Pisa and the beach

Bet you didnt know there was a beach at Pisa - neither did we until someone mentioned they had been there and it was great! First we went to Pisa itself, the leaning tower really is something to see, and just for extra credit they have some other wonderful buildings in the complex - the cathedral and bapistry. Beautiful marble buildings - we paid to go in the duomo (cathedral) which had magnificent decorations. Little M declared it the highlight of the whole trip - pretty impressive when competing with the beach for a 6 year old. She was very taken with the tower, really really really wanted to climb it, most dashed when parents wouldnt part with the cash or queue! She is now proud owner of piece of tourist paraphenalia showing the complex and has practiced her show and tell on us many times. Had to agree given I had let J buy a model of Eiffel Tower in Paris!! At least they are cheap - and treasured!
The on to the beach!! Great beach, especially if you ignore the hideous overdevelopment ON the beach, and I do mean ON it. Gold Coast has nothing on this. Strange experience because it was out of season (why we cuold afford it)- so no pool etc - and nobody there but its obviously super busy in season, be absolutely hideous - if you want to see it in its full glory try the following http://anteprima.grapho.it/default_intro2.asp, we were staying in the concrete tower!! Anyway room was all very civilized and we thoroughly checked out the local restaurants - now even more thoroughly sick of delicious pizza than before!! We have come back to have some non-Italian food.

J had a ball for his birthday at the beach, we reckon he spent about 6-7 hours on the beach, swimming, sandcastle building, more swimming and wave jumping. Bliss! He is in no doubt that the beach was the highlight of the trip and can we come again really soon. Happy boy. Parents slobbed around, tried to walk up beach but constantly thwarted by children who plunged into the sea as soon as we went anywhere near the beach. Lots of books read, so quite pleasant - tho I am reading 'Grapes of Wrath' and R drew the line at that, had to buy a new book he was so desperate. Back to extremely busy work, and on to the next trip - M goes to Atlanta at the end of November.

Junketing

J and R's birthdays have been celebrated in style...big M had a conference in Firenze so we spent R's birthday there and then headed down to the beach at Tirrenia near Pisa for J's birthday. An early start to get to Stansted, as usual then huge queues to check in and get through security. Got to the gate with plenty of time, then they changed the gate on us, so traipse off to the new gate. Then just before the boarding time they changed it again, so stampede down to the new gate. With no seat allocations everyone wants to be first on, so it is very hard for the priority boarding people (small people, elderly or disabled) to force throught the press to the gate to get on first. The airline staff kept ordering people away from the gate - quite funny to watch.
We decided to catch a train to Firenze from Pisa - there is a station in the airport so it is pretty easy - so bought tickets and rushed to the platform...our train was standing there already and the clock showed it was leaving immediately so we ran with luggage and kids and threw ourselves in to the first empty compartment. After a while it became apparent that the clocks were in fact showing the departure time rather than the current time and we had quite a wait! The hotel was only 200m from the station at the other end, very convenient and extremely luxurious. M was promoted to Professor by the hotel, but she didnt complain.
While M was conferencing on Friday I took the kids down to the river and the Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in the city as all the others were blown up in WW2. It is covered in jewellers shops which little M thought was wonderful. We went to il Giardino di Boboli behind the Pallazo Pitti for the afternoon, lots of space and statues, then headed back to the hotel -not soon enough to avoid torrential downpours which continued for the next 2 days!
We went to dinner with all the conference people on Friday night which was not so successful...J fell asleep before the food arrived. Little M had quite a good time playing with wax off the candles and the wife of the organiser thought she was very sweet (as she said, she was 'waiting for grandchildren').
On Saturday we walked over to the Duomo (cathedral) and climbed the campanile - again in pouring rain and then hung about in the hotel room. Little M and R were both a bit second hand, both had bad head colds since the flight over.
Sunday we headed off for the train to Pisa, well worth the effort. Stuck the luggage in the left luggage at the station and walke over the river to see the leaning tower. Little M was really excited by it. We went and looked around in the duomo before collecting luggage and getting a taxi to Tirrenia on the beach.

Rodeo Stars

M took the kids to a puppet show at the junction Saturday morning - a german puppeteer living in England performing an aboriginal story. They saw the story of Tiddalick the frog that drank all the water in the world. Little M crashed her bike on the way over, it is too small for her, so we went to look at bikes for J - they had agreed that Little M would have his bike and he would get a bigger second hand bike. Decided instead to do up one of the wrecks in the garden so purchased new seat, hand grips, bell, brake pads, lights, tyres and inner tubes and spent pleasand hour or two fixing up the old bike. Sadly it is still cheaper to buy a new bike than fix an old one, but he now has a bike with 24inch wheels instead of 20inch wheels. They both look so grown up!

In the late afternoon we went to the Red Bull - they were celebrating 1 year under new management with hog roast, bouncy castle AND bucking bull ride. No pictures yet (havent worked out how to load them from the phone) but only 1pound a go so both kids had a turn. Little M very stylish in her miniskirt. We think she most enjoyed the way her hair swished over her face as the bull went round. J also enjoyed it enormously.

Sunday was big birthday party for Finn and Darragh so R took J to that and then took little M to the Clare Hall pool, then over to visit Naama, Alon and Michal until the party finished (Naama's big brother was their too). Alon and R had fun adjusting one of Alons old bikes for Orie.

A very Cambridge weekend!

Nine Wells Nature Reserve

This reserve used to be the water supply for Cambridge. There are springs here that were diverted to flush out a defensive ditch around the town then later used to supply water. Apparently these chalk springs are now quite rare due to water extraction for agriculture. They used to have some rare and unique invertebrates, but they all died in the last drought. Oh well! Special activity day to celebrate completion of new bike path to the Shelfords - story teller, kids singing, making stick animals, toasting marshmallows. We rode our bikes over, probably the longest ride little M has done so far.