England and Italy

October 10 - November 7, 2007

We needed a trip after staying home all summer and keeping our house spotless in case a prospective buyer came round. We booked a trip home at relatively short notice and weren’t able to find a cottage for the whole time we needed. So we did some old style running around and then had a cottage for 10 days.

The morning we left Truckee we woke to 6” of snow. To get out of Truckee we have to go over a pass, and the road information said there was chain control over the pass. We then had to mess around returning the rental car we had planned to drive down to San Francisco in, and take our own car and park it at the airport for 4 weeks - grrrrrr ...

Once in England we started the trip by going to the theatre in Malvern. Going to the theatre on your very first night in the country is not something we would now recommend. Although it was a good play we were so tired it was hard to stay awake - pretty embarrassing as we were in the second row. Next day we went to the other side of the country, to Norfolk, so that I could take a bread making class. Whilst I was in the class Roman met my Uncle Brian at Duxford and got another dose of airplanes! From Norfolk we went to Ashton near Peterborough for the World Conker Championship - an event we’ve long wanted to witness. It was a very silly couple of hours, watching grown-ups taking conkers relatively seriously, but very entertaining. Next on to Coventry for a couple of days with Roman’s Mum before we went up to Cotterill Farm, near Buxton, for 10 days of beautiful Derbyshire countryside. Yet again we were lucky with the weather and were able to do some spectacular hikes.

Anthony and Shannon joined us for a couple of days and we tried to wear them out with a 15 mile bike ride and a day at Go Ape. Go Ape was a lot of fun but more challenging for myself and Anthony because neither of us is too keen on heights. It was also bloody freezing so I found it hard to hang on to anything because my hands were so cold. Click here to see an 18 minute video of our Go Ape experience.

From Buxton we went to Brighton for a couple of days. We bought Renny rollerblades for her birthday and it was lovely to be able to watch her take to them like a duck to water.

Roman and I have both always wanted to see Pompeii so decided to take a quick trip to Italy to have a look at it. We flew into Naples and after taking the bus from the airport to the train station walked to our hotel. It was quite an adventure - the roads in Naples are insane. Roads that on a map look like they should be as big as the Champs Elysee were only maybe 15’ wide, with cars, mopeds and people going in all directions, and everyone using their horn or shouting. We were slightly traumatized by the time we’d walked the 1.5 miles to the hotel.

Next day we were up early before the insane traffic and walked back to the train station to take the train to Pompeii. Pompeii was incredible. It’s hard to believe that it’s 2000 years old. Pompeii also gave us an appreciation for Naples. The streets are laid out just the same, the shops are about the same size, and you can imagine that if Pompeii hadn’t been buried by ash, life would be going on there exactly the same as it is in Naples. Naples is like a living piece of history and for that it is worth dealing with the insanity. The next couple of days we spent in Amalfi. It’s somewhere we’d always heard is incredibly beautiful, and it is, but it was a little too confining for us. We did spend my birthday walking from Amalfi to Ravello, 1.5 hours up steps! It was exhausting but we both really enjoyed it. Whilst on the train from Naples to Sorrento we started chatting to an older Italian couple - on our way back from Amalfi we arrived in Sorrento and bumped into them again so spent a couple of hours visiting with them at their home. It was pretty entertaining for me because I don’t speak Italian and the wife of the couple didn’t speak English - we managed some level of communication and really enjoyed meeting them.

Back in England we spent a couple more nights in Brighton, which enabled us to go to Lewes for Bonfire Night. Lewes is probably the biggest event in the country and it was absolute madness. Roman is still in raptures after watching the South Street Society blow up the Pope - not just into pieces but into atoms!

One last day in London where we ended the trip as we began with a visit to the theatre. We packed a lot into this trip but it flowed well and is going to take a lot of beating.

tracey

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