Assissi

Our first stop in the Umbrian countryside was the beautiful hilltop town of Assissi. We travelled by Rome local bus, intercity train, then local train and bus but still had to trundle our bags up a steep hill to our hotel right near the duomo of St. Francis.

We received a warm welcome from our delightful hostess at the quaint little hotel.

We visited the cathedral with its display of religious relics including innards of saints and treasures.

Outside there was a terrace with stunning views over the countryside.

The little alleys with steep steps leading to houses and the fascinating shops which line the streets are a feature of the old part of Assissi.

Afterwards we visited the church of St. Clare and saw a display of clothes worn by St Francis and St Clare. St Clare must have been a very tall, wide lady judging by the size of the garments.

A great day.

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Roaming in the Rain in Rome

The weather in the Eternal City was not wonderful but donning our coats, we set out to roam through Rome revisiting many of the old favourites.

One of the fascinating sights was the crypt in the Capuchin church. It was decorated with the bones of 300 years of monks. These ranged from chandeliers, arches, patterned ceilings etc. It was quite bizarre. The souvenir shop had silk scarves on sale decorated similarly – rather macabre we thought.

At the Trevi Fountain it started to rain quite heavily so we retreated into a coffee shop and watched the umbrella salesmen operating in their element.

At the Pantheon, we watched one of the classic occurrences – the rain coming down through the hole in the domed roof. It was very pretty.

We returned by walking along the side of the Forum and on to the Colosseum, then via Metro back to Station Termini. After checking trains for tomorrow’s trip to Assissi we caught a bus back to the hotel.

The Trevi Fountain

The Roman Forum

Living in the Castle

The shearing shed built in 1863

We have just returned from a 5 day trip where we were in residence in a traditional castle - yes, a real castle - Kings Plains Castle situated on an unsealed road between Glen Innes and Inverell.

As the only guests, for the first 2 days we settled in but with car problems, we had to stay another 2 nights and with the owners away, we took over as Lord and Lady of the Castle as well as custodianship of the property complete with cattle (Angus, no less).

We toured the 1860s shearing sheds, inspected the graveyard and visited the local national park via the farm ute. We spent many hours sitting in front of the wood fire....... it was genuine Scottish weather!

Sunday at the Palace

The Presidential Palace in Santiago

Robert checks out the livestock

Gail checks out the guardsmen

We spent an enjoyable Sunday looking at some of the spots we had missed on our previous visit to Santiago. The presidential palace is quite spectacular with lots of open space around complete with pools, fountains and statues. The guards on duty were friendly.

We also wandered around looking at shops and some of the other public buildings.
We leave for Sydney on Monday night and arrive on Wednesday morning.

More Mouai

Look carefully and you will see
us straightening the leaning statue.

See what they look like when

no-one straightens them. We

learnt how in Pisa when we

fixed the tower.

Restored after being toppled

and washed inland after a tsunami.

The quarry where the mouai

came from. These heads are

full figures buried from erosion.

The headpieces are a different

kind of rock from another quarry.

We have now toured all the major sites on the island and also visited a lovely beach where we swam to a backdrop of royal Mouai (the last picture). Tomorrow afternoon we fly back to Santiago.

Meeting the Moai

This is the only group of moai that
are facing towards the ocean.

Now you can see them from the front.

There are lava tubes from the

extinct volcanoes. This one

reached the sea.

Overlooking the crater of one

volcano - now one of the water

supplies for the island.

These houses were lived in for

about 1 month each year during

the birdman festival used to

select the king.

We spent a day travelling around the western side of the island with a guide. Today we will explore the southern side of the island with the same guide - hope to meet more moai.

Easter Island

Gail in the garden of our accommodation.

Our first moai along the beachfront

just along from our accommodation.

We left Santiago quite early yesterday morning for the 5 hour flight to Easter Island. There is a 2 hour time difference so we arrived at lunchtime where we were met with flower leis.

In the afternoon we bought supplies to cook dinner as we have a kitchen here and are missing our own cooking. We walked along the coast looking at the little port where turtles play, tiny beaches with people swimming and sunbaking and platforms where moai are standing.

We are looking forward to our first full day travelling around .