Days 42-46 - Half Finished Tables & Churches....Slack Work All Round

After our successful spell as carpenters in Italy it was now time to turn our attention to a bit of stonework. First up; knock down/smash to pieces the old table, beats an anger management class any day. Then on to the slightly more tricky task of building a new one.  This has been my main task for the week, and by Friday although there’s still some laying of tiles and grouting to do the table is basically built.....well ok half built, but good enough to sacrifice an allegorical lion on, even if I do say so myself.

In the meantime Becki has taken on the role of head gardener, and has motored her way through various pruning, sweeping and weeding types of task.

Saturday was our first free day this week, so we set off for Barcelona. There was a bit of a mix up with the bus early on (as in it didn’t turn up) but a quick change of plan, a short train ride later and we were taking in the sights of the Catalan capital.

 

First up we took a meandering route through the Gothic Quarter, past the Spanish version of the Arc de Triumph and then the old Bull fighting arena on our way up to Gaudi’s unfinished cathedral the Sagrada Família, the intricate details and towering spires were all very impressive but if I’d hired some builders and they still weren’t done 100 years later I’d want my money back!

     

Next we set our sights on walking down ‘The Ramblas’, the main street for museums, galleries and shopping. 

Passed some more funky Gaudi buildings on the way, including one the depicts the legend of St George and the Dragon (that guy seems to get all the gigs in this town.....Gaudi that is, not St George).

 

Even the regular shops, apartments and office buildings all seem to be covered in any number of turrets, spires and clever architectural details. 

That evening we headed back to Sitges to catch their celebrations for the Santa Tecla festival, this involved some giant royalty and paper mache dragons parading around the streets followed by a barrage of firecrackers to scare off the evil spirits. 

And in case that didn’t do the trick a round of three mortars fired into the air signalled the start of the most impressive firework display either of us had ever seen, including what I can only describe as ‘two-stage’ rockets, heart shaped bursts and fireworks that detonated on the sea!

-

Days 38-41 - Can You Tell What It Is Yet?

On Friday we were up early to go to Florence for the day.  Janine, her husband Lloyd and Holly came back last night so after an early morning coffee at the bar in town, they dropped us off at the station for our 2 hour train ride to Florence.  Once we arrived we re-energised with yet another coffee and then after a brief stroll around the town we decided to get in line for the Uffuzi gallery.  So many people had raved about how brilliant it was so we thought the hour’s queuing would surely be worth it.  We were wrong.  Not that we don’t appreciate a painting or two of the Messiah and his friends, but this was the entire subject matter of the exhibition (and it’s a very, very large building!)  I don’t know if we were just unfortunate and happen to visit during “Jesus Week” but after an hour and a half it all got too much so we left and continued our sight-seeing. 

After a few hours we headed back to the station to catch the train back to Bagni di Lucca and decided that our summing up of Florence is as follows:  Over-rated, too many people and smells really bad.

The next morning it was time to leave Crasciana and head to Pisa where we’d spend the night before our flight to Barcelona on Sunday.  We needed to change trains at Lucca and unfortunately the Rail Europe website talks absolute rubbish so we were stuck there for 2 hours waiting for our connection to Pisa.  So, we went for a coffee and Nick did what any 28 year old man with 2 hours to kill would do – he made a lego koala.

Arrived in Pisa at 2pm and once we’d found the place we’d booked for the night though AirBnB (people with spare rooms renting them out for cheapish rates), we headed off to that wonky tower we’d heard so much about.  While there we obviously had to take the obligatory comedy photo.  There were actually people queuing up to get into the best position for the shot,  with wives and partners shouting at them that they were too far to the left/right, generally not doing it right. I was obviously not one of them.

After checking out the tower and surrounding sights we walked through the town, which incidentally also smelled bad in places.  I mentioned this to Nick and he gave me a brief lesson on the history of old Italian sewage systems, which I don’t remember asking for but was obviously so happy to receive.

The next day we went for a walk through some gardens within an old fortress and then hunted down a place to go for lunch.  Our hunt was rewarded as we ate the best meal of our trip so far (apart from maybe the pizza at the “Best Pizzas in Italy” place).  Our menu was Rabbit Ravioli in a White Ragu, Caprese Salad and Grilled Vegetables….mmmmmm.  We are already planning our next trip to Pisa just so we can go back there!

After lunch there was just time for quick sunbathe at the tower then it was time to catch the train to the airport to fly to Barcelona.   

Our suitcase has finally given up so we bought one for 18 euros from a Chinese man near the airport.  It’s definitely not the best quality but we’re hoping it’ll do the job for the next month or so.  We arrived at Barcelona El-Prat just before 9pm and took the train to Sitges where we were met by one half of our new set of workaway hosts, Andrew.  Back at the house we had some dinner and then went to bed ready to start work the next day. 

After breakfast the next morning we came to the decision that we would like to leave here as soon as possible.  Without going into too much detail, (because our blog is becoming just so damn popular that you never know who may pass the word on to them …) the place is really unclean and Andrew is extremely moody and intolerant.  We have begun to look for other workaway placements but as we can’t really afford to stay anywhere that charges money, we are stuck here until someone wants us!

Anyway, we spent the morning gardening and fixing various things and then after lunch we went into Sitges.  Here’s Nick enjoying himself on the beach :-

Days 31-37 - Lucca-these Shelves

It’s been a while since our last update (my bad) so get ready for a bumper edition. Also i'll put in my apologies now for the title pun (all will become clear).

Friday

After a few cooler overcast days the sun was back again, and we’d heard nothing but good things about a nearby medieval walled city called Lucca so we decided to go check it out.

Although first that meant getting on the sauna train, now the windows do open, I know I opened all of them on the way here last week. But apparently most Italian people (who were already sat down by all the windows) prefer to just slowly cook on their way into town.

Anyway we made it into Lucca, and as soon as you leave the station you can see the 30ft high walls of the old city, and a handful of the old towers dominating the skyline from inside.

We decided against following the designated tourist route and forged our own path through the maze-like grid of narrow ancient streets and alleyways finding our way from one piazza to the next. 

The first one we came out onto contained the impressive Duomo di San Martino. I think my favourite sight of the town was the Torre Guinigi, a fortified tower some 7-8 stories high with fully grown Oak trees on top. Needless to say we climbed to the top to take a look.

 

On the way back down I spotted this reprobate who had been locked away in the tower.

All this exploring is thirsty work, so next we headed for a coffee in the Piazza that used to be the old amphitheatre. While there we noticed wine was only 2 euros so stayed for some wine too, also I tried out an espresso/brandy combination (like a civilised version of the dead Mexican).

Back in Bagni di Lucca we went for dinner at Ristorante del Sorno, whose reputation for having the  ‘best pizza in Italy’ was too much to resist, and while we’re still some way off  having done an exhaustive survey, so far we have to agree. 

Becki was not however very impressed with the service, as to start the waitress flung basket of dry brown bread down on the table without even saying a word. On the bright side though glasses of Prosecco only 2.50!

On the way back it dawned on us there was a very real risk we were going to run out of petrol, and a 12k walk up the mountainside in the pitch black wasn’t exactly how we’d planned to end the day. We drove slow and steady but on the steeper parts of the hill the little panda slowed right down to……lets just say ‘walking pace’ would be very generous.

The Weekend

We decided to have a relaxing couple of days in and around Crasciana, only venturing down to the fig trees at the edge of the village for a free lunch! On Sunday evening I set off for a run through the woods. A few miles in I startled a deer that was grazing in my path, and there was also some amazing scenery along the way especially as the sun was starting to set, although this did also make me realise it was probably time to head back before I ran out of light.

Back at the house we decide to give the coffee percolator we discovered a go, neither of us had used one before but how hard could it be? That attitude was probably a mistake…See we’d figured we would work our 5 hours allocated for Monday spread out over the weekend, so we could take Monday off, get up early and go to Florence.  That went out the window shortly after drinking a whole mug full of what was basically espresso and subsequently still being awake at 5am.

Monday – Thursday

After finally getting to sleep just as the sun was rising and the resulting lie in, we had missed the early train we needed to get so got back to the business of making shelves. After the fun of sawing and sanding by hand we had hoped the drilling part would be easier, but no such luck, with no masonry drill or nail, 48 holes in a brick wall to make was again slow progress. But by Thursday afternoon our (entirely handmade) shelves were finally complete……about time too!

One more highlight of the week, on Wednesday night we had a go at making our own pizza’s from scratch. We’re not quite giving ‘del Sorno’ a run for their money yet, but in our own little contest the verdict was: Becki’s definitely looked the best but mine scored more points in the taste test.

Days 27-30 - We're Jammin'

On Saturday Janine took us into Bagni di Lucca and showed us around.  Apparently there is a nice restaurant that does starter, main, dessert, glass of wine and a coffee for only 10 euros, so we’re going to check that out next weekend.  Janine and Holly fly to England this evening, leaving us here with Sam, their oldest child. I was tasked with driving them to the train station in their little Fiat Panda.

Having never driving a left hand drive car before I was somewhat nervous.  I had a practice driving up the mountain road on the way back from town and I can’t say I was any less worried by the time we reached the house….12k of twists and turns, blind corners along roads that only just fit two cars along didn’t do much to calm my nerves! But I managed to get them there that evening in one piece so all’s well that ends well!

The next day we pottered about being lazy, did the supermarket shop and then went and picked figs from down the hill.  Another first….I then made jam! It was really good, unlike the giant turkey drumsticks we had for dinner which I managed to undercook. :-(

The last few days have been spent making headway with the shelves we had assured Janine we could build for her…we may have no experience at carpentry but we weren’t going to let an insignificant detail like that stand in our way.  Progress is slow however as we are basically having to do everything by hand, 45 minutes for example to saw through a roof beam just to make one bracket and we need 12 of them! Throw in some wrong size screws and a sander which doesn’t actually seem to sand and you’ll start to see the problems we’re having.

Today is Friday and we’ve been working an extra hour or so each day this week so that we can have tomorrow off as the weather is meant to get better again.  (The last few days have been really overcast.)  We’re planning on catching the train to Lucca and then sampling what are meant to be “The Best Pizzas in Italy” according to a journalist.

If it’s been raining the day before you get to look down on the clouds as they form lower in the valley and then gradually rise up the mountain. Nick took this picture from the roof the other day, and shortly after he was actually inside the clouds!