London Times | Wales Escape

In addition to my sister living in London, one of my college roommates, Sue, lives near the city of Bristol. Bristol is in the Britain territory of Wales, whereas the city of London is part of the territory of England. The last time I visited London in 2010, Sue took the train from Bristol into London to meet up with me. This time I thought it would be fun to visit her - it would give us a different perspective of the UK and the girls would see a bit of the countryside along the way.

The train journey takes about 90 minutes from the Paddington Rail Station:


And along the way, the landscape quickly transformed from cityscape to green countryside.

We arrived a little after noon, under gloomy. drizzly skies. Because of the weather, we didn't explore the city of Bristol by foot - Sue pointed out several of the main areas as we drove along the banks of the Avon Gorge. We made our way to the village of Tintern to visit the remains of the grand monastery, Tintern Abbey.



It serves as inspiration for the Wordsworth Poem, Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.

I didn't have a wide angle lens to capture the entire structure, so I stitched together numerous photos into a panoramic rendering of the backside of the Abbey. The ruins in the back would most likely be the living quarters for the monks. The main church remains partially intact, but roofless.


We also walked across the Wye River and down a walking path to get a better view of the massive structure


Along our walk, we encountered several cottages:


The girls tried to stay dry. but the misty drizzle turned to a steady rain and we retreated.


Sue lives not too far from Tintern and at her home we were met by lush green countryside and sheep! This is the view from her driveway:


Such a great contrast to the hustle, bustle and buildings we left in London!


For dinner, Sue and her husband, Barry, were kind enough to get take out pizza for the girls while they took me out for Indian Curry. I think it was a win-win for everyone (I'm the only one in my family who enjoys Indian cuisine, so I never get any!). We ate in the nearby village of Chepstow and after dinner, walked to the River Wye to see the Chepstow Castle:


Even with the rain, it was a great day of catching up with old friends and enjoying the quiet countryside.

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Post Cruise - New Orleans

I realize now that no sane person visits New Orleans in the middle of summer, especially in the middle of a heat wave. But beggars can't be choosers, and my motto is to take advantage of your location, regardless of the conditions. You never know when you'll have the opportunity again. Judging from the crowds, there were a lot of "crazy" people like me hanging out in the French Quarter, even with the oppressive heat and humidity.

Like 96 degrees F and heat indices in the 100s.

After our cruise, we booked a night's stay in New Orleans. I had visions of a nice dinner, maybe even in a celebrity chef's restaurant, some beignets with coffee and lovely sightseeing of the Big Easy.

Well, we had a nice lunch in Mulate's a Cajun restaurant by the riverfront:




The kids had their first taste of fried crawfish tails and alligator meat. I enjoyed the oysters and we all love the Cajun seasoning on everything.

We made it to Cafe du Monde, although the kids weren't happy about walking in the heat and humidity. We sat outside and ordered our first round before moving inside where there is air conditioning. This made things more bearable for Erica.




Even with our bellies full, the next hour or so of walking around the French Quarter was too much for the kids to tolerate. They shuffled their feet, complained about the heat and didn't really see the point of us being there. They didn't see the architecture around them:


Or the wonderful Saint Louis Cathedral overlooking Jackson Square:


Then it started to rain. Hard.


The rain wasn't going to let up, so we hailed a cab back to the hotel and called it a day. Dinner never happened, but after a week of endless food on the cruise, that was probably a good thing. Sometimes, best laid plans don't pan out 100%, but I'm OK with 1 out of 3.

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Back to Italy - Morning Stop in Fanano, July 26, 2010

As time does not belong to me
Although I always tell it,
No certain time is yours, O traveller.

(Fanano Clock Tower, inscription dated October 20th, 1609)

Monday morning comes and we check out of the lovely Gabriella Hotel, but not until we’ve had some breakfast. I opted for a straight up shot of dark, strong espresso to accompany the rolls, muesli and yogurt.



Before leaving, we (Dawn and I) get to check out the hotel’s wine cellar and the other sections of the hotel grounds. I would be happy to stay another day, but we have a full day of travel ahead of us – we will visit the commune of Fanano, head into Modena and drive 3 hours to the west coast – to the Cinque Terre.






It is a beautiful, cool morning in the mountains, and the Hotel Gabriella peeks out at us as we drive away, a ray of yellow through the forest of green.


Giovanni leads us to our first stop in Fanano, where we meet up with Dave’s Aunt Eva. We walk into the town square, quite conscious of our “tourist” appearance (again, no Asians around in these parts). I snapped pictures of some of the local goods before we come to the large clock tower in the far corner of the town.

Eva and a Friend








Some information about the Clock Tower and Palazzo Lardi, taken from a website on Fanano

Standing at the beginning of Via Sabbatini, it was built in 1340 as the headquarters of the Infantry Corps, later served as a gendarmerie with prison, and then became a private residence. In 1433 it housed Cosimo de’ Medici during his exile from Florence, and in 1439 it gave accommodation to Pope Eugene IV on his return from the Council of Ferrara. In the XVI Century the facade was decorated in Tuscan style, with the fine main doorway. In 1607 it was purchased by Pietro Lardi, a nobleman of Ferrara sent to Fanano by the Este family as Commissar; the building is still owned by the Lardi family. The adjoining Clock Tower, which once guarded the gateway to the castle, was raised in 1609 to create space for the mechanism of the clock with bell, the work of a skilled local craftsman. The Tower is still owned by the Municipality and was completely restored during 2005.

Admiring the tall clock tower, we are surprised when Giovanni appears with a set of keys, which he uses to open up a door at the base of the structure. We climb the steep stairs up and up through the structure for our own private tour.




A beautiful view from up top – and then the bell started to chime – it’s 11am.

Looking down at The Church of San Silvestro


It's Loud When the Bell Chimes


Clock Gears



Upon leaving the Bell Tower, Dawn notices the plaque above the doorway we entered through:


Oh, how fortunate we were to have Giovanni as our tour guide in Fanano.

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Don't Request a Diet Coke at Lunch

Modena - the only place on earth where official Balsamic Vinegar is produced.
Also, the place where we made a little "faux pas" by requesting a Diet Coke with our elegant lunch of saffron tortellini with rustic tomato - ham sauce.

A simple question posed to our waiter, "Do you have Diet Coke?" elicited the response of "Oh My God, No!" (with Italian accent), complete with dejected body language. We all had a great laugh over it. And swore never to ask at a restaurant again.

Note - Diet Coke (or Coke Light) is perfectly acceptable at the Italian "snack cafes", where you can get a quick slice of pizza, panini sandwich or calzone. Just not at a "proper" restaurant.

I guess a Diet Coke wouldn't have complimented the delicious tortellini:


Instead, we drank a smooth beer. Simply the best beer I have ever consumed. Really.

But then we found out the beer was a Home Brew, not this Serpico Brand. Darn.

We did find Diet Coke after lunch. Our friend, Dave, really wanted one. He enjoyed every drop of it.

We found the Diet Coke by the Modena Duomo:


So now you know - where to get your Diet Coke fix when in the city of Modena.

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51/365 - 47 Baptisms

Wow, what an incredible sight. Two baptism troughs at the front of the worship hall, a 25 minute sermon and an impromptu call for baptisms. Over two services, 47 people came forward. As a frame of reference, the church baptized a little over 80 people in 2009.



I didn't have my camera at church, so no pictures except for this one I snapped later on in the day. But a tremendous day.

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February 12 on 12

This month I didn't forget and got my 12 pictures throughout the day.

Morning means preparation for school. Brian's class held their Valentine's party this afternoon, and I signed up to bring drinks.

No, I didn't bring beer! And lest you think we are bunch of boozers here, all of the beer is leftover from our Super Bowl Party. It will probably last until next year! (OK, it won't, but it will last a while). I took the sodas (again, leftovers from the Super Bowl Party) out of the fridge. And this is the fridge in the garage, which houses all of our drinks and "overflow food".

The water is in the kettle, heating up for my coffee:

Hey, you can see a reflection of the window - and there's a bit of light starting to peak through the clouds.

I woke up with a sore throat, the sniffles and I can't stop sneezing. Time for pseudoephedrine and zyrtec.


I went upstairs to roust Brian out of his bed.

Yes, he is in there.

And I took a picture of the outside pond from his window. Yes, that white stuff is still hanging around.


We're at Brian's school now, and he's picking out his lunch selection card. Friday's are easy - it's pizza day.


On my drive to work, I got stuck behind a large farm tractor.

While not an unusual sight during harvest season, this is February! I've never run into large farm equipment in the winter. [then again, there's corn still standing in some of the fields this year]. Notice the frosty trees off to the right? Hoar frost. Beautiful.

At work, we have been planning a big plant shutdown and computer conversion. I decided to write the dates on the big calendar this morning. Then at 11:15, I was called to an "emergency meeting" at 11:30 to discuss the plant shutdown. Moved to September.


After lunch, I needed a little chocolate snack.

Perfect while working on the computer!

After work, I took Erica to the stable for her horse riding lesson.

Hey, she even waved to me!

After dinner, I drove Brian to church where he is spending the night in a "Lock In".
That means he'll run around the indoor playground, drink soda and eat snacks. I doubt there will much "sleeping".

Because he'll be spinning around on the merry-go-round, hanging on for dear life:


We spent the rest of the evening watching the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics. A great day.

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