Gubbio

On Sunday 15th May we took a drive to Gubbio on the advice of my cousin. There was a festival on, that promised to be both fun and bizarre so how could we resist going. It is called Corsa dei Ceri or race of the candles. OMG what a crazy day, these Italians are mad!

We started off reasonably early, before 9am and it only took us an hour to get there, it's just a little north of Perugia which was lucky as we made it just in time for the first procession. 

Before I go on there is some background you need to know. Gubbio is a very ancient city, medieval in appearance with rosy pink stone buildings. It was founded by the Umbrians around the third or forth century BC. It was a rough town to live in back then, for fun they use to stuff their clothes with horsehair and run around stoning each other until most of the other team was dead. There were also frequent wars against surrounding towns of Umbria.  One of these wars saw the miraculous intervention of its bishop, St. Ubaldo Baldassini, who secured Gubbio an overwhelming victory (1151). He died on 16th May 1160 and ever since then they have held this procession, relatively unchanged, on the eve of his death, for the last 900 years. They did use to have a candle lit procession but it has morphed into 3 giant wooden artefacts or 'ceri'. Each one is approx 5 metres high, weigh 300-400kg and these ones are over 200 years old. On top of each one is the respective Saint. For the yellow team is the Patron saint of the city, our man St. Ubaldo (protector of bricklayers), the blue team is St. George (protector of haberdashers) and the black team is St. Anthony the Abbot (protector of donkey breeders and peasants and today also of students). Yellow was definitely the predominant colour. 

We managed to find a park, not easy and walked 10 minutes to the beginning of the old city just as it was starting. There was a big square with masses of people but we made it to near the front of the line. There were blokes on horses all dressed up, brass bands and hundreds of people dressed in their respective colours, everyone wearing a red bandana and red sash as they marched behind the bands.

After about 3/4 hour they all eventually disappeared up the street. We wondered where everyone was going so we followed most of the crowd. At the top of a fairly steep Street people seemed to be heading in various directions. The climb up the street had taken the puff out of mum so she had a wee rest on a wall while we decided what to do next. Just across from us was a sign above the door that said public lift but it was guarded by a couple of men. As we were reading the big map of where everything was we concluded that we probably should be heading for the Piazze Grande which was above us. Just then a couple of women, one fairly old came up to the lift guarding men and spoke in Italian, naturally, but you could understand they were asking to go up in the lift. We called out to mum to hurry up and come over so we played the elderly mother card too and it worked! They also let us up but they were letting no one else up. At the top we came to a halt at the door leading out to the piazza as there were people pressed right up against the walls so there we stood for the next hour or so. We got a reasonable view so it wasn't bad. There were thousands upon thousands of people, some had climbed halfway up walls, hanging off balconys and even some in the bell tower, it was just incredible.

I knew the gist of the ceremony but we really had no idea of what was going on or what we were all waiting for, there was commentary but of course in Italian but you could feel the tension of the crowd. Every now and then a roar would go up as some part of the ceremony was happening. Eventually the teams came from around the corner, each one holding up a huge urn, looked like maybe terracotta? When the last team came in attention was turned to the steps of the Basilica. Then trumpets blew, the huge bell in the tower tolled and the doors opened. I can't remember all the different things that happened but I have a lot of it on video.  Anyway I think the captain of the teams came out and were greeted like rock stars, then the enormous ceri came out one by one laying horizontal. So first the yellow team came down, then the blue then the black. After that they brought the saints down. Unfortunately I thought my video was rolling for that but I had actually turned it off not on so missed that bit. 

After a while, think they must have been attaching the saints to the ceri, a huge roar went up and the crowd went nuts then came into view the ceri upright with the saints waving in the breeze. They did a few circles then they were off and racing and disappeared around the corner.

We thought it was all over until later in the afternoon so we went off to find some lunch. Then we had a little walk around the town and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by the blue team and hurdling down the road towards us with their ceri  and St Gorge on top. They stopped right in front of us and did a little twirl then off again. Then as we walked down the road the yellow team came down the road and stopped again right in front of us. They turned their Saint to face a window high up and a old woman reached out and patted its head, then they turned 3 times and ran off. It was just amazing. Apparently they can only go about 70 meters before they have to change men around, it's so heavy and only about 10 men are holding it with the support of others around them.

As we were walking back down the road I saw a guy taking a photo of a couple of birds. We got closer and there were these two tiny, baby birds not long out of the nest, in fact they could barely fly, think they may have fallen out. They were tucked into a nook in a wall, so I went over to take a photo. Suddenly one little bird flew up and attached itself to my chest. He hung onto my shirt like a broach. I tried to put him back but he wasn't having it. Then I was the centre of attention from all these photographers. The other little bird flew out and hit the ground. A girl scooped him up and put him back just as I was putting back my bird but he wouldn't get off my hand then the second bird jumped onto my hand. I felt like St Francis!

Just as we were leaving we were followed by the blue team again and we had another show. It was such an incredible day.

Then to top it off, we are sitting in the kitchen where we were staying with the door wide open and having our daily wine with nibbles of cheese and salamis brought from Norsca when in bowls this large as life bloke speaking Italian to us like we should know what he's saying! We understood "Amanda " ( my cousin who owns this place) spoken with gusto several times but everything else we struggled with. Then Jon remembered he was the one who sold wine to her.  It was a very difficult conversation, even after I got my google translate out but we got the gist of it. He was rubbishing the wine we were drinking, disappeared for 10 mins then bought back a bottle of his sweet red that he said she loved. After another long conversation he eventually left, leaving us this bottle of wine! This place is full of surprises.

Acension Island

We arrived at Acension island first thing in the morning after a days sailing from St Helena. This is also not a big island at only 34 sq miles and has even less people with a total population of 880. Its also not easy to visit this island as you need special permits sometimes taking months to get but as we were only going to sail around it thankfully we didnt need to worry about all that. We stopped in the harbour to pick up half a dozen people who were coming on board to sell souvenirs, stamps and postcards so we had the unique chance of writing a postcard, stamping it and posting it off. Not many people I know have received a postcard from Acension Island, in fact after visiting the island there is still noone I know who has, sorry about that.

They also took on board a marine biologist who gave a commentary from the bridge as we sailed around. It looked a lot flatter than St Helena, at least there wasnt a huge cliff to scale to get to the town. The harbour was quite pretty with a few yachts bobbing around and a lovely long golden sand beach. Apparently the green turtles visit this beach to lay their eggs. Back in the old days the Brits killed a lot of the turtles and they end up as turtle soup on the tables of royalty and the gentry.  Now they are protected and the numbers are starting to increase again.

I dont really have much information on this island as there were no hand outs so the following is the best I can do.  It was discovered in 1501 by the Portuguese of course and was named after the day of its recorded discovery but it wasnt until 1815 that the British set up a navel base on the island, partly to do with making sure no one tried to rescuse Napoleon on the neighboring island. After he died in 1821 they set about  They were also trying to fight the slave trade where a lot of these islands were used by the traders to buy, sell and replenish provisions.  Coming forward into the 20th century NASA built a tracking station here to monitor the Apolo lunar landing. They also built a very big runway, I think its the longest in the world, just in case they had to land it there. Happily they didn't as there would have been no way of getting it back from there.

We noted that there were lots of big domes on the island, I think some of them were observatories as the stars are very clear here with no pollution of any kind to get in the way.

There seemed to be a lot more flat land here even tho it was still mountainous but not so sheer or dramatic. A pod of dolphins escorted us around for part of the time and there were a lot of sea birds, mainly terns wheeling around the ship and cliffs. It was the most birds we had seen since setting out I reckon. The other creature they have on the island is the massive land crabs. These crabs live up in the mountains and only descend down to the sea to spawn. Once that was done they make the long arduous journey back up into the mountains again. We never saw any of course but I do have a postcard of one.

We sailed around for a total of 40 miles, at one stage coming in very close to the shore. The commodore stopped by our table a bit later for a chat and I mentioned how close we were, fearing another Costa Concordia, he just smiled and said that was why they had a bridge management team onboard, whatever that is. He had never been to this island before but he said having met 8 of its occupants, sailed so close to the land and brought the TShirt he now felt he had truly been there!

Madeira My Dear

Maderia island, part of the Maderian archipelago and one of two inhabited islands, lies in the Atlantic ocean, west of Morocco and 251 miles north of the Canary Islands. Discovered by a Portuguese explorer, Joao Goncalves Zarco in 1420 it has become another British favourite for a holiday abroad. Funchal is the capital and was named after the fennel plant (funcho) that grew abundantly when Mr Zarco discovered it. We pulled into port around 8.30am Friday morning and admired how the little snow white houses seemed to tumble down the hillside and spill out the bottom. It had quite a dramatic backdrop of steep hills and mountains, we could see a road perched high on concrete pillars then disappear into the side of the mountain and reappear some distance later. Maderia is famed for its beauty & gorgeous gardens not without reason and of course its wine, who hasn't heard of Maderia wine or cake?

We decided to do the hop on hop off today so started with doing the complete 90 minute tour of the city. The jacaranda trees were just about all in flower and the streets were lined with them so it looked just stunning. It was a bit chilly on the top of the bus so for the first time I had to put on a jacket, don't think I like this northern hemisphere summer. Everyone keep saying what a beautiful day it was but it was nothing like the lovely weather we had before Africa. The bus took us over the hill to the next little fishing village called Camara de Lobos. It was a really pretty village, made famous by Sir Winston Churchill as he loved to sit on a terrace and paint the scene before him. Before we got there we went past terraced hillsides covered in banana plantations. This is one of their main exports and appears in most of their dishes, particularly with fish.

They have this particular fish here called espada which is a very long, black and evil looking fish. Its head is much like a barracuda with very sharp teeth and these enourmous eyes. They have to line catch it as it lives in deep waters, from 800-1500 metres down. By the time it gets to the surface its dead due to the pressure of coming up. We had some for lunch and it was absolutely delicious. We also saw them all lined up in the fishmarket at the Mercado dos lavradores, a lively place selling fruit and vegetables as well as all sorts of fish.

When we were in Capetown we missed on going up the cable car due to the weather, we missed the cable car again in Tenerife due to the crowds so we were deterimed not to miss out here. Good news for us was there were no crowds and weather was fine enough so we finally managed a trip in the cable car. It was great too as it took around 15 mins to climb up the steep slope (1800 ft incline) to Monte. We could peer into peoples backyards and see how they lived from our swinging capsule as well as getting a fantastic view of the harbour, our ship down below and the rest of the town.

Coming down was a little more interesting. We hurtled down the slopes of the streets in a wicker basket made for two and driven by two guys all dressed up in white wearing wide brimmed hats and rubber soled shoes which are meant to act as breaks. It's a traddition of over 160 years so I guess they knew what they were doing but it was pretty scary, especially when it swung sideways and looked like we would hit the wall on the side of the road. This road is also open to cars so its not without risk. They both held onto a rope at either end and rode the cart as well as ran alongside it guiding it down this steep road for 2 kms all the while laughing & joking. What we didn't realize was it didnt take us all the way down. Where they did stop was by a fortunate souvenir shop and cafe with a plethora of taxis claiming it was at least an hours walk and over 6 kms to the bottom. We felt we knew better so we waved them off and proceeded to walk down this 90 deg street. After 10 mins we had somewhat regretted our hasty decision as our knees and thighs started to scream. Two days later we are still feeling it. We did come across a very pretty cafe tho, perched on the side of the hill that served very good coffee and maderia cake with bougainvillea drapped over the walls and near a little pond.

We took another 90 minute ride around on the bus just to fill in some time and have another look around before we went for dinner of another classic Portuguese dish, sardines and sangria. The boat wasnt due to leave until midnight so we had plenty of time and didnt feel the need to hurry as usual.

After a quick hail mary in the beautiful cathedral with its carved wooden ceilings & built between 1485 - 1515 we wandered back to the ship and sat on the balcony to watch all the lights, described in one guide as "funneling up from the harbor area to nearly 5 000 ft of mountainous terrain, the lights of the homes and businesses rise straight up as if suspended in air, twinkling aloft in the middle of nowhere" which pretty much sums it up.

No prizes for guessing what Jons thinking

check out the pointy hat on the old woman

Tenerife

We just had two more port days left and both were one after the other so it all seemed very rushed after so many days at sea apart from a few hours on another island. The day before Tenerife we met up again with Rita & Lisa aka Miss nervous of Walvis Bay fame so we agreed to do another taxi share and see a bit of the island. Bright and early the next morning we met them at the bottom of the gangplank at the agreed time and off we set to find a suitable taxi. Rita spoke excellent Spanish so she did all the negotiations for us and interpretations during the course of the day (one of the main reasons why we went with them but also because they are great fun).

The first stop was to a town 8km away, San Cristobal de la Laguna. This was the orginal capital city and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. It was such a lovely town with huge buildings several hundreds years old lining the cobbled streets. We went through a set of impressive double doors and found ourselves in a large courtyard with gardens and fountains with the building wrapped around it. The stories these walls could tell. The oldest cathedral in the islands was just down the road from there, not sure when it was built but it would be around the early 16th centuary at a guess.

An Andalusian nobleman, chap by the name of Alonsa Fernandez de Lugo, led a battle between the Spanish forces and the indigenous Guanches, who were little more than cave men and no match against the Spanish in 1495. Alonsa stayed in Tenerife and married a woman reputed to have had an earlier affair with Christopher Columbus. On three occasions the island was attacked by the British, one of which was on 24th July 1797 when the unfortunate Admiral Horatio Nelson had his right arm blown off. El Tigre, the canon which fired the shot is still on display at one of the local museums. It was a shame we didn't go to see it but we had other places to visit.

We had all particularly wanted to go up to El Teida, a domant volcano towering 3,718 metres above sea level and disappearing into the clouds but we hadn't realized how far it was, we had thought maybe a 40 mintue drive tops. Well, 2 hours later after driving around narrow, hairpin bends and switchback roads, passing amazing tall pine forests swathed in swirling mists then eventually breaking through the clouds to see the bluest skies and the tip of the mountain we had almost made it. We stood at a scenic point and looked down at the clouds swirling against the side of the mountain giving an affect of waves breaking on the shore, it looked just incredible. Far in the distance we could see the sea and another little island. Once we broke through the clouds it got remarkably warmer, being cloudy and a cool 12 deg below it was clear skies and 20 deg above. The rest of the trip up the mountain,  the surroundings became a lot more barren, no more forest or green just what looked like lumps of clay or manure, Jon thought, scattered everywhere and different coloured rock representing different explosions over the centuries. There were clumps of a very pretty purple mountain violet and another plant further up that had one very tall flower, up to 2 metres in height, and was a brilliant scarlet red. We had wanted to go up the cable car which takes you almost to the top of the mountain but 10 million other people had the same idea. It was a 2 hr wait just to get to the cable car which would have put us really short of time so we decided to by-pass that and have a look at some other areas instead. It was a very beautiful national park with its wild barren scerney but at parts had brillant flowers and plants, like a well planned rock garden, formations of rock carved out over centuries and an enourmous crater. Just a little different to the normal city sights.

Back down in town, Santa Cruz de Tenerife where the ship was moored, we had a little wander around with what was left of our time. We saw the enormous monument, Monumento de los Caidos, commemorating those who died in the Spanish civil war of 1936-39. Tenerife played a part in the civil war as it was here that General Francisco Franco plotted with his senior officers a military coup which lead to the war.  All aboard time was 5pm so after a quick session of free wifi at Maccas,  we had to scurry back to make sure we didnt miss the boat. I think it would be well worth coming back for a holiday and can see why its so popular with the British as a holiday destination.  Would like to have seen more of the towns but there is only so much you can see in the few hours that is offered on a port call, sometimes its hard to decide just which parts to see but I reckon on this occasion we made the right choice.