Autunm and winter

A NEW blog at last, lots has happened in the last few months, spent 7 weeks in Holland, while Annette was working, we spent time in the Rhine and Mosel rivers, the Mosel on a wine buying spree, some of the nicest Riesling you can drink. they country changed color and it got cold, very cold. We visited art galleries in Delft, Den Hagg (the Haig) and Amsterdam and Gouda home of the famous cheese, all in Holland, so you can have a gander,

Just another castle on the Rhine river below. Autumn was really moving in it and was very cold wind,

a monastery on the Mosel river at Cochen.

The Mosel river in the Calmont region steepest vines in the world, the grapes are all picked by hand , its a lovely region and worth the visit, we now most of the wineries here now.

Us trying to look like tourists, in the drizzle,

This is out at Kirchhiem where Annette keeps her horse, its a forest area, and the most colourfull in 20 years this was on the the news, there was no storms or strong winds to blow the leave of the trees, so the forests turned yellow to gold then to rust,

The snowy picture is nearly the same shot as above, and i does not look the same this was boxing day when we finally got out on the roads,

the same area

this is the forest of Oak just new us at Habbelrath crops are all gone and trees starting to turn color,

As well as the out door thing i went to the biggest motor bike expo in the world, and it was, i went for the day and saw half, in the world trade centre at Koln, it was everything bikes, from nuts to chains they were there and bikes, scooters and things that i not sure where they went on a bike, this Ducati and side car was great, it was about $35,000.00

And where would a bike show be with out, BMW'S at the German bike expo.

Delft the home of Delft Blue porcelain and Vermeer ( the girl with the pearl earring) which hangs in Den Hagg, having seen the Mona Lisa and The girl with pearl earring which it is a far better painting than Mona Lisa.

And yes the spire does lean at 6 deg it happened when the were building the church in 1660 so they just reinforced the footings to cope and kept on building, Holland is mostly canals and waterways, oh and bikes i never seen so many bikes chained to rails they ride in the rain the snow the wind at the Delft station there was a 3 story bike park to hold thousands of bikes.

Deft was a very rich old city 20ks from Den Hagg, the Rathaus or council offices,

Amsterdam 250 bridges in the city of canals and water ways, 2900 house boats that people do live on,

Dry land to build on in Amsterdam was so scares that this is a 1.8m wide house
it is the dark bricks built around 1890s

its a bit hard to see there are 7 bridges the same in this pic.

northern Germany in Autumn, it is gold, the same is not true in winter, we did not make it to Hanna's (Annette mum) for Christmas as on the 23rd we had 600mm of snow and really cold weather -10 deg, so we stayed home like half the population of Germany.

Christmas day at Habbelrath and if you did want to go some where you need a spade, ice scraper, but the good thing was we had 8 boxes of fine Riesling from the Mosel so all was not so bad,

Christmas day and we went for a stroll or a slide,

Northern Germany after Christmas when we finally got there and Hanna (annette's mum) is in Hospital with broken wrist, and we stayed in Bremen in a very nice hotel for the new year, a lot of Bremen was destroyed in the war, but the main Rathaus and church were not and this is a UNESCO site, and it was -6 deg

Small streets in the old town of Bremen,

The windmill in the park at Bremen we are moving to Bremen on the 24th jan.

and yes it was cold -8deg, but just great for sight seeing ha,

the Wisser river in Bremen,

the party continues

Aberdeen in winter the entrance to the harbour with offshore work boats, bit of ice in the river coldest days ever recorded at Aberdeen one morning is was going to work -18 deg , made me think of home and the sun, but of to the Shetlands iles, soon

will be back with more travel updates, things that are planned Shetland island, Finland and Denmark for Easter, isle of Mann for bike races, and a castle or two.

To Italy we go.

Its Good-by to the lovely Mosel, and the steep Vine yards.

so with a thought and a travel agent in Annette is of to the air-port. And the Things you find in the forest.

Naples in the afternoon. its raining street markets, scooters, cars, people, rubbish on the street (due to a strike which is finished) and car horns,

Of to Pompeii, the hole of Naples's looks old. We got a train along the coast to Pompeii, its raining again,

Outside the main entrance to Pompeii, biggest Lemons we have ever seen, and the sun was starting to show, had a Pizza for lunch. with red wine very Italy.

Inside the the city of Pompeii, under Vesuvius which erupted on the 24th August 0f 79 AD to bury Pompeii under about 30 mts of ash and rocks. Pompeii extends approx. 66 ha, and we walked a fair bit of it.
The fresco's were great.

the vine yards have been planted back where they were.

Bit of History this is the 'Forum Granary'. The product market, was built after 62 AD.

The Cemetery 'Necropoli di Porta Nocera'

The Forum, built 2nd cent BC. so much to see.

Mount Versuvius. and a Monastery

Mount Vesuvius from the road to Amalfi

Back to the cemetery. the map to get you around the 66 ha site and they are still digging up the
more ruinins,

The beach sure this was a sign.

This Honeymoon is hard work, stay tuned for the next venture on the Amalfi coast. this is on our balcony of Villa of St. Michille, at Atrani.