Last blog from Italy

La Speranza
The name of our nearest restaurant ( which has become our regular Friday night haunt for the past 5 weeks) means ‘Hope’. I think it refers to ‘I hope I’ll be able to get a booking’. Had our hosts not recommended it we would never have darkened its doors. It is basically a truckie stop built right on the edge of a fairly busy road – the façade is bland in the extreme and covered in dust. We first planned to eat there on our second night in Italy. The four of us turned up at 7pm ( my sister and niece were staying at that time) only to discover that it didn’t open till 7.30. There’s a little grocery store and bar next door so we sat there having a drink waiting for La Speranza to open. As soon as it did, we sauntered in and asked for a table for 4. They asked if we had a booking. We said “no” but didn’t expect that to be a problem because there were at least 200 seats in the place. But they were fully booked. We tried to tell them we would eat quickly and vacate our table for the next lot but no luck. We made a booking for the next night and have eaten there every Friday night since. It is a really interesting place with very good home style cooking, pleasant service, immaculately clean, fresh table cloths for every new diner and very cheap. We always start with the platter of antipasti misto – a mixture of crostini, bruschetta, salami, olives, artichokes etc. Then we share a bowl of pasta (made fresh on the premises so it is very tender) – we are working our way through the range of sauces but will have to come back again if we want to try them all. Then we share a grill with some veges. The grilled meat is probably the best part of the meal. Outside the restaurant is a huge pile of firewood which is brought into the kitchen in a wheelbarrow – the meat is cooked straight over the coals and tastes wonderful. Phil said last night’s steak was the best he had ever eaten. Then it’s time for dessert – forget it!! Not only do you not have room for dessert but they are horrible cheap shop bought cakes. I don’t know why they bother. Everything else is just so good. The whole meal for the 2 of us including a bottle of wine, a bottle of water and coffees comes to less than 30 euros ($50 Aus) - it’s hardly worth cooking at home for that. On top of a great meal, the clientele are fascinating. There are clearly truck drivers who usually sit at a table on their own. There are heaps of families. There are farm workers who arrive with mud still on their boots. There are very well-to-do groups of middle aged locals. There are tables of a dozen or so young men who have a good time without being disruptive. There is even the occasional tourist but not many. La Speranza is open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week and rarely has an empty seat – it’s amazing.

Siena again
On Wednesday we back to Siena again. Phil was keen to climb the tower on the Campo and go to see the art again in the Palazzo Pubblico. And there were a couple of churches he hadn’t been into. We are at the Campo before 9.00 only to discover that it doesn’t open till 10.00. What a shame, we’ll have to go to Nannini’s for coffee and a pastry. YUM!! Back at La Torre at 9.50 – Phil is a bit disappointed that we are second in the queue (he needn’t have worried – they are 20-somethings – we pass them after about 200 steps while they are taking a breather ). It is certainly worth the 400+ narrow steps – the views are superb. We feel sure there must be another set of stairs to go down – the staircase is so narrow but, no, we just have to squeeze past each other. Fortunately the advertising makes it very clear that there are over 400 steps and this obviously deters the big fat tourists one sees from time to time.

After a swig from our water bottles we go into the Palazzo Pubblico. We were last here about 8 years ago and have often reflected on the major art work in this building. The building continues to be the Town Hall but they open their fabulously decorated medieval sate rooms to tourists. The one we find most interesting is the ‘Sala della Pace’ – room of peace. Back in the early 14the century the “members of the government wanted art work in the room to emphasise the political convictions that motivated and inspired their activity”. Ambrogio Lorenzetti completed his ‘Allegory of Good and Bad Government’ in 1338 – almost 700 years ago. It depicts Good Government based on Justice for all, Peace, Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance and Magnanimata – something like generosity, compassion. There is then a massive landscape next to this depicting the results of well founded government - productive fields tended, farmers bringing their goods into the town to be sold, in the town there are all sorts of trades – builders, potters, weavers, bakers and also musicians and dancers. On the opposite wall is a much deteriorated landscape representing bad government who is shown as “a tyrant with devil like features protecting his own interests rather than seeking the common good. He is aided by Vice and has bound up Justice.” You can still make out rubbish strewn streets, buildings in disrepair, murder, rape and fields lying idle and overgrown with weeds. It is a very powerful message. We have talked about it many times since we first saw these paintings – mankind has known for so long the implications of good and bad government but even in our democracies there is not always the will for our leaders to put what we known for centuries into practice.

Two other art works in the Palazzo Pubblico stand out – Martini’s Guidoriccio da Fogliano of 1328 which is said include ‘the oldest realistic representation of landscape in the history of art’ I can’t think who was painting on England France or the Netherlands at that time so will add that to my list of things to follow up when I get home. The other is Lorenzetti’s Mappmondo – the map of his then known world with Siena at the centre – a springboard for all sorts of thoughts about the centres of people’s worlds.

I won’t bore you with details of another yummy meal at Trattoria del Torre – a classic Phil found in one of his guide books.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
Two other articles from last weekend’s English papers have set me thinking. One is about a young family with 3 preschool children who are volunteers for the charity ‘Care for the Elderly’. The father is a finance exec who became a driver for the charity when he was 19 and has been involved for the past 20 years. One of the things his family does is have 6 old ladies who live alone for tea one Sunday a month. It seemed like a really useful and easy thing to do but for these ladies it was a highlight of their lives. A second article was about a postman in a former mining town in west Yorkshire badly affected by mine closures. Nick, the postman, loves books and decided to set up a second hand bookshop when he heard that a shop in the south was closing down and selling off their 100,000 books cheaply. He and his wife spent every weekend for three months bringing the books north. There are lovely quotes from locals who buy from the shop about how much it means to them to be able to buy books inexpensively. Nick still works as a postman from 5 – 12am each day then takes over at the shop from his mother-in-law. We sent them a postcard to let them know we admire what they are doing. The minister from our home church has been reminding us all to be encouragers, so, Jim, that was our bit for Tuesday.

Arezzo

Yesterday we drove across to Arezzo – it takes about and hour an a half from our villa. There is a fabulous fresco cycle in the Basilica by Piero della Francesca. When we were here about 4 years ago it was under restoration so we had to content ourselves with scouring the countryside for his other works at San Sepolcro, Montrechi and Urbino. Our guide book told us that we needed to prebook because they only allow 25 people in at a time. Noone on the phone number given spoke English so I went online. Fabulous website – I chose the English option and all went well till the booking pages which were only in Italian. We decided to chance it and got another early start – we were there at 9.00 when the doors opened and were the only people in the first group at 9.30. One other person arrived about 9.45. Maybe everyone’s too exhausted from sitting up half the night watching soccer. However, we had Piero to ourselves and it was great. The story depicted in the paintings is fanciful beyond words but the art is wonderful (Paddy, there is a postcard on its way to you now). His women have beautiful faces which remind me of Phil’s granddaughter Hannah and detailed landscapes of the area around Arezzo which has hardly changed in 600 years.

Heaps of walking

With all this wonderful food you might imagine that we are fat as pigs. Fortunately one of our other passions is walking so the two counterbalance each other fairly well. Andy, we finally took your advice this week and bought a CAI ( Commission Alpino Italiano) map for our area. We should have bought it 4 weeks earlier because we have discovered some great walks right on our doorstep. This morning we started off from Scorgiano (about 10mins by car from home) at about 9am. It’s a tiny town of about a dozen houses + a palazzo. We wandered around the massive palazzo for a bit – part of it was clearly lived in but other parts in poor repair. Phil said that he could imagine it as a film set. Twenty paces on, around a bend, we did in fact come across a film being shot. There were hundreds of people on the edge of one of the vineyards. We watched a couple of ‘takes’ of a scene with young men driving through the vineyards singing lustily before starting our walk. A gentle 4 hour hike today. It is pretty hot in the afternoons – 35+ so we try not to be out walking after about 1.00

June 20 - Happy Birthday Christy

We went into Siena early on Sunday morning – but not early enough. Just as we arrived at the Duomo at 8.45am we noticed the congregation departing. The next services were at 11.00 and 12.00. Never mind, we’ll have coffee and a pastry while we wait. Actually, Siena is quite delightful at this time on a Sunday morning – almost deserted so we can stroll about and take in the architecture and streetscapes that are often unnoticed when you’re weaving in and out of tourist traffic.

Getting into the Duomo just before 11.00 isn’t all that straightforward. I do understand that they need to keep the marauding tourists out for a time so that worshipers are not disturbed but they are a little more zealous in their task than I would like. It is always interesting worshipping when you understand very little of the language. It throws the responsibility back onto you to worship God regardless – it takes some effort but it can be inspiring. So often in these ancient churches in Europe, the sense of worshippers meeting in this place for centuries is tangible and so it was for me on Sunday.

Then in the evening it was the medieval banquet in our local town of Colle Val d’Elsa. The square outside the main church was set up for a served dinner for about 250 people. It was fabulous. White linen table cloths, fresh flowers and ivy decorating the tables, all the tableware was terracotta including the wine beakers. The day had been around 32deg and the evening was balmy. It was a fabulous menu of about 10 courses – beautiful food. There was one other non-italian speaker – an American whose fiancée comes from Colle but otherwise it was a very local celebration – albeit of success in a battle in 1269 – some people clearly have longer memories than I – I can scarcely remember what happened last week!! We did manage to find out from our companions at dinner that Australia had just lost their match against Brazil but the consensus was that they had played surprisingly well – maybe expectations were surprisingly low.

Everytime we come to Italy I find a ruin I would love to restore. There is a farm house across the road and up a track from our house that has clearly been empty for quite some time – maybe 50 years. Most of the roof is still in place. The ground floor of the main house is open plan with arches right through. Would make a fabulous kitchen/dining/living space. Phil is not entirely convinced. On another walk we come across a palazzo (large house) about 2kms from here which has recently been bought by an American. She clearly has the support of her husband because she is restoring the whole property which includes stables, workers’ cottages and gardens and plans to sell it off as timeshares. She is restoring the chapel and the adjacent buildings for functions(??) I wish her luck. It is a fabulous property but she had about 5 blokes working on it the day we walked through and at the rate they were working it’ll take about 100 years before the first person can move in. They were very nice blokes – just not in any hurry.

There is just one type of poisonous snake in the whole of Italy and we have seen 5 of them in the past month – more than I have seen in Oz in a whole lifetime even though we have 20 of the world’s 25 most deadly creatures. As a precaution I am pulling my socks up higher when we go walking. Christy/Andy, is there any research evidence to indicate that Italian snakes can’t bite through hiking sox?

I have an ongoing love affair with English newspapers. The best of their writers are tops. A weekend Times has enough reading to last me the whole week – although this week it has been the Guardian. An article that caught my attention was titled – The Prison Trick – you can probably read it online – 17 June. It described the formation of ‘Circles of Support” for ex- offenders on release. It is a Canadian concept which has been operating in the UK for the past 4 years. Basically, an ex- prisoner is supported by 6 people. One of them meets him/her each day of the week to check how they are doing and give whatever help is needed. Then on the 7th day they all get together for a meal. For many ex- prisoners, this is the first time in their lives they have been part of a caring community. The research on the effects of this program are extremely impressive – the rates of re-offending are very low even though they are high risk, high need offenders – and all the members of the Circle of Support are volunteers. Do we have something like this in Oz?? I must find out.

Tomorrow we are back Siena – Phil has discovered there are a couple of churches we haven’t visited + a gallery and a tower to climb. He is tempting me with coffee and a pastry at Nannini’s and lunch at Papei’s so how can I refuse. We’ll have to have an early start – it was 37 deg at 3pm today.

It is also my Christy’s 32nd birthday today. She is a very special lady. Have a happy day honeybunch.

Real Pilgrims

The ancient pilgrim path from Rome to Santiago di Compostela in Spain, Via Francigena, runs close to our villa and this week we have walked 2 sections of it. It has taken us through beautiful countryside but more interestingly, the path is still paved with huge worn rocks and you find yourself thinking about the other feet that have passed this way over the centuries. There are also some fascinating churches, monasteries and abbeys on the route.

We spent a day at Volterra which has an extensive Etruscan museum. Everything I’ve ever read about them starts off with “Little is known about the Etruscans …….” But the museum seemed to provide quite a lot of information. They were in this part of Italy between about 900 BC and 400BC and the museum pieces indicate a very sophisticated society. The carvings on their burial urns depict well constructed boats, chariots and wagons, musicians playing a variety of instruments, a range of clothing styles and women reading. There were examples of beautiful gold jewelry made with fine precision and delicacy. On a number of our walks we have come upon small excavations in the middle of nowhere with signs to indicate they are Etruscan villages or houses. It seems strange to find something so ancient unattended and crudely signed. I guess there is just so much like this in Italy that they don’t have the resources to care for everything.

Last Saturday we went to a Festa del Vino in a neighbouring town. It was held at the local wine and olive cooperative – this is a place where small growers can bring their grapes and olives for processing – it looked as if they all go in together because there were HUGE vats of wine and olive oil everywhere in this building the size of an aircraft hanger. As soon as a barrel looked like running out, it was refilled using a petrol pump –style nozzle. There was no charge for entry or for any of the wine and it was refreshing to see no-one drinking to excess. I don’t think that would have been the case in Australia or England. We noticed that the locals go very easy on alcohol – when we’ve been to Sagra’s we’ve noticed that people drink more water than wine, often mixing them in a glass. It is the tourists that seem to overdo it at times. This week there was a terrible caraccident with 4 english holiday makers killed – the English driver survived – he was double the legal limit.

We spent another day in Siena – this time to take in a few of the main galleries and churches. We got an early start and were waiting on the steps of Museo dell ‘Opera del Duomo opened. It houses many of the statues that used to be on the exterior of the Cathedral and have been brought indoors to halt erosion – they have been replaced with replicas – many of them were carved by Pisano in the C13 and are amazingly detailed and lifelike. Best of all we enjoyed sitting and looking at Duccio’s Maesta – his Madonna and Child which used to be at the high altar in the Cathedral. On the other side are his scenes from the life of Christ – they are wonderful pieces of art and have an amazing effect on those who come to view them. In the midst of a busy tourist city, this gallery is hushed – 700 years on, Duccio’s work still has the power to create reverence and awe.

After the mandatory coffee and pastry, we went into the Cathedral – so many people that it was hard to get the sense of a working church. Tourist guides everywhere with their flocks. It is a majestic building but we’ll try to go there for a service before we leave to see it in a different light.

Following lunch we went in to the Baptistry then a hike across town to the Oratorio San Bernardino where there were a couple of small Duccio works. It was 6pm by then and we were museumed/churched out for the day.

Yesterday we had a lazy day – we need one every 4 or 5 days. We drove up to a small town in the hills about 15 minutes from home and wandered around and had coffee. So many beautiful little towns around here – once you get away from the main tourist drawcards, it is very tranquil. People manage to squeeze a vegetable garden, a few vines and some fruit trees into most unpromising looking places but they seem to thrive. We were talking today about the way that farming practices here must have been sustainable for thousands of years – the agricultural landscape had changed little. We wonder whether this will continue to be the case with mechanization, pesticides and fertilizers. We hope so. They have developed a system of Agritourism which is an attempt to keep farmers on the land. It is basically providing B&B accommodation during the tourist season on working farms. It gives the farmer an additional income stream while requiring him/her to continue farming the land.

I’ve been typing this with one eye on the TV where Tim Henman has just won a match at Queen’s and Nadal is now on court. We watched some of the French Open – it was on Europsport which is all in german and neither of us have enough of the language to make sense of it – hence with watch with the sound off.

Lunch with Sue

About 4 years ago a friend from Canberra bought some houses about 45 minutes drive from our villa. We drove down for lunch on Thursday to her tiny village of Iesa. She has restored the stables of the big house and made a beautiful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house where she now spends 6 months of the year. Her Italian is very good and she loves village life. She has just cleared her 5 acres of land and is working hard to restore the olive grove which was badly overgrown. Then her challenge is to decide what to do with the big house – a massive 3 storey building which has been unoccupied for a long time and has no plumbing or electricity. I think the restoration of the stables was more demanding of her energy and bank balance than she had anticipated. If you have read Peter Mayle or Frances Mayes’ books of restoring old houses in France and Italy you will have a good idea of the tenor of our lunch conversation on Tuesday – it was delightful to hear of all her little successes in turning a derelict building into a beautiful home.

A couple of long walks

Last weekend we joined a local guided walk just a few kms from here. The first people we met were from Buderim in Queensland who are staying in the next village for 6 weeks. The rest of the group of about 40 were all local Italians and we had a great day. The walk was fairly challenging – down a steep mountainside to a river where we stopped for lunch then back up the other side in the afternoon. It was a warm day and after lunch we had the customary 2 hour siesta – the 4 Aussies stood out in the crowd – we were the ones sitting under the trees in the shade while the Italians stripped off and lay in the sun.

Another day we did one of our walks from our book “Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria”. Over the years we have done about 15 of the walks in this book with varying degrees of success. It was written over 10 years ago and we are finding that some things have changed and the directions are not as reliable as they were. But this week’s walk was great. We started with coffee and pastries ( is there any better way to start a long walk) in the medieval hilltop village of Montereggione and walked through olive groves and forest for a couple of hours. At the top of a rise we came across a memorial to 19 men who were resistance fighters killed in 1945. We walked back through lush farmland of aubergines and peppers and hillsides of vines. It was a beautiful walk and in the six hours we only got lost once which is a pretty good result for us.

Tomorrow we are off to San Galgano a Cisterian abbey – In the 14th century the lead off the roof was stolen by an Englishman Sir john Hawkwood and as a result the whole roof is now missing. Our guidebook says is being restored for an Olivetan order of nuns. We’ll let you know how its progressing in our next blog. Then back to Colle for another Sagra in the evening and the Festa del Vino at nearby Poggibonsi on Sunday evening.

A day in Florence

Yesterday we drove into Florence early and went straight to San Marco the 14th century convent which is famous for the amazing frescoes painted by Fra Angelico and his school. The best known is his Annunciation but every one of the 40+ cells has one of his amazing devotional frescoes.
Then it was lunch at the highly recommended sandwich shop Fratellinis which serves a little glass of red wine with every sandwich then on to the Uffizi for an afternoon of Renaissance art. We had prebooked our tickets for 1pm – a great time saver – the other queue for tickets was over 2 hours. It is a real feast for the eyes – about 1700 works on display and another 1400 in storage. There are the huge Botticelli’s – Birth of Venus and Primavera- as well as the beautiful little Lippi’s Madonna and Child and Bronzino’s exquisite portrait of Bia Medici.

June 9

We’ve been having too good a time to get around to blogging but today is a lazy catch-up day after a busy week so there are 4 blogs coming up.

Every weekend in June, our local town of Colle Val d’Elsa has a Sagra on Saturday and Sunday evenings– There doesn’t seem to be an exact translation for Sagra but it involves a lot of local food and wine in a piazza set up with trestle tables. A friend from another village told us that their Sagra served 600 meals for each of 4 meals over last weekend –the local ladies cooked cakes and pasta sauces for days beforehand and then on the day, the men barbequed steaks. The pasta sauce is interesting – the recipe begins with “First hunt your wild boar” – it’s delicious. The monies raised by the Sagras seem to be used to fund a wide range of community activities throughout the following year. The one at Colle last Saturday night was excellent if a bit chilly – the tables covered the piazza and spilled out onto the belvedere of the city walls overlooking the valley below. We ate white bean soup, the aforementioned pasta, rabbit stew, stuffed zucchini flowers with panne cotta to finish. I’m trying to think of ways we could have a Sagra in Kookaburra Ridge.

We are always interested in the use of small public spaces in Europe – piazzas in Italy, a place in France and village green in England. They are wonderful spaces for people to meet informally or for events and make a huge contribution to fostering a sense of community. A leaflet from the local tourist office describes the piazza as ‘a place of meeting, exchange, introductions, gatherings, a place where you stop, stay awhile or interrupt a journey. The street is quite different. The street is there for walking down and is chiefly linked with those who live there. The street belongs to the few but the piazza belongs to everybody.”

This morning in Colle was market day – over a hundred stalls crowded the piazzas and surrounding lanes in this small town but hundreds of people had come into town from the surrounding countryside to buy and sell, to meet with friends, drink coffee. It’s a great atmosphere and an excellent source of local fruit and veges, cheese and sausages, olives and artichokes. Hope we can eat it all before next Friday so we can go and buy more yummy stuff.

Hong Kong to Tuscany

We’ve spent lots of great times in Hong Kong in the past but our 2 days there last week won’t be among them. Weather was appalling. Intermittent torrential rain made the going rather difficult. Mist was so thick that we never saw the Peak. Damp feet were a constant - but fortunately it was hot and wet – much better than cold and wet. We got in a few good walks along the waterfront, Phil finished a paper for a conference in Vietnam, we had a good rest before the flight to Italy and our hotel had fabulous facilities so it wasn’t all bad.

We had arranged to meet my sister and niece at Rome airport but it didn’t happen – it’s a long and rather fraught saga but it turned out fine the next day when they took the train up to Siena and we picked them up there. Three lovely days together in our house just west of Siena was delightful and we’ll have heaps of good memories to share.

In our kitchen – Kelli, Mellita, Phil, Christy, Cherrie

This week Christy and Andy are staying – it’s Andy’s half term holiday from school and they have got into the swing of things quickly, finding the best gelati shop in San Giminagno with no delay.

San G is a delightful old town – wonderful frescoes on the interior walls of the church and great views of the countryside from its hilltop position – pity about all the tourists though.

Of course an ice cream needs to be walked off so we hit the track soon after.

About 90 minutes into this walk we lost the track and what should have been a circular walk turned into a ‘there and back’ one. But it didn’t matter. The countryside is just spectacular. Extremely lush at present.

We’ve had some fabulous meals this week. The owners of our house know the area well and have guided us to excellent restaurants. One looked like a truckies’ café but had great pasta and risottos. Last night we went to La Panorma in nearby Radicondoli, perched on a hilltop and ate on the vine covered terrace watching the sunset while we ate wonderful food. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Yesterday we did another walk from Bagno Vignoni, an old spa village which still has a colonnaded spa pool at its heart - into Pienza – a 3 hour walk across beautiful rolling farmland. Pienza is a beautiful little town which provided an excellent lunch for ravenous walkers.

We seem to manage a drama or two most days here. Yesterday we lost our way on the road twice, both times while trying to find the route around Siena, NOT THROUGH IT!!!– I just drive – it was my 3 navigators who didn’t shape up. Then to top it off, we were stopped at a police check by armed police who told me I was driving with my fog lights on. They were armed to the teeth ( I guess traffic control must be a hazardous job in Italy) but fortunately decided that my offence didn’t warrant capital punishment. I was so exhilarated to get off with just a warning that I promptly drove up a one way street – the wrong way!!

Today we are having amore leisurely day in Siena. I’m also hoping to find an internet café so I can post this!!

Bangkok

Bangkok

It’s our last day in Bangkok and we’ve had a really good time. On previous visits we’ve worked flat out with little time for looking around but this time we’ve spent a day in the UNESCO office but the rest of the time has been our own.

Our hotel room on the 31st floor has great views over the city towards the river and is close to a Sky Train stop – a huge advantage in this city of choked and choking streets

We spent one evening with friends from Canberra who have spent the last 2 years at the Australian Embassy here – Stephen and Cordelia Gee. It was great to see them and hear about their life here. Cordelia has been remarkable in the way she has embraced thai life – her first 6 months learning the language has paid off and she has a wide range of thai friends including her early morning Tai Chi class in Lumpini Park and her weekly commitment at a local orphanage where she interacts with the babies.

Another evening we went to a delightful restaurant with UNESCO friends, Rupert and Michiko Maclean who lived here for 7 years but are now in Bonn – like us, they were just passing through Bangkok and our paths happened to cross. Cabbages and Condoms isn’t the most elegant name for a restaurant – it was the brainchild of a local doctor, trained in Melbourne, who was desperate to address sexual health and family planning issues faced by locals. The income generated supports a wide range of development activities across Thailand. It is also just a fabulous place to eat. The outdoor eating spaces are like fairyland. Don’t miss it if you come to Bangkok.

When Rupert got in touch he suggested that after dinner we could go on to the Bamboo Bar at the Oriental Hotel down by the river – a great place for jazz and a drink. That was a bit of a challenge – I had a decent dress to wear but a choice of hiking boots, rockport lace ups or hiking sandals for my feet – none of which looked quite the thing. So I hit the markets and then the shops and felt very much the ugly sister trying to squeeze into Cinderella’s glass slipper. Amidst the giggles of the shop assistants, it soon became clear that there were no ladies shoes big enough for my feet so eventually I consoled myself that in my little black dress and hiking sandals I was still a lot better off than the man who begs each day outside our hotel who has no feet at all!! Needless to say, we had a great night out.

When we went for our morning walk on Thursday in Benjasiri Park, we took a few photos of a Tai Chi group. While I was clicking away, Phil was invited to join the class – he had a ball. Most of the class were elderly ladies who were very welcoming and keen to teach him the moves and help him get his breathing right. I would like to think that the various groups we belong to at home would be just as welcoming to a stranger who showed some interest – but are we?

On previous visits I had never managed to get to Chatachuk – the weekend market and decided to give it a try. Phil had been to Chinatown with me earlier in the week – his ultimate nightmare with its narrow, crowded lanes, people everywhere, odd odours and potentially life- threatening breaches of every health and safety regulation you can imagine. He wisely decided to give Chatuchuk with its 9,000+ stalls a miss and spend the morning working on a paper for an upcoming UNESCO conference. I was particularly interested in buying some fabric. I’d talked about a visit to Asia with Christy before we left. She has been teaching medics on Bird Flu so I asked for advice. She was pretty laid back about it – I guess crossing the road here is riskier than catching bird flu – but she said she would steer away from eating soft eggs, undercooked chicken and avoid bird markets. With that in mind I checked my market map carefully and noted the areas to be avoided. It is an amazing place – great variety of all sorts of crafts and produce at unbelievably low prices. Everyone tells you to bargain and expect to pay around half of the first mentioned price. I am hopeless at bargaining. These people typically have so little and I have so much that I feel like giving them extra rather than less. After buying 4 necklaces, two scarves and no fabric I tried to locate a fabric shop I had seen earlier – BIG mistake. The first rule of Chatachuk should be ‘If you see it, buy it’. It’s so big that your chances of ever finding something again is extremely remote. But I kept searching and alarmingly found myself in the middle of the bird section. I tried to make a quick exit but found myself amongst even more birds – even peacocks in tiny cages. I checked my map and this section indicated “Lots of birds’. How could I have done this? I guess I’ll survive. I’ve taken a couple of vitamin C tabs. Christy, is there any research evidence to indicate that it will help ward off Bird Flu?

Anyway, that’s pretty much Bangkok. I haven’t mentioned to river trips, tuk tuk ride, ferry along the klong or Phil’s beautifully tailored 4 new shirts and 2 pairs of trousers. We’re off to Hong Kong this afternoon.

On the road again

We're off again next week for 3 months mainly in Europe. You can follow our travels here. If you need to get in touch, email us on our bigpond address or text our mobile - it has global roaming so we'll pick up your message wherever we are.

16 May - Fly to Bangkok
21 May - Hong Kong
24 May - 25 - June Tuscany
25 June - Coventry
26 - 28 June - Newcastle upon Tyne
29 - 30 June - Glasgow
1 - 7 July - Iona
8-11 July - Oxford
12 - 14 July - Cambridge
15 July - 14 August - Seaford, Sussex
15 - 17 August - Hong Kong
18 August - back to Sydney

Home again

Canberra has greeted us with some serious weather - yesterday was a max of 7 deg with light snow. After 35deg+ in Hong Kong last week it's quite a shock. Needless to say we are not having much outdoor activity but the house is always cosy.

Hong Kong was great - just enough time to catch up on some sleep, some early morning walks before it got too hot then ferry and tram rides later in the day to see the sights without getting too hot. One of the best sights was from our 11th floor hotel room which had spectacular views across the harbour.

Spent a great evening with friends from the Chinese Uni where Phil worked some years back - good to catch up with them again and hear about the way things are developing in HK since its return to China.

Homeward bound

It's our last day in Europe - we leave for Hong Kong tonight. We have been in East Sussex for the past week with Christy and Andy and had a great time. During the week Christy heard that she has passed her A & E specialist exams (only 35 of 115 candidates passed) and we were very happy for her - she has worked long and hard to get through them.

We had a couple of exhilarating and wet afternoons on the water sailing their catarmaran - it is lovely to be able to sail outside your front windows!! Also managed 4 long walks this week - mostly along the coast but 1 over the South Downs near Glyndebourne.

Now it's time to say goodbye and head home - always an emotionally mixed up time - nice to return to family and friends in Australia and to home and garden but very hard to leave the girls on this side of the globe. But then there is always next year!!

The day the beach came to paris

Parisians who can’t get to the beach over the summer have no need to fear because last week the beach came to Paris. For a month each summer, a section of road along the Seine – maybe a couple of kilometers – is closed and tons of sand is brought in along with a demountaqble 50 metre swimming pool, palm trees, deck chairs and the like to create a very attractive beach – a great place to sit and relax and watch the activity on the water from huge cargo carrying barges to all sorts of pleasure craft. There are also sections for beach volleyball, boules, art and craft, kayaking, rollerblading and music and performances of all types through the day and late into the night. People of all ages were having agreat time the day we went - it was hot and there were loads of water features to cool you down - from avenues of fine mist to walk through, to trickling fountains.

They use the roads by the river quite imaginatively – every Sunday the road by the river on the south bank is closed to motorized traffic and makes a great path for joggers, cyclists, roller bladers and just people out for a stroll.

Sunday July 17

Strolled along the river yesterday morning for the 11am service at our old church – the American Church in Paris – www.acparis.org. It’s 3 years since we worshipped there last and by the nature of such a church, there were only one or two familiar faces. All three of the ministers are new. We were chatting to a chap from Indiana over coffee who works part of the year in Paris – he says that when he comes here to church he always thinks that this is what heaven will be like – people from over 70 countries, from all sorts of Christian denominations worshipping together with no concern about colour or denomination.

In the evening we went to Notre Dame Cathedral – packed out with worshippers. Unfortunately my French limits my understanding of much of what is said but I can still appreciate the atmosphere of this beautiful place where God has been worshipped for over 800 years. The music on the organ was magnificent and the church was filled with the most delicate colours from the stained glass windows.

Another hot day so we ended it having a drink on one of the barges moored near Notre Dame watching the sun fade on its magnificent southern façade and then a Lebanese meal in what must be one of the smallest restaurants in Paris – just three tables with two places each, ours being on the very edge of the narrow road.

Hanging out on the Pont des Arts

Of all the bridges that cross the Seine in Paris our favourite by miles is the Pont des Arts. It connects the Louvre to the Academy, looks out over the beautiful Ile de la Cite. It’s a pedestrian bridge – no cars. Evenings this past week have been very warm and each night there are hundreds of people on the bridge. We often take a picnic meal and just hang out for a few hours. There are lots of others picnicking, but also people singing, artists painting, people on their own reading or just watching the world go by.

Last night we chatted to a guy from Sicily – his English was about as limited as our Italian but he was happy to share our picnic. The night before we met a young man from New York who had just come to Paris for the first time a few days ago – he has spent each night till about 3 am on the bridge and doesn’t want to leave. He has been building straw and plaster houses for low income families in South America for the last few years and wants to see about doing the same in Europe.

Earlier in the week a gorgeous young woman was singing jazz and blues for an hour or so accompanied by a very good guitarist – She told us she was from Russia and had been taking some singing classes in Paris – she is busking to get her fare home – at the rate people were putting money into her red straw hat, she’ll be back in Russia quite soon.

Eighty year old man + Swiss Army Knife = National Security Threat

July 14 was Bastille Day here so we took ourselves down to the Champs Elysees to watch the big military parade even though displays of war making hardware are not quite our thing. By the time we arrived, people were about 10 deep along the route and before we could cross the barricades to join them we had to have a thorough body- and pack-search – not surprising in the light of recent terrorist activity in UK. Phil had our back pack with the makings of our picnic lunch and before long our Swiss Army Knife was identified – we have remembered to remove it from carry on luggage on planes in recent years (alas several pairs of our scissors and nail files have already gone to the big sharps container in the sky) but didn’t think it would be a problem at a street parade. I was minded to comment to the gents in uniform that if they felt an eighty year old with a Swiss Army Knife constituted a security threat then they really were in big trouble but this didn’t seem the time for smart one-liners – tensions are quite high at present. HUGE numbers of people in uniform have been on the streets, at train stations and generally cruising about over the last week.

In spite of all that we enjoyed being at the parade. A lovely man near us had brought his step ladder and so we chatted to him and he let us climb up now and then for a peek.

The moral of this tale is that next time you go out leave your knife behind and take your ladder instead.

Addicted to Sudoku

Not sure whether newspapers in Oz have caught up with the number puzzles which are almost as big as Harry Potter in UK( Speaking of Harry Potter, JK Rowling is rumoured to have earned 25 million pounds on the first day sales of her latest book – no wonder she can afford to buy 150 miles of Tasmanian coastline – I wonder what she plans to do with it?). We love Sudokus because unlike crosswords which require knowledge to solve them, Sudoku requires only some number skills and a lot of perseverance. Most of the quality dailies run a Sudoku each day and you can buy books of them as well as getting extra puzzles from one of the many websites – try http://guardian.co.uk/sudoku I got fooled when I managed to solve the first one which I tried in about an hour – admittedly it was rated ‘easy’ – but we’ve failed dismally with the next two. The one in yesterday’s paper was rated ‘diabolical’ so we won’t even attempt that until we can restore a bit of self confidence.

Blogjam

What a disaster. We thought we had posted several blogs in the last few weeks only to discover that our non_existant command of the german language had resulted in our saving them as drafts rather than posting them _ then to add to our woes, the first cybercafe we used in Paris was run by a japanese couple who had all the computers set on their language and couldn,t change it either to english or french. Hopefully all is remedied and you can now scroll down to find out what we have been doing.

You will realise that we were not in London during the recent bombings but we still are very saddened by them. it is hard to understand why anyone would target innocent people going about their everyday lives. There is a particularly poignant report in today,s Guardian newspaper of a speech made by the mother of a 26 year old young man killed on his way to work. We appreciated text messages and phone calls from our family and friends to check that we were safe = strangely, that was how we first knew that anything had happened.

We have been in UNESCO today and look forward to Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow. Then one more week in Paris before going to UK.

Bad Wurttemberg

I am considering promoting Baden-Wurttemberg to holiday makers as a rival destination to Tuscany and Provence - OK, it doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily but it really is very beautiful. We have now completed two long walks - around 15kms each and they were just delightful.
We set off Monday from our village apartment and walked through wheat, barley, sugar beet fields and vineyards to the Schloss (castle) at Weiler. The village was cleaning up after a party in the square - we could see the fireworks from our window on Saturday night. On Sunday after church in our nearest town, Sinsheim, we’d strolled along the stream that runs through the town and there was a farmers market, jazz band and some sort of wine-tasting event happening. We realize how few communal spaces are left in our suburbs in Canberra. These lovely spaces in so many European towns and villages are constantly used for formal and informal community get-togethers which must encourage the development of social capital, fast disappearing in most developed countries.
Tuesday we drove to Baden Baden, the sophisticated spa town After the obligatory coffee and people watching, we took off on ‘PanoramaWeg’ - the 40 kms circular walking path through the foothills around the town. We walked one section and then took the mountain railway several kms to the top of a mountain - absolutely spectacular views back over Baden Baden and surrounding towns. Then we completed our bit of the circuit. Lovely to be able to walk through a northern bit of the Black Forest.
Wednesday we set off for the Tubingen, home of Germany’s oldest university (1477) - the town population is 8,000 but there are 25,000 students - it’s vacation at the moment so it was hard to imagine what it would be like in term time - it wasn’t clear where they would all live. The town is beautiful cobbled alleys, stunning half timbered houses, a Schloss on the hill in whose kitchen in 1869, Friedrich Miescher isolated the substance we now know as DNA. As I was saying, we set off for Tubingen but on the way saw some interesting buildings off to one side and drove into Bebenhausen - it doesn’t get a mention in our guide book. The whole village is now a national monument surrounding a 12th century Cistercian Abbey. It was substantially restored for use by King Friedrich in the 19th century and was the home of King Wilhelm II and his wife in the 20th.
The one failing of Germany as a tourist destination over Tuscany and Provence has to do with food. Traditional fare is hearty in the extreme - we had an excellent meal of Wild Boar in Bonn but it isn’t the sort of food you would want to eat every day of the week. Outside the tourist areas and the university towns there doesn’t seem to be the café/wine-bar culture where you can have a drink and watch the world go by - nor is there the abundance of fresh food street markets although we have been to excellent ones in Tubingen and Bonn.
On Friday we take the train to Paris so the next BLOG will come from there.

July 2 - Near Heidelberg

As you can see, we’ve been having just too much fun to get to writing our blog.
Just finished a week in Bonn where we stayed with Phil’s longtime friend and colleague, Rupert Maclean and his wife Michiko. Rupert heads up the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in Bonn - Phil is working on several books and also on some articles for Rupert.

On Wednesday we had an excellent meal with them overlooking the Rhine and each attempted to select the 5 best meals we’ve ever eaten. Here they are:

Rupert:
Rules, Covent Garden, London
Felix in the Peninsular Hotel, Hong Kong (make sure you get a table upstairs by the window)
Lord Jim in the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok
Hole-in-the-Wall, Bristol
Mum’s Indian cooking ( Rupert’s family were Scots who lived in India for 400 years =yes, that is 4 hundred= before coming to Australia in the late 1940’s so plenty of time to perfect Indian cooking)

Michiko:
Ritz, Paris
Bendick - I think in Luxembourg during their recent 10day E-Type Jaguar car rally
Sushi in Seattle
Hot Springs meals in Japan
Hang on Michiko, that’s only 4!!!!!

Phil:
Tour d’Argent, Paris
Foliage, London
Lamole, near Greve Italy
Guzzanello, near Lucca Italy

Kelli:
Stephanie’s Melbourne (sadly no longer)
Fee & Me, Launceston
The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye
Louis XIII, Paris
St Julien, near Bordeaux

Yesterday we drove south along the Rhine through beautiful towns notably Boppard and St Goar but both beaten by the small town of Rhens perched neatly and unobtrusively by the river and with some lovely houses. The sequence is improbably picturesque with the river bordered by very steep banks on either side, and vineyards climbing the slopes to be crowned by castle ruins on the peaks. On to Bingen at the end of the Rhine sequence, the home of Hildegarde of Bingen, saint, feminist and musician, then at breakneck speeds on the Autobahn (climaxed by an hour-long traffic snarl at the end of our journey, traveling just 10kms) to our home for the next week - an apartment near Heidelberg. Weather is a bit dodgy at the moment so will postpone our long walks till it picks up a bit - might even find time today to locate an internet café and get this posted.

PS Weather has picked up considerably so we are now strolling around the wonderful town of Heidelberg and may stay on for the evening.

Midsummers Day

June 21 - Midsummers Day or Midwinter if you’re in the other hemisphere.
Our week in the west ended with an overnight stop at a B & B in Oughterard near Galway before returning to Dublin on Sunday. The B & B was run by a couple who had spent 15 years running a similar place in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney so were delighted to talk about their time in Oz. Along with the B & B they run a fishing business - Donal takes parties of fisherpersons out on the lake or fly-fishing from the shore - he says fishing on Lake Jindabyne came a close second. We would have liked to spend more time in that area - it is very beautiful country - lots of big lakes and good walking paths - maybe next year. On the way to Galway, we drove along the coast through an area called The Burren - an amazingly stark rocky part of the country - a real contrast to the rolling green farmland we had become used to in Kerry. Along the way we stopped off to walk along the cliff tops at the Cliffs of Moher - very dramatic.
Then on Sunday night, a wonderful meal with Richie’s family in Dublin. Never before have we had a garden deck built especially for our visit - made us feel like royalty! Actually, I think Richie’s mum used the occasion as leverage on his dad to get a long anticipated project completed - the weather did its bit and we sat on the deck in warm sunlight till close to 10pm.
Today we are off to London for a few days with Phil’s niece Bronwyn then a couple of nights in Oxford.