We have seriously travelled around Rome today, both by bus and foot! We started on an open top hop-on and hop-off tour bus, did the circuit of all the sights and then decided where we would start our explorations. While we were on the bus we were taken to St Peter's Square and were in time to see the Pope giving and audience to the crowds there.

We got off the bus in the northern part of the ancient city and then explored numerous churches, basilicas and squares, including the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and the famous Tivil Fountain and many many more besides. We were able to compare the difference between the column of Marcus Aurelian and that of Trajan (a bit like Rameses II and Seti). We saw some of the archelogical remains of Augustus, but despite all this there is still much more to see.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Vatican City, but tonight my feet are sore and I want to relax!

Tuesday today, and we head for Rome. First along the coastal road and we found a nice spot by the sea to have our picnic. The sea was rough enough to have surfed on I think. After lunch we took a deep breath and hit the autostrade again and attacked Rome.

We knew it was going to be fraught but based on past experience, it was nowhere near as difficult as finding your way through Paris!! Yes, of course, we got lost. But from hitting the ring road to finding our hotel took us only about an hour, and as our hotel is in the centre of Rome we feel it was a pretty good achievement. The car is now safely locked away in a subterranean garage, so Jeff can relax and enjoy sightseeing now.

We plan to go on a Rome by bus trip tomorrow to get our bearings and then we will have a better idea of what we will want to see in more detail. We did manage to visit the Santa Maria Maggiore this afternoon and a basilica near the Plazza del Republica that has intrigued us, but we cannot find too much information about it. As soon as we are able to publish some photographs we will and you will see why it was so intriguing.

What a find the house we stayed at in Longeville. Mary and Greig made us feel so welcome, it was just like staying with old friends. There were amazing views to be enjoyed from the house and garden across the Ardennes - it was a really lovely spot.

After having a lovely meal at a Lakeside restaurant on Saturday evening, a truly fitting farewell to France, we took our leave about 10am and headed through the Alps (and I do mean through as there were countless tunnels). The longest one that took us to the Italian border was the Frejus Tunnel - we think about 22Kms long! The sun shone all the way I am pleased to say.

we stopped for a picnic lunch en route, enjoying views of snow-capped mountains. However, all did not go well when we reached the coast. We arrived in Savona around 4pm and planned to drive along the coastal road till we found some accommodation. We had hardly gone half a mile when we came to a grinding halt. Not overly suspicious at first as the traffic was heavy but when we had only completed half a mile an hour later we knew we were in trouble. Seemingly there had been a very serious accident somewhere in the area and the whole of the coast was grid-locked! We ended up being stuck in that jam for nearly 3 hours before we found a way out. On the lighter side, as we were crawling along past the docks we saw this huge cruise liner loading. It was the largest boat I had ever seen and its name "Costa Fortuna". No I havn't made it up.

We did find a really nice hotel at the end of all this that turned out to be part of a group call Logis d'Italia, so we are now on the look out for more of them. We met another English couple staying at the hotel, Chris and Susan from South Wales. They were both disabled, Susan in a wheelchair, but were about to go on board HMS Nelson for a week's sailing as part of the crew. They had travelled to Genoa by train and were quite an intrepid pair as nothing seemed to daunt them.

The next day, Monday was much more enjoyable. We meandered along the coastal road around the Porto Fino area. It is such a beautiful coastline and again the sun shone. After lunch we hit the autostrade and travelled down past Pisa to a little coastal resort called Orbotello. Found another Logis d'Italia and had a pleasant evening there.

It is now Day 3 of our trip. We had a wet run to Bayeux on Thursday, both from our tears at saying goodbye and the weather.

Stayed in a lovely old manor house owned by a retired Col & his wife; they were charming & we were soon swapping war stories.

Yesterday we visited the old town of Bayeux and went into the cathedral, first started by the Normans around the same time as William was doing his conquering. We then had to see the famous tapestry which was quite amazing. The rest of the day was spent driving to Bourges in central France. We arrived in time to visit their cathedral, located on a hill in the centre of the old medieval city. We were both so impressed by the quality & quantity of the beautiful stained glass windows there.

A mere Etap hotel was our bed for last night, but now, Saturday, we are not far from Grenoble staying in a lovely old house perched on a hillside overlooking the Rhone valley; A view of Mount Blanc is possible from the garden!

More news soon.

Where have the weeks gone? I was so full of good intentions of publishin monthly reports but I did not reckon with how many other things we were trying to fit into our lives.

Since Christmas we have been to a friend's wedding in the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas in February - a story in itself that we will save for another day. We visited most of the hotels on the Strip, they are like Disneyland for adults!! I think The Venetian and The Wynn were my favourites but they were all pretty amazing and I have never seen so many slot machines and gaming tables in one place - it was mind blowing. We did manage a trip to the Grand Canyon which was the highlight of the week. We travelled by small plane, helicopter, boat and bus - so we saw this amazing spectacle from every angle.

Two days back from Las Vegas and we made a very quick visit to Stoke-on-Trent where my cousins had arranged a surprise birthday lunch for my Aunty Betty, who was celebrating her 80th Birthday - and was on extremely good form. It was a superb occasion and we were glad to have made the effort even though we were off to NC the next morning!

This was just to be a short visit over to North Cyprus (NC) to check on some of the final snagging on the bungalow and fit one or two items and do a little unpacking prior to our final move out there. We were overwhelmed by the size of the weeds that had grown in the spring sunshine. While we were wondering how to tackle it our local shepherd came down the lane with his flock, so we invited them in! Well, they ate some of the weeds, trampled on a few more and dropped smelly poo all over my nice new block paving! Nice idea - not to be repeated!! We finally solved the problem by employing two young men from a nearby garden centre and for £35 they cleared the lot beautifully, leaving us time to get on with other things.


Aunty B (left) 


Tackling the weeds!

While working we had a company car, so we had to go shopping for a car for ourselves. I left the choice of model etc to Jeff and he has chosen a Kia Sedona - plenty of space for luggage and very, very comfortable. However, the deal he took with our local supplier was to buy a pre-registered vehicle,(a saving of a few thousand £s). Tinted windows were a pre-requisite, however, there was no colour choice, so now we have The Hearse! Yes, black, tinted windows and quite large.

Once we were retired we spent a few days at the beginning of this month visiting relatives in the Midlands and North of England. This was a great opportunity to test The Hearse - it is like driving two armchairs - we are well pleased with it. My sister and brother-in-law were first on the list, they live on the edge of the Peak District National Park, near Chatsworth. Who should be passing through Chatsworth at the same time were our future neighbours in NC, Sandie and Steph. They had just got back from NC and were spending a few days in their motorcaravan, so it was great catching up with things in Karsiyaka.

Jeff's brother was next on our itinerary and while we were there Jeff was able to renew his acquaintance with hiniecece, Michelle, whom he had not seen for about 30 years. Then it was over the 'border' from Yorkshire to Lancashire where we spent some time with his sister, Jean in Burnley. Turning south again it was time to visit Stoke-on-Trent, my home town, to give big hugs to my Aunty Betty. She was very excited when I explained how she might visit us in NC. (She feels uncertain coping with airports on her own, so we have an opportunity in Sep/Oct for her to travel out with me and return with Ian and family at the end of their holiday). It will be a good time for her temperature-wise too.

Our round-robin trip culminated with an overnight stay with 2 of our dearest friends, Maureen and Frank Roberts. They have been friends since school days and we have the kind of friendship that although there have been huge gaps over the years when we have not seen each other, the minute we meet the threads soon pick up again. We had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again in the sunshine.

We were ready to finish work when the time came and completed the 'winding down' period with a satisfying sense of achievement of jobs well done. We have been wined and dined as is appropriate, infact the whole retirement process was very liquid! Lovely presents from everyone and very many hugs forcing that tear out of my eye that I promised wouldn't happen and now 'D' Day (Departure) is approaching fast.

Which way? 

This last weekend has been farewell to family and friends. Our son, Ian, Sharon and his boys, Sam and Wills came up from Wiltshire and we all joined up with Debi, Andrew and their boys, Joshua, Tom and Ross for a lovely weekend together. On Sunday, despite the English weather, we joined about 16 of our friends for lunch at a nearby pub which overlooked the marina. What should have been a lovely setting was lashed with wind and rain, but despite this it was a happy occasion.

Since then there has been frantic packing going on in the Lloyd household. Jeff has been doing a bit of fretting about how he is to get everything in the car, while I have been saying he should just concentrate on heavy and awkward things, anything else could be put into a suitcase on future trips.

We are booked on the 12.15pm ferry out of Dover tomorrow, 25th May, sail to Calais and then turn right. We have planned our first stop to be Bayeux as neither of us have seen the famous tapestry. Then we will head south through France, into Italy where we will spend some time in the Eternal City, then down to the Amalfi coast, taking in Pompeii and/or Heracleum before crossing to the east coast and exploring the Puglia region. We have a dead-line of 10th June to be in Ancona to catch the midnight ferry to Cesme in Turkey. This journey will take 3 nights on board and the boat will sail through the Corinth Canal which is why we have chosen it. It only sails once a week, so it's pretty important we are there on time. Once in Turkey, we shall drive due east for about 300 miles before turning south. As we have no dead-lines from there on we will stop and start as the fancy takes us. We are planning to visit the area of Turkey's 3rd largest lake - Beysehir. We first visited this area some 20 years ago when we spent a holiday in a hired motorcaravan. No doubt we will see some changes on the way.

I guess we shall be arriving in Girne (Kyrenia) around the 17th June. Meanwhile, we shall endeavour to update this Blog as we go on our travels.