Italy

Our most recent trip has been to see Amy & Andrew in Italy. Apart from being convenient to all of us, the temperature in Umbria suited us better than that during the summer months in that it only reached about 26 degrees Centigrade!

The most convenient place for us to fly into is Perugia but the only flights to there are from Stansted, which meant that we had to get ourselves to Stansted in time for an 07.30 take off. We decided against driving and, as there are now no flights from Newquay to Stansted, the train seemed to be the best option. In addition, we had to book an overnight stay at Stansted. Whatever faults are levelled at it, when it comes to organising travel and hotels, the internet has become invaluable and so it proved with all the appropriate arrangements quickly made.

Annette took us to Bodmin Parkway for the start of our journey on the appropriate Sunday and our journey started. The only real problem we had was travelling across London from Paddington to Liverpool Street. Usually, the tube goes between the two stations with no changes but, the day being Sunday, we were diverted all over the place. Never mind, we reached Liverpool Street and jumped on the Stansted Express; 40 minutes later we found ourselves searching for the bus that would take us to the hotel. Our overnight stay was short due to getting up at 04.00 but the rest of the travel to Italy went smoothly and Andrew picked us up for the final 40 minute journey to his home.

For most of the week, I helped Andrew to carry out some improvements to his Polytunnel, including some electrical rewiring, concrete block laying and watering system improvements. I was also put in charge of a bonfire to get rid of a pile of rubbish that had built up over the Summer when it is particularly dangerous to have fires. Whilst Andrew and I were doing this, Amy was busy catching up with her wedding photography backlog and Maria rested, sunbathed, played with the dog and did plenty of jobs around the house.

Polytunnel - Centre Bed Foundations

On Saturday we all went to Assisi, which proved interesting; Andrew tells me that they have been to Assisi when there have been hardly any people around. Well on this day it was fairly chaotic and it wasn't until later in the evening that we realised that October 3rd is the anniversary date of St Francis' death. We did wonder why there were television cameras all over the place! The Basilica is a fantastic place with one church built on the top of another and St Francis' tomb underneath. Well worth the visit, as was the whole of Assisi.

The Basilica

Maria, Amy & John at the Basilica

Santa Maria sopra Minerva

The week went very quickly and very soon it was time to go. The return journey went very smoothly without an overnight stay; we left Perugia at about 11.00 and reached Bodmin at 21.00 where Annette was waiting to take us back home. Thanks are due to Annette for the transits to and from Bodmin but especially to Amy and Andrew for looking after us so well.

Madeira

A little earlier in the year, Beryl & Ian Niven, some friends from Scotland who we had met on a previous holiday, invited us to stay in their apartment in Madeira. We jumped at the chance because it is an island that I have always wanted to visit and so, on the 26 August we flew out from Bristol to Funchal for a week. Very early on I found that my camera would not work and so I bought a 35mm disposable to try and record our stay. The results were not very good and so I apologise for the standard reproduced for this post.

Hotel Regency Palace Pool

Hotel Regency Palace from the Pool

We spent quite a lot of time around the pool, relaxing and chatting and in the evenings went out and ate in different cafes/restaurants, some good, some not, some quick and one, very very slow.
I was not feeling very well one day so the others went off to Funchal to have a look around, but we did manage another trip on which I was present. During this visit, we managed a coffee in a floating restaurant as shown.

On the Sunday that we were there, we hired a taxi and went on a seven hour tour of the west of the island. This was a very instructive trip after we had stopped looking at the inside of churches! As most people know, Madeira is very mountainous and the cliffs rise almost vertically as shown in the photograph below.

Towards the top of the mountains sits the famous Madeira mist, which provides the island with its water supply. It is very difficult to photograph but the accompanying photo might give some idea.

The mist is the very white patch above Ian & Maria's heads.

We toured the North West of the island and visited a couple of very pleasant villages, in one of which we had some lunch. We then headed back via that part of the North coast where there are loads of waterfalls that must be almost a thousand feet in height in places.

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole of our visit and think that we would like to go again and do some more touring. Only time will tell.

Hall for Cornwall

In the last couple of months, Maria, Annette and I have been out to see two shows at the Hall for Cornwall. The first was to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat", starring Craig Chalmers who was one of the finalists in the BBC show, "Any Dream Will Do", that chose Lee Mead to star in the West End version of the show. We had booked some time ago and managed to get seats in the second row on Wednesday but, as the due date came closer, I remembered that we had also managed to book a holiday in Madeira, of which more later, and we were due to fly from Bristol on the same Wednesday. Oh bother!! Now, the only date that we could actually get to the show was on the Tuesday, which happened to be opening night. Well we did manage to get seats on the second row, but this time they were second row from the back! Never mind, the show was excellent and we had a splendid evening.
The second show was to see the Central Band of the Royal Air Force in concert in aid of the Royal Air Force Association (RAFA) "Wings Week". This time we were fourth row from the front so a very good view and once again we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Service Bands are not to everyone's taste but they do play a wide range of music including film scores, marches and some popular classical. In this concert there were two pieces composed by one of the band members based on Cornish legends, which were very well received. There were also a couple of pieces for violin although more like traditional Irish Music than classical violin. The finale included bagpipes and, all in all, it was very enjoyable evening.