Cassis Town

Wednesday 29 August 2007. We move away from the beach and into the town itself. The town of Cassis is quite busy this morning. There are market stalls set up, so perhaps it is market day.

A biscuit shop! There was such a wonderful smell coming from it that we had to go inside just to soak in the flavours. They obviously bake a lot of their stock themselves in the shop. Their way of selling was fun too. You could buy an empty decorative tin and cram as many biscuits as you could fit inside all for one price! We did!

We come out and of course have to immediately try one of the biscuits each! The market is a riot of colour and bustle. All sorts of food, meat, vegetables, breads, fruit and of course fish. But lots of other goods also from textiles to CDs.

Did I mention the hand-painted tiles, flowers and pot plants and rolls of linoleum floor covering? Well I have now! Not to mention tablecloths that come in a choice of rectangular, round or oval!

The pigeons on the ornamental fountain make a very appealing picture. Cassis (you do not pronounce the final 'S') is twinned with our own Burnham-on-Sea. The site was first occupied 600-500 BCE by the Ligures (the Italian Liguria region was named after them). I love a sentence from Wikipedia: "...Cassis could have been inhabited by the Greeks, though no proof has yet been found." Brilliant. It could also of course have been inhabited by a three-legged race of pygmies from Planet Bxsvi but strangely no proof of that has been found either...

It's time to walk back to the meeting spot and as we waited for the coach I took a photo of the expensive looking villa or hotel high up on the cliff.

We got back from Cassis to the Island Star and found our favourite spot by the pool. I'd got through the Bernard Cornwell book and was starting Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid" and so was chortling happily when a look of concern came over Fran's face. Cissie and Ada were struggling to the table. Cissie was bent over to the right and Ada was holding onto her as they crawled over. I went over to help.
"What on earth have you done?"
"It's only my back, it's gone!"

We got her sat down - lucky I was there otherwise she'd have done a sideways somersault over the arm of the chair... I'm still not sure exactly what she'd done but: "Heineken Light - two for one!" she hailed a passing waiter. After half an hour she was as right as rain. It really must reach the parts other beers can't...

"Are you going on the talent show?" asked Ada. I was a day late in asking if I was going to and I wasn't all that bothered anyway.
"Is it..." Cissie leaned over, either because of her back or to look into my eyes in a vague hope of reading my mind "...Grumbleweeds?"

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Koblenz - Our First German Christmas Market

Saturday 7 December 2019. The third part of today's excursion, after the Rhine cruise and Boppard, is Koblenz.

It's mid afternoon as we arrive in Koblenz, the city at the point where the River Moselle flows into the Rhine. Several river cruise ships are moored up here and we sneak a peek inside as we walk past. The standard of furnishings in the cabins looks very high and luxurious.

We are walking up a main shopping street, Miss Franny looking in wine shop windows picking things for me to juggle later on our walk back to the coach... Bits of music in several different styles reaches us and eventually we come across these four guys who happily pose and/or blink as I take a photo. You win some, you lose some...

A massive shop selling Christmas decorations. I went all nostalgic when I saw these as my parents had a couple of glass birds just like these when I was still playing with my toys on the floor with bare knees rather than from behind a microphone. The pink one next to the gold one came home with us.

Ta Da! Our first Christmas Market! We've glimpsed others down side streets but decided to walk up the shopping street and then work our way back down doing the side streets.

Glűwein is mulled wine and lots of people were wandering round with glass mugs getting emptier and eyes getting glassier!

Well I don't mind if I do... The mugs came home with us too.

Not really sure what this was about... The policeman seems amused but what is that she's holding? A turkey foot? A set of withered bagpipes? And she's reaching for a bribe out of her purse too...

Time for a wander and getting into the Christmas Spirit. Or should that be "getting Christmas Spirits into us"...?

Ham and cheese on a stall. Fran considered getting a small cheese as it would have been cold enough in the hold of the coach. Kaiserschinken as the ham is labelled, is literally King Ham. Miss Franny shook her head. "I might want some cheese but I don't want any king ham..." Blimey... Alright, alright, calm down..."

We had a good wander around all the side street markets on the way back down. A group of people with brass instruments were playing just short snatches of Christmas Carols, getting a round of applause after each one. Literally just one verse for each one. Perhaps they were enjoying the applause!

As it starts to get dark it gets quite a bit colder. We set off back to the river with about 45 minutes before we are due at the coach, to walk along to a significant landmark. We reach the junction of the Moselle and Rhine rivers and looking across the Rhine, we see the cable car.

This is the landmark. A huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm of WW1 fame with the base made into a prison by Hitler. It was specifically to hold Winston Churchill in WW2 and to incarcerate and humiliate him in sight of passers-by.

I have no tripod with me, but can't resist taking a few photos of the Moselle River at night.

I've always loved night photography anyway. Often quite ordinary buildings can look wonderful when picked out by lights against a dark sky.

We walked as far as the first bridge over the Moselle River and then turned back to return to the coach for our trip back to Assmannhausen and our hotel.

Once back we had just enough time before dinner to trot a way down the street to take a photo of the hotel.

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A Change of Plan in France

Sunday, 19 May 2019. The Marella Dream docks in Toulon, France. We had booked an excursion around the famous French naval harbour by small boat, but had received notice that not enough people had booked to allow that particular tour to go ahead. As regular cruisers we have visited lots of nearby places in previous years and one trip we had particularly enjoyed was to two little seaside resorts on the Cote d'Azur called Bandol and Sanary-sur-Mer. We changed our booking to do this again.

Our trip today did them in reverse order, so this is Sanary-sur-Mer. It had been our favourite of the two anyway. The tour guide was doing what all tour guides do - stopping at every kerb stone to describe it and give the date it was made so we quickly ascertained where and when to re-group and scarpered to explore on our own.

There was a stiff breeze, but otherwise it was bright and sunny. A short walk along the seafront brought us to the marina and a small market.

There's something about small boats in France and Italy. They are colourful and just aching to be photographed. I hate drawing them, but would love to be able to do so convincingly.

It was a Sunday, so only food stalls were open on the market. They were doing a brisk trade though.

This is a tuna fish. They are a large fish and you'd get a few tins out of this fellow!

We carried on walking around the harbour to the far end, by now thinking that it was time for a morning drink.

I'd never heard of the name "Rapax". It sounds like it should perhaps be a French sanitary product but it turns out to have been the name of a Roman legion formed in 31 CE (Common Era - same dating as AD) and means "Predator".

The local hippy boat...

It was time to turn round and walk back. We drifted off the seafront and came back down the streets behind the promenade buildings. Just a few shops were open, but to our advantage they were the ones mainly aimed at the tourists.

I had about half an hour to spare and sat drawing the harbour. This had to be finished later but I forced myself to add a boat into the scene!

Then it was on to Bandol. What can I say? The entire seafront road was a building site. A shame. The last time we were there, we had wandered along a massive market where stalls of crockery were a delight and Miss Franny tested my command of the French language by wanting me to buy her a top. With it being Sunday there was again just a handful of stalls selling food open. We stopped at a cafe for a drink. Now, I speak a smattering of a few european languages but French is the only one I studied, albeit some 50 years ago now. I managed to get Miss Franny a weak and milky coffee - "...un petit peu de café et beaucoups de lait" but how did they manage to interpret my "vin rouge" as a small beer??? I asked the tour guide later "Do they have a strong local accent here?" She pursed her lips. "Ooh ye-e-s!"

That night at our usual table in the main dining room our waiter thoughtfully plonked this on my head. "I have made you some Goofy ears!" he said kindly.

I had been playing a couple of songs every night. "Don't worry, the John Burke Fan Club..." announced Tomas, "He'll be on in our next session!" I do like a tolerant audience!

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Precipitation in Livorno

Saturday, 18 May 2019. We arrive in Livorno to find dark skies and teeming rain. We have brought no coats. We are booked on a boat trip around the canals of Livorno. We are at the back of the queue which means everyone else gets under the awning...

It was raining far too hard to think of taking photos. The tour guide (under the canopy) held up a few packets of polythene raincoats and looked directly at us. "We have some rain jackets for sale..." We're from Blackpool. We won't dissolve. I drew the sketch once we got home from a photo taken on a previous visit. I left a few boats out that were tied up along the side but otherwise this gives you an idea of the view, if not of the rain.

After the boat ride we squelched towards a large building that we recognised again from a previous visit. This is the indoor market of Livorno. The Mercato delle Vettovaglie, as it is known locally, is a huge building which dates from the late 1800s and houses 34 shops and some 230 stalls, primarily selling food but with a few craft or gift stalls here and there. You will find butchers' stalls with beef hind quarters and rows of rabbits hanging, fresh fish stalls, cheese and dairy stalls, wine, biscuits, sweets... There's lots to see and smell! It was crowded. Apart from the usual clientele just about every tourist in Livorno was sheltering in there! We managed to bag a table at a cafe stall and had our beloved latte machiatto - the same size as a small latte over here in the UK but costing less than two euros each! Again, the sketch was done at home. Last night in fact...

Finally our morning excursion was taking us to "the seaside". It had almost stopped raining by now but, as you can see, the weather was not promising to be good quite yet! To get to this checkerboard promenade we have had to wade a bit through puddles and standing water.

I thought I'd spotted a shortcut by going into the aquarium and out the far end of the reception area, but the rear doors opened onto a large flooded area and there would have been no hopping across that particular puddle!

It looked no brighter out to sea, where a handful of ships were heading towards the industrial port of Livorno.

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Split in the Cruise Itinerary

Tuesday 17 October 2017. We sail into the port of Split in Croatia. I won't be covering it at all, but for the next couple of days we are in or near some of the main locations for the TV show Game of Thrones. No dragons will be harmed during the course of our visit...

Again we are just walking into the town which is only a short distance from the port. It takes about 15 minutes of walking to get to the town and you are walking through a very public port with plenty of people around from crew members looking for their favourite wi-fi hotspot, to ferry passengers heading to one or other of the many Croatian islands. The motorized sailing boat, Sagena takes upto 18 passengers in eight cabins and was built in 1991, being renovated in 2006/7.

We reach the town but are still outside the city walls as yet. The town is based on a Roman palace and the fortress-cum-barracks that protected it. It was built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian in 305 AD (or CE as seems to be taking over - CE=Common Era, BCE=Before Common Era. The years are held to be the same as BC and AD but it is now becoming widely accepted that Jesus Christ was born in 3 or 4 BC). Split took over as the Roman capital of the Dalmatian region after the ancient capital - Salona - was overrun by the Avars and Slavs. By 650 CE it was filled with Roman refugees and under Emperor Justinian the Great became part of the Byzantine Empire.

We make our way round to one of the gates - as a Roman military design the walled city was oblong and had four gates in the centre of each wall.

Once through the gate and having descended down a few steps to Roman ground level, we are walking on the original Roman paving with Diocletian's Palace on our left. The low octagonal tower and colonade on the left is part of the palace. At this time the old Temple to Jupiter was converted to Christianity and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The remains of Saint Domnius, patron saint of the town (then called Spálathos) were brought here. The bell tower in the background was built in 1100.

The Peristyle of Diocletian's Palace; an open square leading to Diocletian's own entrance to his palace. "Who are all these people???" he would say, waving selfie sticks away.

The centre of Split within the fortress walls is pretty much traffic free. Streets are narrow and, as the morning wore on, fairly crowded.

One of the main squares in Split. The Roman aqueduct that brought water from the Jadro Spring nine kilometres away still fulfils its role today. There are a few different influences in Split. Once a seat of the Western Roman Empire, the Goths took over in the 6th century, but the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire also governed for a while and the city passed through the hands of Slavs, Croats, Venice, Hungary, Austria, Italy (at the time when Italy itself fell under Napoleon's armies) and Yugoslavia. Croatia gained its independence in 1991/2.

The fish market. We knew we were approaching it well before we saw it! It lies just outside the city walls on the far side from where we entered. The number of seagulls sitting on its roof, waiting for an opportunity was quite impressive!

The modern street on the edge of the opposite side of the walled portion of the city to the gate we entered by. The building on the right with it's mirror-like windows almost disappears into the sky!

There are plenty of street cafes and bars. A string across one street had a row of boots and shoes dangling from it. Close by was a shoe shop. When we turned round the lingerie shop down the street had done something similar...

Outside the walls on the inland side of the fortress we find a wider street, but the behaviour of pedestrians and the cycle taxi driver seem to suggest that traffic is not a problem.

We head back into the city, doing almost a figure of eight round the four quarters of the street pattern.

At one point we come to a large square with verandas to the sides. This is the Prokurative, dating to the brief rule of the French Empire as a tribute to the porticos of St Marks Square in Venice.

We came out of the city again by way of the gate we had entered. This brought us to a vegetable market and then a general market with just enough fridge magnets to sustain Fran's interest! Walking back to the port, Marjan Hill had been a place for recreation and culture since the days of Diocletian. We walked through the port, finding Tomas sitting outside a cafe taking a chance to talk to family back home.

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