The chickens were also interesting, especially the one that was about twice the size of Kate’s head! (he was after all “Buff”)

Plenty more photos here

These cannons were all individually cast, which meant no two were the same.  That provided the problem of different size cannon balls.

Other ships that were at the historic dockyard included the HMS Victory (Lord Nelson’s ship and the oldest commissioned ship).  There were also a fair contingent of the British Navy as Portsmouth is the main base for the Navy.  We were lucky to see all three of their air craft carriers.

We ended our sightseeing day with fish and chips on the beach.

The rest of the photos are here

Some highlights: the tunnels, a cave and some scenery

Some photos here

After our day of cycling, we took the next couple of days for some sightseeing around Buxton (the home of Buxton Water) and Bakewell (the home of Bakewell tart).

To see a fine lady upon a white horse

With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes

She shall have music wherever she goes”

Ok, It’s not my work – don’t worry – it’s a nursery rhyme (do you remember it?).  We headed to Banbury today to see the cross amongst other things.  It’s quite neat, although it’s Victorian (me thinks that’s not that old these days).  Anyway, Banbury is about 20 mins north of us on the train, so we took our bikes on the train and headed up there for the afternoon.  One of the highlights wasn’t the cross though, it was that the Oxford canal runs right though Banbury so you can sit and watch the boats go through the locks!  Banbury also played an important role in the Civil war, Charles I spent a bit of time fighting the parliamentarians here in 1644.

Anyway, this is Banbury Cross

More photos here

Anyway, enough ranting.  York = tourists.  But it’s still a lovely place.  OK, the three must see things in York in a particular order…

1.  The city walls.  York was a walled city, and most of the city walls and gate houses still exist.  They are lovely to walk around

2. York’s Minster.  England’s largest church. And large it is.  This time I went to the top, next time I’ll go to the bottom.  I also saw the middle.  Kate took the opportunity to go shopping while I went around this Church…

3. The National Rail Museum. Yes several large buildings full of trains and carriages.  This place was super amazing.  I expected a few trains, and a lot of little stuff.  I was really wrong, it was FULL of many trains from some of the earliest some very recent trains.

Beauties like…

Finally we went for a drive with Roger and Danielle to Bempton Cliffs.  The cliff home to many sea birds including Puffins!  We saw several puffins flying out and about and one sitting in the cliffs.  I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get any snaps, but you can see that Kate found one puffin that didn’t move too quickly.

The easy to find puffin

I’ve taken a few more photos, feel free to check them out HERE.

The bones of St Nicholas in the Cathedral in Trani.  St Nicholas (Santa Clause) was thought to be a fool, but eventually I guess they realised that he wasn’t a bad chap.  So, bones in box.  Lovely!

A Knights’ Templa Church in Trani.  Trani was one of several places used as a staging point for the Crusades – hence Kights needed somewhere to, reflect I guess…

Barletta was also lovely, here’s a 3 wheel “ute”

And the local turtles were doing an ancient ritual known as “a turtle stack”

More photos of Lecce start here.

Some things in Lecce were closed to visitors because on the weekend after we were here, the G8 summit was being held in the Castle.

I did, however, enjoy (as I do) the many Roman ruins. This place was littered with them like this one right in the town square

We also tripped down to Gallipoli, a lovely sea-side town right down the south.  We did some swimming here as it was getting hot.  BUT there was some time to checkout the local church.  The interior of the Church was full of lovely oil paintings.  The beach was also lovely with water so clear you could see your feet!

After three days down here, we headed back up to Ruvo. On the way back, we stopped into an enormous cave system, the Castlellana Grotte.  It was about a 3 hour walk down into this system of caves formed in limestone.  Absolutely amazing.  The tour guide was also amazing.  How one person could have three accents on top of her english had me bluffed.  I’m not sure how her geological knowledge was though, she spent the entire tour pointing out various rock formations that look like things… everything from a rabbit to the Madonna and child.  By the end, I think I was seeing animals, food and inate objects in every rock formation!  It was an impressive, deep and varied system.

Upon our return to Ruvo, we did one more day trip to Molfetta, another staging point for the crusades.  Given the temperature, we again hit the beach.  But there was a lovely port…

So that ended our two weeks in Italy.  Naomi and D saw us off at the tain station, which in true Italian style was pretty much marble wall to wall…

The complete photo set from Italy can be found here

It’s good to be home, but I will miss the pizza…

We trained it between the 5 main villages to see what each had to offer. Each village was different but they all had spectacular views up into the surrounding hills and down into the Med. Due to the heat we also managed a swim. Swimming in June in the UK would require a 4mm wetsuit…

One problem i have as a tourist in places like this is every time you turn around i take another photo… Even if i’m standing in the same spot! Some of my many hundred photos can be found here (starting at Chinque Terre).

To finish off our day we did a bit ofshopping. The main purchase was some anti-histamines for kate’s cat allergy. Lucky the pharmist spoke the international language of medication so kate asking for something for
“meow, meow – achoo, achoo”
Got us what we wanted….