Strasbourg to Rome

September 3rd 2016

Not having had the time to look at Strasbourg the previous night, we got up just before 7 so as to join a group walking round the city at 7.30am before breakfast.

It really is a very attractive city, completely encircled by a river, and there are any number of decorative bridges over it.




Our hotel was just to the north of the river which encircles the city,so we crossed the river and walked along the side of it. This photo was taken at the start of our walk. If this doesn't post too small, you may notice a small blue blob on the opposite side of the river from where I'm standing. This was a shelter over a homeless person - probably quite a pleasant place to sleep in this hot weather, but I dread to think what it might be like in winter.

We walked into the old part of the city, called Petit France, where they were many interesting old timbered buildings.




After strolling for a while, we noticed a marché aux puces being set up, so we couldn't resist having a quick walk through that.




As you can see, there was quite a collection of different things, and Paul had to be prevented from acquiring a great many objects to bring home.

We stayed rather longer in the flea market than we had intended, so we needed to make our way back towards the hotel for the 8.30 breakfast, but it was hard to resist stopping to photograph the many picturesque timbered buildings.


This was called Rue des Cordonniers - shoemakers. You might be able to see the medieval looking shoes on the banner if this hasn't posted too small.

After breakfast, we were off to the station for the day of three trains. The first train took us to Basel, where we walked from France into Switzerland - the border runs through the station. This was the most interesting part of this first train journey, which was through a rather flat area of arable farms - maize, mainly.

We had a short while to wait in Basel station, then we caught a train for Milan. This was a far more interesting journey scenically, as we progressed through the mountains and alongside lakes.

The snowy peaks in the far distance wouldn't appear on the photographs, they were too faint, but the lower mountains were quite interesting shapes.



It's difficult taking photos from a moving train; half the time you are on the wrong side of the train for the good view, the windows are dirty and full of reflections, and trees and buildings and lampposts jump into the photo just after you have pressed the button to take it. But this one does at least show the mountains.

We passed down the side of two lakes. This one is is near the town of Thun, and is called Lake Thun or Thunersee in German.



It's obviously a nice holiday area, though I had never heard of it. My photos of Lake Maggiore, which we passed before we reached Milan, weren't nearly as good as this one, in spite of Lake Maggiore being so much bigger.

We passed through a lot of typical Swiss scenery, like the view below.



The third train of the day took us from Milan to Rome. There are no photos because the sun was so low in the sky it was impossible to take photos. Also, the line had so many tunnels that, by the time I noticed a nice view, we had dived into another tunnel and there was no prospect of a photo.

The train was half an hour late into Rome, which made dinner very late indeed. We didn't reach the restaurant until 10 past 9, and dinner wasn't over until 11!

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The Start of the Holiday

September 1st and 2nd 2016

Our Eurostar train was to leave quite early on September 2nd, and we were supposed to be at St Pancras before 9am. So, rather than cram ourselves and suitcases onto commuter trains, and risk the Thameslink being cancelled, I booked a hotel at Kings Cross and we went up the night before after an early supper. This was probably a very good idea, as our train was late and the lift was broken at East Croydon station so we missed our Thameslink connection. Then the next one was cancelled, so we had quite a wait and didn't finally arrive at Kings Cross until well after 9 pm. I was glad I hadn't left it until the morning, and at least we got a night's sleep before the holiday - when we leave in the morning, we always seem to be up packing and organising until 3 am!

The hotel bed was comfy, but we discovered we only had one towel, and couldn't quite manage the long walk down to reception in our night attire, so we just shared the sole towel.

We tried to use the lift in the Eurostar terminal to check in with our tour organisers, and the lift got stuck. That's the only time in my life so far I've been stuck in a lift, and I sincerely hope it's the last. At least it was a large lift and had glass sides, and we were only trapped for a few minutes before the engineers got it going again. We went down on the escalator!

Our Eurostar train left on time, and just before midday French time we were served with a second breakfast! I'd have preferred a light lunch. We reached Paris to find our connection to Strasbourg had been changed, so we had 2 hours to wait in Gare de L'Est. I spent my time updating the blog as there was an Internet connection of sorts in the station. I'm hoping for a better one at the hotel, or posting this will be a real chore. It amazes me that I posted 10 or 12 photos every day from the Australian outback 5 years ago, and I have to add them one at a time in Europe!

At least I'm up to date now, though I haven't had time to see any of Strasbourg and we leave for a 3 train trip to Rome tomorrow, so I don't have much hope of sightseeing. Perhaps tomorrow will be a more interesting day - at least I won't have to spend hours bringing this blog up to date! Thank goodness for the fast Internet connection in the Novotel in Strasbourg - I only hope the other hotels we stay in will be as good.


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Update 6

August 2012

I seem to have deleted this post by mistake while unscrambling the mess my previous posts got into, and I don't have a copy of it. So if you read it before, it could well be very different this time! I still haven't managed to correct the huge photo in Update 3 though, so can only hope that though it looks awful in Safari it might be better in other browsers. It looks OK on my phone.

This month we finally finished all the niggly little renovation jobs needed on my older son's London house, and it was put on the market. Unfortunately, it appeared on the web site designated as a flat, with the road spelt wrongly and only 4 photographs, so we can only hope for the best.

We looked after my younger grandson quite a bit, and enjoyed taking him to a new playground we found in Limpsfield



Now that he is slightly older, he really enjoys the challenge of things that are slightly different from the normal swing, slide and roundabout, and there are some climbing challenges just suitable for his age, so he loves going there.

We had the usual busy time with my frequent physiotherapy appointments, and our younger son and wife packed up their house ready to leave before the Bank Holiday.



Most unfortunately, they had agreed to exchange and complete on the same day, and a few days before moving day, the buyers solicitors discovered a problem with the Title Deeds. When the house was divided, it was called 78 and 78a. Somebody made a mistake in copying and designated one of the rooms as belonging to house number 76a, which is 200 yards down the road as there is a large park in between! Nobody noticed this for about 100 years, so it was really bad luck to have it discovered on this occasion. Now they hope to move in September, after the corrections have been made.

As my son had taken some days off to move, they just finished as much packing as they could and came down to stay with us for the Bank Holiday. They went home on Tuesday, leaving us just a few days to get ready for our holiday at the start of September.

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Update 5

Later July

Both my sons and their families came to our 50th Wedding Anniversary party, as well as one of Paul's two cousins with children and grandchildren. It was mainly family, along with the Edinburgh friend who had been my bridesmaid 50 years ago and 2 other long-standing friends (46 years and counting!). We were 16 or 18 people, and I don't think I could have coped with many more people. Fortunately, it was a pleasant day, not sunny but warm and we could use the garden.

My younger son and wife, having sold their house, decided to holiday in Britain and took a cottage in the Cotswolds. So they arrived for the party, left for the Cotswolds, and returned the following week. After my son had gone home again to go to work, my daughter-in-law and the children stayed on for a few days so I was able to take my grandson to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum.

He's always been interested in dinosaurs.



He was impressed by the huge diplodocus in the main hall.



I can't think why the museum wants to remove it. It makes such a stunning statement and gives you a real idea of just how huge they were.

We saw everything else, including the animatronic T-Rex.




It's life size and roars horribly while lunging forward and my grandson was terrified of it, in spite of my explaining it was only a moving model and wouldn't get him; then I had the happy thought of going round to the the side of it so it wasn't looking at him and roaring at him, and that was more successful.


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Update Number 4

Early July 2015

Getting closer to catching up!

July saw us even busier with renovating our son's house and garden. It's an hour's drive away, so Paul ended up staying there some nights - he took a camp bed.

We also got the cat back, which made life difficult.



We had acquired a cat quite a few years ago, and had permission to keep her in our current apartment - leasehold properties often have a lease that means you need other residents' permission to keep a pet in a property you own. Unfortunately, we had let the property which we had bought for our retirement, and during the time when we weren't living there, other residents decided to rescind this permission. So we had been obliged to find the poor cat another home. She was very happily living on a farm for some years. Unfortunately, the family with whom she was living rented a farm cottage and the farmer wanted it back. So the poor cat came back, causing many complaints from other residents. I can't think why, she hardly ever left the house. She's 12 now, and sleeps a lot. And she was reluctant to appear in the garden, which is very open, though she sometimes sat on the terrace and admired it. She liked to go out when it was dark and slink about, especially if Paul took her for a walk, as she is besotted with him. She also stayed up at my son's house when Paul was working there.

Fortunately, we were able to find her another home in August - someone we know took her to live with their dog and other 2 cats. We hope this works out.

The main event in July was our 50th Wedding Anniversary, which was on July 16th. I rather belatedly organised a small party - I wasn't certain I'd be well enough. Since my older grandson was still at school in Manchester, we organised it for the following weekend when he would have broken up.

We celebrated the day itself by visiting Hever Castle, where we hadn't been for years.



There was jousting tournament, most of which we missed, but we enjoyed what we saw.



The following day, we went to Battle, it being the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. I photographed the site of the battle itself.



This is the slope up which the Normans charged - it's steeper than it looks in my photograph. I am standing more or less where the Saxon front line was.


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Update 3

April, May and June 2016

Still catching up!

We finished April with another visit to Manchester for my grandson's birthday. As there is a playroom and the railway doesn't have to be put away, railway building has reached new heights!







May saw me finally get a diagnosis for my back problems. I have scoliosis apparently, the consequence partly of my spinal fusion following a car accident 20 years ago, and partly to my breaking 4 ribs 40 years ago in another car accident. Lots more physiotherapy, daily exercises, I'm wearing a shoulder brace and I have a TENS machine to help manage the pain. In the meantime, I can wander about muttering 'Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York...' or 'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse'! (Richard the Third had scoliosis, he wasn't a hunchback.)

We finished May and the start of June with another visit to Manchester for half-term; we stayed in a hotel this time, as my son and his wife are trying to sell their house and it's hard to keep the house immaculate with people living in the playroom and sleeping on the sofa bed. That was our bed at the right side of the photo of the wonderful railway layout. You need to switch the light on if you get up in the night to visit the loo - or you stub your toe and you have to listen to the howls of rage from the railway builder next morning.

Below is the kitchen, awaiting viewers.








It's quite an effort keeping the house this pristine!

Later in the month, the Cambridge friends came to stay with us for a few days. We managed a visit to Standen on a beautiful day.

I won't post any more interior photos here, but below is a new section of the garden, which isn't open yet.









It's still under development, but was already looking good - and quite a lot of the gardening is done by volunteers.

The following day, we visited Ightham Mote for the Antiques Roadshow. It wasn't such a nice day! We had to queue for most of the day so the experts could view the two paintings left to us by Paul's parents.




Sad to report, neither of them is all that valuable.
It was a fascinating visit though - we saw Fiona Bruce and all the experts. But I think you see more of it if you watch it on TV.





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Update 2

February, March and April 2016

Still catching up!

In February I visited a friend in Edinburgh. She, poor woman, went down with 'flu the day after I arrived and had to spend my entire visit in bed. Though my bad back prevented a lot of walking, I did manage a bit of sightseeing. This is photo was taken from inside John Knox's House on the Royal Mile






It's a really nice view up the Royal Mile, and if you took out the vehicles etc it probably wouldn't have been that different hundreds of years ago.

It was hard to take photos inside as the light was so poor, but there were quite a few original fireplaces, like this one.





That's a model on the table.

I developed my friend's 'flu once I was home, but not so seriously. Once I was better, I went up to Manchester for half term. There are no photos from there, except ones of my grandchildren.

In mid-March, Paul came home again but found us all in chaos. My eldest son found himself taking redundancy after yet another takeover of the software company for which he had worked for 16 years. He worked for them before he went to University and during his University vacations, and they offered him a job immediately he graduated. So he'd never written a CV and never had a real job interview - and he'll be 40 this year! It was a severed shock to all of our systems, and the CV writing was a effort. However, it didn't take him all that long to find another job, in Reigate this time, and he started in June.

I see from my photographic record that we had yet another visit to Beaver Water World in March





We managed to see the Beavers this time!

In April, we managed a visit to Great Comp Garden near Sevenoaks, as I was having some remission from my back problems. Great Comp Garden is the creation of the late Roderick and Joy Cameron who moved to the 17th Century Manor in 1957 with the idea of developing the garden into a plantsman’s delight.

They created a somewhat eccentric hideaway in Platt, complete with an Italian Garden, explorable ruins and a garden which I am told now boasts one of the best displays of Magnolias, Azaleas, Salvias, Crocosmias, Dahlias and other exotic plants in the region. None of these seemed to be in flower when we visited - and I've no idea what Crocosmias are, unless they are something to do with Crocus.





This was an Italianate temple hiding away in one corner.
Below are the explorable ruins.




After that we visited Gatton Park, a country estate set in parkland landscaped by Capability Brown near Redhill. The 250 acres of parkland are now owned by The Royal Alexandra and Albert School and the whole park is only opened on a few days a year. We walked quite a way, and admired the view over the lake.



This is taken from what was originally the Manor House, now a school.

Later in the month, we took my younger grandson to Tunbridge Wells to see Thomas the Tank Engine who was visiting Groombridge Station.




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