San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy

We have visited this town on a hill, famous for its fourteen towers, twice.  The first time we stayed in a hotel overlooking the main piazza, and the second time, for a day visit, and return to a little restaurant tucked away off the main piazza for its home cooking.

No cars are allowed inside the town and parking is provided outside the town walls.  You can drive up to the hotel to deliver your baggage, but the car must return to the carpark overnight.

This is one of the fourteen towers

I didn't attempt to climb to the tower, which you can do in some of them, just getting up the church steps was enough for me.  Inside the building was, if I remember correctly, a museum.

Looking up the piazza towards some battlements, and when you reach the top and turn left, there is a small restaurant on the right-hand side of the laneway that had the best wild boar pasta.

Another of the fourteen towers, and through the arch, down a lane to the gated fence that surrounds the town.  The fortifications are quite formidable and there are several places along the fence where you can stand and look down the hill at the oncoming enemy (if there was one).

Part of the main piazza which is quite large, and on the right, the wishing well where my wish for a cooler day was not granted.

Officially, the Piazza della Cisterna is the most beautiful square of the town, San Gimignano.  The well was built in 1273 and enlarged in 1346 by Podestà Guccio dei Malavolti.

And not to be outdone by any other the other old towns, there is an old church, one of several.  It is the Collegiate Church or the Duomo di San Gimignano, a monument of Romanesque architecture built around 1000 and enlarged over time.

Next door is the Museum of Sacred Art.

And I guess it's rather odd to see television aerials on top of houses that are quite literally about a thousand years old.  I wonder what they did back then for entertainment.

The Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong

The sight of the Peninsula Hotel is very familiar to all who visit Hong Kong, if not to stay but certainly if you want to see the last vestiges of British influence in what was once a far eastern colony.

That is, we're talking about the front building, not the new tower at the back.  In the older days there would have been a great view of the harbor from the Veranda (that area with the blue striped canopy) where today, breakfast is taken.

We had breakfast, lunch, and the famous afternoon tea in the ground floor cafe.

These days you would mostly see taxis, buses, and Teslas, if not a flurry of Mercedes and green Rolls Royces in the small car park below.  There is no clear view of the harbor anymore.

From our room, one facing the harbor we could see the space museum, and on the day we arrived, rain, at times, blotting out the harbor and Hong Kong Island barely discernable in the distance.

As for the room itself, it was excellent, a junior suite, I think, because it had two distinctive areas.  Everything was run from a tablet computer, blinds, lights, television, and most important, air conditioning.  This was the first hotel I've stayed in where it was neither too hot or too cold, but just rights.

The bed was very large and extremely comfortable, as were the pillows.  Pillows, I'm afraid, are a bugbear with me, as no hotel seems to be able to get it right.  They're either too soft or too hard, too tall, or too shallow.  Here, they managed to get it right.

The windows were just the right size not to affect the air conditioning, ie. let too much heat in.

I'm not sure I could say the lounge chair was comfortable, but there was only one, which makes it difficult if there are two of you.  I wasn't going to fight for it.

The desk had a surprise in the bottom drawer, a printer!

And the bathroom, though slightly smaller than expected, had some hint of what it may have been like in the early days.  It had both a shower and a bath.

The trials of traveling: Melbourne in winter

I have, when younger, lived through many a cold winter in Melbourne.

Not that you could call it cold in the same sense that people who live in the northern states of the US and in particular, from personal experience, places like Chicago.

It just depends on personal experience.

But, now that I live in a warmer climate, where days in winter often hover above 20 degrees Celcius, coming back to a city where the maximum is going to be 10 degrees Celcius is something of a shock.

I mean, we do have cold weather where I live, but it doesn't have the wind chill factor.  Melbourne is notorious for having four seasons on one day, but right now, it's just winter and colder than we're used to.  Perhaps it has something to do with Victoria's proximity to Antarctica.

A great day to stay in, light the fire, and read a book.  I'm sure most of us have a large amount of reading we've been putting off till the next rainy day.

Well, that's here, and there's a lot of reading I've been putting off.  And like most modern houses, there's no fireplace, just reverse cycle airconditioning.  Curling up and reading a book in that scenario isn't quite the same as the almost mesmerizing flames of a real fire.

And it is, or was about half an hour ago, raining, with a gusty wind that has the element of penetrating even the thickest layers of clothing and chill you to the bone.

The problem is, we're away, not necessarily on holiday but with a lot of activities in mind so rail travel, wind chill, miserable weather is just another highlight of traveling.

This morning when we wake up it is pouring with rain, and the wind is howling through the nearby trees and you can feel the cold, as much in your imagination as it is in reality.

I shudder, and it's hard to say what drives it.  We have to go out so we'll see what it's like when we're ready to leave.  A lot can happen, weather-wise, in a few hours.

But, that pull of the sport, that level of dedication to support your team does not leave you, because it is ingrained in you from the day you are born, and stays with you till the day you die, no matter where you live, anywhere in the world.  Thank God there is the internet.

Remarkably the sun comes out from behind the clouds which are thinning out.  The sunshine does not raise the temperature because the wind, gusty at times, is still very chilling.

This is definitively Melbourne in winter.  And I can tell you, I don't miss it.

That doesn't mean I dislike the cold, far from it, it's just the sustained variations of cold assisted by sheeting rain and blustery wind gusts I can do without.  It's never just purely cold like it can be in the northern hemisphere.

But the weather is never that bad we don't go out.  This morning we are heading to the South Melbourne market.  Cold weather doesn't stop anyone and it's nigh on impossible to find a parking spot, and in our search, we pass other shoppers being blown about by the wind.

The walk to the market itself is chilling.  In the food aisle street side, it is warmer, with fires burning to keep the customers warm, and the food aromas tempting.  We are here for the spring rolls, the dim sims, and the potato cakes.



And the wide variety of fresh produce available that would put a supermarket to shame.  I've often wondered what it would be like to live nearby and do my shopping at the market.  We probably would be eating a lot healthier.

Siena, Tuscany, Italy, the Palio and pasta

This is the Piazza del Campo. with the Palazzo Pubblico, the Gothic town hall, and the Torre del Mangia, a 14th-century tower.

Here we were, sitting at a restaurant, waiting for the Palio, a traditional medieval horse race run around the Piazza del Campo.

We were a week late.

There's always next year.

Not all was lost though, the spinach and ricotta ravioli was to die for.



I might add, the day was very hot, and in the middle of all that stone paving and brick walls, the heat was magnified and felt like what it might be inside an oven.

Oh, what I would have given for a cool breeze!

Harbour Grand Hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The Harbour Grand Hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong, is a modern, but luxurious hotel, one that our travel agent found for us.

I was initially worried that it might be too far away from central Hong Kong, but a free shuttle bus that runs at convenient times took us to and from the hotel to the Star Ferry terminal.

The luxuriousness of the hotel starts the moment you walk in the front entrance with a magnificent staircase that I assumed led up to the convention center (or perhaps where weddings are catered for) and a staircase where one could make a grand entrance or exit.  Oh, and there's a chandelier too.

We booked into a Harbourview suite, and it was not only spacious but had that air of luxury about it that made it an experience every time you walked into it.

But the view of Hong Kong Harbour, that was the 'piece de resistance'

I spent a lot of time staring out that window, and it was more interesting than watching the television, which we didn't do much of.   Most of the time, when we travel, TV is limited to International English speaking news channels.

This time we had several movies included with the room, but I still preferred to watch the endless water traffic on the harbor.

The lounge area had several comfortable chairs, an area for the bar fridge and tea or coffee making facilities and on the opposite side the usual table and chairs for those who came to conduct business

The bedroom was separate to the entrance and lounge.  Notable was the fact the room had two bathrooms, one in the bedroom, and one out in the lounge, perhaps for the guests who were having friends in.

We dined in one of the restaurants, Hoi Yat Heen, where we experienced Guandong cuisine.  I tried the roasted goose for the first time, and it was interesting to say the least.

There's no doubt where we will be staying the next time we go to Hong Kong.

Toowoomba Flower Festival, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is held in September, and this year ran from the 20th September through to the 30th.

We visited the Laurel Bank Park, where there are beds of many colorful flowers,

open spaces,

statues,

an area set aside for not only tulips but a model windmill

and quite a number of hedge sculptures

There was also the opportunity to go on a morning or afternoon garden tour which visited a number of private gardens of residences in Toowoomba.

Whakapapa ski field, Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand

Whakapapa ski field is on the northern side of Mount Ruapehu, one of two on the mountain, which is also an active volcano.

It is accessed by a 6 km road from Whakapapa village, where Chateau Tongariro is located and is a hotel that can accommodate skiers in winter, and trampers in summer.

On the day we decided to visit, the carpark at the top of the mountain was full, and the only way to get from Whakapapa village to the ski field was by bus, and was, on that day, very expensive.

From the bus, which we decided to catch at a place called National Park, this being the least expensive method of getting to the ski fields, you could see the slopes come into view, and just pick out the ski lift pylons.

My level of skiing being a novice at best, I would have to join the many others in Happy Valley, a large area set aside for beginners.

The objective of the visit was so that two of our granddaughters could see snow for the first time, build a snowman, which considering the numbers that were there that day, a remarkable feat in itself, and have lunch in the cafe.

To be honest, the food wasn't all that bad.