Jerry's Visit to England

My dad and I spent a few days in Cambridge while he was here. We visited the colleges, the museums and a few bookshops. The colleges are fantastic. We visited King's College, which is famous for its chapel completed by Henry VIII. We enjoyed strolling by the river watching the punters and tourists getting yelled at for walking on the lawn. We visited Trinity College and Wren Library as well as St. John's College.

For my dad's last day in London we went to Kew Gardens. We brought a picnic and happily enjoyed some of the best weather we've had so far in August. My favorite exhibit is the lily pad exhibit. It seems like you could curl up in one and take a nap. They're huge!

Salisbury, Avebury & Stonehenge

While my mom was here visiting we went to Salisbury. Salisbury is about two hours from London and very near to Stonehenge. We walked around the old town and visited the Catherdral. While we were there the boys choir was practicing which was fun to hear. We fell in love with a cafe that had the most amazing nut coffee cake. We managed to go there three times in less than 24 hours (we didn't have cake every time). The next day we went out to Avebury which is Stonehenge's less famous neighbor. Avebury town is in the middle of a huge rock circle that you can walk through. The site is older and more extensive than Stonehenge but the rocks are not as theatrically piled on top of each other. We hiked through the country side trying to find the prehistoric sites listed on our map. We managed to locate Silbury Hill, a giant manmade hill, but we failed to find our roman road. Luckily though we did find the bus stop. On our way back to town we decided to make a short stop at Stonehenge. It is really incredible when you think about it but it loses some of its appeal with the bus loads of tourists, giant fence, and large entrance fee.

Tuscany

This summer has been full of wonderful travels and family. I was lucky enough to get to go to Italy with my mom and Tessa. We toured Pisa, Florence, Lucca and Cinque Terre. It was beautiful and sunny. A welcome change from England where we've continued to have downpours at least once a day.

We started out in Pisa where we got to see the Leaning Tower and the Duomo. They only allow small groups of people up the tower at a time for obvious reasons. The Duono is absolutely beautiful.

From Pisa we headed to Florence where we alternated between food and art. We found an amazing bread shop called Forno near San Lorenzo market. We happily consumed vast amounts of fresh bread, fat ripe figs, cheese and pastas. While in Florence we saw the Maplethorpe exhibit at the Academia. I have a huge admiration for his lighting skills. Books just don't do his work justice. We also enjoyed the Botticelli at the Uffizi, the Boboli Gardens and unnumbered churches. The second afternoon we decided to hike from Fiesole to Settignano in the hills above Florence. It was a beautiful hike although the trail is quite hard to find let alone stay on. All trails in Italy are marked with a red and white stripe. At one point our marks began to be painted out with grey. We began to get quite worried but eventually we met someone who assured us that the town ahead was indeed Settignano. We ended up having one of the best dinners of our trip at this cute little restaurant that looks over Florence. Of course we'd just hiked a few hours and weren't quite dressed appropriately but they let us in anyway.

Settignano Hike

Lucca is a walled medieval city. The walls have now been converted into a walk so that you can ride bike or walk around the entire old city. It is also a city of towers with a half dozen poking up above the buildings. Each one is unique. Our favorite tower had trees growing on top. The old town is a jumble of streets in which we quickly got lost. Hidden squares and courtyards abound. We only spent one night, but we could have easily spent much longer. Lucca also has its fair share of churches. We sheltered in one during a surprise downpour and the little old nun plied us with lots of information on the order.

The last stop on our trip was Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a group of five historic coastal towns linked together with an ancient path. We stayed in Monterosso which is the last town. It is traditional to hike the trail and see each of the five towns. They're all brightly painted and hug the Mediterranean. Until the last century or so, the only means of travel between the cities was this trail which takes about 5 hours to hike. Some parts are very steep as you wind up through the terraced vineyards. The hike was beautiful. The food was amazing. And the water was warm and clear. I actually took a whole day to lay on the beach and read and swim.

Monterosso

Vernazza

Manarola

To sum up the trip, "A day without gelato is a day wasted." Iain Pears

Boxhill

We had a lovely week here where it was sunny and warm.  Heath and I took the opportunity to go to Boxhill which is part of the south downs and has really great hiking.  We took a picnic and hiked the long trail before finishing with a pint at the local pub.  We had a wonderful time.  We're looking forward to taking everyone when they come because it's the perfect slice of English countryside.

Brittany with Vince

Heath and I visited Vince in Rennes for the Spring Break.  Vince and Marie were nice enough to put us up for a week and take us all over Brittany.  

We started out visiting some of the historic towns around Rennes including Dinan and St. Malo. Both cities have walled historical centers with leaning wooden buildings and a large tourist trade.  At St. Malo, which is on the coast, we got to watch the tide come in.  In the course of twenty minutes the tide will go from low, where you can walk along the tide pools to the small islands right off the coast, to high tide where you can get stuck on said islands.  The residents of St. Malo congregate on the walls at this time and thoroughly enjoy watching the tourists scramble to get back to the mainland, laughing and pointing.  Unfortunately for us no one got so stuck as to need the boat to go get them.  That would have been really funny!

Dinan

Me and my massive Pain au Chocolat

The crepe I ordered

The crepes we made

St. Malo

On Marie's day off they took us to Mont St. Michel which was incredible.  It truly is as amazing

as you'd expect.  It looks like the Disney castle but it's really a church set upon the cliffs and surrounded by a small village of curio shops and cafes.  The tides are extreme here as well and if you're not careful you could come back to the parking lot and find your car under water.  The

opposite though allowed us to venture our onto the flat endless sand and walk around the island.  The church it's self is perched on the topmost point and built up out of the rock.  The stones are covered in a beautiful yellow lichen.  Go to Mont St. Michel if you get a chance.  It's amazing.

Mont St. Michel

Because the weather was unpredictable and we didn't relish the idea of sleeping out in the rain, we opted out of backpacking and decided to just do some day hikes.  These included the coastal trail as well as the menhirs of St. Just.  Brittany is famous for it's menhirs (which are giant prehistoric stones set in rows) and we went to St Just to hike among them.  Heath and I also traveled to Carnac to see the most famous menhir site with over 4000 stones.  

St. Just

Coastal Trail

Carnac Menhirs

The highlight of the trip however was the menhir of St Samson which you're supposed to climb up.  Legend has it that girls who wish to be married within the year must climb up and slide down in their knickers.  It's nearly impossible and I certainly couldn't do it.  It's fun to try though.

Before we left Marie took us to the gaufes place in Dinard.  Gaufes are huge belgium waffles that you cover with nutella or caramel and whipped cream.  They're amazing and so bad for you!  I never thought I'd find anything to rival churros y chocolate but I think these take the cake.  I could barely make it through half of mine.