little things

Sunday’s are quiet.

| Mairead

It’s Sunday as I write and this morning we went off for a drive, as you do. We were getting a feel for the surrounding area, checking out the nearest mini market, the restaurants, forest walks, pretty towns and villages. We found the nearest shop five minutes away and there was a restaurant right next door, so we’ll back to sample that. We found  lots of forest walks about ten minutes away, we’ll be back to them also. And we found a really pretty town about fifteen minutes away. Its real name is Vouvant but it’s also called Village de Peintres, which I believe means village of the painters.

08 09a

(My coffee and croissant this morning)

While I think of it I need to tell you something about how my French fluency is progressing… or not. There’s been a bit of a problem. Now I want you all to know I was not previously aware of a particular situation that pertains to this area of France. I had no idea until yesterday… the problem is, everyone speaks English here! Well, they also speak French but they don’t seem to recognise my particular version of French and move very quickly to a very fine version of English.

08 09b

(Aren’t they cute little acorns?)

I became aware that this was serious when I tried to order “Moules et Frites” (Mussels and Fries) for lunch yesterday and the lady behind the counter told me in a lovely English accent that the chips were all gone. It’s possible I may return home without the expected increase in my French literacy. Also, with all my talk of getting fluent in a week I received a comment from my friend Ann who gives French classes, unfortunately the comment is in French…  I will continue to search out French speakers and keep you posted on my progress and yes Ann you may be my last hope.

08 09c

(The Mélusine Tower, there’s a story about a fairy called Mélusine, who’s half-woman, half-snake, don’t know the full story yet)

Anyway, Vouvant is very pretty. The brochure says it’s the only fortified town in the Vendee, we saw some of the fortification and it looked great. We didn’t stay long so we’ll be back here too. On the way home we decided to stop off in Decathlon, it’s a big sports shop. I needed runners (well, walkers….) and Denis wanted a small rucksack. We found the shop and we also learned something we had forgotten….. shops generally don’t open on Sundays in France… oh yea.

08 09d

(A bit of the great looking fortification (or wall) of Vouvant)

We were the only car driving around the huge shopping complex, enormous car parks empty. Where was everyone? Could it be possible that they relax at home on Sundays? As we drove to our home pondering this we passed a full car park and saw one of the things the French do do on a Sunday afternoon – they go to football matches! Wasn’t that what we used to do too? Is this why we love France?

Right so I’m off to relax, Mairead.

It’s Saturday in the countryside and I’m feeling lucky.

| Mairead

We finally arrived. The boat stopped and we were amazingly lucky to be in the line that moved out first. Not that it really matters who gets off first but it feels like being allowed out to play from school, so we were very excited. This is the time when it’s easy to forget that you have to drive on the other side of the road… And I forgot! Luckily I wasn’t driving 🙂 It was 11.15am by then and we decided it might be nice to travel on the small roads and give the motorways a miss until later. Within an hour we were sitting at a picnic spot beside a stream eating egg salad and apples and feeling very, very lucky.

Sep07

(The bridge over the Loire)

We did get back on the big roads just before Nantes in order to cross the river Loire and we arrived at out destination in the Vendee at 6.30pm. Just ten minutes away from our home for a month a black cat ran across the road in front of the car. We didn’t hit it. Lucky for us and the cat.

Sep0713

(The door into the garden)

We found our accommodation on Airbnb again and it’s very pretty with a flower garden mixed in with a vegetable garden, some fruit trees and hens! You may remember my love affair with Liam and Kate’s hens in Ireland. I’m trying to find a way to tell our host about my previous experience in this area… maybe I’ll ask Kate for a written reference? Although, there seem  to be even bigger predicators here – wild boar – I’m not sure if they eat hens or if I’d be willing to get in their way…..

Sep0713a

(A busy bee)

We went to the supermarket (Super U) earlier and now I’m sitting typing in the garden surrounded by rose bushes, hydrangeas and lettuces. I’m under the shade of a big tree and I can hear a bird chirping and some bees buzzing. Tomorrow morning I’ll sit here with coffee and a croissant. I am completely lucky.

Sep0713b

(The French girls)

Thing is…. as we’re out in the country there’s no boulangaire (I think that’s the spelling for a bakery) so I bought the croissants in the Super U and tomorrow I’ll reheat them in the little oven. That means… It’s possible to be this lucky anywhere. So if you are reading this on Sunday morning you can join me for coffee and croissants or tea and toast or whatever you have in the cupboard.

Sep0713c

(The neighbours – a field of sunflowers ready for harvest)

Together we can notice how lucky we are, Mairead.

The rain in Germany falls mainly on my helmet.

| Mairead

That was a very tiring day yesterday. I think it was nine hours on the road….04 07a

(Leaving our little town of Gries Im Sellrain)

It started out slow… Nice roads in Austria. Then it began to rain and get cold. You may remember the cold weather layers we were so eager to get rid of on the first journey through Germany just two weeks ago? Well we were equally eager to get it back on yesterday. But the rain was nice, it makes a lovely pitter, patter on my helmet and when you’re all cosy and warm inside layers of fabric it’s magical. Drank more tea yesterday also, for one thing the coffee is not the same once you leave Italy… and for another holding a mug of hot tea is the nicest thing in the world when you’re cold.

04 07b

(This seems to be the way they stack hay in Austria)

We stayed near Frankfurt last night and we were lucky they had a restaurant and the food was good. The view of Frankfurt was also very good. We could see planes leaving the airport but not hear them – perfect for  a good night’s sleep!

04 07c

(On our way to the motorway)

We have been incredibly lucky with our phone service. Three cheers for Three. We have been using it in on our mobiles in Ireland for more than a year now and for a monthly fee we get free data access. That was all grand and handy but what was a lovely surprise was there’s a Three in the Uk, in Austria and in Italy, so we got free data in those places too! No problem with data roaming and the stories of bills for thousands of euros for downloading an email (unless there’s a bill waiting for us when we get home……) So, yesterday as soon as we left Austria our phones turned back into phones. We couldn’t even check the weather (well, of course we could just look up…) and we had no idea what was happening to Mr. Snowdon. Then when we arrived at our hotel the nice man had to apportion out little bits of paper to us for access to the wifi… “there’s one for your phone and one for your laptop and one for….. and I’ll have to write those in the book….”

04 07d

(Austria, so pretty)

We’ll continue through Germany today and into the Netherlands, so no internet until we hit McDonald’s! Well, to be precise McDonald’s the Netherlands because in my experience McDonald’s Germany don’t do free wi-fi (one participant in my survey…)

04 07f

(Last check of wi-fi before we leave the 3-Austrian borders)

Gratitude List today: Austria – the beauty. Cold weather bike gear – the cosiness. Rain – as it splashes on my helmet. My helmet – as it stops the rain from splashing on my head! Hot tea – just holding it. Frankfurt – the food here in our hotel, the view, the sound proof windows. Three – the free data on holidays.

Until the Netherlands, Mairead

We arrived here in Austria.

| Mairead

We’re staying in a little town in the Austrian mountains called Gries Im Sellrain. And true to its name there was rain. With my new-found appreciation for rain, you can imagine I was very happy.

03 07d

(Near Florence, notice how flat the land is)

So… we left Florence yesterday morning at 8.45am and we arrived here at about 5pm and it’ wasn’t such a bad day. We did have a high of 30 degrees but we had a low of 17 degrees also. It was a bit of a shock to the system when I realised I might be cold. Hadn’t felt that for a while. The reality was that it wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold and it wasn’t too tiring. And… it seems my body has got used to travelling for long periods in one position and it wasn’t complaining.

03 07e

(Now you can see some hills in the distance)

I saved myself a lot of worrying and imagining scary things for nothing. Instead I spent my time noticing what was exactly in front of me and appreciating the stuff I liked. Scenery and nature were in front of me. Although Florence is very beautiful, we didn’t see a lot of nature. Not that there weren’t gardens, there were, but we didn’t go to them. We spent time in the streets and the museums and art galleries. So even though we were on a six lane highway now, there was plenty of nature all around us. And it was changing all the time.

03 07f

(The hills and mountains are getting closer)

We stopped every hour (ish) at motorway services and we have it down to a fine art by now. First one, breakfast. Second one fruit and water. Third one, lunch. Fourth one, ice cream or coffee and pastry.Last one shower! That makes five hours of driving and three hours of stops.

03 07g

(And closer)

Yesterday I promised to write a gratitude list and that has made me realise that I appreciate being able to go on this journey. To be able to take the time to do something so different. To have the health, the means and the will. To be able to visit places I have only read about or seen in documentaries. We live in privileged times and we don’t know it.

03 07a

(And finally we arrive in Austria)

While on this road I have been remembering my Dad tell us stories as children about his trip with friends to Rome. The story goes that they drove all the way from Baltinglass in Co. Wicklow, Ireland to Roma, Italy, more than fifty years ago. Before air conditioning, before motorways, before wi-fi! I would love to ask him about it now, but it’s too late, I didn’t know when it was possible to ask that I would want to know. And I would love to see photos of his journey but I don’t know if any exist.

03 07b

(In a little town with a funny church steeple)

So here’s my gratitude list….. Nature, the landscape of northern Italy and Austria from flat lands to huge craggy mountains. Motorway services – really! The journey. Rain… And finally I am grateful that I have the opportunity to write, to take photos and to make you all listen!!!

03 07c

(This is just one of that many signs to tell us… we are welcome :))

 Until Germany, Mairead.

Surprise!

| Mairead

Yesterday we went to the Modern Art Gallery in Florence. You would thing there was a theme here because we also went to see modern art in Venice. There was a difference between the two… in Venice the artists were still alive, in Florence modern art is art from the 1800’s and 1900’s! There was one room dedicated to a still living artist….

30 06a

(The palace)

It was housed in a former palace of the Medici family making it a lovely setting and there were very few visitors, so that was great. The Medici were big in Florence, they started the banking system and they supported the arts, in particular Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. It seems their best only lasted for a hundred years but they filled a lot of good stuff into that time!

30 06c

(The sun shining through a window onto the tiles at the palace)

After the art we wandered towards the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo, we were going to see a concert at 5pm. It was hot and we thought it might be a good time to indulge in ice cream, so we stopped at the first ice cream shop. I ordered a big scoop in one of those fancy cones and Denis followed suit with a different flavour,  and then he asked “How much?” The guy behind the counter said “Ten euro.” Denis, thinking the language barrier had gone up, asked again, (with a slight incredulous tone) “How much?” It was still ten euro….

30 06b

(Pretty and ordinary in Florence)

Unfortunately, (or possibly fortunately…) I was licking my cone (I didn’t want it dripping, did I? It was yummy) so there was no way out except to pay. It’s a reminder: You are responsible! At no point between the thought “ice creme would be lovely” and the licking of said ice cream, did either of us ask “how much is the ice cream?” We didn’t care enough to ask! We wanted the ice cream! Once the terrible truth is out (we just spent €10 on ice cream!) there’s a tendency to blame everyone else for our lack of responsibility. But there’s no one to blame… well, except us! So eventually we forgave ourselves and ate the ice cream and it was still yummy….

30 06d

(Look, there’s Kieran, singing! In a nice white shirt)

Then we went to the concert. My nephew (and god child) Kieran was doing a short concert tour of Italy with his school and last night they were in Florence. I had got that much information months ago but as we are much slower at planning than my brother’s family (or indeed my brother’s family’s school!) I didn’t know if we would be here on the particular night. Now we were and I thought it might be a nice surprise to turn up and say “Hi!” We found the church where they would be performing yesterday, it was in a little street next to the Duomo and last night we arrived just in time and took our seats. I spotted Kieran in the front and as I didn’t want to put him off his performance I sat quietly in my seat…. until the second last item on the program, the string quintet.

30 06e

(On the way home Denis spotted some flying creatures and an opportunity for photography. I spotted an opportunity for biting creatures and left him to it )

Kieran had given up his seat earlier for extra audience members who, hearing the music, were coming in from the street and he was sitting on the floor right beside our pew. So I leaned forward and caught his eye. At first he had that look that any teenager who is eyeballed in church by an adult gets, “oops I must be doing something wrong” (he wasn’t!) Then his eyes opened wide and he looked very confused and finally he started smiling and waving. They were off to their hotel on a ninety minute bus ride after the concert so only enough time to hug and kiss and tell him how we found him. Then we told his parents, by email, how well-behaved he was and how clean he looked!

30 06f

(The Ponte Vecchio at night)

The little things, Mairead.

Wide awake is a strange place.

| Mairead

It’s five past much too early as I write, on a Saturday morning in a studio flat near the Via Sienese on the edge of Florence. It is hard for me to believe that last statement, the bit about being in Florence. I feel no different than usual. I feel no huge Italian influence. At this early hour I don’t feel the heat. I see familiar things around me. I am drinking water. So why did I travel for days on the back of a motorbike to be here if I feel just the same as being at home?

29 06a

(Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge in Florence not bombed during World War II)

But of course it’s not the same. If I open the door onto the garden I can see the soil is dry and cracking from the constant heat and lack of rain. If I pick up one of our host’s books I can see they are written in Italian, even if the cover is familiar, the contents are completely indecipherable. If I open the fridge there are strange foods in there, in the cupboard also. And especially under the sink, the things in there may contain warning labels but how would I know? Even the tap in the kitchen sink has an extra colour… red for hot, blue for cold and white for…

29 06e

(The huge Duomo)

And even though at this particular moment sitting on an (almost) normal chair, typing on my own laptop and drinking ordinary water (from the white section of the tap…) I don’t feel different…. But for every moment that I am here in a country I did not grow up in, I am awakened by differences all around me. And being awakened is probably a good thing.

29 06c

(Jugs for sale)

Most of my life I spend asleep…. and I’m not talking about the time I’m asleep in bed. For example, I go to the shop, I  walk to the third aisle, I pick up some toilet paper, I scan for the shortest checkout, I pull out some cash from my purse, I hand it over, I smile/don’t smile, I say something pleasant/unpleasant about the weather/government/price of cabbage, I walk out, I notice very little…. unless they moved the toilet rolls.

29 06d

(A braille map of Florence)

Here in Italy I stop every time on the threshold of a shop and wake up. I think “is it still day or is it evening?” and search in my memory for the words “Buongiorno” (good day) or “Buonasera” (good evening), because here in this unfamiliar place everyone greets each other when they walk into a shop. I stop in front of the shelves full of unfamiliar packages and search for clues as to what might be inside. If I’m lucky and know what I want, I search for a match between my want and each package in front of me. I am awake because they have moved and repackaged everything….

29 06f

(Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo)

As I walk along the street I am noticing shop windows, footpath edges, scooter sounds, bicycle sounds, pedestrian sounds, I see crossing stripes. I look right then left and then with a jolt I remember I must look left first. Wake up! The traffic closest to me will come from the left…. unless this is a one way street… I’m awake now.

29 06g

(The reason Piazzale Michelangelo got its name – a copy of Michelangelo’s David)

And while I’m awake I notice what’s going on right here and I can bring a little bit back home with me for when the rain falls and I am asleep again, Mairead.

Ordinary Venice.

| Mairead

After my observation on the blog yesterday that I was not noticing the beauty all around me I decided to start paying attention. My mission: To pay attention and notice the ordinary. Here in Venice even the ordinary is different so that wasn’t too difficult. As has become our habit, Denis and I set off on our fifteen minute bus ride to the city before breakfast. We arrived around nine o’clock. This was useful because a lot of ordinary things happen around nine in the morning.

25 06b

(Breakfast)

But first we were going to have breakfast. This was a much cooler day and rain was forecast and believe it or not we were looking forward to rain! When we got off the bus Denis (who was also on “ordinary stuff” patrol) noticed a pathway we hadn’t seen before so we took it. There were fewer people walking this route but there seemed to be more boats. We stopped at the first cafe and ordered coffee and pastries (not exactly high fibre but very yummy.) And that’s when ordinary Venice started to happen.

25 06c

(Taxi!)

The delivery boats. I know I’ve mentioned this again and again but… everything, every thing coming into this city comes in on a boat and get to its destination on a handcart. Three delivery boats had passed before I had wrangled the camera out of its bag. But I got DHL. Well of course DHL deliver to Venice!

25 06a

(DHL… Excellence. Simply Delivered… to Venice. On the lookout for UPS)

We took 351 pictures yesterday and they are all of ordinary things. Here’s a taste of ordinary Venice…

25 06d

(The milkman)

25 06e

(The laundry)

25 06f

(The builders)

25 06g

(The ambulance)

25 06h

(The bin men)

By lunchtime I was exhausted! Noticing the ordinary is work. It’s everywhere. It’s constant. It put my senses to work. When my senses are at work… with what’s happening right now in front of me my brain can’t be making up stories about the scary things that might happen in the future or the annoying things that did happen in the past… But it’s a bit of work and maybe I’d much rather be numb or bored or talking to myself about scary stuff…. Nah, here’s some more ordinary Venice….

25 06i

(Someone had a blocked drain…)

25 06j

(Bottle cap art – lots and lots of ordinary plastic bottle caps)

25 06k

(A bus/boat stop dock…. there are lots of these in Venice)

We’re off to Florence today…. might be hot…. might be busy…. might be fun… might be terrible… or it might be amazingly ordinary right in front of my eyes, Mairead.

We’re… still in Germany!

| Mairead

Germany is a very big country! We spent less time on the road yesterday – just eight hours. We did have a new high of 38 degrees (Celsius) which only made us all the more excited when it went down to 33! Also, we had a very happy experience at the hottest point in the day.

20 06c

(ooh some shade…)

There we were motoring along when we come to a complete stop – a traffic jam. Traffic jams don’t usually bother motorbikes so we tootled along between the lanes. All the German and Dutch drivers moved out of the way to let us through, which was very nice. But eventually we came to a foreign (!) camper van and it moved into our way instead. Anyway the truck on the other side moved further away and let us through, but we were still no nearer the front of the jam. Now we were sitting in the middle of a three lane motorway, sun beating down and hot air coming from every vehicle around us. Did I mention under appreciating the air-conditioning in our car?

20 06a

(Traffic stopped as far as the eye can see. That’s the camper van in front to our left)

That’s when we noticed the services area. So, a little more tootling around the front of the trucks (one of which was now leaking water onto the road) and we reached the petrol station. Denis had a little (illegal) plan to continue out of the services area and ride on the shoulder of the road. Fortunately, he didn’t have to, there was a man stopping all traffic leaving the service area and he stopped us.

20 06b

(See those great clouds and those mountains are the alps!)

Btw, I forgot to tell you that I had done a year of German classes when I was 18. If you’re a regular reader here you’ll remember that a year isn’t long enough for me to have any level of fluency but plenty of time to say “hello”. As “hello” in German is “Hello!” (or at least that’s what it sounds like…..) I had learned another phrase “Sprecken zie English?”

20 06d

(Nice German town we found on the back road… doesn’t it look like Clonmel?

So as the man is explaining in perfect German why we cannot go back on the motorway I interrupt with my phrase. And he understands me! And he speaks English! And he tells us that a truck had dropped its load so we will have to take this other route, pointing to a back road out of the service area.

20 06e

(Look! We found Amazon!)

Well, you could have knocked us over with a feather! Never before have we seen a back road out of a service area! In fact we have spent many riding miles wondering how the employees at the service areas get to work. Do they live at the service areas? Is there an underground tunnel to the nearest town? No, there’s a back road!

We’ll be crossing the border to Austria today and then late today we’ll arrive in Venice. We may take a day to acclimatise (sleep) but then…. what should we go see in Venice?

Until Italy, Mairead.