From Capri

Just a quick note - maybe I will get to update it later. Dubrovnic, Santorini and Athens were great - a day in each was enough. They each have amazing sites but the crowds can be oppressive until you get off the beaten track. Today we have been to Capri - so beautiful.


Dubrovnic Santorini

Athens

Phil on the Hill of Mars from which the apostle Paul delivered his sermon to the people of Athens.

From the Med

I am in an Internet Cafe in Dubrovnic - I have a long newsy blog on my memory stick but cant open it + also a strange keyboard so here goes. We had a great week in Venice and I will include some photos so you get a feel for it.

There are 2 ways you can take a gondola in Venice - this is the usual way for tourista and costs around 100 euros an hour.

This is the other way on a public crossing of the Grand Canal and costs ,50 cents. You can see which one we did. Phil made a friend as well.
We took a ferry one dat to the islands in the lagoon - this is the ancient monastery on Torcello - wonderful mosaics - thanks for the tip Paddy and Di.












This is the lovely island of Burano with its lollypop houses

We had one VERY wet day and at high tide there was water everywhere.



This is the hospital in Venice which we DIDNT visit but our apartment was nearby - all we had to do was follow the OSPEDALE signs and we were home (almost )

Wonderful shopping opportunities - my sister would be in heaven. I bought a travel iron.







And lots of pretty young men.

Now we are cruising the Med and it is fabulous. An enorous boat - just like a 5 star hotel. Off to Santorini tonight. Love to everyone. Ciao

This is the blog I had meant to post but couldn't open at one of the internet cafes.

We are coming to the end of a delightful week in Venice. It is an amazing city – wonderful to visit but I wouldn’t want to live here. It is hard work getting around – lots of tourists in the popular areas during the day and climbing up and over the canals every few minutes. But it is beautiful.

When we were here last about 6 years ago we stayed in a hotel on the Grand Canal not far from St Marks – a great location but very busy. This time we had an apartment back in the residential area and got a much better feel for how the Venetians live. It had the advantage of being close to the only hospital in Venice – well signposted throughout the city – so we managed to find it fairly reliably. It is such an easy city to get lost in – a couple of times we started out with our map to go somewhere, only to discover half an hour later that we’d walked in a big circle and were no closer to our destination than when we began – not that it mattered too much – we were never in a hurry to get anywhere.

Mostly the weather was kind but on Tuesday it rained all day and at high tide in the afternoon the square at St Marks was more like a wading pool.


We had been to all the big landmarks on our last visit so didn’t go into most of them again. But we did visit the Peggy Guggenheim gallery and a number of lesser churches and galleries. For me a big delight of Venice is just watching the locals go about their business in this challenging city where everything is done on the water – all the deliveries, the garbage collection, the ambulance, the police, taxis, trademen – all come and go by water – I could sit and watch them all day – preferably while drinking a cup of coffee and eating one of their yummy custard filled pastries.

Each day we went to the nearby Rialto market for fresh fruit and salad – it is a delight to the eye and the tummy.

Window shopping is a pleasure – the Italians have a great eye for display and the windows are exquisite.

The young men are also very easy on the eye.

There are 2 ways to have a gondola ride in Venice. One is to hire a private gondolier by the hour for around 100 euros ( about $150) the other is to cross the Grand Canal on the public gondola for 50 euro cents. We did the latter – twice. This French lady let the romance of the ride into her blood as she snuggled up to Phil – he doesn’t look as if he minds.

One day we took a boat to 2 of the other islands in the Lagoon – Burano was once famous for it’s handmade lace ( but most of what is sold there now comes cheaply from Asia) and it’s lollypop coloured houses.


Then on to Torcello, which was the richest and most powerful island in the lagoon in the 10th century with 10,000 inhabitants. The population is now about 60 but it has the remains of a vast church complex including the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta with its amazing mosaics.

Our week in Venice is coming to an end and this is our home for the next 2 weeks. It is like a floating 5 star hotel – if last night’s dinner is anything to go by, we will have to make sure we get plenty of exercise to work of the meals – it was fabulous food. Today we are off to Dubrovnick.

West and East from Seaford Head

I hope you are not expecting me to keep blogging at this rate for the next 3 months. We've had a bit of spare time this week and easy access to the net - C & A have wireless broadband - must get it when we get home - it's great.

These are a couple of photos from our walk this morning - a cool overcast day but not too bad. The Seven Sisters are one of our favourite coastal vistas. C & A have just given me a huge photo of them printed on canvas for my birthday last Feb. It was taken in January with deep snow on the ground. It's lovely. No doubt you'll see it next time you visit our place.

We're off to Venice in the morning - we hope our luggage arrives with us this time.

A couple of interesting photos on our walk today around Newhaven Port - just along the coast from Seaford.

Dramatic rescue at Seaford

Just east of Christy and Andy's are the dramatic white cliffs known as the Seven Sisters. We have walked along the top of them many times and, several times at low tide, along the accessible beaches at the base. C&A often kayak or sail with their friends Chris and Gabby to one of the inaccessable beaches beneath the cliffs for a picnic.

Last Saturday while C&A were away for the weekend, Chris and Gabby went on their own and were lying on the beach after lunch when a large chunk of rock gave way on the cliff above, landing on Chris' hip and hand. He was in severe pain and Gabby first pulled him away from the cliff in case more rock fell but then had to drag him back up the shingle as the tide came in. She eventually got the attention of some fishermen in a passing boat who called the coast guard but they couldn't get their boat close enough and called in the rescue helicopter. Chris was winched to safety on the clifftop and had surgery on his hand and hip and is making a good recovery. It could have been so much worse.

That'll be the end of their picnics beneath the cliffs and we'll keep further back from the edge when we are walking from now on - in the past we've often lain on the edge of the cliffs looking over the edge at the thousands of sea birds who hollow out nests in the chalk face - I guess we've done that for the last time. A couple of years ago a father and son were flying a kite on the clifftop and the dad stepped backwards over the cliff to his death. So sad in such a beautiful place.

Ginger Bread

For our study group suppers this year I have been making a cake - Dawn Waterhouse inspired me with her fabulous cakes over the years. My Orange and Poppyseed was delicious; the warm Pear with Cardamon was a winner but the Ginger Bread only scored 6/10. When we arrived at Christy's this week we had some of the gingerbread cake she had made on the weekend. It's sensational. Here is the recipe so I don't lose it and you can try it for yourself. One of the secrets is that the ground ginger must be fresh - it loses its zing pretty fast once opened.

Ingredients:
225 g plain flour
1 teasp mixed spice
3 teasp ground ginger
1.5 teasp bicarb soda
.5 teasp salt
85 g butter
85 g black treacle
85 g golden syrup
115g light brown sugar
1 medium egg
285 mls milk

Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly oil 900g loaf tin and line base with baking paper.
Sift flour, spices, soda and salt in mixing bowl. Beat together egg and milk. Melt butter, sugar, treacle and syrup in saucepan, stirring till butter melted. Pour gooey stuff into flour then add egg and milk. Beat vigourously with wooden spoon till well mixed.
Pour into tin. Cook in middle of oven. After 25 mins cover cake with foil and return to oven for further 25 mins. Check if cooked. Leave in tin to cool. Once cool wrap in foul. ENJOY!!

Slight change of plan

You will no doubt be imagining us walking along the ancient paths of the Cinque Terre in Italy - WRONG. We are at Christy and Andy's in Seaford and happily have now been reunited with our luggage. (Our friends Kay and Barry McGaw recently travelled for almost 4 weeks with only handluggage and that is starting to seem like a smart move.) All had been going so smoothly until we were delayed in Hong Kong by a sick lady who had to be taken off the plane to hospital. The hour 's delay meant we missed our connection in Helsinki and when we finally got to Heathrow much later that night our cases were nowhere to be seen. It is clearly not an uncommon occurrence going by the mountain of left luggage and that was just terminal 1.

We spent a night in a pleasant hotel (not worth 314 pounds for the night, though - hope the travel insurance comes good on that one) but reminded ourselves that we were far better off than the cyclone victims in Burma or the earthquake victims in China. It was clear by Tuesady morning that we would not get our luggage that day and didn't think it wise to fly to a samll village in Italy with just a change of undies and a spare shirt and hope that the luggage would catch up with us. We finally got our cases safe and sound on Wednesday and will stay here at Seaford till Sunday then fly direct to Venice for the next stage.

Christy going for her morning run

We are disappointed to miss the Cinque Terre but there will be other opportunities for that. In the meantime we are having a lovely time at Seaford - it feels like a home away from home and the weather was a balmy 22 deg yesterday - rain forecast today.

Andy ready for school. PS If the photo doesn't open, just click on it.