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We wish all
our friends a Happy and Fulfilling New Year |
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With the
New-Year and thoughts turning to plans for 2010, we reflect happily on
the past successful year's
travelling, with trips to Sardinia~Corsica and to
the Czech Republic. Both trips again served to justify the objectives
of our chosen travelling life-style (if such were needed):
the opportunity to broaden our knowledge of hitherto unknown
places and to discover fascinating geography and wildlife;
the pretext for researching the history, language and
culture of different peoples; most importantly the privilege
of meeting and befriending so many interesting folk during
our travels; and finally, sharing our hard-won experiences
with fellow-travellers through the medium of our web site. |
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Highlights of
the year's travelling include: |
SARDINIA:
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- approaching Olbia harbour
in early morning sunlight after overnight ferry crossing
from Italy
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clambering amid the
megalithic tower-complexes, tholos chambers, tombs and
sacred wells built by the Bronze Age Nuraghic peoples, and
seeing the finely-wrought bronzetti figurines created by
this culture
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standing among the stripped and harvested cork-oak trees in the forests
of inland Gallura, and enjoying that region's
crisply dry
white Vermentino wine
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witnessing the solemn
atmosphere and haunting chanting of the Easter Procession of
San Giovanni Battista in Cagliari's steep back streets
- wandering along wild
beaches backed by craggy macchia-covered hills and
discovering
spectacular
displays of wild flora
- watching flamingos
feeding and taking flight at Sardinia's coastal lagoons (stagni)
- seeing a flaring sunset
over the sea from our camp above the arc of wild beach at San Nicolao
near Buggerru with the air filled by the sounds
of crashing surf
- watching the soaring
Griffon Vultures along the wild coast-line of Bosa
- standing atop the vast
cliffs of Capo Caccia's mighty headland in NW Sardinia
- exploring the magnificent
Romanesque Pisan churches in the rural backwaters of
Northern Sardinia
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CORSICA:
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- entering the narrow
fjord-like entrance into the natural harbour under the
towering cliffs of Bonifacio on the ferry from Sardinia to
Corsica
- smelling the incense-like
fragrance of myrtle blossom on the maquis-covered coastal
paths of Corsica
- standing among the Bronze
Age Torréen statue-menhirs with their engraved human
features at the archaeological site of Filitosa
- enduring the stressfully
memorable harassment of barbaric Corsican driving standards
- wandering through the
wonderland of red porphyry crags, fantastically shaped
rocks, soaring pinnacles and towering overhangs of Les
Calanche
- standing amid the
gargantuan natural amphitheatre of the Cirque de Bonifato,
surrounded by craggy, pine-covered peaks
- gazing up at snow-capped
Monte Cinto and Corsica's highest peaks from our camp at
Calacuccia in the upper Niolo Valley
- travelling through the
mountainous heart of Corsica on the Micheline narrow gauge
railway
- relaxing
after a long hot day's exploration with a chilled Pietra
Corsican beer
- enjoying the hospitable
welcome and startling mountain landscape at Camping le
Soleil
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CZECH REPUBLIC:
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- t
 aking the spa waters amid
grotesquely affluent ostentation at Karlovy Vary
- tasting world-renowned
Czech beers during our visits to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery
at Plzeň, the Budweiser-Budvar Brewery at České Budĕjovice,
and the smaller Eggenberg Brewery at Česky Krumlov
- seeing the decorated
building façades at Prachatice where the sgraffito
artistic technique was perfected
- looking out over the old
town of Česky Krumlov enclosed within a meander of the
Vltava River
- relishing the delightful
setting and hospitable welcome at Autocamp Jindřiš, looking
out over the village with the Jindřichův Hradec steam trains
chugging across hillside opposite
- standing in the old town
square at Telč surrounded by magnificent medieval buildings
- enjoying the excellent
wines of the South Moravian Wine Road near to Znojmo
- standing in Gregor
Mendel's garden in Brno Monastery where the Father of
Modern Genetics devised his principles of heredity
from experiments with pea plants
- admiring the fountains in
the delightful old centre of Olomouc in Northern Moravia
- witnessing the acid-rain
damage caused to trees in the Jeseníky Hills by unrestrained
industrialisation during 40 years of Communism
- feeling intense sorrow and
seething anger at the brutal murder of all residents of
Ležáky and Lidice by German atrocity in June 1942
- walking among the
sandstone rock towers of the Teplice and Adršpach valley and
the Český Ráj
- admiring the iconic view
of Prague Castle and Cathedral from the Charles Bridge
- looking down the length of
Wenceslas Square and recalling the brutal and barbaric suppression of the
Prague Spring in 1968 and the final demise of Communism with
the 1989 Velvet Revolution
- sensing the horror as we
stood within the barbed wire of the Vojna forced labour camp
and remembered the 1000s of political opponents who died at
Communist hands in the Příbram uranium mines
- seeing the scale of
devastation caused by open cast mining in the North Bohemian
Brown Coal Basin, the pollution caused by lignite-burning
power stations, and the beneficial results of land
reclamation and smoke filtration carried out by
post-Communist governments
- more feelings of horror
and anger at WW2 German barbarism as we stood at the Jewish
ghetto and Gestapo prison of Terezin, a one-way transit
camp to extermination at Auschwitz
- enjoying the trip's
culmination amid the natural beauty of the České Švýcarsko
(Bohemian Switzerland) with the Kamenice Gorge and Pravčická
brána natural rock bridge
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Such a
catalogue of learning and discovery surely serves to explain our travelling
life-style, if any reminder were needed. Our 2009 travels have again added
immeasurably to our continuingly cumulative stock of knowledge of people, things
and places. We have met along the way so many delightfully empathetic fellow
travellers with whom to share experiences and to keep in touch by email.
To these and all our friends, we send wishes for a HAPPY & FULFILLING NEW YEAR.
Do take this
opportunity to visit the collection of webs published during our
2009 trips to Sardinia~Corsica and Czech Republic: |
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The
New Year is with us, and our thoughts must now turn to 2010. Where will our travels take us next? Six years and twelve trips after beginning
our travelling life style, the list of potential countries still
to be explored is as long as ever with so
many 'possibles' in the queue. We shall break with our usual
tradition in the first part of the new year to visit our
daughter Lucy in her new home in South Australia; our thoughts
then turn back to the Slavic lands which we have come to love. As our plans develop, we'll publish
updates on our web site. |
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In the meantime, enjoy the delightfully English Hunsdon
House from the Dancing Master by John Playford (1623~1686): |
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