Rome and the Almalfi Coast

I thought I was going to have at least a week between finishing at Johnson Matthey and starting harvest so Kelley and I booked flights in and out of Rome. As it turned out, I could have worked right through but it was a great opportunity to see some more of Italy.

I had enjoyed Venice when we went there and this trip confirmed my opinion that Italy was one of the best countries I had visited.

Rome was amazing with all its old sights and Vatican City. Our time in Rome did not start well as I badly stubbed my toe on the first morning but it didn't slow us down too much. We ticked off the main sights in Rome, the one I enjoyed the least was the Sistine Chapel because of the huge queues and the crowds, it just wasn't worth the effort.

Soome highlights of Rome:

Trevi Fountain



Pantheon



Collesseum



The huge St Peter's Cathedral



St Peter's Square



Statue's overlooking St Peter's Square



The Map room on the way to the Sistene Chapel, which took hours.....



Nuns hanging around St Peter's Square, well, where else would you expect them to be...



Getting cool with a Ferrari in the Ferrari shop



One of the many Squares or Piazzas




It was super hot the whole time, 35 degrees plus, and our train to and from Naples and then on to Sorrento had little and no air conditioning respectively.

Sorrento is the start of the Almalfi Coast and we based ourselves there for the remaining days, tenting on a dry dusty ledge on a side of a cliff near the sea. We filled on our time with day trips:

- Pompeii to see the ruins. we were hoping to walk up Mt Vesuvius but it was far too hot.

Ruins with Vesuvius in the background



A well preserved body



More ruins....



Half dead dog (these were everywhere) in one of the more well preserved houses



- Hiring a scooter and driving down the Almalfi Coast. This was the best day, weaving along the narrow, windy road, stopping off to cool down in the sea (we saw Kyle Mills at Almalfi) or to fill up the scooter with 6 euro of fuel.

Scootering in our trendy yellow helmets



469 steps down to this beach, worth it though



Umbrellas for hire



Crazy Italians drilling out a rock face above the road



- Hydrofoil to Capri and swimming in the clear blue sea which was like a warm bath.

Stunning Capri



Of course we ate more than our fair share of pizza and gelato - another big plus about Italy...

The trip back was a bit of a nightmare, over 12 hours of travelling and arriving home at about 3am. I had to get up and repack to be ready to meet Bevan and go down to the farm.

Wimbledon

Kelley and I were fortunate to get tickets through the ballot to Centre Court at Wimbledon. We were a bit unlucky with the programme (ladies quarter finals) but we were very lucky with the weather. We packed a huge lunch and settled down to watch Dementieva beat Petrova and Serena Williams and the Blake brothers from USA both win. I had small bets on all 4 quarter finals and 3 won and the 4th was still live so that made for a good day too! We saw bits of a few other matches including some entertaining over 45's and enjoyed our day in the sun.

Catching an official steward posing in front of the logo



Crowds watching the big screen on Henman hill



Demntieva serving on Centre Court

Radiohead Concert

Gabs kindly picked up a few drinks before the concert to get us in the zone and we rolled in feeling like we almost belonged....

Radiohead had put out a new album and I hadn't heard any of it but they played a mixture of old and new songs and the concert was brilliant. It was the first outdoor concert I had been to and we had a very clear and calm night for it.



Getting home was the only hassle but we made short work of the first leg of the journey, exiting the ground by packing into an effective front row scrum formation and ploughing on through.

Sintra - Portugal

Probably my last European weekend break, Sintra was a good place to spend it but highlighted the problem with weekend breakaways - travel time. We used almost every type of public transport getting there and away which was a bit frustrating.

Sintra is about an hour by train from Lisbon and the Old Town is a World Heritage site. The main tourist sights included a few palaces. a Moorish castle ruin on the top of the hill and was clouded in mist when we visited, a monastery and just the general serenity. We spent Saturday visiting some of these places, doing the tourist thing, and by the end of the day our feet were almost worn out.

Moorish Castle ruins, in fog for precisely the length of time we were there



Palace, also on top of the hill overlooking the Old Town



Looking up from down a well



Sunday was much more relaxing, we went to the beach and then I got very red soaking up the rays at the hotel pool but at least we got some sunshine.

Stage 1 2007

It was my second last weekend in London and my last opportunity to attempt the 180km stage to Canterbury that was stage 1 of the 2007 Tour de France. Hamish was persuaded to come along and we were fortunate to have perfect weather for out attempt. Our directions were not so perfect but we managed to flounder our way to the half way mark at Royal Tonbridge Wells in time for some well earned lunch.



I set off on my own after lunch feeling good and making good progress but both changed - firstly the good progress as I could find no road signs that matched my instructions and the the feeling good as I hadn't eaten since lunch time. Finally I crawled into Canterbury about 8 hours after starting and after a real struggle for the last hour. A high dose of chocolate and chocolate related products soon fixed me up and I took the train back to London feeling very satisfied.

Twenty/20 in Hove

Our trip to see some Twenty/20 cricket in Hove (near Brighton) on a Friday night after work proved to be more difficult than we imagined. Here is a list of things that didn't go to plan:
- delayed train from Victoria
- train was absolutely packed so we had to stand
- we had to sprint to catch the connecting train through crowded platforms
- arrived at the cricket just as they were putting the 'Sold out' signs up
- having to fork out stack loads of £'s to get a seat
- train breakdown on the way back
- further significant train delays
- losing a tennis ball onto the tracks

At least the cricket was good and it was a nice night. Hampshire claimed the win off the last ball thanks to some poor fielding and shocking keeping all night by Matt Prior.

Lake Geneva and the Alps

Our trip to Geneva was rather unplanned, just show up, pick up a car and drive around, stopping and camping where we liked. We stayed the first two nights in Lausanne and went for a good walk in the hills on Friday. It was a great day and perfect for a deviation from the marked track and conquering a mountain.

Josh, Kelley and Helen on the grassy base, just before the steep stuff.



A bit of scrambling was called for at times.



Breaking the psychological barrier - hitting the snow



View from the top, towards Lake Geneva



More from the top.



It was nice to be out and about in the countryside which was very peaceful apart from the constant clanging of animal bells.



We were kind of lucky and kind of unlucky with the weather, all days bar the last were quite nice but all nights bar the first it rained. It was a bit frustrating constantly having wet tents in the morning.

After a wander through Gruyere, we took to the hills again, this time the cheat's way in a high gondola.



View from the walk back down, thanks to Josh for the intruding snowball.



We were a bit sore after a couple of days of hill walking but we managed a long walk on our final afternoon through some vineyards.



It rained again on our final night and was still raining in the morning which was frustrating but it had been a relaxing and interesting trip away so none of us were too upset.