The End of This Particular Road

Today we head home. As I am sure our cats will agree, it is time.
It has been a wonderful trip. Full of good experiences, good food and good friends.
Thanks to everyone who played a part.

Perhaps you have noticed on the blog page under “Welcome to our journey” it says:
So much world. So little time.

I scrolled all the way back to see when I started this blog.
Gasp!
Ten years ago on July 18, 2009 as we prepared to take our trip to celebrate my last big birthday.
That is shocking and sad and shocking and yet....
While we have had absolutely no control over the passage of all that precious time, we are blessed to have enjoyed a great deal of it traveling and to still be here to tell the tales.
Hopefully there will be many, many more years and trips to come.

Meanwhile, I will leave with a photo taken off of our veranda in our absence by friend, photographer, and cat sitter extraordinaire, Michael Barrrett. I wonder how close Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic are to offering flights....I would be willing to change the slogan to:
So much universe. So little time.  

Happy Trails.

Jersey

Last day here in Jersey.
The weather started off dreary and drizzling but we had a lovely day in the end.
In fact I just came in from sitting out in the sunshine by the pool. Granted I was fully clothed and then some but the sun was still warm and the skies are clear and blue.
Had breakfast and lunch at different locations along the shore.
(Oh, I don’t believe I mentioned that I ate my first oyster yesterday....also my last oyster, thank you....but I’ve checked that off the list, finally.)
We even saw some Jersey cows to add to our red squirrel sighting at the beginning of our trip.
All in all a very relaxing few days with old friends and new friends in a really magical place.

Happy FryDay

Drizzly day here in Jersey But a good day for visiting the Jersey War Tunnels Museum. Very interesting and timely given D-Day anniversary activities yesterday. Imagine having been aware of the D-Day landings ....so close by...and then not being liberated yourself for nearly another year.

Afterwards lunch where I chose to order fish and chips completely unaware until just now that today is

Supercalifragilisticexpi-cappadocia

Yes, I will get back the title of this blog later, but first catching up.

We left Naples Tuesday morning and flew through London and on to the Isle of Jersey (technically the Bailiwick of Jersey), one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Normandy, France to visit friends of ours who have a house here.

What a lovely place. Not 50% bigger than Anguilla but with almost 10 times as many people. Cliffs along the northern shore. Adorable little villages. French names, English pubs, and beaches all over. In further contrast to Anguilla where the tides hardly change at all...here the tides are nearly 40 feet. And on the south east side of the island the water can recede almost TWO MILES. So the beaches change every day from big to massive and boats spend their days alternately being lifted by the sea and then left stranded on the dry bottom over and over and over again.
(Sorry, But I have no photos yet. We went out yesterday exploring but we are apparently so relaxed that we didn’t even take the phone with us. So I promise some later.)

Just a few days here and then finally we head home. Michael always wants to start planning our next trip before we finish our current one so the search is on. Coincidentally, amazon offered up a book suggestion to me for the flight over here. So I read a little story called Valencia and Valentine and captured this quote:

“I approached the ticket counter with a sense of accomplishment, knowing I had already completed the part of the journey that keeps most people from making it in the first place. I had decided to go.”

That seemed apropos. The character in the book goes on adventures with her husband where they pick a place out of hat (So to speak) from a bunch of locations that struck their fancy based solely on their unusual names. One of the places they go is Cappadocia...taking a balloon ride above the natural rock formations that look like fairy chimneys. It’s just a brief mention in a long list of crazy places they spontaneously visit.

Meanwhile, on the same short flight, Michael flipped through the British airways magazine and reached over to point out an article about ideas for travel destinations which included one photo and a three short paragraph mention of a place he has never heard of.........Cappadocia. Do I know it?

Hmmmm.......perhaps......seems a bit more likely that I will.

Vesuvius from the car today

Last Full Day on the Amalfi Coast

We have been really lucky so far. The weather hasn’t been 100% perfect but it has been accommodating when we needed it to be.  Yesterday afternoon was he only really rainy time and we were staying out here in Amalfi anyway after two days of ferrying around to Positano and Capri.

Fantastic gelato for lunch and a lovely dinner last night (we actually tried grilled octopus) more than made up for the weather.

Today we took the bus up, up and up to Ravello. What a lovely little town. A pretty Piazza del Duomo for some Campari spritz with lots of local cats. And stunning views down the coast to Maiori. The clouds came and went but the rain stayed away. And upon our return to Amalfi the beach was a very busy place.

We will have another nice dinner under the lemon trees tonight and then head back to Naples tomorrow.  :-(

The Bells. The Bells.

Today is a day of rest. No jumping on ferries to visit other towns on the amalfi coast. Leisurely breakfast. Stroll through town. Wine and cherries for lunch on our hotel veranda. 

Which placed us in the perfect position to enjoy the bells at noon. They go on FOREVER but here is a link to a snippet where you can hear and see the big bell tolling (I was clearly intrigued by the fact that it swings up halfway and then much farther the next time and then halfway etc. ....you all let me down on the ‘rabid dog at Mary’s feet’ question, but anybody know the why of this?)

https://youtu.be/9LfvuLOkrqA

Amalfi Coast

Another bucket list destination (will we ever run out of them?), was the Amalfi Coast. Of all of the places to stay, we chose Amalfi. Primarily because there are less steps here than in Positano. However, having done our day trip to Positano, we appreciate other benefits to staying here. There is a nice long sea front with a beach and a wide street sloping though the town while in Positano it is beach or up up up. No in between. But we have been now so no regrets

And Capri. Well, that is the place of dreams. So we went there as well. At first, arriving in the marina was a real disappointment. I mean, one cannot imagine why anyone would ever step foot on the island. But then you take the funicular up to the town of Capri and it all becomes apparent. There you find the views and a maze of chic high end boutiques and the piazzetta and the very obvious distinction between we day-trippers and the folks who “belong” there.

So check, check, and a lunch check. (Oh and the promised first actual view of Vesuvius in as much as you could not see anything but the base on the drive down from Naples. But yesterday it was clearly visible across the bay.)

Herculaneum and Pompeii

Catching up a bit here.
First a side note. Yesterday Mt. Etna erupted for the first time this year. And we missed it by four days. Is that good or bad? Bad, I think as I don’t believe it impacted flights out of Catania. And it would have been cool to see.
Oh well. Life is Chance.

During those intervening days we have done and seen a lot of other things. On the way from Naples down to Amalfi we stopped to tour the archeological ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii. There are lots and lots and lots of rocks and bricks and walls and columns. And really the size of Pompeii is pretty incredible. In general I would say that we were somewhat unimpressed in as much as the sites didn’t quite live up to the much anticipated hype that the weight of a lifetime of longing to see them lays down on one’s expectations. But that is undoubtedly our fault more than theirs. And it may be more a product of the fact that the truly amazing aspects of the site are not really for the seeing but for the learning. For instance, when I googled to see how they created the castings of the victims (including the dog in the pictures below), I found this link not just about the process of making the casting so long ago but all of the information that modern science has managed to glean from them since. Worth a quick read.
https://m.ranker.com/list/facts-about-bodies-at-pompeii/andy-miller

A Walk and a Spritz at Piazza del Duomo, Amalfi

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

The inside of the Duomo is pretty enough

As promised Naples Duomo

Amazon Lockers Napoli Style

One night in Naples is probably enough. We stayed in the old town and were surprised that it was so dark ...that warm Italian glow doesn't seem to be able to filter down between the sad, tall buildings to the narrow streets below. Even the Duomo (pictures to follow) is absolutely wedged like cannoli filling in between other buildings (or probably those buildings were squashed right up against the Duomo at some point). There isn't even a piazza in front of the Duomo for enjoying a spritz with a view.  

No matter....there is always something of interest to take away. I missed capturing the actual delivery man in the photo below, but look at the wicker basket just above street level. It is tied to the rail of the first balcony. We came around the corner to see the woman in that apartment hauling it up with whatever the delivery guy brought her. There is a smaller basket up at the top balcony. (The middle two balcony residents must not be Prime members.)

A better image of just the dog

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Question for the day

Off to Pompeii but wanted to throw this question out there..this is the statue of the Assumption of Mary in the cathedral in Naples.   Who knows why there is an angry dog at her feet?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: mapaul.dvm <mapaul.dvm@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 28, 2019, 8:56 AM
Subject: Assumption of mary
To: Georgia Paul <georgia.paul@gmail.com>

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Etna

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Castelmola on the hill near Taormina with a view of Mt. Etna.

In the “lessons never quite learned” category is the one that says:

Always buy it, see it, do it, say it, or photograph it when you have the opportunity lest that opportunity never comes again.

Not exactly a pithy fortune cookie phrase....but words to remember nonetheless.

The first time we saw Mt. Etna it was far off in the distance but clear as a bell in a cloudless sky.  No photographic evidence exists.

When we arrived here yesterday afternoon the view from our balcony looked like this:

Then the clouds rolled in though at least the forecast rains have been held at bay. But this afternoon the view looks like this:

A bit eerie, I think.
I will keep trying but weather.com is not optimistic for clearing.

I will, however, try to do better when I get my first glimpse of Vesuvius next week and will snap a picture straightaway just in case.

Meanwhile, I apologize to you, Michael, for discouraging you from buying the first ceramic-topped lemon squeezer you saw and for assuring you that there would certainly be plenty more to pick from later.

And while I am at it, I should probably also say, I Love You. And Thanks for a Wonderful Trip Thus Far.

Noto Means Known

This is our third and final night in Noto....the quintessential Baroque city of Sicily.

 Here is what we know.....

 Nothing stays the same....

The agricultural valleys we passed driving to here are no longer just vast expanses of green (orchards and vineyards and fields as one would expect) but now there are massive areas where the crops are covered in huge tents of white plastic sheeting. (I am hopeful and yet doubtful that it can be reused year after year after year rather than discarded like so much plastic in the world.)

It seems that every major piazza sports a prominently located defibrillator. (Has this always been so or am I just now more apt to notice/appreciate their presence?)

And yet some things remain the same....

Michael can still manage to drive crazy little roads with me (and now google) navigating....though I am unsure if the cataract makes him more nervous or conversely blindly, ignorantly brave.

There are no more perfectly suited libations than a Cappuccino in the morning and a Campari spritz in the evening enjoyed in Italy.

And the Italian sun illuminates its native stones like nowhere else I have ever been on earth. Even in the brightest light of the day, for instance, the  Cattedrale of Noto looks like this:

And even from behind from our little balcony it looks like this:

#nofilters

Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.

Another New One

Had gelato for dinner tonight. 

That is not the new part.

The new part was the young boy who came in and ordered his gelato not in a cup, not in a cone, but in a hot dog bun!

Seriously. A hot dog bun?

I would have taken a photo except that I thought it would be in poor taste to take a picture of someone's child...

But now back in the room I googled "gelato in a bun". There you are....a Sicilian treat. Apparently it is not a hot dog bun but a brioche...all the difference in the world. Now Michael will have to try one.

A Million LittleThings

In the spirit of full disclosure, for anyone who might get the impression that all of our travels go off without a hitch like a well-oiled Swiss clock....this particular trip had more than its fair share of hiccups at the start (hopefully only at the start but only time - clock analogy pun unintended - will tell).

That first day getting to Monreale outside of Palermo....our trusty research and our local B&B host both assured us (that means me) that it was easy peasy to catch the local bus to the duomo. True to a point. But I didn’t check and no one mentioned that said bus only runs every 75 minutes. So, of course, we arrived five minutes after a departure. After an uneventful (boring) 70 minutes on a park bench we were finadlly off.

Thirty minutes later, arriving at the duomo, we thought we had better grab a quick drink, an arancini, and a bathroom before going in. Only to find that this particular duomo closes for lunch. Yes, the church closes for lunch. That was a new one. ....and of course it closed ten minutes before we walked across the piazza hoping to enter. So.....we “enjoyed” yet another rest on a park bench.

The next morning, we went down for breakfast and I asked the receptionist to call us a cab so we could check out and pick up our hertz rental car. I wrote down the information to avoid any confusion. Hertz @ Via Messina 7A. Nice neat block letters.  I hear her give the information over the phone...sette A. The taxi comes. Off we go.  Great. Still just enough  time to pick the car up in our 29 minute reservation hold window....and there we were in the middle of god knows where at Via Messina 70...an abandoned warehouse. Talk about a panic. We finally worked it out and got to correct location and still got the car (in spite of an hour wait in line)...it was a miracle, for sure.

Finally, driving from Agrigento to Ragusa, google maps offered up the fastest route specifically noting that we were avoiding road closures. Thank you, google maps. Beautiful, modern highway. Whizzing along. Then exactly as predicted, we came upon the road closure (dotted red lines), and the detour....and off we went. Clearly the correct diversion. Plenty of signs and reflective temporary fencing, and other cars coming along with us....yup right up ahead we will merge back onto the highway....except....wham...pylons blocking the path. Turn around on little path.....rerouting, rerouting, no not that way....rerouting, rerouting, maybe this way....lost signal...rerouting....ah, finally, here we are.....

And sometimes little things can be good.....like:

Hundreds of thousand of wildflowers you see on that unexpected detour through the countryside

Or the bazillions bits required to create the mosaics at Monreale

Or the mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina

(Michael picked that one)
Or all the cuts and pieces that it took to make the columns of a temple.

All the million little details (easy or difficult, positive and negative, planned and serendipitous) that go into making a memorable vacation.

I cappuccini sta matina

Tonight aperol spritz piazza del duomo Ragusa

Agrigento

More later but after a full day of driving (thank you Michael) and navigating (thank you me) we are relaxing at our B&B, Villa San Marco, with a bottle of wine, our pizza ordered for delivery (three pizzas actually as we haven't eaten since breakfast), and this lovely view of The Valley of the Temples. Life is good.

Palermo

Had a relatively easy day here r in Palermo. Walked through the market this morning. Baskets of tiny wild strawberries. Bright yellow apricots. Ridiculously long, skinny asparagus. Adorable baby artichokes. I had to reign Michael in reassuring him that we didn’t have to buy everything we saw today....that we would likely find more fresh fruits every single day of this trip. He doesn’t even like fish but couldn’t resist taking a picture of this massive tuna....

Then we headed on past the Cathedral of Palermo on this perfectly clear and sunny day.

And then hopped a bus out to Monreale to see their Duomo.

Had a light lunch of birre and anrancini on that little piazza.
Back on the bus.  Another little stroll. (Bought some fruit on the way back!)
And after a little break, out for the passeggiata.
Campari spritz. Pizza. And gelato.
And that will make the day.

Little Lamb

A quiet, peaceful, pastoral beginning to this trip.

Here in Hampshire finishing up a visit with our good friends, Robin and Faye at their lovely home in the Wallops. Lovely gardens, fresh eggs, baby lambs, stellar weather, great food, good wine and lots of laughs.

Today we are off to Sicily.