A woodland blog is all very well but changes to a woodland can be slow.
Instead of pictures and stories of trees I have made the executive decision to write a travel blog entry for 2013.
Well it's my blog and I'll change if I want to.
In May 2013 G and I took a road trip through Europe, heading to a wedding event in Italy. It all started with;
Proposal of Marriage. Eskbank May 2012
The occupants of the water tower came to us for dinner in May 2012. Jordan was intent on a proposal of marriage. Telling his girlfriend Agnieszka to prepare for a night out on the town at a top restaurant, he proceeded to get into his car and drove......5 metres. They parked and he told Agnieszka that they had arrived. We knew what had been planned and tried hard not to spill the beans. We served them dinner à deux on our terrace and waited. At last the proposal was made, she said yes and hence the reason for this travel blog. We were invited to the wedding a year later.
But this was to be no ordinary wedding. They decided to have 4 events with the principle wedding in Italy, followed by events in Poland, in Canada and finally in Scotland.
An invite to Italy for me was special. I have never been to Italy but Gerry studied hill town architecture there as a student some 27 years ago. I suspect the hill town studies might have gone somewhat down hill judging by the stories regaled to me over the years. The student trip seemed to focus on skiing, beer, women and ways to make a quick buck to supplement funds. The latter being street side paintings available for sale to tourists. "Never misses a chance" Gerry sent me hand painted post cards promising to take me to Italy one day. it's been a long wait.
We could have done the simple thing and take a flight, go to a wedding and then fly home. Why make life simple, lets drive there and make it an adventure. And such an opportunity to buy a new car! "never misses a chance" Susan has her way despite protests from G. Buying a new car could be a story in its own right, especially when G turns up with the trade in car minus the Registration document, then goes home to find it, to return gleefully with said document....for another car that was sold 5 years previously. (People wonder what I contribute to our marriage. Its organisation of paper work but for some reason car files have never been under my control. They are now.)
We pack up the car and carefully place a precious item down the centre of the packing cases. Yep, the wedding dress. What a responsibility.
Sally Sat Nav
5 days prior to leaving Eskbank we purchased a Sat Nav. Who says we are slow to pick up new technology. Neither of us were particularly keen to use it but since G is navigator and I drive, it's over to him to work it out. "Did I know we were 30 metres above sea level". "The sat nav will give you an instruction in 2 minutes". "This thing is amazing". I heard it time and time again. I gently suggested it was useful to listen to the Sat Nav and we decided to call her, Sally Sat Nav.
We drove to Newcastle, enjoyed the ferry crossing and duly drove through Holland and onto Germany. Don't you just love the German style of driving. Decisive, fast and uncomplicated. We found our first night stop, nothing grand but adequate. Next day, Switzerland. Again the driving was good and the roads were easy. We set Sally for Wengen, I have always wanted to see Wengen, preferably to ski but not this time.
So Sally gets us into a valley and then seems to get quite cross. Turn right, keep left, make a U Turn, enter the roundabout. But we were in a field. We ask a camp site owner how to get to Wengen. Well its up the hill, by train of course. You can't drive there. Poor Sally. I feel we should be able to write new code for superlatives that best descibe what she really wants to say to us.
Wengen is stunning. Go there if you get the chance.
Wengen
Low cloud with the sun coming through at the mountain tops.
The most stunning waterfall
The valley
This photo shows a novel way to stake a newly planted tree.
On To Mondovi
We leave for Mondovi on a wet day. A long drive and the contrast in road management between Switzerland and Italy is marked. The Vignette system in Switzerland makes life easy, but there's no such simplicity in Italy. Getting out of the car to pay the road tolls is annoying, but it is very annoying with rain running down your neck.
But eventually we arrive in Mondovi, or thereabouts. By now it is dark and we were struggling with the narrow roads. By good fortune we spot Jordan running across the square and we decide he has clearly become Italian overnight.
Park there, no there, no no wait you can't do that. Oh ..... the road rising bollards have just come up, you can't get in here. Oh F..k
Agnieskza arrives to help, G gets out the car to let her in and I then promptly reverse into a low level bollard. The noise of the car on the bollard did not sound good at all. It's a car I tell myself, it doesn't matter, its just a lump of metal with an engine.
It will be the trim popping off said A, and she was right. I chose not to look! Parked the car, took in the essentials and joined the wedding party. Red wine and cheese. Who gives a .... about a car.
In the morning the sun is shining. I get a lie in as G walks down the steep hill and brings up all our luggage. What a guy. Better than that, he tells me he has popped the trim back on the car and there's no damage.
I get up, take a walk down for my sunglasses out of the car and meet a wrinkled old man walking uphill. He beams at me, speaks to me in Italian and I shrug not understanding a single word.I look up at the sky, point to the sun and tell him I am happy. He laughs and then gives me a hug. He must have been at least 90. I immediately decide I am moving to Italy.
Mondovi is beautiful. A typical, I guess, (since this is my first visit to Italy!) square with people parading with their family on a Sunday morning. Photos speak a thousand words so here they are.
The Wedding
On the day of the wedding the sun is still shining. The service is held in the most stunning place I have ever seen. I am not going to write about the wedding because I am hoping J and A might do that in due course and I can make a link to that. This blog post could be completely consumed with events around the wedding so maybe another day.
Suffice to have a couple of our photos for now and to tell you that the event was awesome, exciting, eventful, organised to precision without the feeling of being overly managed, and I met some of the nicest people on this Earth. Thank you J and A.
Homeward Bound
The feeling of post wedding event blues hits and we spend a morning researching our route home but really thinking how nice it would be to stay on in Mondovi. Get moving, we have a ferry to catch in 6 days time. Travelling back through Germany we find some lovely places off the main Autobahn and book our overnight stops. Again another story, too much to tell, but the owner of one place has trained the chefs at the German cafe in Edinburgh and East Lothian and G suddenly has a whole new world to explore. I go shopping.
Waiting for the shops to open.
Amsterdam
The German stop over was so good that we stayed on for 3 nights, which meant that we had to sprint back to Amsterdam if we were going to any justice to the sights of Amsterdam. Well here was the first sight of the day!
The Amsterdam canals were wonderful. I am guessing lots of folks have been there, done that, so I'll leave it at that. The Red Light District? Not for me. How could these girls parade their flabby bits for all to see in a shop window? An old fashioned butchers shop is more appealing.
Boat trip on the canal.
We visited the sights, the museum and generally became very tired. Fortunately we had booked into a nice hotel (on the inside at least) in Zandvoort on Sea and our late evenings were quiet and relaxing. The beach was lovely and the protected dunes held many secrets not seen from the roadside. Worth a visit I promise you.
The beach at Zandvoort.
So that's it for this post, I have run out of steam to write up more about Amsterdam and I have to get ready to go out this afternoon. This post has served a dual purpose in that it has allowed me to get used to an Apple Mac. Some interesting difficulties have appeared but you know the guy who got married? he is an expert and he lives across the road you know.
Jordan......How do you ..........
