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August's Pictures
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Because I forgot I had my phone with me you will never see any pictures of the Grotto Smeraldo, but if the grotto is pretty famous then someone will have a brilliant picture somewhere of it on the web. Mind you this was never the idea behind Zamyatin so I don't know why I said that other than to console you that if you were that interested in it you could find pictures elsewhere. It's a place to go alright but there is little to see; but with a backdrop of other places such as Solerno and the Paper Museum on the Amalfi tourist landscape seeing a small cave with an under the sea opening letting in the light causing the water glow blue is an attraction in itself. Add to this a boat ride in the cave that takes you round in a ten yard circle captained by a mad man then you feel that the fifteen Euros were all worth it. Well it was more than fifteen, the chap in the boat does remind you not to forget him, as if you can. Ten of the fifteen includes the boat trip to the grotto attended by a chap telling you about all the sights all down the coast as you pass whilst he smells of beer from the night before and by the smell of it he smells of beer from today.
So back to Amalfi and lunch and then back. There appears to be what looks like a fifties style ferry that appears a couple of times a day. Half the size of the Duke of Lancaster it awkwardly and gingerly docks in harbour that doesn't seem large enough. I only mention this because it looks an impressive beast just like the Duke of Lancaster and if the pictures come out alright then I'll put them up here.
On a traffic note. On the way back to the hotel we saw an exasperated American complaining to her husband that when crossing the road a car nearly hit her. I never saw the incident but I would say that in Italy a "nearly hit" counts as a miss.
| 0 comments have been left | 16:27 24 Aug 2008 | Tags: amalfi boat italy |
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Ignoring the guide book for a second time we set out for Positano. Consisting of little more than the obligitory marina (quite important since road access has been denied for over a week due to a landslide), beaches, bars, boutiques and a Church (S. Maria Asumpta) we walked around with a grumpy seven year old (not included in the ticket price) and left. It was pretty enough and the church was a little impresive, perhaps when the photos come back I'll scan them in and add them here.
This is a view from the ferry back. Ten or fiffteen minutes late it got a wiggle on, choosing to turn the thirty minute trip there into a fifteen minute blast back with aircon -mind you it was a bigger boat. As the grumpy seven year old put it "it's bigger than an airplane". Well it was wider as far as the seats were concerned. Grumpyness subsided when offered to sit on the upper deck outside, a luxury not allowed on the way out due to yesterday's sunburn incident. Also helping to good mood was her being handed the video camera. This fifteen minute epic naver may appear online I am afriad. This will assure it the title of the "Zamyatin the lost tapes/memory cards" along with all my other dull movies.
| 0 comments have been left | 15:17 23 Aug 2008 | Tags: positano boat ferry amalfi italy |
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It was a day of rest at the house of Zamyatin so the beach in Amalfi was the order of the day. Not that good for pictures but good for... resting. Not a seasoned rester and always in need of a good picture... OK, always in need of a picture I left the good ladies Zamyatin at the beach for an hour in the middle of a day of sunbathing for two reasons. Firstly I am no good at sitting doing nothing. Secondly I fancied doing my own thing for a bit and thirdly I heard that there was a paper museum at the very top of Amalfi and I was sure the climb would not be enjoyed by my Wife and Daughter.
The climb was hardish but not that bad so I strode to the top in usual me fashion to realise that I was sweating through my shirt as usual. I found myself in a guided tour of the place and being asked if I spoke Italian, to which I said no. Apaulingly like all (most) Brits I rely on knowing brand names and the words for please and thankyou and rudimentary counting that might even go as high as 5 or 10 if you're lucky so long as there are pauses during the latter stages if counting to 10. So the guide turned to the Italians apologetically and asked if they spoke English, of course they did. Feeling like a shunned idiot I hoped the tour would end quick and mercifully it did. What can you expect from a 3.50EUR tour? I now know that Amalfi paper is of the highest quality and is made of cotton. I also know that the next time I shall bring my daughter and when they ask if I speak Italian I shall say Si but then point to my daughter shaking my head and rolling my eyes saying essa non pug.
Anyway to the picture. There were no good photo ops in the museum and the only picture I took of the place was rubbish so I had to settle myself with this. Coming back down the gorge that is Amalfi you end up at the Marina. In the middle where all the roads join there's this statue. With no markings and nothing in the guide books this is all I have. Obviously it will be something to do with Amalfi's Naval past but I am sure you could have guessed it and I am sure there is a Wikipedia page on it. Good luck.
| 0 comments have been left | 18:12 22 Aug 2008 | Tags: amalfi Flavio Gioia paper statue italy |
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Yes I know it's not his house at all, it's a Temple for Neptune set in Paestum and it's not Roman Greek. If our guide it to be belived then anything we consider Roman started here, yes here. That arena stuff with the Roamans? Here. Gladiator? Roman? No they started here too. Nastro Azzurro? Started here too, they found old fossilised beer cans. OK I'm joking about the Nastro. Paestum started as a Greek settlement taken by the Romans and finally lost in the nineth century only to be discovered nine centuries later when they build a road right through the middle of it. Full of the foundations of old buildings and the main bits of three a temples the later of which is this on built 450BC.
Next on to Paestum museum in the end we were completely Paestumed out so it was to lunch. Nearby Water Buffalo graze producing Buffalo Mozzarella, I'd have liked to see the Buffalo do this but instead we consumed their hard work. No course was complete without a dollop of the stuff whether it needed it or not. I was afraid to ask for the Chicken Rogan Josh. Needless to say I chose the Mozzarella and Ricotta Crepe and the Buffalo Panacotta.
Once fed and watered it was time to try and sleep off the food and Peroni with an Italian Job style drive on the twistly mountain roads back to Amalfi.
| 0 comments have been left | 18:04 21 Aug 2008 | Tags: paestum mozzarella greek ruin italy |
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Read all the guidebook advice on Salerno. We read up but went anyway. Rudderless without our trusty guidebook we ambled aimlessly around the streets and back alleys hoping to stumble on something. More of a shopping place and even at it seemed strange as the shops appeared and then faded only to appear again. Mind you that might have been because we were wandering. Also since it's write-up was all about shopping I suspected grand shops and masses of them. It contained small interesting shops I suppose; full of jewellery, toys and groceries but not in the same shop you understand. Perhaps for the day-tripping souvenir hunter.
This is a picture of a water fountain that I assume had some statue in the middle of it. Now it's completely overgrown unless the overgrown bit is the whole point.
| 0 comments have been left | 17:08 20 Aug 2008 | Tags: statue overgrown salerno fountains italy |
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A very hot day today. I say today as if it's not hot now. Just imagine a no shirted me typing at his phone with a Nastro. Not a pretty thought I suppose so don't imagine it.
We walked around Amalfi today and there's nothing much here I can report. I suspect it's a Marina for the big boys with their boats. The Cathedral pictured here looks impressive but perhaps I have been spoilt by Seville and Cordoba, so I was left relatively unmoved even if St Andrew's bones are kept there to be dragged out on display every so often. Still the walk up is impressive if not a little worrying especially with a 7 year old in tow.
So after we set down in a bar for lunch that didn't happen in that we were too hot to eat. I asked for a beer and a water. I was asked was size of water and I replied large being thirsty. What turned up was a litre of both as if asking for a small water is an obvious option whereas everyone needs a litre of beer. I struggled but I overcame the beer but had to take the water away thus proving their theory.
Then to the beach and hopefully time to relax. I managed just enough of my book to say that I had started in time to was my daughter attempt to hold back the sea... Sometimes with her face.
| 0 comments have been left | 17:37 19 Aug 2008 | Tags: amalfi cathedral steps italy |
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Of course this will now be the top link on Google because of the title of this page should anyone ever search for this and they will with no word of a lie, so to answer the question and pre-empt any disappointment I started on my quest, so it was off to Knowsley Safari Park. I was a little worried about my Proton it's bad week, a late night drive into work turned into a catalogue of disaster involving an engine warning light and a speed camera but with true British spirit we set off on the non-car friendly route through the Safari Park. Initially I wasn't worried but when the commentary explained that moving slowly along was the best way to travel and then I hit a traffic jam I was concerned, there was also the fact that you had to dodge ripped off windscreen wiper on the floor. It all became clear when it transpired that the traffic jam was created by people feeding the Baboons, and the Baboons in turn thanked them by fighting over the food and ripping loose bits off the car, a fair exchange I think. Mind you this wasn't as really stupid as the person in front of me who got out of their car in the first enclosure. Not wishing to witness a man being ripped apart by a Lion which would then probably try out the contents of a Merc thanks to it's now dead owner I overtook after the keeper reminded the chap where he was.
Un-skirmished, our only contact with the primates was when they ran over the car and in this instance answered the question initially proposed. In fact both right and left mirrors acted as bum support for the Baboons with the left one allowing one Baboon to let it all hang out. I'd have probably got a Nikon picture of this apart from the fact that it wasn't playing today so it ended up being dumped in the back of the car.
| 0 comments have been left | 18:19 3 Aug 2008 | Tags: baboon safari park knowsley |
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