Ok I get it!

Giardini Naxos gardens every where. Beautiful walk to city center and if England is the manicured island this is the island over flowing with flowers, this is La Paz and Santa Barbara combined. Impatient's larger than you can imagine, Bougainville hanging everywhere, Hibiscus blooming, it is definitely not manicured just exploding every where. 

Yes, I found another outfit to match my hat, lucky me! Don't I look matchy, matchy!

Waterfront was covered with same stores I found up at Taomina and many restaurants. Interesting statues, one looks like my wind god with her head blown off. Another is a set of Capitals with a cross beam carved to say NAXOS, I am hopping i can get Kirk wrapped up in a toga and give him some grapes and have him pose for me inside the columns, I could call it Bacchus. He has been known do to most anything I suggest, "Men In Tights".

Had sore feet by the time I got back so took a few laps in the pool with my new bathing suit and sarong with drags lies, very lovely. Thanks Haley. 

Kirk has a very busy day today and we will probably do a beach swim when he returns, I will get my bottle of sand then. 

Here is my balcony view, with the sea beyond. I use the balcony as my art studio, very inspiring, my view, not my work. 

It is crazy 70's in the lobby of the hotel, the music is all 70's disco crazy, funny for a hotel like this, dream weaver is my favorite, I am not complaining, just with Greek paintings on the walls, statues, red velvet lounge furniture, marble floors, doesn't quite fit. Go disco!

Giardini Naxos

Beautiful town on the coast over looking the toe of Italy. Had a beach front table at Seafood Sound, food was delicious. If you think it is dangerous to walk on the streets in Oxford, you have never been to Italy. Narrow and crazy drivers.  Hotel is beautiful, I just figured out how you tell it is a 5 star hotel, it has a bidet. Ours also has a mega cockroach hiding out by the tub. I just keep the lights on and it stays out of sight. Too big to squish. 

Breakfast on the balcony overlooking the sea. All you could eat, Kirk is in heaven. 

Went to Tarimno amphitheater by bus. It is on the top of a mountian side and we rode a large travel bus to get there. Amazing scarey driving.  The theater over looked the sea and Mtn. Etna. Absolutely amazing view. 80 degrees and breezy.  Got a new hat to match my outfit. Now I am going to have to buy more outfits to match my hat. Yes coral is the color this year. 

Seeing any ancient sight is the same as all the rest. Just like the pyramids of Egypt , Parthenon of Greece, Taj Mahal of India, you have to traverse the gauntlet of tourist shops, hawkers... They let us off at the base of the village so inevitably we had to hike up a fair ways that was filled with so many shops it really tested your ability to keep walking. The price you pay to visit, buying things you really do not need.

The view from the top of the amphitheater was stunning, could see all the way to the toe of Italy and to Mtn. Etna where the gods live. The theater was originally made of stone by the Greeks , then repaired by the Romans, now is currently still in use. 

The bus ride down the mountian was just as scary as the way up but we made it safely, to my absolute amazement. 

CMS conference starts tonight so I will be on my own for a couple of days, will have to see what kind of trouble I can find. I am looking for windsurfing but does not seem to be any. Maybe I can start a shop!

Last words on England

Many peculiarities we have noticed while traveling through England.  

Last time we were in town we were on a search for tea and crumpets. None were found even at the Tea House in Thrupp. Still looking but I do not think crumpets are all that much to write home about so not to worry. One day we will have tea and crumpets.

One of the more obscure are signs that say " No Fly Tipping"  . I was wondering if this has anything to do with "Cow Tipping" ? These signs seem to show up in cities and not necessarily at any particular place. The seem randomly posted. But mostly around busy areas. We will continue to investigate this phenomenon.

Now the elevators also have personalities. Unlike the states they talk to you. You enter the elevator and it will say " door now closing"in a feminine voice.  Then it will say " going up" , "door opening" , so just in case you are confused it will let you know what is happening. Also the levels are a bit different. Ground floor is the lobby and then it starts at 1. So the first floor is not the one to get off at, wait til ground. 

Now in the Adelphi the elevators had other issues, it stopped where it liked, and never stopped at the fifth floor to pick up unless someone was getting off. You learned very quickly to at least walk down to the 4 th floor to get anywhere. 

When do you know it is time for more sleep, when Kirk pours your Oj in your coffee cup and then also pours himself Oj as the waiter arrives and is not sure where to put the coffee we just ordered. Yes we need more sleep.

So the discussion about dinner went like this. You know we have not paid for food today yet, yea we had a B&B breakfast, lunch at a college and coffees in between, but we have not paid for anything so we should have dinner. Great diet, Kirk just loves to eat. 

Credit card seems to all have chips in Europe, ours do not, I am not sure this a problem, they all seem to make due with a card with no chip but always seems an issue but it is  not stopping the shopping.

I have finally solved the Internet issue. I can never seem to log on with eduroam, or the university logins. So when I need Internet I go buy a bus ticket and tour the city, free internet on the bus. Does get a little in convenient at times, especially when you are not paying attention and end up in another city. But you do get to see a lot as you surf the web. I think it is much easier, coffee houses are pretty easy to.

Now for communication, there are a few things that make this a whole lot easier. One is to know when some one from England says " it's quite good" it means it is mostly bad.  When they say "that's not bad" it means it is good.   So you can imagine it gets a bit complicated to understand what they truly mean. 

Well now it is on to Milan then Catania, sun, water and a week at the beach! Not Bad!

Oxford

Quick stay in Oxford, and met and saw many people. Quick meeting in physics then off to RAL which is the Rutherford Appleton Lab, it is a national lab similar to Fermi Lab and Brookhaven in the states. Amazing labs through out the complex. RAL is about half hour drive south of Oxford.  

Met up wi Ian for dinner at a Thai Restaurant, delicious. We are getting pretty good with the bus service. Can actually find our way to the hotel and back to city center. Not at all getting use to others driving on the wrong side of the street, can. It tell you how many adrenal rushes I have had nearly stepping in front of a car or bike. 

b&B we stayed at  Was quite nice but a good distance south from the city center, gave us a good idea what he compute would be like from there. Had a few meetings on lab space development and en off to Queens College for lunch.  Had our first sage of Haggis, interesting favor served with a shot of whiskey. The colleges are pretty proper, elegant table settings, white gloves, fancy place. Queens College grounds is quite beautiful. 

Quick dash back to Glouster Green to catch the bus to Heathrow. Flight leaves in the early morning for Sicily.

Head of the River

Off to Oxford

Liverpool was great, one very interesting fact was that they like to keep the tourists alive, at the intersections they have written on the pavement in very large letters "LOOK LEFT".  I am sure thisis an effort to bring them back alive. It can get pret dicey crossing the street.

Went to West Side Story broadway play the night before we left. Beautiful theater, that was worth the price of admission, and the show was great. Stopped by train station on the way home and picked up our ticket for the next day.

Watched the USA race to another two wins, just amazing.

Misty morning as we left Liverpool. As we went south the skies cleared up and we had a sunny day in Oxford. Visited Physics then headed for the head of the River for a pint.

More meetings tomorrow and more beer.

Hairdos of England, looks like up doo's are in!

Naked men, they are everywhere!

Liverpool Coffee Houses

Nero

Seem to turn up every time we turn around. Nice Starbucks knock off. Has soy milk, nice atmosphere and comfy chairs. Coffee is very bitter and strong. 

Very efficient barristers, they take orders way ahead and line moves fast. Price seems cheap but I always forget the exchange rate, so it is about the same as Starbucks. 

Has a great tomato basil panini, delicious. And check out the door, yep naked man!   

Drank enough coffee here to fill up a punch card, just as we board the train for Oxford. Maybe Oxford has a Nero. 

Rococo

Upstairs purple velvet cafe. No soy so did not stay long. Atmosphere more than made up for lack of soy so i had tea.  Great healthy menu. All the chairs were Victorian and covered in Purple velvet. Chandeliers twinkled every where and game a warm welcoming feeling. This is on the third floor of building, and has chandeliers everywhere, many rooms off the corridor which has 4 chandeliers , each room decorated in Victorian decor, very inviting and warm. In the back of the coffee house is a beautiful solar with plants everywhere. Geraniums seem to be the plant of choice.

Costa

Another Starbucks knock off, they are all over the city. Long lines like Starbucks coffee is good. Fancy building, looks like pipes from an organ surrounding the place in all different  pastel colors. It is right in the middle of town surrounded by many ancient buildings . Coffees good. Has upstairs and down, comfy chairs.

Pret a Manger

Found another coffee house but I was so coffeed out could not bring myself to stop. So will have to save this I e for next time.

Nero Coffee house

Costa coffee

Rococo

Land of the Naked Men, Liverpool

This might be just me but there are a lot of statues of naked men at Liverpool. Everytime I turn around I see another one. This last adventure to Crosby we saw a beach full of them. Took the train to Hall andwalked to the beach and for 3 kilometers there were statues of the artist Gromey all over the beach. It was at low tide , as the tide came in some of them disappeared. They go on forever.

 We were at a coffee shop and a barrister mentioned that he went to visit the beach not knowing anything about the statues. They were swimming and in the middle of surfing a wave  realized the guy next to him was not moving. Was a real horror movie moment, then looked around and saw lots more naked men just standing there looking out to sea.

While at the cafe on the door was a bronzed carving of another naked man, across the street from the hotel bigger than real standing above it all, in the lobby of the hotel.  The place is lousy with naked men.

Down on the Docks at Liverpool

This city has beautiful old buildings everywhere with modern ones here and there. Really tourist friendly, with shopping areas closed off for walking and every kind of store you can think of. 

Beautiful day for a tour of the docks. Headed down to the waterfront and stopped by the Carvern, Beatle hangout on the way to the river.  I really can not believe that England has bad weather, it is sunny and gorgeous so far.  Cobble stones everywhere but walk able.  The river front is a lovely walk. Found a ferry went up and down the waterfront. Sunny and beautiful.

Tate museum, the unfortune thing is that it is in English. That just means I will have more time in the coffee and gift shops, I hate reading every wall fact.  Chagall , Picasso, my favorite. Some modern stuff I just skipped. 

Walked more of the water front to the Beatles Museum, now we know more than anyone would ever want to know. 

Back to the posh dive hotel, every time you turn around something else does not work, elevator has a mind of its own, Internet is iffy at best, key cards sometime work.  We are on the 5 th floor and hell and gone from the elevator that works some of the time. To get a new key card when yours does not work, after a long day of walking it is the last thing you want to do, but to getnintomyournroom, back down to the front desk. The place is booked, must be popular.

On to the Egg Cafe for dinner. Now to head into the more dodgy  part of town, we  wound around a few streets into an alley. Kirk wanted to jay walk, I was stunned, then I heard either a spirited discussion or altercation and figured it out. So jay walk we did and then down an alley and entered a red stair well, up three floors that looked like it could use a little more than paint. Then to enter you push open a freezer like door. With a sigh of relief you entered a quaint setting lite by candles. Great atmosphere, little scary getting there.  We had vegetarian dinner by candle light. Delicious. 

Egg Cafe, vegetarian but lots of it!

Beatle Mania, rock and roll in the Cavern

Liverpool waterfront

River Cruise Liverpool

Beatle Street, found the Cavern

Heathrow for 5 hours, 25 hours enroute so far

Aldelphi Hotel

The Never-ending Adventure

So we think we are doing ok, 25 hours, one more flight and train ride, and we will be there. Then over the loud speaker someone pages what sounds a bit like Kirk's name and definitely my name. Please proceed to the gate. Now with the electronic marvels we have, computer, iPad and iPhone, we got out of most of our scrapes by re-booking online, calling and standing in long lines. Now what did we do? So off to the gate.

We thought we were a short walk away from he gate. Come to find out, one more security check and, of course, they had to take our picture again. Not much of a line was the good news. Then around the bend and what do we have here...an English version of the "Ho Che Min Trail"! Yes, we had over 1/4 mile to walk to get to the gate where the little planes board. Heathrow is ranking up there as ATAAAC, airport to avoid at all cost!

But we had good news, they had our bags and were confused about whose they really were. Mine was Kirk's and Kirk's was mine, labels were redone and confusion abated. Can not believe they made the light speed jump in Houston to get on the flight to London, absolute miracle, just brilliant, as they say in England.

Made it to Manchester and found the train and even transferreed at Picadilly Square, very helpful people, they all just look at us and know we need help. Beautiful train station at Liverpool, and stately building every where. Only walked around the block once, loads of Beatle muisc blaring from the bars we passed, and found the Aldelphi. Beautiful hotel in style of French Lick. Old but stately. 

Made it here in less than 30 hours! Gotta love those adventures. Had dinner at Ceasars, delicious and cheap, looks like the exchange rate is way better than I thought or else Liverpool is living in a different world. Looks like exchange rate is 1:1. $24 for bruschetta, salmon dinner potatoes and salad included, chicken curry for Kirk and a beer. Pretty good deal. Nope, was wrong about exchange, I need more sleep.

Our feet are barking dogs and we need some sleep. Off to never never land. Sweet sleep. 

The dogs are ready to go!

Slow going, but we are on our way.

Here we go again! At least we thought we were, the dogs decided to jump into the suitcases and demanded a ticket to go. They got a long walk, lots of treats but still they were not happy when Gus walked in. As we packed up, Gus and dogs snuggled up on the couch while we loaded car.  The dogs allegiance changed, some how they knew.

When we got to then airport, my bag 2lbs. over, repack my stuff into Kirks bag. I am blaming the 2 lbs. on Danielas mail.... Checked out my favorite shop, Artizans and got a new idea for a scarf, can not leave without a Starbucks!

Then.... the flight was delayed. Looks like a lot of bad weather in DC. Hopefully that means the flight out of DC to Manchester is delayed also. There is only one flight a day to Manchester.  Hope we do not have to spend an evening in DC. The adventure  begins as usual, flexibility is mandatory when you travel, I guess I will have to go back to Artizans and do a little more shopping.  Oh delays are soooo boring, NOT, love them..... Just more shopping. Check them out www. Artizangifts.com.