Europe 2017 ramble. – Page 2

I get gloriously and happily lost (again).

16th July.

My last entry dealt with my first foray into proper sightseeing in the Eternal City and I was pretty fired up to do a bit more. Not only that but I had resolved myself to walk as I am a firm believer that this is the best way to see any city. The previous day I had singularly failed to take an image of the Vatican due to equipment failure. OK, to be perfectly honest I had forgotten to charge the battery of my camera which had given up the ghost at the crucial moment and so I thought I would have an early start on the hop on – hop off bus as my 24 hour ticket ran to 1100 and then walk the rest of the way. Well, that was the plan anyway! Continue reading “I get gloriously and happily lost (again).”

I finally see the sights.

15th July.

I knew I was going to have to make a move towards home sooner rather than later due to the Canada trip and whilst people here will know that I am not an inveterate sightseer by any means I thought it would be a shame not to at least make a small effort to see something and to that end I thought my best option would be to get one of the literally hundreds of open topped “hop-on, hop-off” tourist buses that seem to almost drive in convoy as there are so many of them.

I must admit that I was one of those who used to slightly sneer at people using them on the principle that if you just buy a day rover ticket on local public transport and plan properly you can do exactly the same thing for yourself at a fraction of the cost. I know this is true where I live in London (when I am ever there!) and I am sure it is the same everywhere in the world. Continue reading “I finally see the sights.”

Another month and I still hadn’t moved.

In my last entry I said that I was breaking off as this entry took me into July 2017 and the previous submission was getting rather unwieldy as it spanned quite a time period and so I thought it made sense. Continue reading “Another month and I still hadn’t moved.”

A whole lot of days in one entry.

This entry is not a mistake as much as it may appear to be one. It is deliberately dated about a month after the last entry and the simple fact is that I did precious little of note during that time and yet achieved so much.

I spent most of my days hanging about in Mauro’s lovely little gastronomia, drinking beer, chatting to the sports journalists of the Gazetta della Sport which was just round the corner and whose employees used to frequent there a lot. I did get some very tasty information about breaking sporting news that way. Amazing what you can find out if you are in the right place and know the right people. Continue reading “A whole lot of days in one entry.”

So there I was in the Eternal City.

11th June.

The 11th of June technically arrived at midnight as it does and with me sitting at the bar of an Irish pub on the Via Nazionale which is the large and very grand “main street” of Rome and runs down the Quirinale hill. The pub is called the Flann O’Brien and I shall deal with it later when I find the images. The reason I was there was that it seemed to be the only gig in town as the Byron across the road had already shut and it wasn’t even half past midnight yet. Continue reading “So there I was in the Eternal City.”

I really should have stayed longer.

10th June, Bergamo.

I know this will sound like yet another ludicrous exploit in what was becoming a somewhat absurd trip but, attractive as Bergamo was, I was heading to Rome and then a vague notion of Napoli and Sicilia which I have long wanted to visit. As always only a vague outline plan but it needed to be done as I had a hotel booked. I had already checked and the trains were regular with a slow train first to Milano and then one of those whiz-bang intercity type things that virtually flies to Rome. However, more of all that later. Continue reading “I really should have stayed longer.”

Moving again, albeit regretfully.

I quite liked Innsbruck and so I thought I would day another night and so I went to the reception to be told the price had gone up from €65 to €70 without any reason given. Sorry, I was not going to pay that kind of money for that kind of room. I can do better in London. Frankly, I can do better by getting myself slung in jail! Thankfully, I had arisen pretty early and so didn’t have to dash immediately so I took to the internet in search of options. Continue reading “Moving again, albeit regretfully.”

Who knows where the time goes?

7th June.

There is now a gap of about a week in this blog series as there really is nothing of interest to report. I went for daily rambles round Kempten, spent much more time in the hotel bar that I probably should have, made friends with the staff at the excellent Peterhof Hotel, relaxed, caught up on this blog a bit in it’s previous incarnation and generally got my travel head back on. I could have stayed there for a long time as it was still early June and Canada would not be “in season” for a while so all was good. Continue reading “Who knows where the time goes?”

Did I tell you about travel inertia before?

This is going to be another “multi-entry” as there is no point in having you skipping pages every minute, you’ll all get RSI!

The 28th of May came around with me in my fourth hotel in as many days and I needed a chill out which I apparently had as my images indicate that I didn’t do a whole lot despite the weather being very summery.

I awoke in my very pleasant hotel room, showered etc. and made my way downstairs for a smoke as it is a completely non-smoking establishment although that was no major hardship as the enclosed garden area to the rear was not only a proper suntrap but also extremely pretty and immaculately kept. The water feature is particularly worthy of note and I hope the image does it justice. Continue reading “Did I tell you about travel inertia before?”

The fun continues.

I have mentioned the “travel Gods” before on this blog which is unusual for an atheist like me and perhaps I am just lucky but I woke up on the morning of 27th March in what we call at home a “garret” room, the garret being basically the attic room where the serving girl lived. My first place away from home was a garret room with a great mate called Kevin (who incidentally taught me the rudiments of whatever culinary skill I may have, he having learnt it in the Merchant Navy) in a similar billet adjacent. I woke up this day with a slanted roof above my head, sunlight coming in the window and looked around to see a room that was certainly much better appointed than my 1979 version but I just got a feeling that the travel gods were on my side that day. Continue reading “The fun continues.”