Christmas in Sicily, 2006

Fogged in at Heathrow, with a prediction for fog through the weekend…that’s what we had had for the 3 days prior to our Saturday departure to Catania, Sicily for Christmas through New Year’s. Mt Etna is the backdrop of Catania.

However, whatcha gonna do, so off we go on Friday, via train, to London to spend a day at a lunchtime concert at St Martins-in-the-Fields, the afternoon at the National Gallery, and a nice dinner at a Covent Garden eatery. Up at 4:30AM on Saturday morning to catch our 6:40 flight, we woke to no fog (must be living right) and minimal crowds. So, off we go to Rome, and then to Catania, Sicily.

As planned, we met our travel buddies Ric and Jane at the Rome airport, we traveled with them last Christmas to Albertville, France, part of the French Alps Haut Savoie region, but that’s a whole nother story…suffice it to say we took the warm clothes on that trip. Well, wouldn’t you know, the one time we took absolutely nothing on the plane, our bags go missing (maybe we’re not living right). It’s a boring travel story but on the 3rd day, I feel like I’m telling a resurrection story here, our bags rose from the dead and appeared in Catania. Woowee…let the fun start!

Highlights of our trip included a Christmas day trip to Taormina for lunch at the beautiful Hotel Timeo (Jim and I managed, just barely, to look presentable with our clothes we had been wearing for 4 days), a trip to the top of Mt Etna (its an active volcano folks…but we braved it…not too scary in the winter with all the snow on top…lots of people skiing), a trip to Syracuse to see the Greek ruins and its old-town on the island of Ortygia (voted by all of us as a wonderful place to visit…the Piazza del Duomo was beautiful), and some of the best seafood meals we’ve ever eaten.

To top it off, the house we rented was great, it had beautiful terraces looking out over the Ionian Sea (excellent for al fresco breakfasts), was surrounded by fruit orchards (lemons, grapefruit, tangerine, orange, kumkwat, avocado – all shamelessly plundered by our group – fresh squeezed juice every morning), was within an easy walk to Acireale for shopping and exploring, and had a sweet fishing village that was located down the hill, accessible via a footpath that was an old Roman road. All in all, just what we had wanted for our winterbreak.

see ya,

b'bu

English country side and other differences

This time last year we were getting our heads around the many differences this place the UK presented. There are many more than I thought. Last year we toured the dales of Yorkshire, beautiful stretches of farm land barely populated with people. The rolling hills were filled with sheep and subdivided by century old hand stacked stone walls. We walked around in awe. This year our UK treks took us to the Cotswolds sort of west side of London in the country alright. Below are flowers I encountered there one American and the other English.

First off we rented a car and headed off to Chipping Camden, sounds foreign to me too. On this day, dawn brought rain, dark clouds, and little to no sun. We had a car full Bet, Susie, Rose and driver boy, me. Everything is a little tense since we are on English roads, which since we are Americans, we require a navigator. The Bet and Susie took turns navigating. I think they enjoyed telling me what to do. You get the picture, I can’t push my smart ass attitude too much. The Cotswolds is as good of country side as I’ve seen. It is a completely different place then the Yorkshire dales not better than but different in a more stately way. It is very different than say Alabama, Mississippi or Georgia. We got large expanses of country side but not like these. Beauty wise the same, but the feel is just different. One thing that jumps out at me is the concept of public right of ways. In the UK, there are public paths just about everywhere. The paths are fairly marked and they crisscross private property all about. We pretty much don’t have a similar concept, maybe roads, but not pedestrian walk and bike paths. So the UK provides access to much of it’s country side, which is a pretty interesting concept. So when we go to an area like the dales, vales, moors or the Cotswolds we’re talking about miles, and miles or walking paths that go every which way. I like that a lot but its’ a pretty different concept for me to get my head around. Even though you can walk around rivers and creeks, they are not public. You can’t just fish where ever you please, that must be a throw back to the old Lord and serf thing. You know where the King owned everything.

Our base camp was established in a hotel in Chipping Camden. A English village which was a market town. So people from smaller villages would come here. There were a lot of people with money here. The housing of stone and mortar abounds. We found large expansive grounds and structures which I equate to castles, manors, and monasteries. The area supported huge gardens maintained by the UK’s historic trusts.

… see ya, j'bu