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The Gerrard Chronicles 2006 - Traveller's Tales |
No ski trip for a sick Ken: he had to cancel it, however...
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April 24th - 'LONG WEEKEND' TO TRIER As Trier is about as far as Edinburgh from London, we took the truck to Mainland Europe for the 1st time, Ken's trepidation about driving on the 'wrong' side with the wheel on the wrong side proving unfounded. We stayed in a little hotel with its own parking in the town centre but with a really weird landlady. This is the oldest recorded city in Germany with many Roman ruins, including the famous Porta Nigra, vast baths & an amphitheatre, where you can go in the lions den (no lions). The usual pedestrianised town centre is quite charming & we had to go round Karl Marx birthplace museum. We also visited Luxemburg City &, while the setting is dramatic, the locals were rather unfriendly. | |||||
The Porta Nigra (Roman Gate) in context |
The Hauptmarkt at night |
Karl Marx' birthplace |
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The Luxemburg motto is lousy German for, "We want to stay as we are". |
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June 10th - ON LAKE COMO
We took a package tour (rather un-Baldry, these days) to Tremezzo (really Mezzagra) & the Hotel Lario for serious unwinding, meeting Cousin Liz, Paolo & Rikki at Como City for lunch on our 1st day. We spent a whole day visiting the gardens of the Villa Carlotta & another hanging around Bellagio. We hired a car, went up the historic but too industrial Valle Tellina & over the Bernina Pass into the Swiss Engadine, coming back by Maloja & fascinating Chiavenna. Then, a long boat trip to the top of the lake & back, with a splendid lunch at Colico
Ken's cousin Rikki in Como |
Liz (Rikki's mother) |
A house on Lake Como |
Tremezzo from Mezzagra |
Lake Como from Villa Melzi |
Gaudy gardening by the |
Bellagio from the boat |
A day trip to the Engadine |
Chiavenna |
Dongo |
Musso |
Colico |
June 28th - DDR TRIP TO ZWICKAU & DRESDEN
The Lilian Baylis Arts Club requested a talk on Schumann (to be delivered on January 26th 2007 but already given to the Stuart Low Trust), which provided the excuse for a trip to his birthplace & excellent museum in Zwickau in Saxony, part of the old East Germany. If you are in Zwickau, you might as well go on the Dresden & then report the whole trip with copious photos on this link.
September 5th - KEN PLODS ON
To provide some alternative stages on his Cross-Swiss Walk, Ken walked from Netstal (where the filter paper in your school chemistry is made) to Brienz. This is fully reported on Ken's Alpine Advice web site: the Pragel Pass, the Chinzig Pass (or Suvorovweg, after the Russian general who forced his troops over it in 1799) & the Susten Pass, although the route guide rather elides the unexciting section between Burglen & Wassen, where he met some American motor-bykers on their 1st day in Europe & in deep culture shock, especially when Ken told them the village was probably 2,500 years old or more!
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October 7th - IN LARBORD Our friends Maryse & Martin Jones have a chateau (they call it a farmhouse but...) in this area & invited us to join them for a few days in October. However, Maryse was not well, so we got there first! Finding a working supermarket in rocket science in France but we did not starve before they eventually arrived. We visited Bayonne, missed on previous trips. Avis' Tate Staff pass got her into the Basque Museum free, funding our expensive but fantastic lunch. We went to Pau, the gateway to the Pyrenees & a trip round the castle there. Another day was spent going up the coast & to the beautiful lake of Soustons & back via Dax. | ||||||
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| After this trip, Ken checked the Carbon web site & found that the Jones', who had driven down, had produced |
