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Odd blog ...

We've now been home for two weeks, and I realise I left the blog in limbo somewhere in northern Europe!  So here are a couple more posts to complete the story.

These two photos represent our landfall in Yorkshire on April Fool's day.  It was an incredibly windy night, but with the wind in the west, we had a pretty good crossing, although we arrived almost two hours late.

We went in by Carol and Ian near Gainsborough, but although I have taken 2872 photos since we started this winter's trip - I failed to take one of the four of us after lunch!  So, for the record, here is one of us after lunch last autumn ...

The unlikely Grimsby harbour water tower heaves into view.  Amazingly, the  design is based on the medieval Torre del Mangia in Siena - these Victorians knew what to aspire to!

Full of lunch ...

Ferry-bound

(Now writing on 8 April)
On the 30th, in poor weather we made our way to Sezanne, south of Paris.
On the 31st, although dry, as forecast, it was very windy all over northern Europe - so much so, that we feared the ferries might be affected.  An unpleasant blustery drive to Zeebrugge.

A cold and windy lunch al fresco

The men debate whether to cast us off ...

... but they did, and the tug's work was done

North sea wind power

To France ...

Sunday dawned  a beautiful day - and, despite a late-ish night with friends, and the loss of an hour due to the clocks change, we got off on our journey home at 9.30.

After the Mont Blanc tunnel however, the weather changed to Scots-dreich style, However, we had a good hotel organised in the chalet village of Cordon, and had an excellent dinner in their restaurant to round off the first day.

The snow has almost gone from our alps

The wonders of the selfie-stick!

But France was having a poor day ...

Anemones flourishing at the motorway stops ...

... and we managed to escape into the woods ...

... where there were wild daffodils as far as the eye could see

Pizza night!

On Tuesday, we had a great night with our neighbours at the farm who kindly invited us along for pizza.  Even better - it was in their new house, which Mariano has been working on for some years, and they moved int a couple of weeks ago, unbeknownst to us.

Mariano was cooking twelve pizzas at once, plus a focaccia, using hand made stainless-steel platters and a clever spring-loaded (also made by Mariano)  grab-thing to move them around in the cavernous oven.

The pizzas were delicious and a good time was had by all.

Mariano wields the grab-thing while Luciana adds the mozzarella

 Sofia with grandparents Luciano and Candida

At the sea - The Cinque Terre, Part 2

More from our trip ...

The sea at Manarola before breakfast

Life goes on 1:  old folks have a catch-up amongst the boats 

Life goes on 2:  captions on a postcard please ...

Rooftop view leaving Manarola to head for Riomaggiore 

The original route is just above the sea - our route (yesterday) took us through the village of Volastra seen at top right of picture - a bit of a climb!

Riomaggiore, street view - boats instead of cars ...

The station at Riomaggiore, where we were shortly to get the train back to Barga

At the sea - The Cinque Terre, Part 1

We already knew that the Paths between the five towns have been badly affected by adverse weather - just as they have around Barga, with the result that several of the lower paths are closed.  This leaves the higher level paths, but since the villages are down at the sea - there is a lot of climbing to be done.  As we were about to descend to our last town, a young American couple appeared on the way up, declaring cheerily - "there's one thousand one hundred and fourteen steps to go - we counted them!"  The descent was quite something - good knees required!

The steep terraced slopes bear vines which have been tended since Roman days.  The cultivation is very hard - termed "heroic" in one account I read.  In recent years, mini cog-railway lines have criss-crossed the slopes to give the farmers some much-needed help with the harvest.

The villages are very picturesque, and it is strange that each one has a small railway station in its midst!  Because summer brings a lot of tourists, even at this early stage in the year, there are good places to eat and drink, so we enjoyed the evenings we spent in Vernazza and in Manarola.

On the way to Vernazza

First view of Vernazza

Leaving Vernazza next morning

Everyone has a lemon tree.  There are fewer oranges, and we saw one grapefruit tree

Leaving Corniglia, just a lunch stop on the way to our next overnight stop at Manarola

Dwarfed by tree-heather in flower on the high path

What goes up must come down - the steps down to Manarola (rail of cog railway visible in the distance)

Manarola, with its terraces of vines and olives in the distance

Sunset, Manarola