An hour away from Montpellier is the Provençal town of Arles. Previously a Roman town, it has an amphitheatre, a theatre and the Alyscamps, a field of famous graves. So famous in fact that, in mediaeval times, people used to pay to be buried there and the Rhone boatmen made a fortune transporting coffins. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyscamps There is also a famous poem. https://www.poetica.fr/poeme-1956/paul-jean-toulet-en-arles/ We have seen … Continue reading Arles

If you arrange to leave London on the Eurostar on a Sunday morning, you have to be prepared to travel on the Saturday and stay overnight. So far so logical. Having packed, tidied, deposited the dog with the kind people who are looking after her for the week and generally faffed about, I walked down to the station and got the train. Where I live … Continue reading Travel in times of plague – continued. (Not mentioning Brexit)

Saturday: time to pack and return home. However, there is one last palazzo to visit before then. The Palazzo Albrizzi, built in the 15thC and heavily decorated in the 17th, is still privately owned. We were, of course, shown round and given coffee by the owner, Lorenzo Rubin de Cervin. I believe he is also a Count. I feel that I should only consort with … Continue reading And finally……

Firstly, apologies for any typos in the previous posts. I have just been back and corrected some of them. This is the trouble with writing this thing late at night full of wine. Firstly, visits to two palazzi, one of which is still family owned but divided into flats and the second one of which is a museum of the 18thC. The Palazzo Pisani Moretta … Continue reading Friday!

Again, it is March and there is still a pandemic on. This means that St Mark’s Square, ‘the drawing room of Europe’ (Napoleon), is mainly empty. Some tour groups, including one all wearing the same jacket (scary) and some individual travellers but apart from that ….. This is a memorial on the way to the square to the leader of the abortive 1848 rising against … Continue reading To St Mark’s, the Doge’s Palace and all that.

It’s all been very busy today and we have walked miles. Firstly, on the vaporetto to the Rialto bridge. Built in the 16C to replace the previous wooden one, it has shops and three sets of steps. We are very lucky that Venice is so quiet – as the only bridge over the Grand Canal, it is normally heaving with tourists. After this, to the … Continue reading Venice – day 2.

It’s a combination of things. Driving into Heathrow on Monday and then taking the bus from the hotel to the terminal (and a bus from the terminal to the actual plane), means you get to see all the back corners. Cargo companies, snowploughs (just in case), open country and a church steeple, people going to work in hi-vis and wooly hats…… All human life is … Continue reading Heathrow. And Venice.

Despite layers of complex admin – proof of vaccination, FFP2 masks, destination forms and tests every five minutes, travel is on again. At the moment I am ensconced in a Premier Inn at Heathrow. Not exotic so far but necessary when check in is at 7am. The novelty of hotels has returned – I was getting very blasé by the time I returned from my … Continue reading Yes! Things are happening again!

And on the last day of the holidays, we went to Alnwick Castle. This is the seat of the Dukes of Northumberland and has been in the same family for 700 years. It has also been used as a film set and is consequently overrun with Harry Potter and Downton Abbey fans. We visited the State Rooms – a riot of mid-Victorian gilding – but … Continue reading And the end is nigh….

Many days have passed in leisurely older lady vacations – tea shops, random tv programmes and historic sites. Brinkburn Priory. A mediaeval monastery , dissolved in the 16C and re-consecrated in the 19C. Alongside, there is a Manor House built in the early 19C but subsequently abandoned. In the Ingram Valley on the moors towards the Scottish border. This is the River Breamish. Vindolanda. The … Continue reading Last days of Northumberland