Monday, November 21, 2005

Firenze - Day 20

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We have allowed just this one day, as Venice is our primary goal for the second Italian week. The Uffizi gallery is first on the list, and ...

Firenze - Day 19

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The Intercity stops at each major station, and our compartment is occupied with four Italian women who gossip non-stop from Roma to Firenze....

Rome - last day (18)

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The Metro beckons, and day tickets are only 4 Euro. So it's off to the Vatican, Cipro stop. Where the Church's profit motive and t...
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Rome sights - Day 17

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We are not about to tour sitting down today, so walk everywhere. Down to the Colosseum first, join a tour which is well worth the money, an...

Rome - Day 16

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The Easyjet flight has no hand baggage weight restriction, thank goodness. And is not very full, so we bag a window seat forard of the engi...

Bristol Airport - Day 16

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Trev runs us up to Bristol airport over the Mendip Hills - not that you'd actually spot them as such. We vsee them from the air later, a...

Devon Coast - Day 15

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A family lunch at West Bay, just down from Bridport on the Devon coast. Jurassic fossil cliffs east and west of the town, and the restauran...

Somerset - Day 14

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Have to drop the renter back at Marksbury, just out of Bath, so we have a Bristol, Bath and Avon day. Trev takes us on from the Europcar dr...

Cornwall - Devon - Somerset, Day 13

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Up the A39 all the way up Cornwall, round the top of Devon, then cut across from Minehead to Taunton and on into deepest ZumerZet. A rainy,...

Harbours and Mines - Cornwall - Day 12

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We zip over the hill to Penzance, and immediately are drawn into the classic Cornish landscape: heathy hill with roofless engine house and ...
Thursday, November 10, 2005

Mugged in St Ives - Day 11

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Yes, a mugging. In deepest Cornwall. By a large seagull, of my almost-entire genuine award-winning Cornish pasty. We had a day mooching r...

Weymouth to St Ives - Day 10

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A spot of Internetting at a local cafe to get e-mails and some work away. Then out of the town and onto the A roads - which are slow, clogg...

South Coast - Day 9

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We check out, and head west along the coast. Which is built up right along: a working port just west of Hove, then Brit suburban housing a...

Brighton Piers - Day 8

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We head for the sea-front, along with half of London, it seems. Just by the West Pier wreck, there's parking in a little square which w...

London to Brighton Rally - Day 8

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We pick up our car just around the corner (another of the real advantages of staying near a major rail hub) - it's a 6-speed VW 1.6 Golf...

London Guy Fawkes - day 7

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We do a bit of Web sleuthing (free wi-fi at the hotel, although frankly you gets what you pays for - it's intermittent and dodgy), and p...

Birmingham and Paris - Day 4/5

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Later, a work trip to Birmingham: nice quick trip out of Euston on a fast train. Birmingham is a deeply unlovely city with a pronounced oi...

Museum Strip and Brompton Oratory - Day 3

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We had planned to see Natural History, and to look inside the Oratory - the Roman Catholic Cathedral for London. Natural History is an abso...

Tailpiece - Reynard the Fox - Day 2

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Thomas Bewick, the renowned 17th century woodcut artist, used to illustrate his work with a tailpiece - a small woodcut of a fanciful, solem...

Abbey and Tate Modern - Day 2

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Did the verger-guided tour round Westminster Abbey with a quinessentially English guide: who turned out to be a hotel manager in a former l...