Sunday 12 June 2016

May 2016

It seemed like a good idea at the time....

Im guessing it also seemed like a good idea to Scott to go walkabout at the South Pole....and look how that turned out!

So...off to Norfolk for a...break...!

Went to a couple of very interesting places....

Cromer pier in the misty mist and wind....


Blickling Hall....National Trust...very interesting and it was a shame it was so cold...and rainy...but at least I look angelic in the first picture here.....




Zoo visit....

A trip to London Zoo....a fabulous day out for me....seeing all my friends stuck behind bars and in all sorts of captive situations....




The giraffe house was designed by Decimus Burton...(called Decimus because he was the tenth child)...and of course the same said Burton designed many parts of St Leonards-on-Sea which eventually was encompassed by Hastings....,






I have rights you know....

....in fact....

We all do....and a lot of it...and even many countries around the world...owe their freedoms to this...


An interesting exhibition about Magna Carta was held at the British Library...


Above is the library building....although modern in design its been squeezed in to a space so looks all hotchpotch as far as im concerned.....but whats this below....


Its a naked Sir Isaac Newton actually.....apparently 'interrogating the geometries of the universe with his dividers' by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.....who was Scottish!

Holiday time 2014

Off for the Grande Tour of France.....no idea whats going on....but it appears to be a walnut....must have been south somewhere...


However....I know where this is...Lascaux...we must have headed south quite quickly as this is quite a way down south western area.....

The original caves are preserved and no one goes in them...but they utilised modern technology to re do the whole thing and its amazing....what an experience...



The Dordogne.....




You wouldnt stand much of a chance if someone lit the blue touch paper with this interesting gun...!



We reached the Med at La Grande Motte....and whilst trying to get to the beach we passed a few interesting carvings.....like  this fabulous shark


Lets just say the beach was crowded....urgh!....


This model was in the middle of a roundabout....


These are the very impressive medieval walls surrounding the town of Aigues-Mortes....


...nearby are these amazing salt pans...and in the salt pans, apart from salt....are Flamingoes....


....and ice cream.....


Heading back north...though not that far.....we stopped at Arles where there is an amazingly impressive amphitheatre that they still use for bullfighting....


....and right next door was the theatre where they staged plays....


Arles is probably best known I suppose for Van Gogh where he spent several years enjoying 'the light'.....


Still near the Pyrenees....Roussilon....the ochre-red village famous for the towering red rock formations....


....and this is Gordes....


....Abbaye de Senanque....unfortunately they had already picked the lavender which features in all the famous photos....


Thought I had missed the famous lavender crops...but on the way to a very famous mountain...here it was before us...


....and here it is....the Ventoux....one of the most famous mountains in France thanks to Le Tour....one of the most intense climbs in cycling...a bit misty to start....


....but at the top...which must be a relief for anyone to reach on a cycle...the sun was out....


....back to the red ochre....




Im not quite sure what the French think of this....I know what I think of this...some kind of ice cream with mental issues...


This might just look like a hole in the ground....and indeed it is a hole in the ground...but its the Fontaine-de-vaucluse....a fabulous village and nice walk....








We made the treck to Italy....as it wasnt far to go....and just to prove it....


More Le Tour fame....off to the Galibier from  the Lautret.....absolute shrines to cycling....not that you will catch me cycling up any of them when theres a perfectly good car to ride in....!


On the mountains of the Lautret....


....and heres the top of the Galibier....


La Grave.....and here I am in the chair lift up to the top of the mountain....


....what a view....WHAT A VIEW.....down there somewhere is my tent....