Thursday, August 31, 2006
Blog day
Today is International Blogging Day apparently, and it is everyone's duty to link to other blog sites in order that they may be seen by a greater public. So here goes -
http://www.charltonathleticonline.co.uk
Sorry, had to link this one, as it's my Charlton blog site!
http://www.frankievalley.com/
And this is the funniest Charlton blog site, and one the funniest in football too!
http://mistressmatisse.blogspot.com/
This site keeps my spirits up (ahem!) and is a breath of fresh air fom one corner of the USA!
http://escribbler.blogspot.com/
This one is about Belize, and football, and brightens up many a day with great pictures and a fresh outlook from afar.
There you go - four that I enjoy reading most days (or when updated). I wonder if any one will link to my site???
Cheers.
Pedro45
http://www.charltonathleticonline.co.uk
Sorry, had to link this one, as it's my Charlton blog site!
http://www.frankievalley.com/
And this is the funniest Charlton blog site, and one the funniest in football too!
http://mistressmatisse.blogspot.com/
This site keeps my spirits up (ahem!) and is a breath of fresh air fom one corner of the USA!
http://escribbler.blogspot.com/
This one is about Belize, and football, and brightens up many a day with great pictures and a fresh outlook from afar.
There you go - four that I enjoy reading most days (or when updated). I wonder if any one will link to my site???
Cheers.
Pedro45
Friday, August 18, 2006
Sicily 2006
Here are a few of the pictures from our recent holiday in Sicily. We had a lovely time, and the weather was pretty good all the way through. The bad news was the driving; mad Italian men who think they owned every stretch of the road made it fairly hairy. The cars/drivers in towns were worst: pulling out in front of you; stopping for no apparent reason; opening doors right in front of you, and then standing in your path in the middle of the road were all common occurences! We only hit two things (we had extra insurance just in case!), which was a bit of a result bearing in mind the above!
However, the highlights outweighed the bad bits. We loved the Vulcanelli, Toarmina, and the Spanish ballet version of Carmen we saw amongst other things. We hated Agrigento, Sortino, and getting lost!
This was the fountain in Piazzo Archimede, the central area of Ortygia, on the island that is the old town part of Syracuse. It was a nice little square, with a couple of bar/cafes round the outside, and also some designer shops too!
This was the Greek amphitheatre at Neapolis in Syracuse - a huge bowl with good views all the way down to the sea. It once seated 15,000 spectators, and we are told it is now used for shows during summer. We thought that the Carmen ballet would be here, but in fact it was held in the nearby lapatie, a quarry dug out by ancient prisoners of war.
This is a view upwards from the main street in Taormina - the cross and castle are visible at the top of the mountain. Most views from here look downwards, to the coast and onwards to the views of Etna. We walked up to try to get to the castle, but it was locked off near the top. We did get way past the cross though. It was very hot and tiring but we enjoyed the walk. We then trundled back down, had some lunch and visited the Greek theatre that you see views of in most Sicilian travel brochures. It was a spectacular view from there - Etna, the ancient ruins, and the coast all in one shot - but we just couldn't quite get the vantage points to make the most of our photos...
We had another long trek down to Cava Grande - the Sicilian equivalent of the Grand Canyon. It's nowhere near as spectacular, but fun all the same. As the walk is quite dangerous, everyone is checked in and out again, being handed a pass for ID. The attendant couldn't understand where we were from as the drivers licence Rachel produced had UK on it - he thought we were from the Ukraine! It's a steep walk down, then you get lots of small river pools to swim, dive or paddle in at the bottom. Lots of other people just soaked up the sun down there, tanning parts they don't normally show on the beach, as it's a bit of a hidden treasure down there. It was a tough walk back up too.
We caught the bus into Noto one day - a day off from the driving pressure - and it's a nice baroque town. One problem we found in most of Sicily is that although you have centuries old buildings, a huge amount of them are covered in 21st Century scaffolding! This is Noto Duomo, whose domed roof collapsed a few years back. It's almost renovated, thanks to the help of the EU who fund most of the rebuilding in Sicily (that isn't mafia backed) it seems.
This is Enna, a town in the middle of the island. We drove here one day on a big loop toward Agrigento. It was lovely, with lots of showery cloud around, and we got some good shots from up here at the castle, which had 360 degree views.
Here's one of the temples in Agrigento...a horrible town, but with an amazing Valley of Temples along a lower ridge.
This was another of the Agrigento temples - this one has the lovely motorway in the background, the noise of which resonated along the ancient valley; it also has the ubiqiutous scaffolding so prevalent in Sicily!.
This was Rachel getting nervous by the vulcanelli de Macalube. They are small volcanoes made of (cold) mud, that are created by and spout methane gas. Wonderful!
This was a view of an Ortygia church from the top of our hotel.
However, the highlights outweighed the bad bits. We loved the Vulcanelli, Toarmina, and the Spanish ballet version of Carmen we saw amongst other things. We hated Agrigento, Sortino, and getting lost!
This was the fountain in Piazzo Archimede, the central area of Ortygia, on the island that is the old town part of Syracuse. It was a nice little square, with a couple of bar/cafes round the outside, and also some designer shops too! 
This was the Greek amphitheatre at Neapolis in Syracuse - a huge bowl with good views all the way down to the sea. It once seated 15,000 spectators, and we are told it is now used for shows during summer. We thought that the Carmen ballet would be here, but in fact it was held in the nearby lapatie, a quarry dug out by ancient prisoners of war.
This is a view upwards from the main street in Taormina - the cross and castle are visible at the top of the mountain. Most views from here look downwards, to the coast and onwards to the views of Etna. We walked up to try to get to the castle, but it was locked off near the top. We did get way past the cross though. It was very hot and tiring but we enjoyed the walk. We then trundled back down, had some lunch and visited the Greek theatre that you see views of in most Sicilian travel brochures. It was a spectacular view from there - Etna, the ancient ruins, and the coast all in one shot - but we just couldn't quite get the vantage points to make the most of our photos...
We had another long trek down to Cava Grande - the Sicilian equivalent of the Grand Canyon. It's nowhere near as spectacular, but fun all the same. As the walk is quite dangerous, everyone is checked in and out again, being handed a pass for ID. The attendant couldn't understand where we were from as the drivers licence Rachel produced had UK on it - he thought we were from the Ukraine! It's a steep walk down, then you get lots of small river pools to swim, dive or paddle in at the bottom. Lots of other people just soaked up the sun down there, tanning parts they don't normally show on the beach, as it's a bit of a hidden treasure down there. It was a tough walk back up too.
We caught the bus into Noto one day - a day off from the driving pressure - and it's a nice baroque town. One problem we found in most of Sicily is that although you have centuries old buildings, a huge amount of them are covered in 21st Century scaffolding! This is Noto Duomo, whose domed roof collapsed a few years back. It's almost renovated, thanks to the help of the EU who fund most of the rebuilding in Sicily (that isn't mafia backed) it seems.
This is Enna, a town in the middle of the island. We drove here one day on a big loop toward Agrigento. It was lovely, with lots of showery cloud around, and we got some good shots from up here at the castle, which had 360 degree views.
Here's one of the temples in Agrigento...a horrible town, but with an amazing Valley of Temples along a lower ridge. 
This was another of the Agrigento temples - this one has the lovely motorway in the background, the noise of which resonated along the ancient valley; it also has the ubiqiutous scaffolding so prevalent in Sicily!.
This was Rachel getting nervous by the vulcanelli de Macalube. They are small volcanoes made of (cold) mud, that are created by and spout methane gas. Wonderful!
This was a view of an Ortygia church from the top of our hotel.
