All posts by neighbourmark

Home

Castle On Way Home

Oh dear, time flies, we have been home for three days and have just realised we haven’t signed off from the blog. Apologies if anybody has been concerned that we were lost somewhere on the French railway network!

Our journey home from Spain was pretty easy, it took exactly 24 hours from door to door but the connection times were generous and mostly ran on schedule. Our only delay was on Eurostar which left on time but stopped mid journey. The train in front hit a deer and everything stopped while they completed safety checks. We arrived in London one hour late but that was fine, it meant less time hanging around at Paddington waiting to board the sleeper. We never received an update on the condition of the deer.

We arrived back at Penzance station at 7.55am having completed a 4335 mile round trip. Our friend Brian had kindly offered to meet the train so we were back home in no time and Carl was waiting with the kettle on.

What an adventure we have had. It was a fairly brisk schedule but we achieved our objective of getting a taster of parts of Italy we haven’t visited before. Sicily was wonderful and we will definitely return there. I’m glad we’ve seen Naples but we won’t rush back, although we would like to visit Pompeii. Rome is a great place to spend time, if only to wander and people-watch.

Last but certainly not least it was great to be in Camallera with the family there, we will be back again as soon as we can.

Thanks for travelling with us, we will let you know when we set off again.

Kim & Mark

Ferry To Barcelona.

Boots on Tour As Well.

Our experience accessing the ferry at Civitivecchia was similar to Naples and Palermo. There was no public  transport connection between the railway station and the ferry terminal, we shared a taxi with another passenger who persuaded the reluctant driver to take us the three or four kilometres to the terminal. We checked in,  collected our boarding passes and discovered that it was another three kilometres to the ferry, but hurrah there was a shuttle. Sure enough five minutes later a bus picked us up and took us half way to the boat. The driver pointed to another bus in the distance and told us to walk to that. There was a maze of coned lanes to follow so we picked the one that looked too narrow for cars or lorries and set off. The second bus took us along the pier beyond the ferry and dropped us by a tent which contained the luggage scanner. Once through the scanner we had to walk the length of the ferry, cross the vehicles approaching the ramp and walk onboard.

Once onboard the ferry was similar to the one we took from Naples to Palermo. We found our cabin explored the ship a bit then headed for our bunks. The crossing was smooth and we slept well. At some point during the night we passed between Corsica and Sardinia, I’m sure that would have been interesting in daylight.

Our Cabin.
Continue reading Ferry To Barcelona.

Rome

What did the Romans Ever do for us?

We arrived in Rome, found the bus stop, found the bus and found the hotel without missing a beat, very satisfying. A nice hotel in a smart mews in the Flaminia district NE of the centre of Rome. The helpful, Italian receptionist welcomed us and asked for our passports for registration, she noticed Maidenhead marked as Marks place of birth and said “I know Maidenhead, there is a very good Italian shop there”. We knew straight away she meant the shop one street over from Marks childhood home which he has known nearly all his life! The receptionist said she had lived in Staines but all the Italians went to that shop. It’s a small world.

Continue reading Rome

Messina

We left Syracuse on Saturday morning heading for Messina, the transport hub offering train and ferry links back to the mainland. We only had one night in the town but it set us up for the morning train to Rome on Sunday.

We arrived in Messina at lunchtime and checked in to the Royal Palace Hotel which looked like a local council office block but was actually quite smart inside, it even had a bar in the lobby which proved useful for afternoon tea.

Our Room
Continue reading Messina