Romance and Rioja

Booked a ferry back to Newcastle for July..Just Wife and me..We are going to drive up from Goteburg taking about four nights to get to Bergen, moochn through all the valleys and Fjords.Am going to to get the food in Sweden as is expensive in Norway..
Am trepidacious about returning home to Britain..Excited also, is crowded yet vibrant..
It will be nice not to be a foreigner again..
We will be mostly cycling around the villages in Norway,..Then drinking Rioja in the evenings..Imagine that...

Venus aglow

The day before we had visited the forum site with our two sons..It was very hot and crowded, and was fairly unpleasant..The next night We came alone to the Capitol museum, which is an intense cultural hit..Statuary is everywhere and gradually we found ourselves in the cellar area..From here we looked out onto the Forum in the early evening, nice and quiet..Wife took this picture of the sun on the columns of the temple of Venus against the Palantine hill..

These last two years I have been reading Rubicon, by Tom Holland..It gives a valid historic background to the Roman Culture..

Crimp my pies

These posters are dotted all around town..There is a big demo on May the first..Anti Capitalism, facism, Homophobia..I am going to pop along and join in, not just because of the lovely artwork either..I think things really are going to start happening soon, once people realise that their backs are against the wall, they are going to start lashing out..Pensioners, tax payers, workers and students are all feeling the pinch..

On a lighter note..I have to start planning my leaving fikka at work..I though I might make some pies..Any ideas..??

Worlds without end

I found this image on the web..Galaxies colliding and tangling, worlds being created and destroyed..The next time you feel angry because you lost a sock..Or you can't find a pen..Think about this...

little Dragon

I wasn't in the mood for a club last night, wife was ,so we ended up down the road at Nefertiti..We are so lucky having such a club just down the hill from our flat..Little Dragon were amazing, they are very different , genre electric soul..Bit jazzy..

The club is in some old vaulted cellars and adds a lot of atmosphere to any event, but this was pretty special..We spotted a homeless fella from our window later and we took him down some blankets and a brolly, he offered to share his last can of brew with me.He also told me that he has always felt like he is a border collie..A gentle fruitcake..

Swimming in fresh water

So here I am banging on about swimming again..Last year We followed The Marne, Loire, Seine,Doubs..Past the Po delta in Italy..We camped next to the Tiber..We jumped off rocks and into waterfalls on the Verdon..Swam in the Ardeche daily..Swam and followed the Lot..I swam through big tidal pools that swirl along the beaches near Bordeaux..

Finally I swam up the Test as mentioned before..

There truly is nothing like it for emptying your mind of excess worries, just the immediate requirement of staying afloat..

My new Skateboard

In the summers of seventy six/seven/ eight, I rode around on my skateboard..The pavements on our estate where of super smooth tarmac flecked through with quartz, and where a dream to ride on..If you hit the smallest piece of grit however,, the wheels would stop you dead and you would be on your bloody knees..There was a bad boy that we knew who had stolen a Benjy board..It was a bit like my new Sector nine and I coveted it greatly..You could ride a cobbled lane on this no problem..When I am next in Cov I will ride my old estate like Micheal Gallagher once did at full pelt..

Breaking the law

This picture was of me swimming illegally in the river Test in Hampshire..I believe that it is the most expensive fishing on the planet..Eight hundred pounds per day..It is a lovely little chalk stream and is so clean and vigorous..I swam in memory of the Legendary swimmer and free thinker Roger Deakin who died last year..His book waterlog has inspired lots of my holiday adventures, and I am sure that my trespass would have been appreciated..I was almost looking forward to a mid swim row with a toff..The route that we followed last year was often along river courses.And each river had its own unique style and flavour..Remember..The person that you love is seventy six percent water...

Sarteano in Tuscany

After a day spent swimming in the spa pools of Sarteano, we walked up through the village to the castle..Allthough the campsite was the most expensive that we stayed in all Summer, it was well worth visiting..Later that evening we explored the narrow streets and alleys, feeling sort of voyeristic, as the people were just going about their stuff..The ceiling beams inside are all of polished walnut, and conversation resonates freely into the narrow lanes..The villagers were the most freindly People that we met in Italy..

Sprucing up the Yangtse river..

Cycled home tonight, over the bridge back into Goteburg..It is such a nice way to finish work, riding along the harbourside looking at the ships in the dockyard..A big old container ship up in the dry dock looking a bit battered and well traveled..I thought about whinging tonight about Prince William flying a Chinook helicopter about with his chums in it all weekend..But I am just bored of them all..I would rather pretend that they dont even exist..At least we hav'nt got a President like Berlusconi, Chiraq or Bush..That would be annoying..But then again we could have somebody like Rolf Harris or Helen Mirren ..What about Ned Sherrin or Ludovig Kennedy..On refection I think that perhaps we ought to slap off the Windsor mob, and go Rebublic...

Tasting rivers

In the middle of last summer, we were camped next to a beach on the Ardeche river..Every morning my wife and I would swim accross the widest stretch to a little pebble beach, and then swim back..The Ardeche is its own shade of green, and it is not very clear, not murky either..It tastes vaugely of water melon, just a hint..
In the afternoons, after a wander into town or a read in my hammock. We would borrow our boys dingy, and I rowed up stream to the weir..While we drifted slowly back, I would occasionally induce a lazy spin..We saw many Kingfishers and an eagle..We would take our time and talk, flirt a bit..It was a hot summer down in Southern France, so after another dip..We walked up the little bar for a Kronenburg or two...

Benign intervention

Perhaps we ought soon to re colonise Zimbabwe..Our modern army could easily invade from Mozambique..We have an immense responsibility to the people there. We left the place in an awful hurry, well before democracy had taken root..The African people would welcome such intervention, We could encourage investment in agriculture, infrastructure and even get some industry going, they could surely undercut the Chinese on the international labour markets...We have an additional responsibility to the pensioners there who fought and assisted Britain in the second world war, who still live well below any recognisable European poverty line..
We should give up on Iraq as the misguided blunder that everyone new it would be..Using the same resources we could truly make a positive difference to a country that would not only appreciate our intervention, but thoroughly deserves and needs it

Sarteano

Feeling a little guilty about the pessimistic nature of my blog..I have just remembered our visit to Sarteano in Tuscany..A hillside village topped with a formidable castle, that was once besieged by Cesare Borgia..The castle is the sort that all little boys dream of playing in..A drawbridge, vertigo inducing turrets that overlook the terracotta rooftops of the village that spiral away down the hillside..Walking through the village later we found ourselves among the villagers in medieval garb..It was the Saracen jousting festival..They take a wooden Saracen out of the church, and over the course of the festival week, They Joust up and down the main street..It is very old and atmospheric, if a little Xenophobic..
Sarteano has a natural thermal rise, and they have made a lovely Spa pool in the village..The run off streams away from Sarteano ,and in its clear waters Guppies swim exotically..

Uncomfortable Predjudices

I truly wanted to challenge my own preconceptions..And I like to tell myself that I am not patriotic/ Matriotic...But I just cannot scratch my itchy belief, inthat..Latino Southern Europeans are perhaps Facist leaning and egocentric..I know that I am casting a slur toward The Spanish, but, well they did love old Franco..And they do like a nice starched shirt..
I am sorry aif this blog is negative, I am just shootin from the hip here and finding it quite cathartic..It is important for us all as individuals to speak our mind and get our reservations out in the open..This grand old EuroJuggernaut is off and rolling.none of us know where it is going ..
And yet we should..We should feel a part of it and empowered as well as enfranchised..

European Fraternity

So perhaps I was a little harsh about Italy on my previous blog..There were some positive aspects to our trip..I was just so disheartened by the lack of friendliness..If for example ,an Italian family travelled up to Britain for a camping holiday..British people would , in general, go out of their way to make them feel welcome..They would ask where they are from..And maybe give some tips or advice about things to see or visit....
We were in Italy for three weeks..In that time the only people that I spoke with were people who wanted money..I really wanted to speak, I learned some Italian..I speak a little German and a little more French..Perhaps we didn't travel far enough south..We only got as far as Rome, and It was Hot..And unpleasant to drive..When we finally got back to France, with its magnificent roads and courteous drivers..It was such a relief ..I cycled into the village of Castellane next morning.Shopped for bread and lunch.Exchanged pleasantry's with my fellow Europeans and cycled back to our spacious site with a grin on my face..Good old the French..

Italian democracy

The Italians have voted for Berluscioni again, and have a new democratically elected government..They probably suppose that this gives them the right to consider themselves modern Europeans.In my opinion, they should be ejected from the Union...Perhaps we could replace them with Turkey for a trial period, build some cultural bridges while we are at it..If they then started to behave like responsible adult citizens we might consider inviting them back into our Newly forming Superstate once again..
Democracy in Italy was a very expensive gift, fought for and presented to them by Allied soldiers and Italian freedom fighters..Their voters treat this gift with disdain bordering upon contempt..I visited Italy last Summer traveling in our camper with my wife and two boys..We were so happy to cross the border from Switzerland, It was a pleasure to speak with friendly people once again( The Swiss never graced us with a smile, let alone a friendly word).
Italy is such a beautiful place, yet I was amazed how quickly some of the myths expired..The food was dull, in restaurants but especially in Supermarkets..The Religion was very intimidating, the art was pretentious. The thing that Italy should be most famous for apart from its lack of modern culture and its macho drivers is of course its hopeless dependency upon third world Prostitutes who seem to be just about everywhere..