Villefranche Castle and Sketch

Thursday 28 August 2008. Whilst Fran and Mum looked round the market in Villefranche, I climbed the hill for a closer look at the castle.

We had already caught a glimpse of a complicated structure from the tender boat on which we entered Villefranche. Our cruise ship, the Island Star is moored in the bay. On an earlier visit we had climbed the hill under the arches of the bridge to reach a coach that would take us on an excursion to Monaco and Monte Carlo.

This time I reached the approach to the castle over the bridge, the very end of which, under the fortress wall, was a drawbridge.

Someone is about to test just how strong it is... Ah... strong enough!

Whichever way you go, under the bridge or up the road to it, there's a steep climb!

Looking over the parapet back towards the town I could see the market and beyond, the bay of Villefranche.

Mum and Fran were still looking round the market when I got back and we agreed to go for a drink. Mum still wanted to look at a stall so we pointed out which cafe we were going to and sat down. The owner asked us to move to the opposite end as we had sat in a meals only area so we moved and Mum, not being able to see us, finished her shopping and decided to wander off in the exact opposite direction, so I had to go charging through the market, dodging locals and dogs to catch her before she got herself lost. I've still no idea why she would choose to go in the opposite direction to where we had said we'd be, but there you go...

We had our drink and I nipped off to stand on the street to draw this sketch, which was not helped by a bus driver who stopped right beside me and switched off his engine, totally blocking my view... I waited a quarter hour but he wasn't going to move. I had to cross the road and finish it from there - a challenge for perspective, and of course as soon as I had finished, the bus driver moved...!

Then a short walk along the seafront before making our way back to the harbour to catch the tender boat back to the ship.

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Creeping Bentgrass American Gig

Well... in truth a "Gig for Americans" might be more accurate!

Myerscough College have had a group of students from Ohio State University on an exchange visit and asked if we could play at a bar-b-que last Thursday night.

The weather held off at least as far as rain goes, but I think the visitors were finding our summer a little more akin to their winters! They joined in with the singing and introduced us to their style of rousing cheer, which started with a handclap getting faster and faster and ending in a yell!

They were up for a bit of singing too and it was an excellent night for us!

Arriving in Villefranche

Thursday 28 August 2008. We wake up, anchored off Villefranche, France. Luckily we are still on the ship...

Tours are heading off to Nice and Monaco and Monte Carlo, but we have a leisurely breakfast. Mum after her experience in Santa Margherita, is looking forward to another day using a tender boat to get to shore.

By the time we are ready for the tender boat there is quite a queue for it.

Quite a queue too to get into the harbour. The tender curves its way from the ship close to the Villefrance shore but has to stand away from the harbour mouth whilst traffic in and out eases. It affords us a look at the town's fortress.

The waterfront is extremely pretty with brightly painted multi-coloured buildings lining the promenade roadway. Having stepped off the tender boat we passed through a customs or security building and into the town.

The town is set against a hill. This is what streets leading off the seafront look like! Steep steps.

Behind the front row of buildings is a dark covered passage, lit with modern electric bulbs in ancient lanterns. With its barred doorways and windows looking from buildings into the passage, it looks just as though it is a set from Pirates of the Caribbean.

We are nowhere near the Caribbean Sea of course, but the coastal towns of the Mediterranean were no more safe, as there were plenty of pirates operating in this region, from Africa and (one imagines) many sheltered well-hidden refuges where the locals could be persuaded through fear to keep quiet about the pirates' whereabouts.

Oh no... There's a market and Fran and Mum have spotted it... Well I think I may leave them to it and I'll climb the hill for a closer look at the fortress!

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Oriental Buffet

Wednesday 27 August 2008. Meanwhile, back on the Island Star, we had returned to the ship from Santa Margherita and I sat in our usual spot on the Pool Deck, sketching the coastline.

Then as the ship sailed we went to one of the tables at the stern of the ship and had pre-dinner drinkies.

Then we got changed and headed into the Beachcomber Restaurant, which is the ship's 24-hour buffet restaurant. Wednesday night is Oriental night and some of the waitresses dress in Chinese Brocade dresses, looking very elegant and beautiful.

We feasted well but not perhaps particularly wisely - well it's a cruise, you're supposed to put on a bit of weight! And the Island Star does do a rather good Oriental buffet! I also have to admit to a particular fondness for Chinese food so I always look forward to Wednesday nights when on board the Island Star!

Elsewhere in the restaurant there were other little touches, shaped bread, fruit carvings, confectionery sculptures and these sauce bowls made from scooped out melons with banana necks and added slices of radish and grape for eyes with a bit of carrot for the comb on top of the head. Very clever and good fun! The chef at the carving station was slicing generous portions of duck breast and there was pork, beef and chicken available in different choices of sauce and dressing including hoi sin and sweet and sour. Scrummy!

It is still a warm night. We take our wine glasses out to the open deck.

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Cracklin' Rosie

Just spent three and a half hours working out arrangements and recording this one following a challenge on the Billy Fury website by fellow artist Paul "Bulldog" Staines.

It has a keyboard backing track, a synthesizer track, four guitar tracks and one of my voice - which is probably the most disappointing of the 7...

"I think you'd do a good job of this," said Paul in a blatant attempt to make me stir my butt.

Ok Mr Staines - just see how wrong you were...

Listen to Cracklin' Rosie!

Santa Margherita

Wednesday 27 August 2008. Santa Margherita turned out to be a wonderfully picturesque town in the bright sunshine of the Italian Riviera.

A small fortress nestled between the hotels and businesses on the coastal road, a defence against the pirates that plagued the Mediterranean during the 13th to 16th centuries.

We walked east from the jetty where the tender boat had dropped us off and came to a fountain with a statue of Christopher Columbus (Santa Margherita was his home town) which had a cannon standing guard in front of it. We didn't go looking for his house - we've done that before in Genoa and know from experience that he's never in when you call... Every statue of him seems to have him pointing towards the New World. He'd have been better advised if asked to pose studying a map of course!

They have a recipe for pumpkin here apparently, although we didn't get to try it. Pumpkins were introduced into Europe by Columbus. These days I suspect most pumpkins are cut up into faces and have a candle shoved inside whilst being ignored as a foodstuff, but I have tried pumpkin soup before and it is delicious.

We carried on walking, coming to a small but popular pebble beach, before turning round to head back towards the main part of town.

I sat and sketched the castle whilst Fran and Mum went for a wander around the shops. I attracted a bit of an audience doing this - something I've got used to now but it really used to put me off when I was starting sketching and wasn't sure whether it would turn out hideously or hilariously.

Quite a few people watched me start and then came back later to see how it was getting on and as I was sitting on the jetty where the tender boat dropped off, I had quite a few conversations with people who were either arriving or about to leave on the tender boats. It felt extremely hot and I was quite relieved when Fran and Mum turned up with a bottle of water.

I finished the sketch and showed it round the remainder of the audience and we headed back to the tender boat ourselves for an afternoon on the Island Star's pool deck.

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Heywood Grammar School Reunion

Last night after work I drove over to Heywood for a school reunion. Jackie was away at a bluegrass concert but Alex turned up right behind me and we met up with a few faces we hadn't seen in - what? - 36 years?!?

I learned a valuable lesson - even if your phone has a 5 megapixel camera, don't assume it will take photos! I should have taken a camera! Anyway it was great to catch up and chat with Brigid, Andrew (alias Sid), Jackie, Anne (both of them!), Jayne, Dave, Elaine and a few others.

There were a few teachers scattered about the room too and there must easily have been over a hundred people there.

Mike Law, our ex-Games teacher made a short speech and asked "Would you like another reunion in four years?" which prompted a few mutterings of "Blimey, I might not still be here in four years!

Love Me Tender

Wednesday 27 August 2008. We sail into Santa Margherita in Italy where the Island Star moors in the bay. The ship will be using its tender boats to ferry passengers to and from the shore.

A typical south-facing Mediterranean resort looks across at us as we stand at the ship's rail before breakfast.

A ship at anchor swings very slowly along the points of the compass until the anchor chain tightens and the stress sends the ship swinging back the other way. This carries on all day, but is so slow that you would have to be watching out of the window or at the ship's rail with a fixed vertical on the ship as a sighting point to be able to notice.

We went for breakfast and then went to get off the ship and onto the tender. This is probably the bit that Mum was most apprehensive about but we knew from experience that the crew are used to dealing with nervous and elderly passengers and we had assured her that it would be no problem.

As indeed it wasn't. She was on the smaller boat in no time at all and was quite happy about it.

The other thing about being on a tender is that you realise, perhaps for the first time, just how big your ship is!

We weren't dashing off on any excursions so we weren't bothered about rushing off to catch a coach and let everybody else get off the tender boat first before we climbed the few steps and onto the quay in Santa Margherita. (The boat pictured was the one after ours.) We let the ship's photographers take our photo but didn't buy it when we went to look, as I turned out to have a huge flare spot in the middle of my face! Well, had I noticed it at the time, I'd have brushed it off...!

So here we are on foot and left to our own devices. Santa Margherita here we come!

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Another Good Summer's Day

The top ten sights and sounds of this summer in England...

1. Lightning


2. Thunder


3. Rain


4. Clouds


5. Floods


6. Puddles


7. Hail


8. Storms


9. Umbrellas


10. Headlights

Civitavecchia

Tuesday, 26 August 2008. The coach brought us back from Rome to the port of Civitavecchia where the Island Star was docked at the end of a road leading past a moored tall ship and a fortress.

We had lunch and as the ladies prepared to while away the afternoon on the pool deck, after a morning sitting on a coach I was feeling the need to stretch my legs a bit so I took the camera and walked back past the fortress to have a look at the ship.

It was a bit deserted on that part of the dock! I saw only the cabaret act from the night before who was on his way back home with his wife and who had also had the same thought about wanting to photograph the sailing ship. Apart from that there was a young local couple with a baby in a pram and that was it. Eerily quiet.

I took this photograph through the bars of some railings, but then found that by walking a bit further I could pass through an open gate and round onto the wharf where the ship was moored. It was the Signora del Vento and seemed as deserted as the dock itself. The three-masted schooner was built in Poland in 1962. She has been a training vessel since the 1990s and was bought in 2006 by the Italian Society of Navigation. Apart from her training vessel duties, as part of which she partakes in many rallies of tall ships around the world, she can be hired for private and corporate events, offering meeting space and fine dining.

The figurehead was a female figure holding out a white dove and was carved by Birgit and Claus Hartmann. I dawdled past the fortress and took a couple of photos and then made my way back to the ship, being challenged by the official in the hut at the barrier onto the quay where the Island Star was berthed. Showing my boarding card was all that was required, but it's nice to know the port authorities were stopping unauthorised people from trying to get on board. We noticed similar checks at a couple of other ports in the week too. I can't remember being checked so diligently by port authorities on prevous tours, but it was more reassuring than annoying!

Back onboard the Island Star I rejoined the ladies, reading, lazing, dozing and watching any ship movements in the harbour. The Clodia was one of six sister ships, but was the only one to be built in the Sestri Penente shipyards in Italy. Dating from 1980 she originally catered for 1000 passengers and 470 cars. She was enlarged twice, in 1986/87 to carry 2000 passengers and 610 cars and in 1992 to carry 2280 passengers and 650 cars, which reduced her speed from 20 to 17 knots.

Civitavecchia insists on ships using its tugboats. Use of side thrusters is not allowed. Captain "JC" remarks that this is purely a money making venture...

Out at sea, it's a warm night and we are out on the Promenade Deck to watch the sun go down in a blaze of orange and red.

The show tonight is a guest cabaret, Joseph King giving a tribute to Elvis. He must be Joe King... One chap is wildly enthusiastic and is invited onto the stage, but then to Joseph's surprise, doesn't know the words at all and instead breaks into a hilarious dance that totally stops the show and has the audience in stitches.

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All Roads Lead To Rome

Tuesday 26 August 2008. The Island Star docked in Civitavecchia - try saying that fast - and we took a coach trip around Rome.

We had Mum with us so couldn't do a lot of walking but unfortunately the coach wasn't allowed to stop at all in Rome so all my photos had to be taken through the window, which meant lots of reflections of the windows behind me and silhouettes of other passengers taking their own photos!

Not to worry, there's a couple of better ones to come. As we enter the city we start to see the occasional impressive chunk of masonry.

And then the big sights start to appear and crowd us all at once as we enter the centre of ancient Rome. This is Circus Maximus where the chariot racing took place.

The area of the Forum comes next and around us are the seven hills of Rome.

The Arch of Janus is just one of a very many triumphal arches. Janus was a god with two faces, the god of beginnings and of gateways. He is unusual in that the Greeks had no similar associated god.

The coach passes a rather more modern imposing building. This is the Palazzo Venezia with the equestrian monument of Victor Emanuel II ('Il Vittoriano'). It was built between 1855 and 1911 to celebrate the Italian Unification.

We are back in the middle of ancient Rome. We noticed a few of these small mobile refreshment stalls.

The Arch of Septimius Severus is one of the more famous arches. Built in the year 203 AD, it commemorates the victories of Emperor Severus and his sons, Caracalla and Geta, in Parthia, the decade before. After his death, Caracalla and Geta ruled jointly as Emperor until Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212, after which the relationship somewhat fell apart... All mention of Geta was removed from monuments throughout the Roman Empire.

The Colosseum was high on my list of want-to-see remains. I was impressed by just how many remains of ancient Rome there are.

London has gleefully built over much of its remains over the centuries though of course the Great Fire of 1666 wouldn't have helped! As always on tours like this I merrily snapped away without a hope of remembering what I was taking photos of.

Towards the end of the tour we came to the Vatican and this view of St Peter's. There were so many things to see and forget the names of that visiting Rome on foot is a must for the future. It could be on the cards for next year I think! Meanwhile the coach takes us back to the Island Star and Civitavecchia or "Chivvy" as it seems to be shortened to. There is a fortress and a tall ship in the port - after a morning stuck on the coach I might have to jump ship again and stretch my legs!

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