View from our window: Bicester, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. 10:56am, 29 March 2023.
In spite of all the rain, we did occasionally see the sun during our visit to London and its surrounds. Watching the deer in Knole Park Knole House The old Royal Naval College, from the Queen's House, in Greenwich A goose struts her stuff in St. James's Park Hever Castle Hever Castle Lake And even some green grass and sunshine at The Valley
Our wonderful weather luck came to a grinding halt in London. I was gratified to read that southern England saw only 10% of its typical sunshine in the first half of March — at least the terrible weather wasn't all in our heads. The good new is the grey and damp wasn't much of an impediment to a London itinerary loaded with weather-agnostic museums. A quick run-down, ranked from the perspective of two small boys who favour vehicles and firepower above most other things. Maritime Museum The Maritime Museum in Greenwich was such a favourite that we went twice. There
We landed at Heathrow with plans to spend almost four full weeks based at Sam's parents house in the London suburbs, giving us ample opportunity to play tourist in central London. First on our list of iconic London sights was a trip to the Tower Of London. It is a quite an expensive day out, so it's not something I had ever done before. The entry queue for the Tower starts to form around 9:30, but it didn't feel overly busy apart from the line-up to see the Crown Jewels. We missed out on the Imperial State Crown as it
View from our window: Chislehurst, United Kingdom. 8:07am, 12 March 2023.
At three weeks, the Italian section of our travels was very much the kind of thing you might do as a stand-alone holiday. Frankly, we could have quite easily spent three weeks at each of our stops (maybe only two in Venice), taking more side trips, having more days feeling like we could just chill without rushing to yet another must-see sight. Of course, Schengen rules being what they are, that kind of leisurely pace would have meant visiting Italy and only Italy. Even so, we found the itinerary aggressive, and would have wished to somehow carve out a few
Unlike Germany and Austria, everyone expects to eat sumptuously in Italy, and it didn't disappoint. The cuisine is deeply regional — whatever foodstuffs we adored in one place would be entirely unavailable in the next. Each town had its own slightly different ragù, and its own twist on pastry. There was rather more seafood than we expected, rather fewer vegetables, and we got quite addicted to the €1.40 cappuccini. The commitment to quality in ingredients was heartening. A shop in Rome wouldn't sell us fresh ricotta until the heard that we were planning to eat it that day, and the guanciale
Carnival in Venice is a really big deal. People flock to the city in serious costumes and serious masks to attend serious balls. By some reports, 3 million visitors come to Venice for the festivities, representing something like 15% of the total annual tourist traffic in just two weeks. In past days as an independent republic, Venice was known as "La Serenissima", the "most serene". Well, not during Carnival it isn't. Costumes and masks on display in a Venice shop. I'd like to say it was careful planning on our part that had us arriving in Venice at the absolute
One way to escape the crowds Venice is to head out to the islands. We set our sights for Murano, famed for its glass making. Firing glass in the kiln Shaping hot glass into a glass. While we were there, we were blessed with our first properly sunny day in Venice. The canals came alive in a whole new way with the sunshine dancing off the water. And, of course, the thrill of an extra-long boat ride out into the lagoon. Leaving Murano on the Water Bus
Venice was our last stop on the Italian leg of the trip. We arrived by train, and emerged from the station straight onto the banks of the Grand Canal. Fully embracing the nature of the city, we hopped on a waterbus to our (super) apartment in the Dosoduro, south of the main centre. We arrived in the peak of Carnival so things were especially busy. To try to skip the worst of that, we tended to hustle out of the door pretty early, fortified by pastries and coffee from the bakery under our apartment. Thus, while St. Mark's Square is