Long weekend - Snowdonia

Found out about long weekend late, hence, was unable to go somewhere further. Ended up driving to Snowdonia, about 4 hours drive. Beautiful national park. Pleasantly surprised. Nearby was Isle of Anglesey, dramatic coastline. In the past, people from Dublin (Ireland) would travel to London via Holyhead (at the tip of Isle of Anglesey) and go through Snowdonia (holiday destination favourite amongst landscape artists) to London. On the way back, we stopped at Shrewsbury, a medieval trading town.

Very good places for hiking

Varied scenary.

Isle of Angleasey

Shrewsbury and interesting buildings.

Italy Apr 14

First "major" holiday of the year. So much logistics, as trip was for 10 days, 3 cities, 5 people. Make that 2 countries, since Vatican City is also a country.

The trip did not start on the right note. Upon arriving at Bristol airport, I realised that I had left my wallet at home! This meant that I had to cancel my car rental(no driving license) in Florence, where we had chosen to stay in the countryside instead of the city. Fortunately, wife had our cash card.

We started in Venice, took a train to Florence, and finally flew back from Rome. Each city was different, and each got more interesting for me. I had not expected to achieve so much - we saw all the key sights plus much more, and I found time to do a pilgrimage - Seven Pilgrimage Churches in Rome. This was a last minute arrangement when we had a free day in Rome. Miraculously, we had managed to complete it without GPS (phone battery dead) and with the itinerary lost (at the 2nd site). It was miraculous because we had walked past the second one a couple of times without realising, but thanks to the extra walk, we managed to bump into the priest who gave us a private tour despite the church not being opened until a couple of hours later. Then, a series of fortunate events such as having lunch at the trattoria and seeing a bus stop sign going to one of the sites out of town; and remembering the names of the other sites, finding the right people to give us directions and getting to the last one 5 minutes before closing!

So while this was an extremely tiring trip, it was well worth the journey. Tuscany is as I had wanted it to be, and I am impressed with Rome - which was clearly not built in a day.

Venice

Canals everywhere

St Mark's Square and Basilica (Piazza/Basilica St Marco)


Florence

We were staying in the countryside. Really lovely, beautiful and relaxing setting. Only an hour bus away from city centre.

Florence Duomo and various other sides in Florence. Two worthy mentions: Relic of St Sebastian and a Botticeli (forgot which Museum that was from). Missed "David" and Uffizi Gallery. Too crowded.

Rome

Spectacular sites in Rome.
Clockwise from Top Left: Pantheon, inside Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona (next to our hotel), Colosseum outside and Roman Forum.

Impressive Vatican Museum. But took at least an hour to walk through the exhibits before being able to reach Sistine Chapels.

Seven Pilgrimage Churches in Rome

St Peter Basilica. If you look closely, the figure in white in centre of picture of church's exterior is Pope Francis.

St Maria Maggiore Basilica. The crypt contained wood from the Holy Crib of the nativity of Jesus

St Lorenzo outside the walls. Really small but old and charming church.

Basilica of St Giovanni (John) Lateran Basilica. Impressive decor. Two interesting mentions in the cloister. Seat of first popes and column depicting height of Christ. He's really tall.

St Croce in Gerusalemme. Very impressive collection of relics. Wood and nails from the cross.

Basilica of St Paul outside the walls. Huge! See sarcophagus of St Paul in the crypt below the altar.

Santuario della Madonna dell Divine Amore. Outside the city, but really beautiful scenery. Picture on tower is miraculous and had saved a man from being ravaged by wild dogs.

Wells

Nearby town with a large cathedral. Was told by colleague it was her favourite little town in UK. So had to see it for myself. Not too bad, liked it more than Salisbury from last week.

Stonehenge and Salisbury

It was not easy to appreciate the magnificence of these rocks as they are a mere fraction of what they used to be. Fortunately, there is an in-house exhibition to showcase the previous grandeur.

Nearby is Salisbury town with a very large cathedral called Salisbury Cathedral.

From top left: The rocks, Nicholas at the rocks, Salisbury town centre
From bottom right: Salisbury Cathedral and interior.

Burgundy Jan '14

Did a stopover in France for 4 days. As I had been to Paris a couple of times, but never been outside of Paris in France, we decided that we would drive to Beaune, Dijon and Vezelay (Burgundy).

While the trip was relaxing and weather fantastic in those four days (sunny, 10 degrees), unfortunately,
1. We could not take advantage of the wines
2. It was winter and there were few leaves (colours) to add to our photos
3. I had forgotten to bring a proper camera
4. It was surprisingly very similar to English countryside, except the scale looked like a magnification of 2-3 times.

Top Row: Vineyard with Chateau along Côte d'Or,Beaune City Centre has buildings with really nice looking windows, gregory with a really large bull/cow along the way
Middle Row: Vineyards, Hospices de Beaune (interesting how hospitals in the past looked like inside), Dijon City Centre
Bottom Row: Palace at Dijon City Centre, Notre Dame de Beaune, Chateau whose-name-I-had-forgotten

Clockwise from top left: Basilica of St Magdelene (Vezelay), View of Vezelay from Saint-Père, on the way up to the Basilica, relic of St Magdelene, view from Basilica

Edinburgh Nov '13

Edinburgh has so much to offer. Good that we had four full days. Other than Arthur's Seat, which given more time, I would have chosen not to climb up, we've probably covered the most important sights. However, I like Edinburgh sufficiently to warrant a plan for visit if my parents do visit us in UK.


Top Row from left: Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Castle
Middle Row: In Holyrood Castle, Scottish Parliament
Bottom Row: National Gallery of Scotland, Chinese Emperor's Seat, Prince's Street


Top Row from left: Library in Portrait Gallery, El Greco Painting?, Royal Britannia Yacht
Middle Row: Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Castle, View of Arthur's Seat from cannon window at Castle
Bottom Row:St Gile's Cathedral, in Cathedral, Scottish dish?

South Wales Oct 13

Top Row Left: Crossing Severn bridge from Bristol to Wales, Chepstow Castle, Chepstow high street
Centre Row Left: Chepstow Castle exterior, Chepstow Castle Tower, Tintern Abbey exterior
Bottom Row Left: Tintern Abbey interior, Raglan Castle interior, Caerphilly Castle

Wales is 30 min away from Bristol. To get there, we had to cross the Severn Bridge. Our first stop was Chepstow Castle. It was sufficiently impressive to convince us to buy a 3 day unlimited Castle visits pass around Wales. Hence, we visited Tintern Abbey, Raglan Castle and Caerphilly Castle over the next 2 days (had forgotten about the 3rd day)

Of the lot, Tintern Abbey has an impressive structure, considering it was built about a thousand years ago. Caerphilly Castle is nicest castle of the lot. As it was near Cardiff (Capital of Wales), we managed to catch dinner and some shopping there.