Monday July 27th – Today was the beginning of George’s International Hymn Society meetings so we were up early to have breakfast and get him over to Robinson College. It’s about a 10 minute drive from where we’re staying and about a 35 minute walk through to the other side of town. Since it was damp and cool, we opted for the drive.

This left me with the rest of the day to myself so I took it easy this morning and then headed downtown to do the self-guided walking tour. There are some gorgeous old buildings in Cambridge with lots of history and stories attached. I think I said before that most of the buildings are attached in some way to the University. There are more than 20 colleges scattered throughout the downtown core affiliated with the university. King’s College is the largest and owns most of the central core. Every student must belong to a college (similar to U of T) although most of their course work would be done through the university with a mixture of students from all the colleges. The colleges really provide accommodation and social life.

My first stop was at the ancient church of St. Bene’t’s, the county’s oldest building. The history of prayer and worship in the building goes back a millennium! It was quite small and quaint inside but must provide for a very intimate worship space within the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peterhouse is the oldest college founded in 1284, although I don’t think this building dates back that far. I was taken by the ivy covered doorway, the lovely pots of flowers about and the balcony pots on each window. Fellows are graduates of the college, who are still involved in teaching or research or in some way, and obviously deserve a special parking spot – for their bicycle! Undergraduate students at Cambridge are forbidden to have a car within 10 miles of the university so bicycles are everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next stop on the tour was to see The Corpus Clock. The fabulously terrifying “Grasshopper Clock” on the corner of Corpus’ Taylor Library is a must-see for any Cambridge visitor. Unveiled to the public in September 2008, this extraordinary feat of new technology now stands proudly facing onto King’s Parade; its shining, 24-carat gold dial and gruesome time-keeper, a dazzling addition to the historic city centre. For more information about how the clock works I encourage you to follow this link: The Corpus Clock.

 

 

 

No walking tour in the UK would  be complete without a visit to the candy shop. A few licorice allsorts and some butterscotch candies in a bag and we were good to go. They even still have a selection of penny candy for the kids.

The next stop was the beautiful Queen’s College site of the hymn festival for Tuesday evening. The college is well known for its mathematical bridge which crosses the river Cam between their new building and the old buildings (affectionately called the light side and the dark side). The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou (Queen of Henry VI) and is now one of the largest. Probably its most famous graduate is Desiderius Erasmus who studied there in the early 1500s.

A popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts. Various stories relate how at some point in the past either students or fellows of the University attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together, but were unable to work out how to hold the structure together, and were obliged to resort to adding nuts and bolts. In reality, bolts or the equivalent are an inherent part of the design. When it was first built, iron spikes were driven into the joints from the outer side, where they could not be seen from the inside of the parapets, explaining why bolts were thought to be an addition to the original. Newton cannot have been directly involved since he died in 1727, twenty-two years before the bridge was constructed.

Walking along King’s Parade you pass King’s College which is the most imposing structure in the area, Trinity College and then St. John’s College.

It’s time to stop for lunch at the Michaelhouse Cafe in St. Michael’s Church. The church uses their narthex as a restaurant and has downsized their sanctuary but still have regular services/prayers daily and weekly concerts. You’re welcomed to join in after lunch!

After wandering through the shopping district, you come to the Round Church. Its real name is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Built in 1130, it was fashioned after its name sake in Jerusalem and is one of only four medieval round churches still in use in England. Also down this way is the oldest section of town with its quaint stores and very old buildings.

Sunday July 26th – It’s not often that we get to sleep in on a Sunday morning…but that’s exactly what we did today. We had a nice leisurely breakfast and then sat and read for about 90 minutes before heading out for the day. Since out sightseeing time was somewhat limited by needing to get to the college for registration, we decided to go to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Housed in a beautiful old Georgian-style building, it is one of some 16 museums associated with the university. Admission is free and visiting a museum appears to be a popular thing to do on a Sunday. The entrance was quite crowded as we arrived just after the doors opened. We were encouraged to just hang up our coat on the rack by the door and put our wet umbrellas in the umbrella stand on the other side. I played dumb and asked if there was a coat check somewhere. “Since we are traveling, I’d rather not lose a good rain coat” said I. “I’ve worked here for 20 years and never lost a coat yet,” replied the attendant, “but if you’d like I can check yours back here.” Forthwith he provided a hanger and claim check. Trusting lot, these Brits!

The museum had two displays which were quite interesting. The first was called Ruskin’s Turner and was a display of twenty-five watercolours by J.M.W. Turner. Ruskin thought that Turner was ‘the only perfect landscape painter that the world has ever seen’ and became Turner’s most fervent champion. The terms of his gift to the museum prohibits them from lending these watercolours outside the museum, so they are rarely all seen together. The second display was a collection of eighteenth-century gold boxes from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection. There were some 60 boxes on display, many with intricate and ornate carvings/inlays. There was also a fascinating display of fans and samplers. I suggested to George that if we kept mother’s sampler long enough, we’d be able to donate it to the ROM!

While lining up for lunch at the museum cafe we were introduced to the Steampunks. This refers to a sub-genre of science fiction/fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs (a rejection of the utilitarian designs of today)  inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. There were about eight of them in line in front of us and one of the women described it as somewhere between Jules Verne and the future. I gather there’s a whole range of art and literature in this style, reminding me very much of Jenn’s fantasy World of Pern.

Finding the college and getting George registered was a bit of a challenge but we eventually succeeded. Street names would be wonderful if present and visible! The annual conference here begins with a gala banquet, which George wasn’t aware of, but we were fortunate to be able to fit in to a cancellation for a nominal charge. Our dinner companions were Brits from the north providing for great conversation about travel plans, the differences between church life in Canada and the UK and the importance of musical education in primary schools. Following dinner John Rutter was the guest speaker. They also introduced Rowan Williams, retired Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the theme speaker on Monday.

We were able to watch Saturday’s CBC news and the end of the Canadian Open before turning in for the night. Maybe next year David. It must have been very disappointing for all the golf fans at Glen Abbey!

Saturday July 25th – This morning dawned wet and cool – “a bit like fall, really” say the Brits. After a full English breakfast at our B&B we headed downtown for a walking tour of the Colleges. We have raincoats and umbrellas but we find that many of the Brits just walk about in shirtsleeves and don’t seem to mind either the wetness or the cool unseasonable weather.

Our tour began at the Tourist Information Centre and as we meandered through our guide provided a running commentary of various interesting historical facts and sites of interest. Our tour took us into the beautiful King’s College Chapel, home of the Nine Lessons and Carols by Candlelight broadcast to millions around the world during the Christmas season. Having been there now, we’ll be able to picture it next year when we watch it on TV.

The first thing you notice as you walk through the door is the size. Originally conceived in 1441 by Henry VI, it was to be without equal in size and beauty. The building took 100 years to finish through a succession of wars and kings, finally being finished shortly before Henry VIII’s death. All this…and the original college only had 70 students!

 

 

 

The stained glass windows are colourful and depict stories from the Old and New Testament. They were removed during the war, but interestingly Cambridge received only minor damage because, word has it, Hitler dictated that both Oxford and Cambridge be spared. There are many theories as to why.

 

The Cambridge Summer Music Festival is on this month and we noticed in a brochure that John Rutter, a well-known composer, was speaking at lunchtime. We’ve sung many of his choral works and so off we went to hear Confessions of a Composer in the lovely Old Divinity School of St John’s College. He was quite amusing and told a number of stories of the people he has worked/collaborated with over the years.

In the evening we went to hear The Piper of Hamelin, a children’s opera composed by Rutter and based on the German folktale. It was premiered earlier in July at the International Youth Arts Festival but we’re not sure if this was the same cast or a different group of local children. It was excellent and provided an enjoyable evening of entertainment.

Home by 9:30pm we waited for the last few holes of the Canadian Open to be posted on the leaderboard, before turning in – go David Hearn! But then again maybe this tournament is jinxed for Canadian players.

Friday July 24 – Today we arrived in London after a rather rough and noisy flight. There were a number of children in our cabin section – and some of them didn’t appear to sleep. The chatter in the background and open window screens made it difficult to snuggle down for even a few hours. There was also just enough turbulence to ensure that any dozing-off was met with a jolt shortly thereafter!

Things certainly moved slower in the airport than we remember from the past. From the time we landed to the time we made it through customs and immigration, picked up our bags and finally got into our car it was a two-hour journey. We had booked a larger-sized automatic since we’ll be traveling with three people’s luggage and, if we had a standard, I would have to do all the driving. We were happy to see that a car was available – not always possible in the UK since automatics are relatively rare.

There are some features of the car that took us a bit by surprise at first…but likely are really good features for the driving conditions in the UK. When you stop for any length of time, the motor shuts off and then restarts when you take your foot off the brake. A bit scary when it first happens – especially on the motorway – but definitely fuel saving. The other feature is quite neat since you used to have to do it manually – the mirrors fold in when you lock the car. Because of the narrow roads, I’m sure this feature has saved the mirrors on many parked cars. We’ll certainly have our parallel parking skills down pat by the time we leave here.

It took about four hours to get to Cambridge as the weather was quite inclement and the traffic quite heavy. We arrived just at rush-hour and, of course, one wrong turn took us right through the centre of town – a controlled area, where one is not supposed to drive without a permit. Fortunately, we weren’t stopped and we made it to our B&B without incident.

Cambridge appears to be quite a walkable city – mostly just a University town – and like most UK cities now, discourages traffic in the downtown core. I think we’ll be doing lots of walking!

After a brief rest we walked out and found a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Tiredness overtook us and we were both sound asleep by 9:30pm.

All good things must come to an end and that includes vacations. For our last day in Italy we decided to tour the Royal Palace and visit the National Museum of Cinema. Neither has disappointed.

The Palace was built for the House of Savoy in the 16th century and was later modernized. Included in the ticket are three museums- the armory, the library and the archeological museum. There is also an art gallery that includes much of the art collection of the Savoy family. It also houses the Chapel of the Shroud, in which the Shroud of Turin is on display from time-to-time. The Shroud actually belonged to the Savoy family until 1946 when both the Palace and all its accoutrements were turned over to the State.

We enjoyed lunch in a little cafe deciding to try the salami & cheese platter for a change from Pizza. It was more than enough for two!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our afternoon visit was to the National Museum of Cinema. This was probably one of the most engaging museums we have visited in Italy since it was very much hands-on.  It began with a collection of Maria Adriana Prolo’s which included all kinds of early pre-cinemagraphic machines and toys. Her Foundation supports the museum to which has been added film memorabilia including sets, costumes, posters, etc. from the Italian film industry. The musuem is housed in a very unique building which includes a glass walled elevator that rises to a panoramic viewing area 75 metres above the floor. The displays are housed on five floors that go around the outside of the building in an atrium type design. On the main floor is about 50 lounge chairs in which you can sit to watch silent movies on a large display screen and interesting projections on the ceiling way above you.

A rest back at the hotel, to avoid a passing thunder shower, provided a welcome pause before we headed out again for our final dinner in Italy. We decided to go to an Indian Food place that is highly recommended on Trip Advisor – enough pasta for a while! We sauntered back through town stopping for a cafe americano along the way. First stop is definitely going to be Timmies.

Tomorrow morning we have an early flight so will need to leave the hotel shortly after 7 a.m. in order to return the car, get our VAT refund and get through security. It’s been a real pleasure to travel with our son. He’s been patient, understanding, and it’s been fun to experience Italy with him. Thanks for a wonderful Christmas present, George, but most of all for the gift of your presence!

Today turned out to be a bit of a non-event mostly because of the weather. Our plan was to tour through the Lake Como region but the weather didn’t cooperate. We drove from Bergamon to Varenna in a gentle rain, but by the time we arrived it was pouring. We had hoped to visit some of the villas in the area, one with a must-see garden and another that had been used for one of the Star War movies. We decided to scrap our plans and just head for Turin. This required a ferry ride to Bellagio and an interesting drive down to Como; one with lots of twists and turns and very narrow passages through small towns. The remainder of the drive to Turin was on yet another Autostade through the very flat Lombardy plain, where we were able to lots of rice fields. The speed limit is 130 km/hr but there were many cars that blew past us going at least 150!

Our hotel in Turin is right downtown and we have probably the smallest rooms we’ve had of the whole trip. Fortunately, we’re only here for two nights and at least they provide BBC on the TV. We spent the late afternoon resting and then walked down the street to a restaurant for dinner. Coffee was purchasd at MacDonalds while walking off our dinner.

We have plans to visit two museums tomorrow and have yet to decide what we’ll do on our last night in Italy.

When I was booking our trip, I had a great deal of difficulty with finding accommodation in Milan. I subsequently learned that we were going to be here during Design Week, hence the very pricey hotel rooms. I searched on the B&B website and found one about an hour outside of central Milan in Bergamon. Finding it last evening was a bit of a challenge since it’s out at the end of a laneway. I wouldn’t want to find it for the first time in the dark. In actual fact it’s what I would call an Italian Villa – a very large house on an estate sized lot, which Federico tells us has been in his family for over 100 years. He’s a recently retired criminal lawyer and decided to open up his house as a B&B since his children, cousins and parents have either died or moved away. George and I have a little suite of our own – one master bedroom, one twin bedroom upstairs, and a bathroom. There is also a shared common room. Breakfast is served either on the patio or in an inner hallway overlooking the garden. Federico’s sister owns the property behind them and operates a winery.

The Italians eat quite late, as is common in the rest of Europe, and after we checked in he suggested a restaurant in town that tourists wouldn’t know about. He also advised us as to what to order that is typical Bergamon cuisine. The restaurant looked quite small from the outside but had a very large back room and it was crowded. Fortunately for us one of the waitresses spoke English and was able to explain how the menu and pricing worked. For 18 euros we got a make-your-own salad bar (the first we’ve seen here), water, wine or beer, one entree, dessert and coffee. It was a great deal…and a great meal. I had a type of pasta that was like Ravioli but a different shape. It’s only made in Bergamon. George had his nomal – beef steak – but each one seems to be a bit different. Unlike at home, no starch or veggies are served with the meat course here (called secondi). Sitting next to us, but close enough for conversation, was a couple with a friend. When they heard us speak in English they asked where we were from and so we struck up a conversation while we waited for our meal. The husband didn’t speak much English but his wife was able to converse quite well. During the meal the rose vendor arrived and the man purchased one. Imagine my surprise when he presented it to me!

Well on to today – declared by George to be the most fun city yet. We started out thinking that we would take the train into Milan but we couldn’t find parking near the station in Bergamon. Our fall back was to drive about 30 minutes to the end of one of the Metro lines and try to find parking there. We were successful and it was a relatively easy way to get into the city. We walked for a bit looking for a belt for George, something he didn’t bring but finally decided it was a necessity. Then we walked some more looking for a place for lunch that wasn’t Italian. We’re both a bit tired of pasta and pizza and quite honestly surprised at how little other choices there are. We have seen very few ethnic food places and any we’ve seen are just take out type places. There are no chinese restaurants, no curry places, no Subway sandwhich places. We ended up at Burger King! George correctly noted that we hadn’t had rice since arriving, but we solved that later in the day.

Our organized tour was both a walking and a driving tour. We visited the duomo (Cathedral), the opera house, Sforza Castle and the monastery that houses Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It’s quite an amazing story of how the painting has survived down through the years, especially during WWII when the monstery was completely demolished except for the two walls with the paintings. For personal reasons, Da Vinci didn’t paint it using the fresco technique, so the painting has faded over the years and while having been restored hundreds of times, is in quite bad shape. They are trying hard very hard to preserve it using the latest techniques.

After our tour we decided to go to the design district and tour some of the places that were open to the public. It turned out to be a lot of fun – checking out strange furniture, playing with photo techniques for the iPhone, visiting the botanical gardens and touring an exhibit on perfumes. We stopped at a little Bar near the opera house and ordered risotto which our guide told us is unique to Milan. Because it sits amongst the flatest countryside in all of Italy, and given the abundance of water in the area, the region around Milan is the rice capital of Europe. Who knew? I had a risotto with asparagus and  George had the truly Milanese one made with saffron. Both were good and I didn’t find them as rich as I often do at home – maybe they use less Parmesan cheese here.

One of the other things that we noticed in Milan is how much everyone dresses up for work. Most men still wear suits and I didn’t see any women in business dress and running shoes.

It was a long day and we didn’t arrive back at our B&B until 10:45. I’m sure they thought we were lost.

….or so it seemed. Today was our day to drive through the Dolomite Mountains. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny blue day making the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. This range of mountains, in the northeastern part of Italy, is part of the southern alps and rises to a height of about 3500 meters. The road is relatively well maintained and not really all that hard to drive. In one pass there were some 35 switchbacks and in another about 27. Lots of braking and turning but George seems to have got the hang of it. The road is even wide enough that we passed a few busses without incident.

The upper reaches are used for skiing and run after run could be seen from the road. Some even went over the road by means of bridges. All of the ski operations seemed to be closed for the season but we did see one lone skier making his way down a long gentle slope – probably one of his last runs of the season. There were some areas where the snow by the side of the road was 6′ deep but on the sunny slopes most of it had melted. The road climbed to just over 2200 meters and we were both surprised by how lovely and warm it felt, having expected that it would be much cooler as we climbed.

We stopped in Bolzano to visit Otzi – the 5000 year old ice man found in 1991. I encourage you to google him to see what he looks like since we couldn’t take photos. We didn’t have a lot of time since tonight’s stop was at a B&B and we wanted to arrive in reasonably good time. We spent about 45 minutes learning about how he was found, all of the research that has been done on him and how they have been able to piece together his story.

We were both very glad to get to our B&B tonight which I think will be the story for tomorrow. It’s right out of an historical Italian romance novel. Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you more.

Our travels today took us to two islands Murano and Burano, which are well known for their artisans. Murano is well known for its glass making and Burano has been recognized as the European centre for lace making since the 16th century. We went by water-bus, first to Murano, where we watched a display at the glass factory. This, of course, was followed by a tour of their factory store. The range of products was amazing. Photos are not allowed since the designs are unique to each factory. As we walked around town we saw store after store of glass items. One of the sales reps tried to sell me an ornate chandeiier at 250K euros. I told him I’d buy it but it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase!

 

After lunch we moved on to Burano, which is the cutest little town. All of the buildings are painted in different colours making for a very engaging and inviting town. We visited the lace museum which tells the story behind lace making in Burano including a school that was there until the 1970s. The art is dying out but there were two women in the museum providing a display of how to tat. My guess is that with modern production methods the handmade lace is really just a tourist attraction now. I saw some table cloths in a store for 1,000 euros so I’m not sure how many they sell.

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, Georgie got to experience what it’s like to travel with a shopper. He spent lots of time waiting in the shade while I did my thing. At least the Christmas shopping is mostly done! He couldn’t figure out why there were so many stores selling the same things and suggested a blue jean outlet could make a killing.

Well, here we are in Venice – the city of canals. The city is made up of 118 islands, 400 bridges and 150 canals. There are basically only two ways to get around: by boat or by foot. Boats ply the waterways and provide both public and private transportation. The public side is a large boat that operates like a bus making regular stops along the canal. Private transportation is either by a taxi boat or a gondola. We thought the 80 euro for a gondola a bit steep unless you have a party of 5 or 6 people. Originally, we thought the 20 euro 24-hour day pass a bit steep too…but having walked almost 20 km by 4pm, we decided this would be the best way to get around tomorrow.

Our walking tour this morning took us to San Marco Square, the St Mark church, the government building and the prison. We then walked through a number of squares as the guide told us more of the history of the city and some of its buildings.

 

 

 

There are ony about 57,000 residents in Venice but over 3 billion visitors a year. Life requires a lot of planning when

• it takes a lot of time to get from one area of the city to another
• tourists invade your space every day
• garbage has to be moved in shuttle carts and then transferred to a garbage boat and finally to a garbage truck
• an ambulance call brings two men with a hand-carried litter to take you to the hospital
• the main floor of your house is in jeaopardy of flooding a number of times each year
• you live where there is not one square inch of public green space.

After the tour we had a few hours on our own before our one hour boat tour. We stopped at an outdoor restaurant for lunch and then went to see the Peggy Guggenheim museum. She was a wealthy American who came to Venice and became an art dealer/collector. Her passion was modern art and her will provided for her home to be established as a gallery after her death. While we enjoyed the opportunity to see her collection, it was a small space with 100+ hot, sweaty teenagers who arrived just after us. It became quite unpleasant and so we left within the hour. After investigating the options for water taxis, we decided to walk back and find a spot for a treat in the shade. Sitting in San Marco Square listening to live music and enjoying a sundae seemed like just what you’re supposed to do on vacation!

Our afternoon boat cruise took us through the two main canals to see the houses/palaces and government buildings from the front side. Some of them are quite beautiful while others are showing their age and effects of weather over time. Of importance to some on the tour was which movies were shot in which building, which movie stars stayed where and in which building George Clooney was married.

We used our day pass to take a boat back to the bus terminal where we stopped for dinner before heading back to the hotel. It was quite a warm day here and with the combination of walking and crowds of people, we were both exhausted by the time we arrived back to the hotel. I was even too tired to write this note so it had to wait until morning.