Limone, Lake Garda

Monday 20 August. Once again we are up to catch the 9:00am ferry from Riva, sailing down Lake Garda to Limone.

It's the first stop on the ferry's way to Malcesine. We arrive at Limone after 40 minutes of pleasant cruising down the lake and arrive to an almost deserted landing stage. Once the ferry is tied up to the jetty though, people start to appear from where they have been hiding from the sun!

Limone is spectacular in that the sheer cliffs fall almost vertically into the lake. Here tunnels have been blasted through one section of cliff to make a throughway from one side of Limone to the other. Shops occupy caverns within the tunnel.

We make our way through the shops with only a few near monetary losses and have our morning intake of latte machiatto at this cafe bar.

It had some wonderful small octagonal lamps that I had to work into a photograph.

From where we are we have a good view of the lake and watch the ferries come and go whilst we have our drink. The small piazza where we are has a fountain and a small viewpoint with benches.

Then it's back into another row of shops. Fran's purse is jumping in her pocket, desperate to get out and fling money around... She stops to touch a leather jacket - as an ex-leather worker she can't walk past a leather shop without both breathing in deeply and casting a critical eye over every piece. Luckily this time it is just touch and go...

We pass a museum of tourism that looks as though it might be diverting for a few minutes but as I've rushed Miss Franny past the shops, she is not going to be tempted by a museum...

We come to a wide promenade and stroll along enjoying the sunshine that is cranking up the heat and encouraging tiny beads of perspiration to form and roll down my back. I hate it when my hair gets all flat and plastered to my head... well... I seem to remember that I do...

It really is hot. We sit down for a moment with a limonate - a lemonade. Very refreshing. It is decided that I can go in the museum on my own, leaving Fran free to go looking at the shops.

"Take your time..." says Miss Franny, "no need to rush in this heat..." Oh dear... this sounds expensive...

The locally produced drink is limoncello, sometimes called limoncina, a lemon based liqueur packaged in a range of bottles some of which are shaped like the lake as seen from above or on a map.

I go into the museum. It has a few 3D exhibits and a whole host of old photographs, tourism adverts and posters and snippets of history about the lake's past including industries and the ferries. The exhibits include old cash tills, marked in Lira and quite nostalgic for anyone who, like me, has spent part of their working life in a shop. There is a jug and ewer set on a stand, a reminder of hotel rooms (or any bedroom) in the days before running water.

There's a huge book of clippings from when the James Bond film crew descended to film the car chase from Quantum of Solace that opens the film. A few show a crane fishing a rather banged up Aston Martin out of the lake near Torbole… Whoops!

We head back to the landing stage to check on times. The Brescia is approaching. As the engines rev a thick plume of smoke comes from her and we can see that it is passing through the space occupied by passengers. We decide to have lunch and then go back...

The ferry turns to go. You can see the haze of black smoke on her left hand side. Standing in the sun, reading the timetables, we realise why everyone chooses to find some shade rather than queue for the ferries!

And on the way back to Riva, there's a good view of the road tunnels, right at the bottom of the photo. It is through these that Daniel Craig as 007 James Bond, throws his Aston Martin about in a desperate chase and gun battle with the baddies! The tunnels and roads were made by Mussolini's army during the 1930s.

When we get back to Riva, we see that a stage is being set up for a concert. We hear the orchestra whilst we are eating our evening meal in the hotel and as we eagerly arrive at the piazza to catch the end of the concert - they reach it...

We hang about in hope that the orchestra might come back - as no one was starting moving equipment or instruments away. However when they did come back they played the quieter bits of Scheherezade that you just couldn't hear at the back of the square with everyone talking and Italian mothers screaming at children. Ho hum!

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Greenwich

I spent yesterday at the old Royal Naval College at Greenwich. It is now Greenwich University.

Altogether an impressive place. Clive and I were delivering a Project Management workshop but managed a lunchtime walk-about. Unfortunately I hadn't picked up a camera before leaving home. A very late doctor's appointment the day before had made me miss my booked train and very nearly had me missing Fran who was working from lunchtime so it was a bit of a rush to get down to London.

Luckily my phone takes photos - of a sort - and I was able to at least get something. Hopefully we will get a chance in the future sometime to visit again.

The place is steeped in history with a royal park and house which has a vista down to the River Thames, through the Naval College. The Meridian, zero degrees Longitude runs through Greenwich and King Henry VIII was born there.

The Cutty Sark, the famous tea clipper was badly damaged in a fire recently and is currently swathed in hoardings undergoing restoration. It is hoped to have it back on display within a year.

We walked down from the hotel on Tuesday night to have a look at it whilst we looked for a place to eat and sadly apart from a glimpse of the stern you can't see anything of the ship currently.

We did come across this rather strange little building. It houses the entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. If you have a fancy to walk beneath the Thames over to the Isle of Dogs then you will find a similar building to emerge from on the other side!

The Trans-Pennine Express

A more unlikely express is hard to find possibly, fast it is not, but there is something about the train journey across from Blackpool to Hull.

Not that I've ever travelled that far on it, but the other day I took the train to York and used the time to write up an activity scenario for a new workshop that we are planning to run at work.

The weather was a trifle wet - probably not quite as wet as it has been in lots of other areas of the country, but bad enough. Once you get to east Lancashire and then Yorkshire and are climbing up and over the Pennine range of hills, the views from the window on the Trans-Pennine route can be stunning.

Steep dark hillsides climb up and then engulf you so that the train has to travel through tunnels bored into the imposing crags and turfed peat and rock.

Particularly after rainfall wild tumbling streams flash past, most times only glimpsed as they have spent centuries cutting deep grooves and gulleys into the hill so that you just catch a quick flash of white and silver just a few yards from the window as you rush by.

It is Britain's answer to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, with station names like Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, then Halifax with the big signs for Eureka!

"What's that?" someone says and is immediately answered by a young mother.
"Oh it's a great place for kids - lots of interesting things to do and see and get involved with." It's a science playground.

Then Bradford Interchange, where the train goes in forwards but comes out backwards - a nightmare for anyone who likes to sit facing a particular way. Leeds is next, approached at high level on the viaducts, then Garforth and York.

During the latter part of the journey the steep hills are replaced by wide valleys. The wide rivers afford a different view. The Wharf in particular, is worth a moment to look up from your book.

There aren't many great train journeys in this country - feel free to suggest some. This is one.