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Old July 11th, 2017, 08:35 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim...[_2_]
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Default A report from Andalucia, July 2017



"Martin" wrote in message
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On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 10:42:36 +0100, "tim..."
wrote:



"Surreyman" wrote in message
...
On Monday, July 10, 2017 at 9:27:50 PM UTC+1, Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 12:46:56 -0700, poldy wrote:

When I think of Andalucia, I remember the story about the Puerto del
Suspiro del Moro, the way the sultan left Granada after being kicked
out.

Then of course there's the Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice.

Different kind of sigh but interesting that two different places
evoked
similar responses.


A pretty similar kind of sigh. The Ponte dei Sospiri is a bridge
connecting the Palazzo Dogale with the prison cells. It's not called
the "bridge of sighs" because of any sighs of people sighing when
looking at it from the outside.It has a small window in it, and
prisoners were said to sigh as they crossed the bridge, looked out the
window, and saw their last glimpse of daylight before being locked up.

"Vikings who later settle in the area, selling cheese"?
Well, that really enhances our historical knowledge of the del Sol.
I agree, though, that sadly this group has largely lapsed.
We've just returned from a fascinating first amble around Sicily, but I
doubt if anyone is interested .............. ?


yes please :-)


Me too!


to be clear that I'm not just asking in order to keep the group alive ...

I first (and only) visited Sicily in 82 when I was working a year in Italy

This was pre internet, without a guide book, flying by the seat of my pants
stuff

I knew a few places that I had to go to: Mt Etna, Agrigento, Palermo etc

I scheduled a two week holiday which I spent in the very south of Italy and
on the Island - travelling by train. It was November BTW, glorious weather
all week, though it did **** down the previous week when I had been in
Naples :-(

I'm sure that I missed some places. I remember that I got the train to
Enna, fully expecting that if the station wasn't in the town centre (it
isn't by about 5 km) there would be as bus as the had been at *every* other
random Italian town that I had visited. But there wasn't and still isn't
(actually I found a web site that says that there us, but there are no bus
stops on street view!) - and there isn't even a sign of a taxi rank, though
no doubt there's now a phone number on the wall that you can ring with your
mobile - something that I, of course, didn't have in 82.

Now, with 35 years of traveling experience behind me, I think I should go
back and fill in the gaps.

I'm minded to hire a car, but I am concerned by the overly cheap prices that
are charged and whether it is possible to avoid all the scams that you read
of to bump up the costs when you get there.

Or I can again go by train (and bus) though this time using the internet to
plan properly.

Or I could see if I can add on some organised day trips from hotels in the
mains towns - I don't rate that option much, but sometimes it works.

or there is this:

http://www.secretitalia.it/tours/sic...lendours-tour/

but plus flights (and therefore no obligation on the tour company to help
you if the flights are late/cancelled) the price is just silly

So am generally interested in how you travelled around and any out of the
ordinary places that you visited.

tim