Hand Luggage.

South of France, October 2009 Nice, Monaco, Cannes and Antibes

Carrying on the theme of European exploration I FINALLY took my first ever trip to France on 2009! Yes people, I have been to the other side of the world but never set foot on our nearest foreign neighbours’ soil.

So off to the South of France to mingle with the beautiful people. We rented an adorable tiny little apartment overlooking Nice harbour.

Here’s Neil taking his first caffeine hit of the holiday on the most dodgy balcony ever. (It is surprising that it was actually the bathroom ceiling that collapsed during our stay and not the balcony . .)

No matter where in the world he is, the cycle maniac finds bikes to check out.

Here;s the curve of the beach viewed from high above Nice town centre.

I love this picture, the detail is fab.

Bit of advertising for you . .

Here I am with a view of Nice beach behind me.

A few snaps of the colourful architecture to be found around Nice town centre.

First day, First stop – Cours Saleya market in old Nice town. Full of market stalls selling everything from gorgeous soap to fresh flowers, herbs, spices and novelty knick knacks.

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Naturally, I took millions of photos. Here’s a selection for you to enjoy . .

Colourful soap, figs, salts, sweets in pretty tins, very expensive mushrooms and lots of tiny adorable marzipan shapes.

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I want to cram them into my mouth by the handful . . .

There was also a fantastic floral festival going on in Nice old town that day, here’s a pic of one of the churches decorated with elaborate fresh flower garlands. There was free food and drink, hence the scrum of people!!

Montjuic, cable cars and distinct lack of Font Magica

Neil had bigged up the epic spectacle that is the Font Magica, apparently it is an amazing display of water, music and lights. So up we trundle and get a prime spot on the steps in preparation.

There’s lots of other eager tourists all sitting around like little flocks of sight seeing pigeons, all anticipating this feastival of light and sound.

And so we wait, and wait, and wait, here’s us waiting (before the novelty wore off)

And so the time came for the display to begin, and went. Five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour passed before Neil contemplated defeat, yet still his eyes were fixated pleadingly on the dark, unlit and distinctly unmagical Font Magica.

Not a flicker of light, not a whisper of sound, not a drop of water . . . his little heart was broken . .

Admittedly the fact that there were lots of workmen banging around with big barriers and power tools should have alerted us to the fact that the fountain would probably not entrance us with its glories that evening. Neil’s little face was similar to a puppy that had been kicked.

Here’s how it should have looked . . (thanks Google)

But onwards from such disappointments, we had an epic climb upto Castle MontJuic to complete.All 213m of it.

The oldest sight on the Montjuïc is the Castell de Montjuïc, a large 18th century fortress. It was built by the Bourbons on the remains of a fort dating back to 1640. Originally built for the defense of Barcelona. It is a LONG way up.

This time it was my eyes looking longingly at the funicular that goes up the hill, but no. I had to walk / crawl to the top.

Montjuïc is home to the Anella Olímpica (Olympic Ring) which consists of a number of sports facilities built for the 1992 Olympics.

Below is the Olympic torch and some more random architecture.

At the center of the ring is the Olympic Stadium. Its exterior dates from 1929 but the interior of the stadium was completely rebuilt for the Olympics.

After a sweaty wander round Montjuic castle I finally was allowed on the Funicular, very exciting!!

Here’s Neil not filling me with confidence with his slightly deranged smile . .

Here’s some of the views as we headed back down the hill. Spectacular!!!

Here’s a few random shots from the holiday to end with, us in front of some fountains and Neil attempting to highjack someone’s hair and pass it off as his own.

Some street art

More pretty architecture . . . . .

And a couple of posers . .

Catch up later for more ramblings through the holiday archives . . . . . .

Beach picnics and Olympics . . .

So as Barcelona is so eye wateringly expensive to eat out, we are the experts at supermarket shopping and impromptu picnics.

Here’s Neil on the beach at La Barceloneta with one of our many on the cheap meals!! (Looks like he has given himself a rather painful injury on the left . . )

La Barceloneta is a lovely little beach resort in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona. We watched the surfers coming perilously close to shore and people taking part in Tai Chi on the beach, there’s a really chilled out and cool feel to the place.

Here we are at the end of the day on the beach, I’m a bit sun burnt and Neil’s wearing girls sunglasses. A normal day all in all.

La Barceloneta is also close to the Port Olímpic a marina that hosted the sailing events for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

We visited the Olympic stadium at Montjuic but couldn’t get into the main arena as there was a huge dog show going on!!

Here’s Neil outside with some of the weird architecture created for the event. The white structure is the Montjuïc Communications Tower

Thought for the day

Learn all you can from the mistakes of others.

You won’t have time to make them all yourself.

Alfred Sheinwold

Barcelona Oct 2010

Delving back in time again today folks, this time we headed to Barcelona for a feast of architecture, beach and cheap cheap sangria from supermarkets!!

We stayed in the Acta Antibes hotel http://www.hotel-antibesbcn.com/en a nice hotel in a great location just five minutes from the Sagrada Familia and Monumental subway stop.

You can also (if you have the energy) walk to La Barcellonette beach area which is lovely, close to the former Olympic village.

First stop is the ongoing building site that is the Sagrada Familia.

Construction of Sagrada Família started in 1882, Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style—combining Gothic and Art Nouveau forms.

Gaudí devoted his last years to the project and at the time of his death in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

One projection anticipates construction completion around 2026, the centennial of Gaudí’s death!!!!

Here it is looking like it has a long long way to go . . .

Here’s some pictures from the incredible Parc Guell, one of Antoni Gaudi’s most famous works of whimsy! Covered in colourful mosaics of broken tiles and glass.

It’s like the tiler got drunk, smashed up the best china plates and then regretted it . .

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Who know that windows could be quite so fascinating? Or that we’d find a real life gingerbread house in Spain.

Once I had my fill of coloured tiles (which takes a while believe me) it was onwards to see more of Gaudi’s work, namely the crazy, organic, alien facade of Casa Batllo.

The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), Eerie yet very apt!!!

Next up – the Olympic stadium, Montjuic cable car, a very disappointing Font Magica (Neil has still not got over the trauma) and some beach life . . watch this space for cheap Sangria consumption on the beach!

Floods devastate Cinque Terre

Just two months after we visited the region terrible flash flooding has hit the Cinque Terre in Northern Italy.

Vernazza and Monterosso were two of the worst hit villages with flood water decimating the tiny villages.

“Everything is missing here — supplies, water, electricity,” said Angelo Betta, mayor of the town of Monterosso in the scenic tourist area of Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast in northwestern Italy.

“People are getting into their houses through the terraces, everything is flooded. Monterosso doesn’t exist anymore.”

It’s terrible to think that the little streets that we walked through in the blazing sunshine and the pretty harbour have been all but obliterated.

So far nine people have been reported dead and more missing. It seems unreal that we were there merely two months ago.

My thoughts go out to the residents of the area and hope they can begin to rebuild their shattered lives and livelihoods as soon as possible.

Heading down South for our anniversary

So in recent years our anniversary has been held in various venues ranging from Blackpool (1 year), Northern Ireland (2 year) Monaco (3 year) and Barcelona (4 year). This year we decided to venture to the South Coast, Newquay to be precise.

Off we headed on Friday, straight into diversions and roadworks around Birmingham, finally arrived in drizzley Newquay six and a half hours later . . . to the unedifying sight of drunken teenagers sitting in their own puke or laying on the pavement, legs akimbo. Ah the youth of today. Nice.

Checked into the travelodge, after finally gaining admittance from the skin headed bouncer they appeared to have guarding reception . . not a great first impression, began to worry exactly what the room would be like.

But never fear readers, it was fine, room 207 even has a sea view from one of the windows, albeit covered in sea spray and salt. We also had an Aldi directly underneath us, so cheap booze and breakfast goodies!

So not quite as exciting a trip as recent ones have been but hey, it’s still a break!

Here’s some grey and drizzley pics from Newquay. Neil inspects Fistral beach and gig racers take over the habour for the day.

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Here’s Neil getting over excited in St Ives . . . .

Some boats moored up at St Ives harbour

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Walkway out into the sea at St Ives

More rockpools on Fistral beach in the rain.

Addicted to Flickr

I have neglected the ole blog for a while as I have made the fatal error of upgrading to Flickr pro and am now utterly and totally addicted to uploading my entire back catalogue of travel photos. With my tendancy to be a trifle snap happy, it could take a while!

Check out some of my snaps by visiting my flickr account here, why not spend many happy minutes trawling through my endless pictures of the same beach, peeling paintwork, wonky old doors and other pointless holiday momentos that will mean nothing to anyone but me!

Here’s a few of my favourite random snap shots of signs and scrawls from recent jaunts . . . . ENJOY!

It’s a dog poop sign in Barcelona, but wait, the man has comedy goggly eyes, I find it childishly amusing.

Amusingly vandalised road sign in Florence, just after the monsoon hit us full pelt.

Italian shop keepers ask that you kindly refrain from shaking their plums

Some soppy graffiti in Bangkok as we cruised the waterways.

What can I say but I am utterly infantile and somewhat curious about what this Barcelona shop is selling. Not just dodgy DVDs about bottoms but compliments too, how wonderful, what a great idea for a commercial venture.

I will have a handful of smarm about how my eyes glitter like the stars and a blob of “are you that model off tv?” to take away thanks.

Banteay Srei – Citadel of the Women

Our final temple stop was at Bante Srei – The Citadel of the Women, a gorgeous smaller scale temple with the most ornate carving I have ever seen. It is all a lovely pink shade too being made of red sandstone.

The temple was rediscovered in 1914 and has the most intricate bas relief carvings covering every surface in eye boggling detail.

We then moved onto Tonle Sap lake, an incredible floating community. The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot.

Here’s one of the floating traders plying her wares and some local kids saying hello!

The woman above on the left is rowing a sampan . According to Wikipedia the word sampan comes from the original Hokkien term for the boats, 三板 (sam pan), literally meaning three planks.

The name referred to the hull design, which consists of a flat bottom (made from one plank) joined to two sides (the other two planks).

Onto happier times

Following on from the horrors of Cambodia’s recent past, we headed to the amazing temples of its ancient past as we moved onto Siem Reap, home to some of the Khmer’s most famous temples including the epic complex that includes Angkor Wat

Here’s a very blurry picture of me in front of the iconic silhoutte as dawn rises over Angkor Wat. It is the world’s largest religous building.

As the best-preserved temple , it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddist.

The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean.

Shame the scaffolding spoils the scene a little bit!!!

Close by Angkor Wat is the temple of Angkor Thom and the magnificant stone faces of the Bayon.

From a distance the Bayon temple seems like a muddle of chaotic heaps of stone, higgly piggly but up close you start to make out the incredible work that has taken place.

Hundreds of huge faces are carved onto towers. All gazing into the distance.

Here are some of the 216 huge Bayon faces, all smiling enigmatically in all directions.

Then it was onto Ta Phrom, a haunting temple complex still consumed by the jungle.

Other temples such as Angkor Wat have been painstakingly conserved and restored, but this temple has been left, pretty much as it was discovered. Although apparently the authorities are now “cleaning” it up, which is a shame.

Silk cottons trees and strangler figs creep and crawl along every surface, destroying and holding together the atmospheric temple.

You can see the scale of some of the trees. They have had free reign for years, nature gradually taking back its domain.