when there was sequences of walled villages, each larger and more populous than the previous settlement. There were narrow streets with regular rows of houses. During this time the area had many invasions hence the need for the defensive walls. The delightful Schliemann removed all the walls of these settlements so there are not many remains of this era remaining.
Troy VI (1700 - 1250BC) free standing houses and fortification of walls changed to show advances in miliatry engineering, masonary and town planning.
Troy VIIa (1250 - 1180 BC) Troy was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake that ruined TroyVI.
Troy VIIb ( 1180 - 1,000) , after the Acheans ( Greeks ) left the citadel was occupied by the survivors until destryed by another fire.
Troy VIII ( 1000- 85BC) was the first Greek settlement at Troy.
Troy IX ( 85 - 400/600AD) the top layer of settlement on Hisarlik ( the site known as Troy) was Greek and Roman city.This was known as Novum Ilium. The early Roman emperors chose the Trojans as their ancestors! This city was the largest it had ever been , spreading all over the ridge. The greatest part of the city has not yet been excavated. To date there has been a music theatre, council chamber - senate unearthed.
There was only one other couple on our tour - both from NZ and lovely company.We spet some time in Chunakale before our trip had to Istanbul and during that time hunted unsuccessfully for Stephen to have a donner kebab. We did see however a delightful scene where a older man arrived at this stall on the water front by bike with a large plastic bag full of meat scraps. He called in loud Turkish and simply masses and masses of cats appeared, to fee voraciously on the meat he threw onto the quay.
The trip back to hotel miniature was made into a a bit of an endurance test an accident on the motor way in Istanbul which meant they closed the motor way and we took a very big detour to the hotel - arriving at midnight with an early departure the next morning to the airport anbags to be repacked!
However it was a great trip to have done despite the knolwedge that bad people were plotting to do bad things. Today we learnt of the attempted army coup in Turkey and yet more loss of life. The day before there was news of the attack via truck in Nice. As Pip says, interesting times to travel abroad. We were at a restaurant at a little village at Ormos near the hotel here in Samos last night when Vailiy - the son of the onwers of the hotel who had tken us there, received news of the attepted coup in Turkey. As you know Samos is very close indeed to Samos and he reflection was that it was a little too close for him.
OK - back to chronological comments. I am not sure what Stephen has written about Israel so there might be a double up. In. Briefly the highlights for me were the boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. Certainly the surrounding hills were very barren and grey. I understand from our guide that geological evidence indicates that at the time Jesus lived the climate was a little less harsh and there was a bit more green cover on the hills and plains.It wasn't the environment that made its impact. As we sailed there was a sensation of peace - odd for a country surrounded by hostility. I did wonder if I had prewired myself to sense this. Who can say? However it was a lovely - dare I quote " still voice of calm" and a sense of, yes - this is a very special place.
We were amazed and fascinated by what we learned about life for modern Israelis , from the various religions and cutoms,water supply, wars past and present - seeing smoke from gun fire on the Golan Heights over in Syria and the remains of fenced areas on the border where mines still lay hidden .
Staying in the kibutz , surrounded by a big range of men and women practicing various approaches to their faith with accompanying dress also increaed our awareness of their modus vivendi. The staff in the kibutz seemed solemn folk. The clothes worn by the various jewish 'sects' ( for lack of the right word) fascinated me - as did the ultra orhodox jews with all their rights and exemptions. Also the Drews ? (SP) which we had not known about. Such harsh strictures should they marry outside the faith.
The entire trip was amazing but the next memorable moment was in the garden of Gestheme ( sp?). I had not realise olive trees can - not all do - live for 2,000 years. I was unexpectedly aware of another sensation of - I am struggling here to say what it felt like. I had gone in very aware of the heat of the day - close to 40 degrees and the sun still blazing hot. I was also very aware of cranky knees and was dettermined not to let them stop me. In this very small area, fenced in on all sides by a wire fence ( I think) and a huge church on the side - looking at very ancient knarled trunks of still viable olive trees I felt something that 'moved' me - for lack of a better word. I have no idea if this site is truly 'the site' of Chrit's agony - but I certainly was aware of some sensation that told me this was a place of importance. It is quite a flat arae, a gentle incline to the garden then the fenced area - with ground rising more steeply behind it - not quite as envisioned from illuistartions seen in our youth. Our guide was very enthusiastic about the beauty of the city of Jerusalem - certainly the golden and honey coloured stone was stunning.
We saw lots more of course. I will just mention the dead sea. Again - some surprises. The level
Is dropping so fast as I am sure Stephen hs noted. I didn't expect it to be so muddy - our footsteps sank deep into the grey sludge, threatening to suck off our beach shoes.At one point stephen scrapped his shin on something sharp as he pulled up his leg - taking some skin off. Of course it graze became infected - thankfully I had taken an antibiotic cream. Even so it took some time to heal - as shin injuries tend to do - and the redness surrounding the site has finally just about disppeared. I hate to think what was in that sludge. People had been told of its healing properties and were lathering themseelves with the mud! We didn't stay long in the water and were glad of the showers afterwards. It was very hot indeed - somewhere around 40 degrees I believe.
Apart from being dropped off at the wrong hotel and the long wait while they sent us a taxi to transport us to our 'upgraded hotel' the tour was very well conducted. Despite having some trying members on his tour our guide was meticulous and very kind indeed.He was very well informed, some of his facts we are a little doubtful about but nonetheless he was interesting and patient. Becuase of the financial situation in Israel he provides a lot of support for his daughter and her family - he says without it she would 'drown'.
I continue to be amazed the fluency of English of the people we encounter. In a supermarket in Pylos - on the outskirts of the town I was at the meat counter, working out what meat we wanted for dinner and how much to ask for. As in a butcher in NZ the meat is cut according to size and the cut you want - rather than preprepared on trays with cling wrap. A voce interrupted my thoughts by inquiring if he could help. "Just tell me what you are looking for and I will help you! " Certainly not what I expected so far from the tourist centre.
Once in Greece it was lovely to be further away from the tourist centres. We go to see the sights we identify of interest but it is equally exciting driving along the crazy roads ( especially crazy in Greece) and into the little towns. We are still amazed by coming across unexpected treasures in the most unlikely places. Back in our accomodation we enjoy the peace and quiet - mostly peace and quiet! Here in Tre Fontane, Sicily, we are surronded by locals who are night owls with strident voices. It is OK as shut the shutters, close the windows - double glazed - and go to sleep.
Siesta is a serious business here in Sicily. We popped into the village family grocery shop at 2pm one day. We thought at first the shop had shut but no - the staff were hanging around the till talking loudly and were happy for us to shop. All lights, except from chiller cabinets were off so we groped around finding our goods, paid and beat it out into the hot sunshine. When we go into town after 7.30pm it looks a different place -everything is open and the place is humming.
I am jumping about a bit - we saw lots of fascinating stuff in the Peloponese, had lovely swims in the sea - water quite warm, gorgeous food, lovely pool at Ennalio Suites etc.
Samos is different again. The hotel Sophis where we stayed is really unique. I know Stephen has written about it - just suffice to say that seeing a Greek family operating their business at close up while living their lives in the midst of it was a real privilege. The parents and Vasily take guests out to local restaurants , ordering for them and joining in the fun. Sophia (Mumma) and her sons prepare a weekly Greek BBQ ( olive wwood fired) for the guests and while we were there she cooked a traditional wood fire dinner for us all. Sophia has little English but a graet joy of living - cheekily greeting guest new to the hotel wIth 'Kalimara' in the morning instead of Kalimera. Later she appears chuckling about 'octopus, octopus' Guests are tickled un suspectingly with plant fronds - slapping unsuspectingly at imaginary insects, Vasily bought lunch out for us one day - as we lay around the pool - calling "Get up lazy tourists , your lunch is here!" Lots of other horsing around but only with the audience they know will enjoy it so it is never offensive.
Turkey: The hotel Miniature was just delightful. The staff was minimal - one person at the dessk 24 hours a day. The breakfast was cooked byone person. The breakfasts were delicious - they would cook what ever you wanted and also had a smorgasboard with the usual cheeses, hams, fruit , croissant and breads. Not to mention the wonderful coffee - Turkish and filter.
The presence of soliders and guards , all armed with a range of serious weapons, was not scary. Some how the atmosphere was just of folk going about their daily lives, although after the bombing that killed 4 police men there was a marked increase in their presence.On our trip to Galipoli peninsula our guide told me that people in Istanbul are very anxious about their safety.There was another bombing just after we left Turkey and s we decided to put off our planned visit back to Turkey to visit Ephaseus , Miletus etc while we were in Samos.Our favourite restaurant in Istanbul was run by a delightful young Turk who Stephen tried to persuade him to come to Onemana and run the cafe there. He would like to of course but it is not exactly straight forward. It was in that cafe that we had their Teste kebab - a casserole cooked in a pottery vase shaped vessel with tin fooil on the mouth of the 'vase". When cooked it is bought to your table and with a serioes of carefully placed whacks with a sharp implement the bottom pops off with an explosive 'POP" and your casserole slides out, deftly placed on your plate. We had seen many of these 'vases' with their tin foil lids placed out side the restaurants around lamp posts etc and wondered what they were.
The rules re clothing worn in the blue mosque are strict. We were both ok but I was amused to see a man wndering around wearing a long blue skirt over his shorts!
After we had visited the Blue mosque we were wandering through the market place. Having decided to exit between 2 stalls I saw a little house made of cardboard complete with pitched roof, window and open doorway. Through the window and doorway I saw 2 little tabby kittens playing with each other. Turning around I saw mother cat arrive with a roll of what looked like paper in her mouth. She dropped the paper when she saw us, greeted us with a 'meow' and went into the little house to check on her young. She emerged to tallk to us some more before we moved off. Just as we left I saw a piece of laminated paper taped to the roof of her house - "Madam Cocoa" . I thought that was quite delicious.
Galipoli: Stephen has written about this so all I will say is that I was surprised tthat it was not as bleak as I had expected it to be. Certainly the site was formidable for an offensive, landing on such narrow beaches with no protection from the Turks above them and the sheer incline that they had to scramble up. I wasn't prepared for seeing it on a gloriously hot day with bule skies and sparkling seas.r guide was very infomative and we learnt more about the campaign. I hadn't realised that at the time of the initial landing the number of Turkish forces present were considerably less than the ANZACs. At the 'Neck' the Turks were shouting to the ANZACs to stop advancing as they were being cut down to 'a man' by the Turks and they wanted the slaughter to cease. The commanding officer however knew best and so sent our men to their death. Of course the stories of the interactions between ANZACs and Turkish soiders are well documented.It really was a very special visit and a place that is beatifully preserved. The words by Ataturk inscribed at a memorial beside a large cemetery were very moving. As was the cemetery itself. Of course there are many memorials and graves - and of course many more men in unmarked graves. One of these is Stephen's great uncle Cyril Dunlop, buried somewhere around Lone Pine. We searched for his name on the memorial but didn't see it.
Troy: This was a superb visit also. Out guide is very passionate about the history of this site.I bought a book written by a well known and authoritative man who was our guide's 'tutor'. Certainly the site fits the legend in many ways. What I did learn is that the wars were most likely related to land goods, naturally! There is plenty of evidence that troops that supported Priam in his defence of Troy were folk from the surrounding countries and lands. It appears from the excavations that the Troy of Priam was about 1250 - 1180 BC. This time frame sits along side when Agamemnon rules Mycenae.
There are many layers of occupation at Troy - Troy I ( 3000 - 2500 BC) , Troy II ( 2,500 - 2,300), Troy III ( 2,300 - 1,700) when there was sequences of walled villages, each larger and more populous than the previous settlement. There were narrow streets with regular rows of houses. During this time the area had many invasions hence the need for the defensive walls. The delightful Schliemann removed all the walls of these settlements so there are not many remains of this era remaining.
Troy VI (1700 - 1250BC) free standing houses and fortification of walls changed to show advances in miliatry engineering, masonary and town planning.
Troy VIIa (1250 - 1180 BC) Troy was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake that ruined TroyVI.
Troy VIIb ( 1180 - 1,000) , after the Acheans ( Greeks ) left the citadel was occupied by the survivors until destryed by another fire.
Troy VIII ( 1000- 85BC) was the first Greek settlement at Troy.
Troy IX ( 85 - 400/600AD) the top layer of settlement on Hisarlik ( the site known as Troy) was Greek and Roman city.This was known as Novum Ilium. The early Roman emperors chose the Trojans as their ancestors! This city was the largest it had ever been , spreading all over the ridge. The greatest part of the city has not yet been excavated. To date there has been a music theatre, council chamber - senate unearthed.
There was only one other couple on our tour - both from NZ and lovely company.We spet some time in Chunakale before our trip had to Istanbul and during that time hunted unsuccessfully for Stephen to have a donner kebab. We did see however a delightful scene where a older man arrived at this stall on the water front by bike with a large plastic bag full of meat scraps. He called in loud Turkish and simply masses and masses of cats appeared, to fee voraciously on the meat he threw onto the quay.
The trip back to hotel miniature was made into a a bit of an endurance test an accident on the motor way in Istanbul which meant they closed the motor way and we took a very big detour to the hotel - arriving at midnight with an early departure the next morning to the airport anbags to be repacked!
However it was a great trip to have done despite the knolwedge that bad people were plotting to do bad things. Today we learnt of the attempted army coup in Turkey and yet more loss of life. The day before there was news of the attack via truck in Nice. As Pip says, interesting times to travel abroad. We were at a restaurant at a little village at Ormos near the hotel here in Samos last night when Vailiy - the son of the onwers of the hotel who had tken us there, received news of the attepted coup in Turkey. As you know Samos is very close indeed to Samos and he reflection was that it was a little too close for him.
OK - back to chronological comments. I am not sure what Stephen has written about Israel so there might be a double up. In. Briefly the highlights for me were the boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. Certainly the surrounding hills were very barren and grey. I understand from our guide that geological evidence indicates that at the time Jesus lived the climate was a little less harsh and there was a bit more green cover on the hills and plains.It wasn't the environment that made its impact. As we sailed there was a sensation of peace - odd for a country surrounded by hostility. I did wonder if I had prewired myself to sense this. Who can say? However it was a lovely - dare I quote " still voice of calm" and a sense of, yes - this is a very special place.
We were amazed and fascinated by what we learned about life for modern Israelis , from the various religions and cutoms,water supply, wars past and present - seeing smoke from gun fire on the Golan Heights over in Syria and the remains of fenced areas on the border where mines still lay hidden .
Staying in the kibutz , surrounded by a big range of men and women practicing various approaches to their faith with accompanying dress also increaed our awareness of their modus vivendi. The staff in the kibutz seemed solemn folk. The clothes worn by the various jewish 'sects' ( for lack of the right word) fascinated me - as did the ultra orhodox jews with all their rights and exemptions. Also the Drews ? (SP) which we had not known about. Such harsh strictures should they marry outside the faith.
The entire trip was amazing but the next memorable moment was in the garden of Gestheme ( sp?). I had not realise olive trees can - not all do - live for 2,000 years. I was unexpectedly aware of another sensation of - I am struggling here to say what it felt like. I had gone in very aware of the heat of the day - close to 40 degrees and the sun still blazing hot. I was also very aware of cranky knees and was dettermined not to let them stop me. In this very small area, fenced in on all sides by a wire fence ( I think) and a huge church on the side - looking at very ancient knarled trunks of still viable olive trees I felt something that 'moved' me - for lack of a better word. I have no idea if this site is truly 'the site' of Chrit's agony - but I certainly was aware of some sensation that told me this was a place of importance. It is quite a flat arae, a gentle incline to the garden then the fenced area - with ground rising more steeply behind it - not quite as envisioned from illuistartions seen in our youth. Our guide was very enthusiastic about the beauty of the city of Jerusalem - certainly the golden and honey coloured stone was stunning.
We saw lots more of course. I will just mention the dead sea. Again - some surprises. The level
Is dropping so fast as I am sure Stephen hs noted. I didn't expect it to be so muddy - our footsteps sank deep into the grey sludge, threatening to suck off our beach shoes.At one point stephen scrapped his shin on something sharp as he pulled up his leg - taking some skin off. Of course it graze became infected - thankfully I had taken an antibiotic cream. Even so it took some time to heal - as shin injuries tend to do - and the redness surrounding the site has finally just about disppeared. I hate to think what was in that sludge. People had been told of its healing properties and were lathering themseelves with the mud! We didn't stay long in the water and were glad of the showers afterwards. It was very hot indeed - somewhere around 40 degrees I believe.
Apart from being dropped off at the wrong hotel and the long wait while they sent us a taxi to transport us to our 'upgraded hotel' the tour was very well conducted. Despite having some trying members on his tour our guide was meticulous and very kind indeed.He was very well informed, some of his facts we are a little doubtful about but nonetheless he was interesting and patient. Becuase of the financial situation in Israel he provides a lot of support for his daughter and her family - he says without it she would 'drown'.
I continue to be amazed the fluency of English of the people we encounter. In a supermarket in Pylos - on the outskirts of the town I was at the meat counter, working out what meat we wanted for dinner and how much to ask for. As in a butcher in NZ the meat is cut according to size and the cut you want - rather than preprepared on trays with cling wrap. A voce interrupted my thoughts by inquiring if he could help. "Just tell me what you are looking for and I will help you! " Certainly not what I expected so far from the tourist centre.
Once in Greece it was lovely to be further away from the tourist centres. We go to see the sights we identify of interest but it is equally exciting driving along the crazy roads ( especially crazy in Greece) and into the little towns. We are still amazed by coming across unexpected treasures in the most unlikely places. Back in our accomodation we enjoy the peace and quiet - mostly peace and quiet! Here in Tre Fontane, Sicily, we are surronded by locals who are night owls with strident voices. It is OK as shut the shutters, close the windows - double glazed - and go to sleep.
Siesta is a serious business here in Sicily. We popped into the village family grocery shop at 2pm one day. We thought at first the shop had shut but no - the staff were hanging around the till talking loudly and were happy for us to shop. All lights, except from chiller cabinets were off so we groped around finding our goods, paid and beat it out into the hot sunshine. When we go into town after 7.30pm it looks a different place -everything is open and the place is humming.
I am jumping about a bit - we saw lots of fascinating stuff in the Peloponese, had lovely swims in the sea - water quite warm, gorgeous food, lovely pool at Ennalio Suites etc.
Samos is different again. The hotel Sophis where we stayed is really unique. I know Stephen has written about it - just suffice to say that seeing a Greek family operating their business at close up while living their lives in the midst of it was a real privilege. The parents and Vasily take guests out to local restaurants , ordering for them and joining in the fun. Sophia (Mumma) and her sons prepare a weekly Greek BBQ ( olive wwood fired) for the guests and while we were there she cooked a traditional wood fire dinner for us all. Sophia has little English but a graet joy of living - cheekily greeting guest new to the hotel wIth 'Kalimara' in the morning instead of Kalimera. Later she appears chuckling about 'octopus, octopus' Guests are tickled un suspectingly with plant fronds - slapping unsuspectingly at imaginary insects, Vasily bought lunch out for us one day - as we lay around the pool - calling "Get up lazy tourists , your lunch is here!" Lots of other horsing around but only with the audience they know will enjoy it so it is never offensive.
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