Segovia, Spain

This is the city of Segovia in Spain, a one hour drive north west of Madrid. I spent a few days here the week before last. It is beautiful and not at all what I expected. My preconceptions were all based on Spain's Mediterranean coast full of British tourists in August. This was a pleasant surprise. 



 The city has a massive aqueduct through the centre and is the main tourist attraction. It is over 2000 years old and built by the Romans. I got too much sun on my head in Madrid the day before, hence the stupid hat. It was only 5Euros. And it was quite cold that day too.

 In between teaching assignments we had time for some day trips. This was me at Hoces Del Duraton. A beautiful canyon with lots of river bends. There were vultures flying overhead and a hermitage built right on the end of one of the cliffs. Of all the places I have been to on our Comenius trips this was my favourite. If I had to come back I would not be upset about it. Also - tapas is so much better in Spain than in England too! (And cheap.)

Things We Have Been Up To

 We all went down to Chudleigh, in South Devon, the other day, so Carl could use his Christmas present. He learnt how to fly a plane. We spent a lot of time watching the back of his head, but he had fun and it was a giggle when he crash-landed (twice!) Good job we couldn't actually feel it.

 After that it was Andrew's turn, then we all went for a picnic.

 Last Sunday, in an attempt to avoid Ellie turning into a hermit, we took the dog for a walk around Fremington Quay, followed, of course, by cake and a drink in the café. Alannah came along too.

Caitlin has been doing lots of revision. Good girl!

Bristol

We had a day out on Tuesday and went to Bristol to do some shopping. I was listening to Simon Mayo's 'three word Tuesday' section on the radio in the car home and wondered what mine would be. 'Excess IKEA overspend', I decided. Why is it when you go to IKEA you always come out with more than you intended to? I wanted 4 things. I bought 15! Still, I did get the last pair of curtains in the colour I wanted. Adrienne's room is nearly all finished. I just have to wait for next week for the carpet and 7th May for the bed (don't trust BedShed when they say they can deliver in 3-10 working days - they're lying).

After IKEA we stopped at Cribbs Causeway - whoever designed that road system really didn't like motorists. When we found the car park it was relatively empty, possibly because the road system had confused all the other motorists still trying to find it. We bought holiday clothes, had a cup of tea and a cake, then came home again. 'All shopped out' might have been another of my three word choices.

Hockings in March

Despite the freezing cold wind, the sky was blue across North Devon today, so the Hockings Ice Cream van was out and people were buying ice creams. Yum! It turns out that Hockings ice cream is still delicious even when you can no longer feel your fingers. Just look how quickly Ellie's disappeared.

Italy

 I have just returned from a week in Italy where I spent most of the time in Urbino, pictured here. My friend Paola told me it is impossible to get lost in Urbino, you have only two choices to go in - up or down. She is right. This is the centre of Urbino and from here there are four roads in a cross, all of them go up. Urbino is up the mountains of Italy, and for most of the time it was cold and/or raining. So it was a complete contrast when we got to Rome on Friday.

 We arrived in the centre, having dropped our bags at the hotel, at around 12.30 and spent the rest of the day walking to see as much as we could in the short time we had. We squeezed in pizza and beer on the Spanish Steps,

 ice cream at the Trevi Fountain, a visit to the Parthenon, a walk around Piazza Novona where all the artists are busy at work (the Roman equivalent of Sacre Coeur), and a trip to the Vatican. After that our feet hurt so we returned to the hotel for our evening meal.

On Saturday we went to the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. I didn't think there would be as much of that as there was, we spent hours walking around the Roman Forum, it went on forever. I liked Rome, I didn't think it would impress me as much as London or Paris but it really did.

Denys Cox

10th June 1921 - 27th January 2014

My Grandad

Mum's 70th Birthday

We celebrated Mum's 70th birthday this week - twice. On Sunday we all went out in Bideford for a meal. Then on her actual birthday we all went over to her house. Carl went out for fish and chips and Beth brought round a birthday cake. No chance of disappearing into the loos and letting the candles burn down to nothing this time (she did that on her 60th) and there weren't so many candles that the house was in danger of catching fire. Maybe we'll have to be more careful when you're 80, Mum.