travel – Fraggle's Otherverse

D-Day

June 6, 2020Posted in France, Fuji X100F, History, Personal History, Photography, travel, UncategorizedTagged Arromanches, D-Day, Fraggle, France, Fujifilm X100F, History, Mont-Saint-Michel, travel, WW216 Comments

Today is 6th June and 76 years ago the D~Day landings happened, and it is seen as the beginning of the end of WW2. Back in May last year Phil and I went to France and as well as Mont Saint Michel and Conde, we visited some of the places, museums and cemeteries around the Normandy Beaches. Whilst I’ve been off work die to the Corona thing, I’ve been compiling a book of our travels there, and got it finished this week. I’ve uploaded the PDF version here. A couple of the pages are double spread pictures which get broken up for single page viewing, but the rest are OK. Feel free to have a scroll through!

Click to access france2019.pdf

Day 292

October 19, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, Hipstamatic, Holland, Iphoneography, PhotographyTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, Fraggle, Hipstamatic, hotel, iphone7, Photography20 Comments

Can’t resist a long hotel corridor. Have walked up and down this one a few times today!

Day 290

October 17, 2019October 17, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, Hipstamatic, Holland, Iphoneography, Photography, travel, UncategorizedTagged 365, 365 project, B&W, Ferry, Fraggle, Oct2019, Photography4 Comments

We are on our ferry to Rotterdam and it’s just about to set off. It’s ginormous and we’ve got lost a few times. Had a nice extortionate dinner and an extortionate glass of wine and now taking it easy till bedtime!

Day 256

September 13, 2019September 15, 2019Posted in 365, architecture, B&W, Iphoneography, Italy, Photography, travel, UncategorizedTagged 365, 365 project, Artemino Museum, Black&white, day256, Fraggle, iphone7, Photography8 Comments

This morning we walked into Artemino village and did the culture vulture thing. Lots of Etruscan artifacts in the museum and a very old church. It’s our last day here so a bit of sun soaking in the grounds of our hotel too. Looking forward to my own bed tomorrow night!

Day 253

September 10, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, FujiX-T2, Italy, Photography, travelTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, day253, Florence, Fraggle, FujiX-T2, Italy, Neptune, Photography6 Comments

Florence today. Didn’t do brilliantly with photography, just touristy shots, and then got heatstroke so had to come back to hotel . But what an amazing place. Magnificent buildings which I’ll try and wrangle into something half decent when I do the post on the universe blog, but for now here’s one of my fave bits, Neptunes bum 🙂

Day 252

September 9, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, FujiX-T2, Italy, Photography, travelTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, chianti, day252, Fraggle, Italy, La Villa Ferdinanda, Photography, wine5 Comments

It was a very good year 🙂

Day 251

September 8, 2019Posted in architecture, B&W, Castles, FujiX-T2, Italy, landscape, Photography, travelTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, day251, Fraggle, FujiX-T2, Italy, La Villa Ferdinanda, Photography, Tuscany12 Comments

The Medici Villa “La Ferdinanda” was commissioned by Ferdinand I (1549-1609) as a home to stay with their guests during the hunting within the Barco Reale, the vast reservoir created by Cosimo I.

The project was entrusted to Bernardo Buontalenti (1536 – 1608) and the building was completed in just four years, from 1596 to 1600.

Our hotel is part of the estate, and this is taken from the medieval village of Artimino, across the olive groves.

Day 250

September 7, 2019Posted in B&W, FujiX-T2, Italy, Photography, travelTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, day250, Fraggle, FujiX-T2, Hotel Paggeria, Italy, Tuscany17 Comments

So here I am safe and sound, in spite of hurtling through the sky in a steel tube with flaps, and in spite of roads which were narrow with twisty turns up the side of a mountain. Serious parping going round hairpin bends I tell you. No matter, here we are in a sumptuous hotel with fab views. This will all get to the universe blog eventually, before I die 😀 but this week a little taster.

the hotel restaurant, built in 1600’s, nice staff, gorgeous setting, underwhelmed with the food.

Days 126-133

May 13, 2019May 13, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, birds, Cat, France, Fuji X100F, landscape, nature, Photography, UncategorizedTagged 365, 365 project, Black&white, Folkestone, Fraggle, France, Photography, tank17 Comments

I’m back, did you miss me? 🙂 Although I had internet I had real problems uploading pictures to WP and embedding them from my SmugMug site, so have saved them all for one post. Normandy was gorgeous, and where we stayed was just fabulous. Of course I’ll be doing posts on it over on the other blog, but for now I must update the 365!

Our first day out was to Mont Saint Michel. There are a lot of steps to climb!

Our next day out was to Dead Mans Corner, and to a British war cemetery, this one is at St Charles de Percy.

Day 128 was spent visiting Arromanches, the American cemetery at Omaha beach, and the Overlord museum.

Day 129 was our last day there as we had to leave early the next day, so we stayed local, and I took some more pictures around where we were staying.

The sun comes through the front French doors in the morning, and so does Fatcat.

Day 131 was our first day in Folkestone and I wandered round taking pictures while Phil was getting set up for the model show.

More of the same on Day 132

Today we are home again, and getting back to real life. Phil won a silver medal for the tank he had in the show at the weekend, which was rather good.

Back to work tomorrow, I had a great time on holiday! 🙂

Days 124 & 125

May 5, 2019Posted in 365, B&W, France, Fuji X100F, Photography, travel18 Comments

Yesterday, Saturday was a long and arduous day as we had to get up at 7, be at the ferry for 9am, sail and then a 6 hr drive to where we are staying in Normandy. After the 8 hour drive on Friday, unfortunately neither of us had slept well at all in the Premier inn, which made it a chore.

But at last we got here and it was worth the journey. What a beautiful place we are in. The old watermill was started in the 1700’s, with newer bits added on later and we are in the downstairs apartment. Nicola who owns it is absolutely lovely and welcomed us as we arrived and showed us the workings of the place. I’m not going to say much more as there’ll be a full report on the Universe blog. We stayed in today to recuperate as we were both knackered and needed a rest. Though we have walked around the grounds and by the river, and I’ve been busy with my camera. We’ve made friends with the resident cats, and one is curled up in the easy chair as I type this. I probably won’t ever want to leave.

We are surrounded by forest, and the birdsong is amazing, so much going on!