Our Sorrento Holiday

In my last post, Mick's 60th - September, I told you about our visit to Pompeii. That was on the Monday. On the Wednesday we visited the island of Capri.

Again, we made our own way there catching a ferry from the port in Sorrento. We'd caught the first shuttle bus from the hotel at 9am but in hindsight, we should have caught an earlier ferry than we did because Capri was packed and there was so much queueing. It's a beautiful island though.

The first thing we did when we got there was take a bus from the port up to Anacapri, the mountainside town on the west of the island. The buses were supposed to be every ten minutes but we waited ages in the queue until we finally got to the front and onto a bus. The roads are not for the faint hearted, twisty turny and barely wide enough for two vehicles.

From Anacapri we took the Monte Solaro Chair Lift to the highest point on Capri. Again, a very long queue. I'm not a lover of heights but the chair lift isn't too high from the ground, passing over gardens, vineyards and lemon groves, and takes about twelve minutes each way. The views are amazing.

The chair lift takes you to the highest point on the island where you can take in 360 degree views looking out over the Faraglioni Rocks, the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. There's also a restaurant. We came back down on the chair lift before exploring a little of Anacapri and having a meal in a lovely restaurant there. Afterwards we got a bus back to the port, yes, another long queue. We would have liked to have explored Capri Town on the eastern side of the island but we just didn't have time after all the queueing. I think the secret to Capri is to arrive early to avoid the queues.

The Friday was our favourite day, we climbed Mount Vesuvius. We took a train to Pompeii and then a bus which takes you to the upper parking area at 3280 feet. Vesuvius stands at about 4203 feet so you have just under a thousand feet to climb. This photo was taken from the bus before our ascent.

There's a steep gravel path from the car park which takes you to the crater rim. It's a bit of a cardio workout but there were a couple of children doing it, and some oldies. For me, the hardest part was coming down again, goodness, my knees were complaining.

It's so worth it though, it was quite emotional reaching the rim, especially after visiting Pompeii and knowing the devastation that this volcano wreaked in the past and will again some time in the future. It last erupted in 1944 during WWII destroying nearby villages.

The views from the summit over the Bay of Naples are amazing.

Looking down into the crater. How amazing is that, to be able to look down into an active volcano, it takes my breath away just thinking about that.

Of course, visiting Pompeii on the Monday and climbing Vesuvius on the Friday all tied in and we looked out from the third station, the final resting and turnaround point, and somewhere down there is Pompeii.

We raised our glasses of wine and thought about the volatile forces of nature and those who have succumbed.

In between our excursions we spent some time in Sorrento. Again, we didn't get to see everything we wanted to, there's so much more to explore if we return. We loved Sorrento, such a pretty city, a scenic cliffside resort, bustling with tourists.

I just loved the historic stone alleyways where you could pick up souvenirs or sit at a pavement cafe for a drink or something to eat.

The architecture of these alleyways feature limestone and lava stone arranged in a grid formation characteristic with the ancient Greek-Roman world.

We ate wonderful meals, pasta in restaurants overlooking the Bay of Naples whilst watching the sunset.

Pizza at alleyway restaurants. Actually, this was a wonderful place to eat, fabulous food and attentive staff. The evening of our visit to Vesuvius, a perfect day from morning till night.

Desserts a plenty. We shared this Torta Caprese, chocolate and almond flourless cake. It was scrummy. 

We ate more than our fair share of gelato. Of course, Sorrento is famous for lemons and the lemon flavour gelato from Sorrento is something else. Mick was sampling the tiramisu flavour here but he concurred with me that lemon is best.

We had such a wonderful week and we may return to the area at some point in the future, there's just so much to do there, you could never get bored.

Mick's 60th - September

I'm arranging monthly surprises for Mick right the way through 2026 as it was his 60th birthday in August. I'm a little late in telling you about his September surprise as it actually ran over into October.

I knew that Mick had been wanting to visit Pompeii so I thought it would be a nice surprise to arrange a holiday to nearby Sorrento. This is one surprise which Mick knew about in advance as I wanted him to have the enjoyment of looking forward to the trip. I did keep it a secret until his birthday, I'd wrapped up a guidebook which I gave him to open and that's when I told him we were going to Sorrento. We flew out from Manchester on the 27th of September for a week.

I'd been tracking the weather and it was in the high 30s through August. I chose the time of year for our visit based on the predicted temperature, I knew it would be no fun at all exploring Pompeii in the extreme heat. As it was, it was still in the high 20s when we visited, still quite hot but I'd booked a hotel where we could relax in between our excursions.

We stayed just outside Sorrento in Sant'Agnello, a quiet clifftop town overlooking the Gulf of Naples. It was close enough to walk into Sorrento but the hotel provided a good shuttle bus service which ran at various times throughout the day. It was very handy. The train station was just a short walk away so this was handy for exploring further afield.

There was a lift to take you down to the small public beach but we ventured down the ramps and stairs, winding our way through the tunnels cut into the cliffs, and used the lift to take us back up again.

We arrived last Sunday and, wasting no time, set off to visit Pompeii on the Monday. We didn't book any organised trips on our holiday, we just used public transport hopping on and off trains and buses as required and it was so easy.

I can't begin to tell you how vast Pompeii is and how much there is to see there. I was speaking to someone who had visited three times and each time they choose a different part to explore. That would definitely be the best way to do it if you knew you were going to return, but as we only had the one day we did as much as we could but only really touched the surface. The one thing we did notice was how Vesuvius looms over Pompeii, it must have been terrifying for the people when they realised it was erupting.

The city of Pompeii was buried under nearly twenty feet of ash, pumice and pyroclastic flows when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. It wasn't rediscovered until 1748 and it's remarkable how well the buildings have been preserved.

An invention of modern times being viewed through the skylight of Casa degli Amanti, or House of the Lovers.

The Teatro Piccolo, or Small Theatre. Holding 1300 to 1500 spectators I wouldn't exactly call it small but there's a large theatre too, the people of Pompeii certainly enjoyed their leisure activities.

The Amphitheatre of Pompeii was the most impressive building of all for me. It measures 135m long and 104m wide and was built to host around 20,000 people.

Inside, the amphitheatre is just as striking. It was poignant standing there thinking of the gladiators who fought and died there.

And the tunnels through which the gladiators were led into the arena. 

There's lots of artwork to see in Pompeii, this on the wall of one of the brothels. Yes, there were brothels in Pompeii, quite a lot in fact.

But I think the thing people think about most when they visit Pompeii are the people who died in the disaster. When hot ash and pumice buried the city, it completely encased the victims. The bodies completely decomposed over many years and what was left behind were cavities inside the hardened ash which mirrored their final shapes. In 1863, an archaeologist invented a method in which to pour liquid plaster into the cavities and once hardened the surrounding ash was chipped away to reveal the final shapes of the victims.

It's heart wrenching to see how people were trying to protect themselves. Most of the victims died from breathing in a dense, choking cloud of hot ash and poisonous gases, others died from thermal shock from the high temperature pyroclastic flows and others were crushed inside buildings or hit from falling masonry or killed from earthquakes which were happening at the same time as the eruption.

The saddest of all are the casts of the children.

The excavations at Pompeii are still active. About 15% to 33% of the city is still buried so work to uncover more will continue for many years.

I think I'll leave it there for now and I shall tell you about the rest of our holiday in my next post.

Pompeii is somewhere Mick's wanted to go for a long time and it didn't disappoint, there's just a taster in this post. We spent the whole day there and we could go again and spend another whole day seeing things we haven't already seen, it's huge, but so very interesting.

The Devil's Arrows

We were driving home from a day out in North Yorkshire earlier on this year and as we passed Boroughbridge on the A1, we decided to take a detour to see The Devil's Arrows.

This alignment of three standing stones was erected in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age between 5000 and 3500 years ago and they consist of some of the tallest standing stones in the United Kingdom. Two of the stones are located in a field and the third, larger one, is across a road.

Early accounts record varying numbers of stones, usually four or five but one account records seven standing stones. 

They're composed of Millstone Grit and thought to have been quarried and transported from Plumpton Rocks nine miles away.

The stones are spaced unevenly and run from north-northwest to south-southeast.

The southernmost stone is the second tallest single standing stone in Britain, 6.9 metres, taller than any at Stonehenge.

You can read more about The Devil's Arrows if you click on the photo above. Isn't it amazing how man was able to transport huge stones, which are believed to weigh anything from twenty five tons to over forty tons, all that distance without any form of machinery. It's also amazing how they're still standing after thousands of years, withstanding erosion and anything else which has been thrown at them in all that time.

Back To Cross Stitching

It's been a while since I've done any cross stitching. When I looked back and found that I'd finished The Twelve Days Of Christmas back in 2023 I was flabbergasted, I didn't realise it was that long ago. Just another example of how time flies. I had considered finishing off Mum's Cross Stitch but my heart just isn't in it at the present time, I don't know if it's because of the memories attached to it, whether I don't want to work on a piece which someone else has started or if it's the actual design, but I just can't bring myself to work on it at the moment.

A few Christmases ago Daniel and Jasmine bought me each of the seven charts which make up Jack Frost's Tree Farm by Little House Needleworks. They're lovely designs which can be finished separately or stitched as one piece, I've decided to do the latter.

I've chosen some sparkly evenweave fabric, a Zweigart 32 count Murano. I thought the sparkles would look like snow in this Christmassy design, though they don't really come across in the photo. The charts give the recommended Classic Colorworks colours but they also give a DMC alternative so that's what I've gone with.

I'm in no rush to finish it, I thoroughly enjoy taking my time with my crafting, putting a few stitches in here and there. It's a mindful process for me which is all the more enjoyable for the thoughtfulness and intention with which I complete each piece. I may not be prolific where cross stitching is concerned but I enjoy every stitch. I do find that my other hobbies take precedence over cross stitch though and since I've started looking after Jack, the time I spend on hobbies has reduced considerably so I do know that this will take quite some time to complete but that's okay.

Memberships And Annual Passes

We've visited a few places over the last year or two which either gave us unlimited visits for a year included in the admission price, or else we paid for an annual pass. Just like the RSPB and Another Year Of The National Trust, I've kept a note of each time we've visited to see if they were good value.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum. The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later moving to the Parsonage in Haworth. Between them, Charlotte, Emily and Anne wrote seven novels including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The Parsonage is now a museum which houses the largest collection of Brontë items in the world. They also have items on loan from other collections.

We paid £13 for a standard ticket which is valid for a year. I did wonder if it's worth revisiting a place such as this but the exhibitions and installations change, and you do see things which you missed on previous visits. A visit during the festive season is especially lovely with the Parsonage decked out in its Christmas finery. We visited three times.

The Deep. A public aquarium at Sammy's Point in Hull where the Humber Estuary and the River Hull meet. The Deep opened back in 2002 and we visited not long after but hadn't been since. Their mission: "To create a deeper understanding and enjoyment of the world's oceans and inspire positive change for their survival." There's certainly a lot of information to take on board and plenty to see, everything from sharks to penguins, sawfish to Madagascar hissing cockroaches. There are daily talks in various areas throughout each day. For the most part it's a brilliant day out, especially when you're looking for somewhere to go in wet weather, it's all undercover, but I have to say that I have mixed feelings about zoos and aquariums and the ethical dilemma of keeping animals in captivity. In most cases I can see that the animals are well cared for and their needs are being met, but there were a couple of things at The Deep which made me uncomfortable. I won't say any more about that, you can make up your own mind.

We paid £23 for an  adult ticket which includes free return visits for a year. There's so much to see here that you can return time and time again without getting bored. We visited twice.

Shakespeare's Birthplace. William Shakespeare was a playwright, poet and actor and was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. Many buildings associated with Shakespeare are still standing and can be visited in the town. Although his career took him to London, he kept close links with Stratford-upon-Avon and was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church after his death in 1616.

When we visited Stratford-upon-Avon we used our Tesco Clubcard vouchers towards payment for entry to Shakespeare's Houses & Gardens. A standard ticket which includes admission to Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage and the gardens at Shakespeare's New Place cost us £31, however, the Clubcard vouchers are worth double so the ticket used £15.50 in vouchers. The tickets are valid for twelve months.

We visited Shakespeare's Birthplace and Anne Hathaway's Cottage on our first visit to Stratford-upon-Avon last year, we returned this year and visited New Place as well as making a second visit to Shakespeare's Birthplace. 

Lotherton. We've had joint membership here for many years. An Edwardian country estate, historic hall and Wildlife World zoo, it's just four miles from where we live. It was a great place to walk Archie, he loved the woods especially and we visited once a week at the very least most of the time, often several times a week. We already had membership when Archie died last March, though we didn't visit for a full month afterwards as we just couldn't bring ourselves to go without him. It's such a lovely place though, we knew we had to return. Our membership expired at the end of October and we didn't renew it over winter, we would have done if Archie were still here as we walked rain or shine but we visited other places over winter instead. We've renewed our membership since and now visit with Jack, there's a lovely children's playground which he loves. We also visit on our own as it's such a lovely place to walk, though we don't visit anywhere near as often as we did when Archie was with us.

There are events held throughout the year including Easter, Halloween and Christmas themed experiences and these are included in the admission price or membership fee, though there are sometimes add-ons which can be purchased in addition, such as a visit to see Santa Claus or a tractor ride, depending on the time of year.

An adult ticket costs £10.50 online or £11 on the gate, however, we paid £55 for a joint annual membership. We've already saved a great amount by having annual membership and there's still many months left before it comes up for renewal again.

RSPB. Although we didn't save a huge amount when we had our previous membership, we did renew it again. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is the UK's largest nature conservation charity. We revisited all the places we'd been before: Sherwood Forest, Bempton Cliffs, St.Aidan's and Fairburn Ings, and we also visited Saltholme this time.

We paid £60 for our joint membership and ended up saving £12. It's not a huge amount but it's nice to know that we're supporting such a good cause. Of course, we also received our RSPB handbook and four issues of the RSPB magazine over the course of the year. We haven't renewed the membership yet but we definitely will, we enjoy our evening walks at our local reserves.

Jorvik Viking Centre. From 1976 to 1981 archaeologists uncovered parts of the Viking-age city of Jorvik under the Coppergate area of York, which was nearly 1000 years old. The Jorvik Viking Centre stands directly on the excavation site and guests are able to journey through reconstructed Viking-age streets as they were in 10th century York. 

There's so much to experience here including sights, sounds and even smells of the Viking Age. Animatronic characters demonstrate the language which was used and show their way of life. There's galleries which display a fascinating collection of Viking artefacts too.

I used Tesco Clubcard vouchers towards payment for entry. A standard ticket costs £17.50, however, the Clubcard vouchers are worth double so each ticket used £8.75 in vouchers. The tickets are valid for twelve months. We will definitely go back again before our ticket runs out next May.

So looking back at the places we've been, what we've spent and what we've saved, I would definitely say that memberships and annual passes are good value for money.

Please note that the prices here are what they were at the time of purchase and may now differ.

Druid's Temple

Back in March we had a trip to Druid's Temple on the Swinton Estate close to Masham. It seems a long time ago now but this post has been sitting in my drafts waiting to be published so today's the day.

Although it looks something akin to Stonehenge, Druid's Temple is actually a folly built somewhere between the late 1700s and the early 1800s by estate workers.

The work was commissioned by William Danby, the owner of the Swinton Estate. It's believed the design was researched meticulously as several elements bear a symbolic resemblance to authentic Druid's temples.

Danby paid local workers a shilling a day for their work at a time when unemployment was high in order to provide income to people in the area.

Druid's Temple is in the middle of a pine forest with walking trails and further stone arrangements scattered throughout.

After the tragedy at Sycamore Gap, Yorkshire artist, Lucy Pittaway, created her Sycamore Gap artwork. For every print purchased she pledged to plant a tree, and she chose Druid's Plantation as the location for her Sycamore Woodland. You can read more about this if you click on the photo above.

This is one of the Nature Gateway arches marking one of the entrance points of the Sycamore Gap Trail. The logs will provide an ecosystem as they begin to decompose, the frames are a permanent structure but the logs will be replenished as needed.

The views overlooking Leighton Reservoir, which lies in the valley below, are stunning. 

We didn't stay very long on this occasion but we intend to return and explore further.