Italy trip 2014

Norwegian airlines might be worth a try, new one on me. The flight was part of a package and I discovered that booking a flight home independently was only £40. We stayed at a decent hotel in Sorrento, the Hotel Parco del Sol, just 15m walk west from the centre of town. An extra night bed and breakfast if you want to stay on in the hotel is 80 euro,  bit pricey if you are doing a bit of independent travel. 

After a lazy day following a late night arrival in Italy we went by coach on a tour to Pompeii and Vesuvius. Italy has been hit by the same silly weather that we have had in England this winter, a few days of thunderstorm, rain and cloud, most unusual says the barman at the hotel. Our coach approached Pompeii under a giant bathload of water tipped over the area. Can I believe what I am seeing? The roads are covered in floods, cars are churning through the waters like a wet day in Northumberland!



Sorrento

 

The local stores suddenly did a roaring trade in umbrellas (5euro) and 3 and 5 euro ponchos. The three euro poncho was barely better than cling film, one of which I proceeded to puncture with my umbrella tip!

Pompeii

Quality mosaic

 

Pompeii is an extensive sight and remarkably well preserved. The amphitheatres are in good shape as is the main forum covering an extensive plaza with views over the surrounding hills. We had a guide who was difficult to listen to with her thick Italian accent, especially when you are dipping in and out of conversations and taking photographs. One incredible sight  was seeing the figures of perishing inhabitants from the volcano immortalised in solid material. Some of the mosaics were beautiful and incredibly well preserved. The guide made a lot of the area that was frequented by prostitutes and there were some pretty brazen images in the brothel building. We had a couple of incidents of persons going missing from our party but left with a full complement!

Vesuvius

After Pompeii the coach took us up the slopes of Vesuvius, lots of hair pin bends. About 20 minutes walking distance from the summit we park up and set out on foot. We straggle up the hill on a well marked path and before too long arrive at the lip of the volcano. Here you look down into a massive hole as if a giant has scooped the top off the mountain, and yes, smoke and steam was seen coming out of the mountain which nicely mixed with the gloom of the low cloud. You can circumnavigate the lip of the volcano a fair way, there are even a couple of cafes up there, and I had a quick coffee. This lethal old daddy of a volcano is slap bang in the centre of a region with about three million people, and needs respect, even if it has been 70 years since it last erupted in 1944.

 

Herculaneum, a Roman town, is something else. If you are limited for time I would be tempted  to visit here rather than Pompeii, as it was buried deep enough in mud to preserve the upper stories  of the buildings. A few stops on from Pompeii towards Naples, there is absolutely no evidence that a wonder of the ancient world is hidden just down the road when you leave the station (titled Ercolano) surrounded by modern apartment buildings and a commercial hub. Take no notice of the rip off artists outside the station and proceed down the street towards the sea. Then you will see the brown signs directing you to Herculaneum. It's a bit of a walk, allow at least 20 m. Basically you go ahead, then left, straight ahead again, then right, straight ahead, then right into the site. It costs 11 euro for an adult, plus extra for an audio guide, well worth it. Herculaneum is a gem sitting in a basin surrounded by modern development and open towards the sea.You get great views down onto the site on first entrance. It's very easy to get round with a map for guidance.

You enter the site through a tunnel which takes you to the lower levels where the beach used to be. On the map are numbered points which correspond with numbers marked on site walls. Either a little guide book or the audio will fill you in on each spot.  The Vesuvius disaster encased the town in a sea of mud and this has helped preservation. In its prime it must have been a glittering site with the original finish on the buildings and the bright colours of the mosaics and wall friezes. You get the impression inhabitants lived in the lap of luxury what with the weather, the hot and cold baths, the  massages, the gym and so on. There is ample evidence of the palatial villas with their gardens that testify the elite of the Roman world lived here, that is before disaster struck. 300 skeletons have been found testifying to what happened that terrible day in 79AD when the pyroclastic flows from Vesuvius buried the place. Those skeletons found on the sea side show that the town was not fully evacuated. Herculaneum needs a day trip to do it justice. Within the site there are vending machines for drinks, ice cream and savouries with a seating area, but no proper cafe, although there is at least one cafe outside.

Capri

Capri from near Sorrento

 

There is no way of avoiding high prices with Capri. You are caught in a giant spider's web. Supply and demand dictate that there is no low season in this most desirable spot on God's earth. The most you can do is take a packed lunch. We got the ferry from Sorrento, an half hour journey on the fast boat, but still 35 euro return, very expensive for a half hour trip. You pull into a small port serviced by large ferries, some jet speed. Then you alight and either face a half hour hike up the hill to Capri town or a quick funicular ride, 1.80 euro one way And 3.60 return. This deposits you bang in the middle of town  at a viewing platform for great views of the island. Buyer beware! There is a little square here where your wallet will literally catch fire. A lemonade costs 6 euro which is something like a fiver.  A normal drink can set you back 10 or 12 euro. 



Mainland from Capri

 

We decided there was just enough time for the 45m walk to the Villa Jovis, the little pad that Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire from on top of the hill at the western end of Capri, and he had at least one other villa on the island! It's worth taking note that the villa closes at 1pm which seems kind of strange, so once you are on the island you need to get straight up there. It's a fair hike, mostly uphill, but passes some pretty opulent residences. Flower strewn foliage mushrooms everywhere across walls, over gardens and houses. High walls conceal luxurious green, and peeping over walls people take great care over their vegetable gardens. The Villa Jovis must have been some sumptuous palace, covering the top of the hill like custard atop a Christmas pudding. The ruins are substantial and pretty well preserved, lots of walls and ancient brickwork, but a distinct lack of ceilings. There are still remains of the original mosaic flooring, very similar to Herculaneum, with tiny pieces of white mosaic stone. The views from the top are spectacular across to Sorrento and down to the shimmering blues and turquoises of the sea below, and we are talking sheer drops. All this will cost you a 2 euro entrance fee, and getting there near to closing time the guy in charge gave us 20m to get round, just enough time. However, I suspect it was all Latin bluster, as he appeared to let another couple in after we had left. Call it Italian time!

 

To give you an idea of prices a small bottle of water from a supermarket outside the centre of Capri was 1 euro whereas a large bottle in a Sorrento supermarket was 48 cents.

Some of our party did the boat trip to the grotto, 13 euro for the boat and another 13 euro to enter the grotto. If you fancy taking the bus from Capri to Anacapri, the other main town on the island, go for it, or you can take a chair lift to the top of the highest point on the island.The island itself is not very big, with two big ups and downs. My guess is you could walk the length in a day. It is lush and hilly, and sticks up out of the ocean like the upended bow of a sinking liner.

A little tip is to get a boat as early as possible, then you have more choice of later boats back. We got the ferry at 9.50am, a profoundly civilised time for an Englishman on holiday, but still had to be on the 15.35 boat back. However I did manage to swop my ticket for a 15.55 return.

The trip to the Amalfi coast was a day trip on a coach with a proper guide Rosanna (I've changed the names here!) was somewhere between an Italian model and a senorita promenading on the seafront of a balmy Mediterranean evening. She had a sing song voice that would take away all pain if you were sitting in a dentist's chair. However, that voice became a continuous bubbling stream, perhaps a bit too much for some! She was still very good. We had an excellent driver, Guiseppe who again looked as if he had just stepped out of a catalogue for the mature man. Rosanna gently teased him through the journey. Right from the start she gave us a travelogue which included ample references to Sophia Loren, Franco Zeffirelli, Gina Lollobrigida and the houses of the rich and famous. Our resident James Bond expert informed that no Bond scene has yet been done on the Amalfi coast, and one can see why with the traffic jams. Bond's Aston Martin would get stuck behind the local bus and he would have to do a car roof chase. Rosanna tried to convince us that Sophia Loren lay reclining offshore in the form of some rocky islands (she looked a bit pregnant or fat-bellied), whilst Garibaldi  espied her from afar in the form of a coastal rock in the shape of a human head. Wild imagination needed! We crawled through Positano with ample commentary on the wonders of the place.



Amalfi coast

 

Three of us popped back to the Amalfi coast. We caught the bus from Sorrento rail station return for 6.80 euro, well worth the ride. The journey took 45m to our  destination, Positano, one of the jewels in the Amalfi crown.

By the way don't come to this area if you are a beach bum. There are beaches but much of the coast is very rocky and full of sheer drops, cliff faces and mountains tumbling into the sea. You can come here as a modern 'aristocrat' doing the Grand Tour of Pompeii, Capri and suchlike, but you might be a bit frustrated by the lack of wide open beaches and golden sand. That's another thing, a lot of the  beach space there is seems very regulated with rows of sunbeds and umbrellas which are worth buying perhaps for a day, but you will have to search for a bit of free beach to put down your towel.

Stayed  in Nap!es last night at an Airbnb estabishment for £29. Train from Sorrento St Agnello to Naples costs 4.10 euro. I alighted at Naples Garibaldi which borders the big main line  (station Naples Centrale). From there you get the metro (1.30 euro) to Montsanto, an inner city district which is just as you expect Naples to be. Towering ancient apartment blocks astride narrow streets giving a canyon like effect. Motor bikes and cars jumbled along the sides of the road, with families sitting outside or hanging over the balconies. Piles of rubbish everywhere, as if there is a national bin strike, wet pavements outside recently closed fishmongers. 

My room was nearly at the top of one of these apartments after a tiring stair climb overlooking an empty space from top to bottom. Amidst all the apparent surrounding squalor I ended up in a very tastefully decorated apartment, spacious and cool. These were arty people, an easel stood in one room and my room was a blaze of colour from an array of large canvases all over the walls which were enough to keep you awake even with the light off. About midnight fireworks went off seemingly across a wide section of the city and I looked outside unable to spot any patterns in the sky above the serried ranks of housing climbing up to the castle above.

The hosts recommended that I go to the Vecchia Cantina restaurant which indeed I did to dine on Naples pasta and tomatoes followed by meatballs. Basically you go down Via Ventagleria past Montesanto metro, then past the hospital on the left, then take a left turn down a narrow alley, ask at this stage! It's on the left. It's a bit of a contrast making your way back past mountains of rubbish and dodging the motor scooters.

I slept well and was greeted in the morning as in the previous evening with some very fine coffee in a very small cup provided by my host, as well as a cup of tea and biscuits.

That morning I caught the 11.45 train from Naples to Tropea changing at Lamezia for 38.50 euro, about £32. The train carves its way down through Salerno and traces the coast right the way down, sometimes virtually hugging the beach and other times swathing under the coastal mountains, often using very long tunnels. The landscape is quite green and settlement regular. At Lamezia we get off the rather powerful express train and join a two carriage runt of a train that will chug round the coast to the west until we get to Tropea. The weather has been very odd today, cloud and haze with the sun threatening to burst through but never quite managing it, although when we reach Tropea I have to reach for the sunglasses.

I sit in a cafe and finalise my booking with Airbnb. Suddenly Germany v the USA comes up on telly in the world cup and loads of German tourists with shirts and painted faces appear from nowhere. Judging by the number of bars and cafes showing the match Tropea has become a German colony.

I have to say my room is terrific. In an apartment block in the old part of town and near the beach, it is light and airy, spotlessly clean and with new furniture. It all looks like a  fresh venture. Perhaps I am the first one! 

The old centre of Tropea dangles on the edge of a sheer cliff face down to the sea, where pearl patches of white sand edge up to a huge rock standing separate from the sheer cliffs. The old town itself is small and compact, the usual ancient Mediterranean tourist trap, but very nice with it. Pretty well everything can be covered in a small and roughly circular area of ancient twisting alleyways, churches, cobbled streets and popping up everywhere bars and restaurants. When you have taken your morning coffee in a cafe you can visit the cathedral and museum at the northern end of this area. The cathedral opens at 9 and the museum at 10 , but close later before reopening in the evening. The cathedral is very pleasant inside , with a wooden ceiling and light columns holding it all up. AgaIn it is far more appealing than some of the dark North European Catholic churches, much more uplifting.

Tropea Cathedral

 

In the afternoon you can hit the beach, and there are two lovely spots right below the old town cliffs. This is the great advantage of Tropea, everything  is so accessible. and the beach is much better than at Sorrento.

Serious beach here

The beach is great, coarse light sand, but be warned unless you have a car that there are a number of staircases down to beach level which have to be ascended later, quite a climb in the heat.

The Italian lady who translated for the chap that was renting my room suggested I make a boat trip down the coast. A day or two later I joined a gang of tourists on a small boat heading south to within sight of Sicily. We hugged the coast down and back up again for a good three hours or so, and stopped for a couple of swims. At the first stop our skipper, a lively Italian named Paulo, decided to attract the local fish population by throwing some bread into the water. A pulsating swarm of grey shot to the surface to devour the bread, quite a sight in the translucent sea. I was the only person on the boat on their own, and one of the ladies from a very sociable group offered to take a couple of photos of me without prompting. perhaps she felt sorry for me!

I am now on my way to Palermo in Sicily. I caught the train from Tropea this morning at 11.38am to Rosarno, then changed for Villa S Giovanni where you get the ferry to Sicily, then on to Palermo. I arrive in Palermo tonight at 7pm. Italian time seems to work both ways. Just as you might have to wait a while, you also may find your train leaving early! My train was supposed to leave at 14.25 but was easing out of the station 14.22. Don't you just love it? If I had arrived a minute or two before I would have missed it. On the other hand, the train progressed a little way, then cut back on itself on a side track onto the ferry, so perhaps they expect latecomers to leap straight onto the ferry.

 

Another novelty is that the train is actually going onto the ferry and will then continue on the other side! Never experienced that before. It"s all moving at snail's pace at the moment.

The crossing takes about half an hour and you are allowed to get off the train and stand on the upper decks, and take a few pictures. An older lady from our carriage compartment points out Messina, the port on the other side. She says it is a modern city because it has been destroyed by an earthquake before. It's over four and a half hours from Villa S Giovanni to Palermo. The distance from Messina to Palermo is about 112 miles, so it is not the quickest of trains. Meet an older American couple on the train from Florida who had been to a wedding in Malaga and were now travelling Sicily. We spent a very pleasant few hours chatting including some interaction with the Italian lady, who ended up sitting in the corridor looking as if she was in rapture. She was on her way to see her grandparents home on Sicily and had a faraway look in her eyes..

Well here we are in Palermo, a complex mix of Roman, Arab, Byzantine, Islamic and goodness knows what else history. I am staying in a B and B with Airbnb for £21 per night, just outside the old city in a modern apartment block. As far as I can gather my host rents the apartment and then rents it on to travellers. It is spotlessly clean, I have a large, very pleasant room with balcony to myself, and my host provides a very substantial breakfast in the morning between 8 and10. The bathroom contains yet another bidet, a fixture I have never used. I did muse over the possible benefits of a bidet whilst there. They are the thing in Europe, and have been catching on in America. However I did no more than muse!

Palermo itself has some very impressive and ornate architecture. The traffic is incessant and requires constant vigilance, looking in all directions just in case a car comes round the corner a little too close to the kerb or a motorcyclist whistles out of a side turning. Pedestrian crossings just seem to express an opinion, and most locals just seem to walk out straight in front of the traffic and expect it to stop. I saw one car reverse back up a one way junction to take another turning oblivious of the effect on those behind. Sometimes there is barely any pavement for you to feel moderately safe and hugging the wall is the best bet. Even going through local street markets with barely enough room for two way pedestrians there are still scooters trying to get through! My host told me one older lady stood on the roadside for 50 minutes when she first arrived! However, you soon get used to it. After a few days I was stepping out into the road with a bit more verve and poise.

Palermo Cathedral

Visited the catacombs today just a short walk from my residence. In case you are unfamiliar with this, Italians once mummified their dead in full clothing and put them on display. It is in effect just another type of cemetery but you get to see rows and rows of skeletons dressed in all their finery, including the remains of very young children. Many of the corpses are from the nineteenth century and mostly present a very grey scenario, although sometimes the fabric is remarkably well preserved and has significant colour. Some items of clothing are very recognisable from period dramas, like little caps, bonnets and dresses. It's 3 euro to gain entrance and I ended up with a party of more Americans. One young man who was accompanied by a nun was taking photos, absolutely forbidden, and a disembodied voice gave him a good ticking off for not respecting the dead.

Palermo street market - dodge the motor cycles!

I have not met Inspector Montalbano yet. He is probably in some local fishing village dining some young lovely on pasta and wine, looking out over the perfect seaside setting. Having said that there is quite a heavy police presence.

Mount Etna, all 11000ft of it presides over Sicily as a still active volcano. Apparently its presence on the island has made the land very fertile for farmers. Couldn't help picking up this article from the Daily Mail about recent fireworks from Mt Etna since I got back, Just look at these photos, it's one giant Roman candle: Hot Italian article

This morning, my last morning of the holiday, I decide to visit the Palazzo Realle, possibly the most expensive tourist sight in Palermo. 16 euro gets you into the palace with an audio guide to the Chapel Capela and the Treasury, as well as some ancient excavations underneath. The chapel is the absolute highlight. You will not see anything more elaborate  or colourful in your life. It is a mosaic lover's dream. The who!e chapel is a blaze of colour, combining innumerable mosaics covering every available square foot of floor and wall. The mosaics tell the story of God's relationship with man through the ages, using  depictions of God himself, Jesus, the disciples and of course the prophets. This is a rich testimony to Europe's Christian past, albeit an often State imposed type. One wonders exactly how many people who stand in this Chapel today actually understand the significance of the mosaics..

Went to Cefalu today on the train. It is about an hour from Palermo along the coast and is quite an attractive seaside resort. The fare is 5.15 euro one way. Palermo Centrale, the main rail station is very quiet for a Thursday afternoon but the two ticket counters are occupied by two young men who seem to be booking tickets to Australia via ten different destinations. I cannot believe how long both of them are taking. I look at the girl behind me in the queue and she gives a knowing look. The train hugs the coast all the way. A glance inland shows a pretty mountainous interior, and we are not talking the South Downs. These are big hills. Cefalu itself is a popular spot with a jumble of old buildings stretching along the seafront as you can see in the photo. The beach goes a long way in the other direction and my sense is that this is very much an Italian resort frequented mainly by Italians. or Sicilians. Not much sign of Union Jack shorts here!

Cefalu beachfront

 

Munich



Town hall - Rathaus

Munich is one of the world's most desirable cities to live in according to some polls. It really shouldn't be allowed to have one of the best football teams as well, that is really unfair! It got fourth place in the Mercer livability rankings in 2011 and 2012. It was also ranked as the world's most livable city with the highest quality of life in the 'Monocle.' I had never heard of the Monocle, it sounds like a posh magazine for posh type people, you know the types that would have worn monocles if we lived in the 1930s. In fact it is a global affairs and lifestyle magazine, radio station, website and media brand. Well there you go.

I had the pleasure of landing at Munich Airport on the way to skiing in Austria, Munich being the cheapest way to get to the Zillertal ski region in comparison with Innsbruck or Salzburg. You can get the local train from the airport to the city Ostbahnhof, a fair old way and packed with commuters in the late afternoon as it trawled through the suburban hinterland of Munich. From the Ostbahnhof you can catch an ICE right up into the Tyrol. This means arriving in the Austrian Alps in serious style in a German high speed train smoothie.

I returned to Munich a week later with some of my ski pals and had the pleasure of strolling around the city centre for much of the day. I am jumping the gun a bit here, but you have to go to the Viktualmarkt, an elegant open space in the heart of the city surrounded by mature architecture and sporting quaint old refreshment kiosks, drinking areas and cafes with a distinct nineteenth century feel. Here three of us pushed our way through those thick sheets of plastic that act as 'doorways' into a sheltered rather glorified conservatory where you can eat a classic German lunch, exactly what we wanted to do before returning home, big succulent sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes washed down with a large beer. You have to do it!



Victualienmarkt - beer to your heart's content!

 

Munich Hauptbahnhof is a major hub on the very impressive German rail network and I had passed through just last summer early in the morning bound for Cologne and then home to Blighty. You can leave your luggage here for the day, nip into the tourist office just outside, grab a map and summary of the top ten sights, and then strike into the heart of the city. I noticed in the office that there were tours advertised to Dachau, the infamous Nazi concentration camp.

 



Hauptbahnhof - photo for rail geeks



 

It's a dead straight walk in to town from the station, down Shutzen strasse, crossing a major thoroughfare about half way along, then picking up Neuhauser. Then you enter the old city, walking down Neuhauser, and soon get to the cathedral, the Frauenkirche, or Church of our Lady, with its onion domed towers. We circled most of the building before finding the way in. It's only a short further walk to the centre of the action, Marienplatz.

 



Typically European, Munich old city has its share of fine walking streets which swathe through to the Marienplatz central square with its classic German 'Rathaus,' a medieval looking behemoth with intricate stonework and dinky theme clock (bells, figures and chimes). The great thing about Munich is that you can do the city centre in a day on foot. It's easy to get around and you can even wander off the beaten track to somewhere like the English Garden.

There are some pretty impressive palatial avenues slicing through the city centre and one such is Brennerstrasse, described in the city guide as 'Munich's first splendid boulevard.' It runs right into Konigsplatz Square with its classical buildings and museums, worth a jolly jaunt if you are striding through the city.

Konigsplatz - see what I mean!

There is a large palace area with gardens as well joined onto the city centre which you can promenade around in the late afternoon/early evening. This is the Royal Residence, the largest residential palace in Germany and the seat of the Bavarian rulers for 400 years. The Bavarian State Opera is next to the palace. I sort of dipped in and out of this area quickly as I had an appointment at the airport via an essential stop at Starbucks, but could see the appeal for a promenading couple, a promenading anything for that matter. Given some blazing summer evening it would be a great area to stroll absolutely aimlessly before sipping an outdoor coffee.

I also found myself wandering down to the English garden, which is rather more than a garden, more a gigantic slice of countryside plonked onto the edge of the city centre, Munich's own Hyde Park or Regents Park. It's 922 acres and one of the largest urban parks in the world. I thought it was rather more tidy than the Tiergarten in Berlin, a smooth shaven chin of a park as opposed to an untidy stubble of a park. And very pleasant it was as well, with streams and lakeland, dashes of woodland, extensive path network and wide green spaces.



The English Garden - more like a fully fledged shire

 

 

Cyclists plied up and down the paths by the bucketload (I guess you wouldn't see many Germans going off the paths), and even a few horse-riders. I passed a crowd of English who had perhaps come over for the Manchester United match. I did a massive circle of the park, running out of time to visit some sort of classical folly on a hill, and headed back to the centre. It was only when I returned to the UK that an article almost immediately appeared in the Daily Telegraph on German nudism. The English Garden in Munich is a prime spot for displaying your nakedness to the world, at least when the weather is on your side. I spotted no such thing when I was there! But it had been drizzling for most of the day.





 

Liverpool

 

 

Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool city centre

Liverpool is a fantastic city break and one of my favourite places, and I recently combined a family christening with a foray into more of the city's attractions, Speke Hall and Goodison Park, the home of Everton Football Club.

Liverpool has not always had a good press, as the second seaport of these islands it had a lofty and prestigious history, but has suffered in the post war years from economic stagnation, urban blight and maladministration. However, it has managed to pull itself up by its bootstraps on the back of European city of culture 2008 to become a very worthwhile destination.

Liverpool city centre has as impressive a collection of classic buildings as you'll find anywhere in the country, from the massive civic pile of St George's Hall opposite Lime Street Station to the Walker Art Gallery round the corner and the full set of iconic waterfront buildings centred on the Liver Building and flanking the Pier Head. Major new development Liverpool One has been welded onto the old city centre, sandwiched between the bus station, docks and original shopping streets, and has the usual mix of brand name chain stores, cafes and restaurants juggling for space on different levels with flagship stores like John Lewis.

St Georges Hall itself is worth a look inside, very much a part of Liverpool history. It has a large hall inside with an impressive mosaic floor, and was also a seat of judgment for the city. The old criminal court can still be visited and downstairs are the cells for internment of prisoners.

Just over the road from Liverpool One is the Albert Dock where you can wander around the old basin and enjoy the warehouse architecture now converted into a major 'centre of town' hangout, complete with The Beatles Story and Merseyside Maritime Museum attractions. Nearby is the modern Echo arena for major events.

If you take a trip over the Mersey to Birkenhead either by underground or ferry you can visit Hamilton Square, a vast old square in the centre of town, and visit the old U boat that is still perched on the edge of the Mersey and a reminder of the pivotal role that Liverpool had in the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War.

The family christening took place at the Anglican Cathedral because of family connections with the cathedral itself, an impressive building designed by Gilbert Scott, the same person who designed the red phone box. It is the largest cathedral in the UK and the fifth largest in the world and was finished in 1978. The cathedral sits on a mound above the city centre and overlooking the River Mersey surrounded by elegant new architecture and some newly cleaned up smart and classic streets to the north of the cathedral precincts. the cathedral bulk from the outside is quite dark and forbidding, but inside has a much lighter and pleasant ambience. The tower is well worth ascending for great views of the city and its surroundings. It's a good place to spot Anfield from the top! There is a protective fence surrounding the tower to prevent any more unfortunate incidents after a local professional threw himself off the top some years ago.

 

Liverpool cathedral

For an alternative experience you can visit the Catholic Cathedral, a wedding cake of a church built in a big circle, altogether more unconventional and locally known as the Mersey Funnel (as opposed to tunnel).

To help get your way round the city, there's nothing like practicing the Liverpool, or scouse, accent, and if you can say 'chicken and chips' with the distinctive 'ch' sound then you are well on the way. Also don't forget to drop the 't' at the end of some words, 'What's tha?' as you scrutinise a chip buttie and mushie peas.

Liverpool has great parks and green spaces, that something you appreciate once you've made a few visits. I am more familiar with South Liverpool and Sefton Park, Calderstones Park and Otterspool Park which hold childhood memories. However I visited Stanley Park for the first time recently when parking up to visit Goodison for the Everton match, and was pleasantly impressed to find not a recession hit piece of waste ground between the two great football grounds but a fully fledged traditional British Park with all the trimmings such as bandstand and lake.

 

Stanley Park

One of my favourite areas of Liverpool is Sefton Park and surroundings, as classical an old Victorian park as you will find anywhere in the country. It's the nearest thing Liverpool has to Hyde Park in London. I have great memories of visiting this park as a little kid when we used to visit my grandma and associated relatives in Aigburth. This vast space with its lakes, shrubbery, Palm House and Peter Pan statue surrounded by a ring road of massive (and I mean massive) Victorian mansions must have been as exclusive as you could get back in the nineteenth century. Even now the faded grandeur is in evidence all around. Rafa Benitez used to live in a block on the perimeter road which bristled with TV aerials so he could catch all the football channels. I wasn't Rafa's greatest fan because I found him a bit on the defensive side as a manager but he was still good!

Big green spaces in Liverpool go well also with lots of leafy dual carriageways swathing the city in all directions bordered by salubrious interwar residential property. This is the side of Liverpool you don't read about in the press, lots of attractive suburban areas where I would be quite proud to own a house.

Speke Hall  is as good a National Trust property as you could visit anywhere in the UK, a large Tudor property simply bursting with black and white splendour. I remember visiting it years ago when I was a kid, now I could appreciate it much more as an adult. It provides a stark contrast to some of the signs of industrial decline on Merseyside. It is surrounded by extensive green spaces, just off the main road into Liverpool from Runcorn and Widnes. It sits in a tree filled depression separating it from the River Mersey. A path circles the property along the top of this depression giving wide vistas of the Mersey as well as tempting glimpses of the house itself. The path takes you right up to the edge of Liverpool Airport where you can sit and watch activity on the main runway.

Speke Hall entrance

Speke Hall - round the back

 

A jolly scouse lady dressed in Victorian finery takes you round the property in a private guided tour if you want, relating the usual anecdotes, such as the last lady of the house who used to dress in black and smoke a pipe. Ah, what's happened to the great British eccentric? Speke Hall of course was a Catholic stronghold and it has its own priest hole which the priest could escape to when the King or Queen's men came hunting for heretics.

Liverpool Airport nudging Speke Hall

From Speke I drove to Everton for the footie. A very nice assistant at Speke hall advised getting the football bus from Lime Street Station to the ground. Sounded like a good idea, but when I got to the city centre I thought I would be too up close and personal with a busful of Everton supporters which could prove embarrassing for a Liverpool supporter like me, so I thought I would drive straight to the ground.

Incidentally I parked nearer Anfield than Goodison Park in a bid to find a free parking space. I avoided the car parks asking for £10 to park for the match and found a spot in a quiet side street. Only thing was there were spaces because the houses were abandoned and boarded up, further up in the inhabited part of the street there were plenty of parked cars. After parking up I noticed the posters on the lampposts 'Car Crime Hotspot!' That's all I needed, but hey it was a beautiful day, no sign of degenerate looking locals, and there was nothing to steal in the car, so I took the chance.

The walk to the ground was very bearable on such a lovely day and not really that far. I arrived with plenty of time to spare, collected my ticket and then promptly went looking for a cash machine. In the end I just had enough cash left to buy myself a healthy snack, sausage and chips, that grand staple of any self respecting football fan.

Everton v West Ham

Goodison Park

Suitable attired in blue (not planned) with a red shirt lurking underneath, I made my way back to the ground and spent an enjoyable afternoon watching Everton beat West Ham 1-0. Later I returned to Liverpool city centre to catch Liverpool playing Southampton in Southampton on any available TV including the end of the first half in John Lewis. Later I watched the second half in the pub.

Washington Common, West Sussex

 

Looking east to Chanctonbury Ring

 

Path along the south side

That are lots of little nooks and crannies hidden away in our localities that we often never ever discover until we step out of our normal routine and take a different path. Washington Common is one such place that I only stumbled across recently, and yet I've been passing it on the A24 for years! It occupies the areas to the north west of the Washington roundabout just a few miles north of Worthing on the A24. If you take a left turn off the roundabout west towards Storrington along the A283, then take a right turn off the main road just a few hundred yards ahead at Clayton Farm, you hit an untarmaced lane that creeps up the hill. No boy racers allowed! You have to take it easy on a badly pock-marked route which takes you up to a National Trust car park. From where radiates a network of paths over Washington Common, a cosy little area of hillside, heath and woodland. Ideal for walking the dog or just yourself for that matter!

 

Chanctonbury Ring in the distance

 

Route back to the carpark

 

 The path winding up from the car park along the south side of the hill gives great views of the South Downs and Chanctonbury Ring. Just do a circular tour along this stretch, then strike north through the trees, up over the top, down through the woodland, and then head back towards the car park by a different route. When I was about there was so much water that it was like a mini Everglades with vegetation sprouting out of pools of water saturating the woodland. It's a wonder I didn't bump into Noah, well it is early 2014! Near the common and at the western end towards Storrington is a very pleasant area of rather opulent residential settlement struggled out along the little lanes such as Vera's Walk.

Looking westwards to South Downs

 

On the heath

 

 

Drenched woodland

 

Vera"s Walk in fact is named after the pioneer of a community that was set up here in the 1920s. Vera Pragnell was the daughter of a wealthy textiles industrialist and as a young 25 year old used her legacy to set up a Utopian community in this area in the 1920s called 'The Sanctuary.' Sounded like some glorious open air version of Cold Comfort Farm. What is it about Sussex that attracts these bohemian havens? Not far away to the east of Lewes is Charleston Farmhouse where the assorted progressive intellectuals, writers and artists of the Bloomsbury group strutted their stuff back in the pre-war years. I think they would have been at home in 2014 Britain! Anyway, Vera Pragnell invited people to join her in a back to nature  'Sermon on the Mount' type endeavour. They were a rum bunch, including mystical Christians, nudists (not sure how that relates to the Sermon on the Mount!), alchemists and actors, but eventually as time went on the relatives sold off the land and now it is a pretty prosperous slice of Sussex real estate hidden down leafy lanes.

By the carpark

 

The Sanctuary hut

 

Heart of the old sanctuary community

You can now explore said leafy lanes which pan out and prod through the surrounding farmland and woodland, sometimes ending up back on a main road into or out of Storrington. One things for sure, the folk living in these very comfortable looking dwellings won't be short of a bob or two. This is leafy, prosperous Sussex at its Garden of England best.

If you want a bit of industrial grit mixed up with our Sussex idyll there is a quarry a little further to the south west and bordering the A283, that's if you're into dumper tracks and suchlike negotiating mud and puddles.

This area is not really for the ten miler hiker type person, more the Sunday afternoon stroll merchant, perhaps with a dog or family in tow. Toasting muffins round a log fire after a bracing circuit of this little corner of Sussex would be a cool way to round off a crisp, cold winter's afternoon. If you fancy something a bit more commercial, then head for Squires Garden Centre, a very respectable joint with quite a large modern café where you can grab a baked potato for lunch or maybe a cream tea. I would recommend it and you can find it a few stallion paces north of the Washington roundabout on the left of the main road, but don't wander into 'Kates Cakes,' the local cake factory, by mistake.

The Ridgeway

This is a great long distance (87 miles) footpath that cuts across the north of the London basin through the lovely Chiltern Hills which cosy right up to the edge of London and cosset the Thames Valley. London is blessed with some great surrounding countryside. The Chiltern Hills are wonderful country for walkers and cyclists. and are the spiritual home of Midsomer Murders if you are into that sort of thing, you know dreamy English villages, duckponds and the rest.


You can get to the Chiltern Hills from London by getting a train north west from Marylebone Station, one of the smallest and most compact London railway termini. You can take your bike with you on the train if you want to mix it with the cycling and walking. There are a couple of routes you can take from Marylebone station to end up on the Ridgeway. You can aim for Princes Risborough, a tidy little town on the edge of the Vale of Aylesbury, or Wendover, another well heeled little town just a few miles to the east on a different line.

Walk from Princes Risborough to Wendover (great day walk)

It's a bit of a distance from the rail station to the town centre and a bike came in really useful.
Princes Risborough dates possibly back to Roman times, and the 'Black Prince,' Edward, had his palace here in the 14th century, which is where the town's name came from. You can take lunch at a little café in the centre of Princes Risborough as I did, then climb the hill to link in with the nearest section of the Ridgeway which is signposted along its length. From the top of the scarp slop you can appreciate wide vistas across the lower belly of England, the expansive Vale of Aylesbury stretching far into the distance. Here you find yourself in Whiteleaf Nature Reserve which is known for its butterflies and wildflowers. Then off you go striding east along the top of the scarp slope through wide stretches of beech woods and sunny glades, interspersed with wide horizons when the woodland fades out.

A highlight of this particular stretch is that the Ridgeway goes through the grounds of Chequers, the British Prime Minister's country residence dating from the sixteenth century. I was fortunate enough to do this walk on a lovely sunny January day making the views crystal clear with the blue sky accentuating the greens and browns of these gentle hills. You walk down one side of the estate with the old mansion clearly in view, then cross the front of the estate near the main gate, taking care not to scrutinise the security cameras too much! Then the path takes you up and out of the valley floor into the extensive beech woods which take you up to Coombe Hill and fantastic views again across the Vale of Aylesbury. Here there is also a monument to Buckinghamshire men killed in the Boar War.

Coombe Hill monument

From here you can work your way down into Wendover. The only problem you might have in this situation is if it is late, or if you don't want to walk back a fair old way, there's no direct public transport the other way. But you can take the train from Wendover up to Aylesbury, which I did, then get a train down to Princes Risborough. Whilst loitering in Aylesbury I wandered into Asda and bought a DVD. On my return to Risborough I bought fish and chips in the town centre which I was able to finish off on the train home.

PM's home there in the background!

Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon

Wendover is a well heeled type of town mentioned in the Domesday Book, and is part of London commuter land on the main  route from London to Aylesbury.

This is another belter of a walk. Catch a train again from Mary's bones (my cockney rhyming slang!) and alight in the town centre. If you wish you can grab supplies from that posh supermarket of Budgens, again the supermarket has appeared in a beige handbag area! I started off by walking through the church yard of St Mary the Virgin. Built in the 14th century, it was used as a camp for Oliver Cromwells' troops in the Civil War. Moving on, you follow the path and pick up the Ridgeway which then heads west along the ridge through the lovely Hales Wood with the Vale of Aylesbury on the left as usual. After the settlement of Hastoe, you pass through Tring Park, with its manor house and fallow deer. The large town of Tring is nearby but  slightly off the Ridgeway. It has lots of facilities if that's what you're looking for.

Ivinghoe Beacon!

You always come across the odd gem on these travels, and I could not resist taking a photo of a country gate with the unbeatable notice, 'Jesus loves you, but I'm his favourite.' Not what you'd expect in rural Buckinghamshire.





After Wigginton you pass over the A41 dual carriageway and the Grand Union Canal.

Once you pass over the main rail line from London Euston to the north you have more open downland interspersed with woodland to pick up the remainder of the Ridgeway to Ivinghoe Beacon. You can take a diversion to the classic English village of Aldbury if you want. It's so postcard yummy that it has been used in films like The Avengers, Inspector Morse (I thought he was based in Oxford!) and The Dirty Dozen. Back to the Ridgeway, the path winds along the contours through a straggle of woodland before reaching the open downland. From there on it's wide vistas, endless skies and a sniff of the destination after a few valleys and field crossings. Once out of the woods I realised that my £100 plus sunglasses were no longer hanging snug at the top of my tee-shirt. The dilemma was, do I go back to find them or carry on to the destination before dusk? I had a pretty good idea of how I'd lost them, taking a leak off the main  track, but decided to look for them later after reaching my destination first, so onward I strode. I think I may have spotted one of our esteemed Conservative MPs striding topless (it was a he and it had been quite warm!) with a lady-friend on the same path. They shall remain nameless! I was tempted to say hello but held back. The destination seemed to keep disappearing over the horizon as if a giant invisible hand was continually moving it out of my reach, but eventually I got there just as the day was beginning to slip away. Here I admired the 360 degree view back towards London over the Chiltern hills and north over the plain. There is an information board and trig point.

Onward to Ivinghoe!

Retracing my steps, eventually I reached the woods again just as there was a little too much dark creeping in. I foraged around off track in three or four spots, praying I would get back my superposy cool guy sunglasses. I was just about to give up when one last investigation yielded success, there they were nestled in the undergrowth. 'Seek and ye shall find,' and I have serious form here. I have found sunglasses three times after losing them in the countryside.

When I got back to Tring, I found the town could not give me a bus ride back to Wendover on a Saturday night. Thinking of a taxi ride, I stopped at a bus stop and engaged this woman with a people carrier plus child about local buses. It was a case of 'we don't do buses on a Saturday evening.' Amazingly, she offered to take me back to Wendover herself. Ah, irresistible charm unlocks a thousand doors! She told her son in  front of me that this course of action was not normally advisable! a woman taking a complete stranger of the opposite sex for a lift in your vehicle for several miles. But she merrily returned me to Wendover for a few coins pocket money for her son. I was very grateful as she dropped me off within the comforting sight of Budgens, that great servant of mankind.