We landed in Ireland yesterday. Will be here until the 16th.

we are back in the UK nowYou can phone us here on +353 87 790 9460 (yet another SIM card…)

So far… amazing. Staying with friends in Avoca. Beautiful.

Well, the planned four weeks in Italy just chilling out just wasn’t possible in the end, so we’ve now made alternative plans that looks something like this:

Brighton — Ireland — Preston (nr Liverpool) — Green Man Festival (Wales)– Buddhist Retreat

It is fully laid out in our online intinerary.

Currently hanging out with friends in Brighton. We’ve just been out for a ramble on the South Downs followed by a big late Sunday lunch.

I asked Bea to give me some words to put here, and she’s offered one of her surreal knock-knock jokes for y’all:

Knock knock
(“who’s there”, you say)
Cactus
(“Cactus who?”, you say)
Cactus got stuck in a monkey bush and had to lie down on the icecream.

What more can I say?

A nice outing yesterday.

We spend the day in Bristol having a good poke around. There was a little rain, but only really enough to make it misty and a little damp. It cooled off a bit as well, causing us adults to rug up a bit for the first time in ages. Our Bea, who proudly proclaimed, “I am hot blooded,” spent most of the day in little more than a summer dress no matter how much we tried to get her to put on something warm. Brrrr.

Our lovely mate Meera played tour guide for the day and then took us home for dinner. Then Pascal and Meera cooked up a storm for us. Fantastic dinner, great chatting. Then we drove back to Melksham for a well-earned sleep.

Here’s a bit of a description of the day:

We started off down by Temple Meads Station about noon, then walked over to Queens Square to meet Meera. We then wandered through the @ Bristol public space, up past College Green then up Park Street for a bit.

We lunched at Fresh and Wild, which is a UK wholefoods/organic supermarket then powered up the hill to Cabot tower. The tower was closed so we took in the views lower and then headed for Clifton in search of a spot for a quiet one.

We fell into some shopping up Clifton way and Lib acquired a rather tasty skirt. Then it was time for a drink and view, so Meera took us over to a pub overlooking Brunel’s suspension bridge over the Avon Gorge and we made a cozy spot outside under and umbrella with heater lamps. Breathtaking view. Kindof cold in the end and the rain kept up, so we dived into a cab, picked up the next hire car and headed back to Meera’s for dinner.

A nice day out in the weather. Some sun and blue sky have returned today. Heh. Had better get the washing on while we have the chance. We are off to Brighton tomorrow or Friday.

Lib has posted some writing in her blog on the early bits of our travels, including some great photos, covering May to Early July. Worth a read, especially the bits about Hong Kong.

The last time Lib, Bea and I went traveling in Europe it was September 2001. 9/11 happened while we were being tourists in Italy. That’s a day I remember well. We were in a small town on the Italian riviera called Lerici, just cruising the streets having a look around. A casual glance at a TV in a bar showed CNN showing the beginnings of the attack on the World Trade Centre.

Because we were in Italy and all the media was in Italian, were were strangely removed from the non-stop media blitz that followed the collapse of the towers. Later, talking to people that weren’t on holiday when the towers fell made me realize that we missed a lot of the depth of shock and emotion felt by others as we continued with our holiday and only managed to get the occasional english-language USA Today or International Herald Tribune. These papers were suddenly in short supply as we all went in search of news.

So, then to this latest attack in London. It was quiet Thursday morning in Wiltshire, we were staying with friends. My broker calls from Perth to break the news of attacks on London. He had my UK mobile number and was thinking of us as he saw the news come down the wire.

By that time, BBC TV has wall to wall coverage, so I spend the rest of the morning alternating between the TV and computer, checking the latest from BBC news online and the blogs via Technorati. Over the next couple of hours the story morphed: from one bomb, to six bombs, then back to four. And then an eerie silence as the news echoed the same information again and again while emergency workers worked in horrific conditions to remove the injured, start to identify the dead, and begin the investigation into who set the bombs and how.

We were nowhere close to London, about 80 miles away in a small town in Wiltshire, but we were planning to be in London just a couple of days later.

I spent that Thursday afternoon in Bath at shops and coffee houses. I sensed a new uneasiness on the streets there.

We arrived in London on Saturday as planned. By then, in fact even by Friday morning, unaffected parts of the underground were running, as were all busses.

Last week, it did feel like London was defiant in the face of the bombings. The mood on the street seemed very much business as usual, with an extra wary eye out for any bags or luggage left unattended. I put on my own wary eyes, but otherwise used the tube and busses a lot in a week, but not in the more-dangerous-feeling rush hours.

Wonderful, uniting things happened like werenotafraid.com, which is collecting photographs on the topic of “we are not afraid” as a way of London showing defiance to the terrorists.

And then it almost happened again today, except this time the bombs didn’t go off. A very similar attack to the first one. Very, very similar. Detonators exploded on three trains and one bus, but the explosives they were supposed to ignite did not go off. The four wannabe suicide bombers ran away when the bombs failed to explode.

Now it is harder to say what the mood of London will be. The terrorists did fail to kill anybody this time, but they did show that they could create fear and disruption again. More of the underground is now out of service as investigations continue (see the tube’s realtime map of service disruptions).

Next time, they might make the explosives properly and hurt and kill. Were the terrorists under pressure from investigations this time and didn’t get it right? Hopefully. Also, because the bombs didn’t go off, there is a lot more evidence for investigators. How great it would be for these folks to be comprehensively caught, tried and convicted.

Whoosh. There went ten days in London. I’ll write about what happened shortly. But, for now, we are back in Wiltshire near Bath for another week or so.

Now we start planning a 3 or 4 week time in one place, hopefully in Northern Italy. We are looking for somewhere that is not too hot, nor too busy, nor closed because everybody has gone on holidays. Tricky in Europe in July/August.

And as for this week: a visit to the Eden Project in Cornwall. A look at Bristol. And some chilling time after frenetic London.

I went down to the Cabinet War Rooms in London today to have a look. Fascinating and interesting, which is lucky because it costs ten pounds entry.

But for your ten squids*, you do get a free audio guide. I hate having to hold that thing up to one ear to hear what is going on.

Now, I noticed there was a regular audio mini jack on the audio guide thing and I thought I would try an experiment. I plugged in the iPod headphones. Voila! Nice quality stereo audio from the audio guide, and I then could put the thing in my pocket or hang it on the strap and enjoy wandering around without feeling like I’m constantly on the telephone. I don’t believe they don’t tell people this on the way in.

I’ve seen these jacks on a few other audio guides, so I’m guessing it woudl work there too.

* Speaking of squids, there was an Ali-G impersonator showing off a new bubble gun that could blow bubbles full of smoke at Hamleys toy shop yesterday. At least I think it was an impersonator. How would you tell a real Ali G from a fake? :-)

Today (8th July) we are leaving our friends in Melksham and are heading off to Oxfordshire for Bea’s best friend’s birthday party (Happy Birthday Jasmine!) and then we are heaading into London for nine or ten days tomorrow. We should be in London until the 18th or so, then will be back out in Oxfordshire for a bit.

Somehow I didn’t think we’d spend this long in the UK, but we are all loving it here.

News just coming in here on the BBC of bomb blasts on the underground and on a bus in London.

We aren’t in London, thankfully. Poor folk that are… More as it come in.

london

I’ve got a UK mobile number now: +44 7968 685 129, or 07968 685 129 from within the uk.

We’ve just returned our canal boat, the Auvignon, back to the Locaboat base in Agen. This completes our 7 days on the canals in the south of France. And it was excellent all around. The folk from Locaboat made it really easy, and apart from a couple of tiny little things with the boat, it was smooth sailing all the way.

A special thanks to Philippe from the Agen base for making it all really easy. Merci Beaucoup.

Now we fly from Bordeaux to Bristol, where we get picked up by Lorraine, then we go and get ready for the Glastonbury festival.

Nice free WiFi in Bordeaux Airport. Way to go, Bordeaux!

We brought our canal boat Auvignon into Agen yesterday and we found a quiet spot in the shade for lunch. Lib and Bea stayed on board and I cycled into the middle of town. Agen was deserted, because it was Sunday and the middle of a stinking hot afternoon. Anyway, I found a wifi point in the Ibis hotel and did the email and blog thing (which explains a burst of posts you might have seen yesterday).

We then moved the boat into the Localboat marina and all of us then headed for town on our bikes. The bikes had these strange solid tyres which seemed like a good idea until the tyre came off my back wheel going up a small kerb and then Bea and I had to walk through the heat looking for an icecream and a cold drink after I chained up the broken bike outside the local McDonalds. The thermometer at the pharmacy said 35ºC. Bea was an intrepid walker. Everything was closed.

We finally found a pub near the station we could sit outside of in the shade and had our icrecream and a cold drink. Lib came and found us and we ate at the restaurant in the railways station. Cheap and cheerful.

Back at the marina, there was a party going on next door in a large converted Dutch barge. We spent the night until late (like 1am) drinking wine and talking to Swiss, Americans and New Zealanders. And lucky Bea got to watch “Finding Nemo” yet again.

It is Thursday today. We picked up the canal boat on Monday. It is called Auvignon. There’s a photo of it somewhere here.

The name doesn’t really matter. We know it as the little old yellow one. It is a frumpy looking boat. Lots of vertical glass and white fiberglass, and yellow below the deck. It lacks the curves of the newer cruisers but it has lots of windows to let in the light. The front windows (front of the wheelhouse) open upwards. The roof slides back. The new ones seem to have dinky flying bridges but then you’d be in full sun, which would suck.

So this canalboat cruising takes attention and time. Cruising the canals themselves is simple enough. Locks take attention and skill and time. On a holiday, this is good. The necessary skills are acquired over time and the few little problems teach us a lot about rope handling and how to get the boat to reverse, or glide to a gentle stop at the right place. Time? We have plenty for now. We have a simple route to follow and we need to spend only about 3 hours a day cruising. However, the days disappear in lunches (sandwiches of fresh baguette, camembert, tomatoes, cucumber) and breakfasts (croissants or just muesli and milk) and dinners (rich, meaty stuff).

Nights see us tying up along the river in some small town. Like this one, Nerac. Here, we pay the captainiere 5 euro for the privilege of parking for the night and then get to look around and have dinner until morning. I’ve just been wandering the streets of Nerac tonight. I walked around the town centre and have stopped in for a coffee in a cafe on the river just up from the boat.

It is 10.30pm. It is only just dark. These days are very long and we are still struggling with the idea that daylight stretches on for ever. It is pretty hard on Bea, too. She’s often getting to bed really late and getting up quite early. How can you go to bed when it is not only light but still hot like the day as well?

We give the boat back on Monday and fly North into cooler weather. We fly into Bristol. Time to start preparing for the Glastonbury festival.

For some reason (mostly my enthusiasm, sorry Lib and Bea) we embarked on a long journey by train from Napoli (Naples) in the south of Italy to Montauban in the South of France. Somebody smarter would have flown from Naples to Toulouse or something in an hour.

The basic plan was to leave Ischia in the morning, take the ferry to Napoli, then spend the day at Pompeii before climbing on to the EuroNight train from Napoli to Nice, then a couple of regional trains via Toulouse to end up being picked up by friends from Monteban about 5pm the next day.

I’m writing this from the first of the regional trains. So far we are 3 hours late, getting there by 8pm tonight, all going well.

The saga began Sunday, when we were trying to book the night train. Sheesh. It should have been easy but it took ages on the phone call being charged at Euro 0,50 a minute. Lib persevered and eventually got there. Ok, we have a reservation, and a receipt number and had instructions to pick up the tickets from a special counter in the station.

We arrived in the station at Napoli, checked our bags and Lib went off to get the tickets.

Oh, there is no counter of the right sort. She queries several people and get sent this way and that, and the treinitalia bureaucracy starts to kick in. Nobody is willing to take responsibility for their own booking system. Oh, and they blame the computer, of course. In the end we find out that we don’t have a reservation. They kindof claim it is something wrong with our credit card. But they verified all that and gave us a receipt number over the phone.

Great. So Lib keeps arguing with them and trying to get somebody to get us a reservation on the train, and I go off to check the credit card on the internet. All the internet booths were in use. Hmm. In the end Bea and I were sitting on the ground outside of the Club Eurostar lounge using the laptop to get the bank statement. So, yes, they’d reserved funds and probably cancelled the booking later. (I’ll check that they did cancel the credit card, and if we have still been charged, we’ll have to get our bank to sort it out).

In the meantime, Lib managed to get new tickets issued and it all ended up ok after a couple of hours hanging around Napoli station. This turned our more or less full day in Pompeii into only a couple of hours in the heat of afternoon before returning to Napoli for a quick dinner.

Bea was pretty excited about the night train to Nice. She will tell you with excitement how we had a triple bunk bed and that Daddy was on the top, Mummy in the middle, and how she was on the bottom. It was a pretty nice ride on the night train, though it took me half the night to work out that I needed to rearrange the luggage to get some air circulation up near my bunk where it was very hot and airless.

The night train was late into Nice, which is why we are now about 3 hours late, turing the trip from Ischia to Montauban in a 36 hour trip. Enough.