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I feel like just adding a tonne of photos and letting you explore them all.  It’s an ever changing environment from what look like squatters alley to  5 star ritz but maybe standing next to each other.

Lisbon is known as the city of seven hills so there is lots of places to get a great vantage point from.  We got the good old hop on hop off bus ticket and the drivers made Wh’s nerves of steel look like jelly or at least spaghetti..

The old town is fill of people and shops and old buildings and graffiti and all sorts of things to see. Every eye full is simply take another look and don’t forget to turn around or you may miss something. The buildings covered in glass tiles are stunning.

It’s hard when you work out that the time you have is simply not enough and you have to start culling your choices of where to wander and what to see.

But you can only  leave with a unsubstantiated promise to come back again, one day and see some more.

So we join our cruise and all is well. It’s good to unpack for a week. We settle in and go to dinner and it’s delicious, hopefully it all stays that way. The sea gets rough (rough is a relative term and it means to me the ship pitching and me moving) a bad night’s sleep is had and I wonder whose bright idea this was and why we are here and not still under the Tuscan sun or not sun.

On to Lisbon and it’s brilliant. It’s glass and tiles and it beautiful river and bridges and light and steep narrow streets and and and

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There are parts that are falling down completely and the view is different from every perspective. Falling down from above and maybe lived in below.  The picture below is a woman standing at her door and looking out and I am looking down from a bridge.  There must be 1000,s of people crossing this bridge every week if not every day.   It’s  a train bridge which has pedestrian access on each side. Everyone seems to just wander all over it, a train comes and pulls its horn and everyone moves to the side until it passes then all back all over the tracks.  It’s strangely laidback and relaxed and all appears to work ok.

I am still unsure of wether the pics will post but it is a case of a picture at least paints 1000 words even if 10,000 are needed.

The Douro river is lined with exquisite buildings of all types of character and chaos.

Tomorrow we are in Spain in La Coruna but Portugal will be very hard to beat.
Art of the day is Rabbit.  He was a 3D rabbit made of junk.

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Travelling can certainly be trying and tiring.  The stress levels can be raised disproportionately to the problem. I would call myself a seasoned traveler who faces each travelling day with a fait accompli and a mind set to go with the flow and just get the job done so to speak.   It’s more of lie back and think of England day than sex on a  stick and unlike life, it’s definitely not about the journey but all about getting to the destination.

I must say however how much easier it is to go with the flow now I no longer smoke.  It’s incredibly arduous to add looking for the nearest smoking haunt at every change of transport mode to the long list of annoyances, especially when the nicotine monster is crawling through your insides.   (On that note a shout out to the amazing L, you are doing it, well done).

I have decided to write this travel blog about travel days now, to just get it all out there, all the the joys of travelling over the past few days and then if it doesn’t post then at least it will be cathartic and not feel a massive disappointment.   You see currently I cannot seem to access my website so I have no idea if you will.   I can’t post pics and I paid for a days premium wifi only for it to block my site.    I do not wish to do another cathartic techno phobia one so here goes.

When travelling on travel days there are a whole lot of steps that lead to others that lead to others.   The potential to trip and fall at any given stage of the process is high, no matter how organised you are, as you are not in control of all the paths.   At times it can feel like the world is against you as the frustrations of ridiculous first world problems collide consecutively into each other until they feel like they are actually real problems.

It’s the getting to the bus stop just as the bus pulls out.   Its the  lines or queues or whatever you want to call them.  The people who finally get to the front of the Check in counter and then start searching their bag for their passport, who are the same ones who do the same thing with their laptop at security.  The backpack people who carry their bag on there shoulder, not their back and walk down the aisle as their pack trails behind them shoulder charging you in your aisle seat whilst they walk on without a backward glance.  But worst of all is coughing, sneezing man.

He always some how sits behind me.  With every cough I can feel the air leeching between the seat backs and into my space.  Every sneeze I can picture the little droplets raining down from overhead.  I don’t want to say “bless you”  I want to say “wear a bloody mask”.  Here’s one for the did you know:  In Hong Kong it is impolite when you have a cold not to wear a mask.  The rest of the world should take note.

Next I am afraid is toilet etiquette, this ones for the ladies as I don’t really think men have the same issues.  If you go back to the queues issue then ladies toilets are the pinnacle.  I really want to know what some ladies do in there.  Seriously.  How long can it take?  I really don’t want to see you come out with your hair immaculately brushed and your lips done and nose powdered, there is a queue waiting to get in.  Get in, get out, brush your hair and do your lips someplace else.  If I only turned the comment button on we could have a survey in regard to the following –

When the only toilet available is a disability one fitted with a hand basin, mirror  and dryer, and yet there is another perfectly good handbasin and dryer and mirror outside the toilet door, with all the people in the queue would you,

A, stay in the toilet and wash and dry your hands and probably do your make up and brush your hair in the mirror or

B, do your business and then wash up outside the toilet cubicle, you know, where all the people are queuing patiently and wash your hands, and if you must, then do your hair and put your make up on out there.  Being the fifth person in the said queue I can tell you that only 2 out of 5 woman chose B and one was me.

So with queues and toilets and plane sneezing and other travel bugs it’s easy to see why the iPad needs to go flying out the window when it won’t let you log in and then with all those ridiculous first world issues out of the way I very much hope that I will be able to post this and work out how to load pictures again as I have some brilliant ones.  Of Lisbon and it’s colourful houses and rambling streetcars.  Of Oporto and it’s magnificent bridges over the twisting Douro.

But  also I just remembered that I never actually wrote a blog to leave Italy  so,   let’s leave the men with three day stubble beards, the place where I never got to eat the beautiful raspberry tart, of only one fine day under the Tuscan sun but fill of days to reminisce about, the Tuscan cooked meal, the restaurant L Cucina, the towers of Pisa and Lucca and Sienna,   plus so much more and so much more to do on return.

Tips for Tuscany
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Go when it’s sunny

Rent a small car.  if they try to upgrade you say no thanks and stay small.  Driving is fine, especially if you have a wh with nerves of steel.

Trains are good.  regional trials are also very cheap.

Rent your car from a smaller destination and preferably an airport as unlike train stations they are not in the central city and have good in and out car access with directions.

Stay somewhere where you can look after yourself.  Use Airbnb or HomeAway, both of which we used with no issues and got a cottage.  It’s nice to just wake up and have cornflakes and do your washing and practice your pasta making.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its been a couple of days now since my last blog.  The reasoning pretty simple

a day spent doing nothing but lying under the Tuscan sun.  It was wonderful but not really blogging material.  A couple of deck chairs, a book and some sun.  Magical.  True it wasn’t any different than any other sun but it was great to feel it all the same.

the next day was a travel day.  We dropped the car back in Sienna and only got waylaid once.  Of course we blame Tom or the stupid woman who talks for him, but ditched them both in Siena and am pleased to see them gone, despite their assistance.

Got to the train station and just missed the train, so had to wait an hour for the next one,  (of course I blame Tom as per previous) changed trains in Florence and got to Bologna where we overnighted before heading to Lisbon this afternoon.

Were really keen to go back to L Cucina but it didn’t open til 8pm so we wandered through the streets.  Many were closed to traffic which is evidently what they do on Saturday and Sunday evenings.  Had an aperitif or two then climbed the dizzying heights of the double bell tower, as you do, because it’s only open on Saturday evening.

We have seen a lot of historical now but this church I keenly felt its presence.  It dated back to the 1st century and had layers and layers of history on top of itself.   When we came down from the tower there were families coming into church, with little kids walking in and crossing themselves, kneeling down then sitting in a pew ready for yet another generation of indoctrination.   The choir was singing and nuns and priests were chatting away, it was all quite surreal and strangely peaceful.  Like a scene from something else, somewhere else, but happening here amongst the tourists and the aperitif drinkers who were with us minutes ago, and the children and their parents.

the steps to the bell tower which was 1300’s were smooth and pitted in the middle. A step clearly marked.  You cannot help but wonder how many feet have trodden them through history, each one leaving its minuscule imprint which over the past 700 years now represents a bow in each piece of marble all the way to the top.  An couple of inches of history eroded into each and every one.
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Enough of history and religion, if you dig beneath the surface of either they are never very pleasant.  To cap of this lovely evening in Bologna we wound our way to our restaurant only to be asked If we had a booking, which we did not as we were told that you couldn’t book…. but evidently that is just for lunch, for dinner you need a booking.

Enough of dinner, only to say that this morning I am trapped in our room with its close proximity to the Bathroom hoping for things to calm down prior to this afternoons flight.

Check out the art of the day.   Even if it is yesterday’s.  Lots of shop doors are painted here as you can see by the first pic to demonstrate.   I nearly walked past the art of the day pic as when you are next to it all you can see is the ak47 but when I put my camera up to it the lens squishes it together and you see the boy.   I can’t really demonstrate how magical it is because obviously I can’t get you to see it through your eye first.  So just enlarge the pic so you can imagine it as a wall first.

 

Well that’s it for today the 20th of May.  Wish me luck

Use your imagination.  See the villages in the background, the rows of vines uniformingly stretching over the hills, the pointed Cyprus trees winding up the narrow winery lanes and the far distant spires of the duomo’s on the horizon.

Our drive through the hill top villages of Chianti required a lot of imagination.  At two of the three most beautiful villages on the tourist route we never even got out of the car.  It rained so hard and our feet were already wet and cold from the sculpture park so didn’t want the rest of us to be the same.  At The third village hunger forced us out of the car with a mad dash to a restaurant and it was so cold inside I had to keep my jacket on.  All I can say is that we were slightly better off than the cyclists on this touring trail of beautiful villages in Chianti, oh and the couple with the little open top MG.

the sculpture park saved our day.  The rain stopped and towards the end the sun even appeared for a good 15 minutes.

it was a little of the beaten track but well worth it.  The gentleman whose park it was told us he had 5 kiwis through yesterday, from Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington.  It was set in the woods and was a really pleasant walk.  One of the pieces was a amphitheater where they hold concerts in the summer. (Not today). When we were leaving a man got on the stage and sung an aria, (or at least I think it was an aria). Whatever it was it was very powerful and very cool.

and because there is not a lot else to say or show, how about these cool leapfrogging kids
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And last but not least the  art of the day has to go to the first sculpture in the park aptly named

the Blue Bridge

Hope you are all wonderful.

 

nothing to see here folks

It rained, and thundered, and rained, and drizzled, and lightening and drizzle and rain.

In day four of under the Tuscan sun the lonely deck chairs have never been laid on.  Just looked at longingly through the kitchen window.

the beautiful outdoor table and bbq have never even been graced with a cheese and cracker let alone an anti-pasto platter supreme.

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the pavers have never got completely dry just teasingly checkered with there natural grey hue before the rain comes again to blacken them whole.

 

So nothing to see here folks…just move right along.

Another day under the Tuscan Sun

Not really.  Temperature was cool and lots of heavy downpours.   Went into Sienna which is only about 25kms from our cottage.

Found our way there and got a good park, nothing was too dramatic or scary with the drive.  Commented on how the Tom Tom never followed the signposts and always seemed to want to lead us somewhere that didn’t quite look right.  More on that later.

Sienna was pretty.  It’s full of lanes and alleyways and hills up and lanes down.  Every little alley with something at the end that looks like it wants to be explored.

we had some really good downpours when we were there and seemed to get trapped by hordes of school children on class excursions, with there umbrellas ready to take your eyes out in the narrow lanes.  We literally took refuge in a church and waited it out.

Look at the pic above and you can see the water pouring straight onto the motorbike from the overflowing gutters.

Wandered until my feet hurt.  I remember years ago when my daughter was younger and we went to Queenstown and Fiordland for the first time.  As we drove to Fiorland every bend in the road revealed a new stunning vista and the relevant oohs and ahhs and wows.  On yet another bend her comment was, yep nice but there is only so much beautiful you can take in in a day when it all looks like that.  She was right.  Medieval  Sienna with its treasures, it’s alleys, it’s spires, its light fittings, it’s curved roofs, it’s arched verandas, it’s towers, it’s statues, it’s horse ties, it’s fountains…..that is what it felt like.   Oh look another view of spectacularness…..moving right along.

I was going to tell you about our trip home which I alluded to before but have run out of steam so will just say that the 25 kilometre trip home turned into over an hours drive and “turn left onto unmarked, unpaved, road is not a good instruction.   Tom Tom let us down badly and from now on I will have google maps as back up.
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art for today

peeking from the window

 

did you know

sienna was called a hospital city in the Second World War that is why it remains fully intact unlike so many of the other cities

park at football stadium.  Stadio.  Easy to find and get to and easy to walk into city walls.

Tom Tom can be an ass.  So sometimes just tell it to feck off, and follow your instinct truly it can’t be worse.

 

 

It’s been a real day of thunderstorms today.  Actually it has been rain and thunderstorms all last week as well but the temp has remained in the early 20s and they have never lasted long.  Today however the temperature dropped to 15 and the thunderstorms were ferocious downpours.

The power went out so we went to go for a drive to get some supplies from the grocery store.  Got to the bottom of the drive and the electric gate had shut and because there was no power we couldn’t open it.

The view from our cottage is lovely and it was nice just to chill (literally) for the day.  We did eventually get to the supermarket and Wh got the big steak he was craving.  Beef is really expensive here and haven’t even seen lamb.  It’s all chicken and pork.  Delicious dinner was had with fresh asparagus which beats Bavarian white asparagus with potatoes any day.

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not much else for the day.  Hope you are all wonderful.

art of the day found on the streets of a little village somewhere on the way to somewhere else.

 

 

Saturday we spent the day in Pisa.  We had heard the rumours that it was only a leaning tower and not that great, but hey we are 30 kms down the road and a leaning tower has got to be worth a trip right?

the answer is definitely.  We loved Pisa.  It has a population of 90,000 and 60,000 of them are students.  It’s is therefore relatively laid back and surprisingly a great  wandering vibe.  It is only the square of miracles where the tower is that was busy with tourists but even then it was a 5 minute queue for the tower.  We bought tickets from a random who gave wh two tickets for $20 as they had run out of time and couldn’t go up.  I said he’d probably been scammed and he said well then we have lost $20 but he didn’t think so.   I held my breath as the tickets went in the scanner and sure enough Wh was right (hate it when that happens), his faith in fellow man vindicated and up we went.

it is a ridiculous feeling climbing a leaning tower.  I usually get vertigo at heights but find if I lean on the centre wall it keeps me upright.  As we climbed the 296 steps to the top up the spiral you can feel yourself leaning into the centre then being pulled away from it.  It’s really disorienting and you are left quite giddy.

As those who know me will attest, a real  achievement getting me to the top of the tower. When at the top I Couldn’t leave the middle bit and other tourists were laughing at me trying to lift my arm up and out to take a picture, without actually letting go of the centre tower.  I think it was a great effort from fifty something intrepid traveller (fsit for short)

After this square we wandered through numerous others.  I have so many photos but I really like this one as it summed up the quintessential essence of Pisa and Italy.  The little truck with all the books on it, in the square.  A Vespa parked behind it, then a lady on a bike with a child in the seat.

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We did lots of wandering yet again discovering lots of great graffiti.  It somehow had a different feel to it than that of say Berlin where it is so prolific.  There was some scrawl but so much of it had a message, or was very arty like below.  I wished I could speak Italian, with every poster seeming like a call to arms.  Join the rebel side, was a common phrase.

That was yesterday.  Today is Sunday and you have all already had mother’s day and birthdays for some as well and have moved on already.  Whereas whilst you were sleeping   We packed up and moved to a little village just outside of Siena.  Our cottage is stunning and I plan to spend tomorrow wandering no further than the village 100 metres down the road.  Wh may have nerves of steel for driving but mine need a rest.

my sculpture of the day is a mural from Pisa, perhaps I will have to change it to art of the day.  It was a close call between this and the graffiti in the tunnel.

take a close look it’s great.

 

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day Mum

These roses  are everywhere we go here.  They remind me of the ones that you had along the garage and trellis all those years ago.  They even smell the same.  Just a tiny memory amongst all the wonderful  memories I have to carry with me wherever I am, thanks to you.

So these roses are for you.  Thanks for being a wonderful mum. Lots of love from Tuscany.

 

 
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We are staying in the little village of Vicopisano which is really pretty.  There are these beautiful pink roses everywhere and they smell divine.  They were even on Wh “shortcut” home from the butcher, see below, and yes we started at the bottom.  I can only say I wasn’t carrying the water, beer and wine in the back pack.

There are lots of these little paths around and up and over the village.  I think we have now just about done them all.

Today we went to Livorno which is by the sea.  Aside from the fascinations of the ro-paxes in port and the ensuing conversations of the merits and downfalls of each one and of course it’s surrounding infrastructure it was sort of like, “Nothing to see here folks, move right along”.  So we did.

Oh first we did a boat ride through the Venezia quarter which was tranquil but sort of confirmed the nothing to see here folks.

We headed north along the coast and stopped at Marina Di Pisa for lunch.  It was wonderful to see the sea.  I didn’t realise how much I missed it.  The wide openness of it, it’s space and colour and air.   Of course this beach wasn’t anything like ours but it was lovely to see.   I can’t believe how people can lie on the stones and sunbathe. Evidently this beach is so packed in summer you can’t find a spot to put your towel.

We found our way home and after the appropriate amount of rest and cup of tea time wandered back down to our local butcher.  He has just done up his shop and it is the newest in town.   It is a father and son business and they pride themselves on knowing where all there products come from.  Tonight it was ravioli, tempura veges, and Wh got some blood sausage for his breakfast.  He is on his own with that.

 

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tips for driving in Italy (from the passenger seat)

get someone else to do it

have nerves of steel

have Flexi side mirrors

go faster than the speed limit or get constantly overtaken.  Just find the slowest car in front and sit behind it.

if you wait at the round a bout you will still be there

actually the Italian drivers have not been to bad you just have to literally go with the flow and don’t back off.