October 9, 2010

Shanghai, China






Two members of the Starr family are in China at the moment. (Facebook is not allowed in China) Here are a few pictures of Johnny and Josh who have just traveled fom Hong Kong to Shanghai with their friends Don and Susan.(click on any picture to enlarge or see captions)

October 4, 2010

Tetsworth, England

The Swan is a former 40 room inn that was established in the 17th century.  It is now a wonderful restaurant and all of the 40 rooms now are filled with antiques for sale.  Heather and I spent the afternoon browsing through the antique rooms and had a lovely lunch there.  Best part......it is at the end of Heather's street about two blocks away.    Tonight my son in law took me for a drive in his Porsche- 110 miles an hour on country roads.  I may never be the same!!!



October 2, 2010

Portofino, Italy

Our last day in Italy.  :-(  Today we took the train to Santa Margherita and then took a shuttle bus to Portofino.  Portofino is one of our favorite places in the world so we try to return as often as we can. As regulars it was nice not to feel like we had to do any of the touristy things and could just sit in the sidewalk cafe and enjoy the ambience of the town.  We returned to Levanto and spent our last evening with some wine, some pasta and yet another beautiful sunset.





October 1, 2010

Riomaggiore, Manarola, and Monterossa

Riomaggiore

This was a busy day in Italy!  We took trains to three different towns in the Cinque Terre.  First, we visited Riomaggiore where we ate at a pizzeria, visited the church and walked around town.  Next stop was Manarola (our favorite of the day). We discovered a beautiful trail that took us along the cliffs and through the vineyards. We then visited a little wine bar and they served us local wine and  olives.We then headed to Monterosso. It is a beautiful seaside town. We were lucky to find a restaurant that gave us a table overlooking the sea.  There really aren't words to describe the beauty of the area!

Manarola



Monterossa



September 30,2010

Vernazza, Italy

It poured rain all morning. We loved the excuse to hang out in our Italian apartment. We then walked around Levanto and stopped for lunch in a small warm cafe. Luckily, the weather cleared so we took the train to Vernazza (village No.4 on the Cinque Terre) and took a very steep hike up to the top of town, We toured cemetery. Italian cemertaries are always very interesting!  We then hiked to the top of the hill to the Vernazzo Castle where we had a lovely dinner. 

Vernazza

Sunset in Vernazza

September 29, 2010

Levanto,Italy

Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

It took a two hour car ride, a plane ride from London to Pisa and three trains and a taxi but we finally made it to Levanto!!  Well worth the travel!! We got here just before dark and had a glass of wine by the sea as the sun set.  We are staying in a cool Italian apartment in the middle of Levanto close to the sea.  OMG, we had the best Italian dinner tonight!  Can't wait until tomorrow.

View from our apartment in Levanto

September 28, 2010

Thame, England

Heather and I spent the day in Thame today.  Tuesday is the day of the Farmer's Market and Heather does her shopping for the week.  We took the bus there and then dragged all the bags back home on the bus.  Thame has always been a market town since the 12 century. Not only do they have the Farmer's Market every Tuesday but also have Cattle Market on Wednesday and Friday.  There are very few modern buildings in town and we ended up our day with a visit to the local pub, the Birdcage which was established around 1300. 

Birdcage Pub