GREETINGS FROM SAN TROPEZ!

I heard from a friend on Facebook that the weather is awful back home so I'd better not rub it in too much ... Oh, what the hell, here in St. Tropez the weather is in the mid-twenties, we are camping today at the campsite managed by our friend Andy, sitting outside in the late afternoon sunlight drinking from our 3 litres bottle of red that cost something like 7 euro ... all is well and God is in his Heaven.

Yesterday, we left our hotel and ventured up the other side of Lake Como in Italy in search of the chapel of the Madonna del Ghisallo. I provide a link here in case you are a cycling fan. The significant thing about this little chapel is that the Madonna is the patron of cyclists. The chapel contains many mementos of the great cyclists past and present and, touchingly, many remembrances of competitive cyclists who died while competing in the sport.

Unfortunately, I took many a wrong turn trying to get to the Madonna and managed to pee Jo off a little bit.  But it was just something I have always wanted to do ever since I became aware of this particular little church.

If the chapel wasn't enough, though, right next door was the Museum of Cycling!  Bikes from the dawn of cycling, recent Tour de France machines, winner's jersey's, loads of mementos and the history of bike racing, all in one building.  Needless to say, I bought the t-shirt!

More from me tomorrow.

GREETINGS FROM LAKE COMO

Hello Everyone!

 

Another couple of wonderful days although blighted in part by bad weather. When we left Konstanz we soon got lost on our way south.  If only we had decided to go through the Swiss border check point only a few hundred yards from our hotel. But we had to try to be clever and try to head south through Austria.

 

Eventually we ended up in the town of Imst, nestled in the Austrian Tirol.  What lovely views of the mountains from our campsite! The next day we took a drive to Innsburck and wandered about the town for the afternoon.

 

Today has been a day of extreme weather changes. We headed south through St. Moritz (zero degrees celcius) until Imst (19.5 degress celcius).

 

Tonight we went for an evening meal out on the terrace of the restaurant area of town. It was great to sit out in the evening air, in September, and enjoy a meal with a good red wine.

No pictures today simply because I haven't had a chance to check them out.

GREETINGS FROM KONSTANZ, SOUTHERN GERMANY

We were on the road early this morning and drove south east, in the general direction of Austria, trying our best to hug the southern shore of the Bodensee.

The town of Konstanz is a large, cosmopolitan town which, interestingly, has the border with Switzerland running through it.  We went out for a walk tonight and visited Switzerland for ten minutes before we got fed up and returned to Germany.

 

For those of you who were fed up with my comments yesterday about all the beautiful sunshine we were having you will be pleased to know that it rained this afternoon when we were out exploring the town. And boy, did it rain! We hadn’t been expecting the rain and certainly weren’t dressed for it. We got soaked! Tonight when we went out for a further look around we were sure to put on our waterproof jackets and take our umbrellas with us!

On the plus side, though, I have to point out that the weather outside is currently in the region of 16 degrees C – at 9pm!

Onward, tomorrow, to Austria!

 

GREETINGS FROM FRANCE! GREETINGS FROM GERMANY!

Hello everyone and greetings from the German town of Appenweirer on the fringes of the Black Forest.  We are having a wonderful time so far on our drive around central Europe.  In fact, we can’t quite believe how much we are enjoying ourselves – or how good the weather is.  Since Monday the average temperature has been about 26 degrees Celsius with loads and loads of lovely sunshine!

We came off the ferry at Calais in France on Monday at about 11am local time and charged along the autoroute headed for Reims.  There we met up with our good friends, the recently married James and Magali Christie at their flat, a short distance from the magnificent Reims Cathedral.

What a wonderful time we had with this lovely couple over the next two days. We visited the cathedral, we did a tour of the town, we visited Magali’s parents (whom we first met at the wedding), we ate well and we shared a few beers.

The town of Reims is historic but there’s just too much to go in to at the moment.  Reims suffered terribly in both World Wars and there is much evidence of this still in the town – for instance the lower walls of the cathedral, pock-marked with machine gun and shell-hits.

The hospitality shown to us both by Magali and James and Magili’s parents was very touching and we will never forget it.

On Wednesday morning we said farewell to Reims and headed east, for Southern Germany and based ourselves at the Hotel Adler in Appenweirer.

Today we went exploring the Black Forest area.  How beautiful! Again, there’s just too much to say in a quick blog post but hopefully I will get some photographs and more wordstogether for posting soon and keep you all up to date.

And tomorrow? Who knows!  More of Southern Germany I expect before we head down to Austria.

We are having a blast!

TIREE ONLINE

Although I'm not posting much to my blog these days you can still keep up with me if you are on Facebook, the social networking site. You can find me at www.facebook.com/gdwscott  In the meantime, why don't you check out all the exciting developments over at www.tireeonline.com

Here's founder Paul Veverka to tell you more:

"Tiree Online is a brand new Tiree website launched on 13th August 2010. As well as providing daily news of what's happening on Tiree, the site has a large discussion forum open to a global audience. Over 30 people freely registered to the site in it's first week alone, with many islanders and an international collection of visitors taking part in topical Tiree discussion. However, it's not just a news site! Tiree Online uniquely provides every member their own custom made free blog/diary! It also features around 300 Tiree videos and many hundreds of photos! Members can discuss or start new conversation and can instantly text chat in real time to each other if they wish. Its a social site with a fun aspect to membership. All members collect virtual points for participating, which gradually and automatically unlocks new hidden areas of the site. The more you log in, read and post, the more points you get! If you're passionate and proud of Tiree, then please register. It's free and takes 30 seconds. Thanks"