A Week in Sicily Part 3: Up, up and away!

Flying Out

Part 3 and we haven't even left yet. I do waffle!!!

An alarm at 5am, a quick rise and off to AirParks Gatwick (booked as part of the package with Expedia). I'm not a connoisseur of airport parking but this seemed fine, other than their new computer system not working at first. But we dropped the car off, checked in, and got the bus to the terminal. Easy peasey.

Having checked in online the day before, we did a quick and easy bag drop. We heard others checking in and not getting seats together so it seems lots of people check in online, and it's worth doing to get the good seats.

We headed through security with it's baffling no-liquids rules and dedicated shoe X-ray system (this always seems ridiculous but who are we to argue with the security experts). Breakfast was at "eat". A quick sausage sandwich...pittifully small, far too expensive, and lacking ketchup, but just what we needed...and then off to the gate.

A very British flight

The flight was quite entertaining. British Airways crew are typically British. With a vague aloofness, slight lack of dedication to the job, dry humour and no apparent foreign language capability. It was fine.

The pilot was the funniest. Before we took off he informed us that "The engineers have now fixed the intercom but, in the airline industry we have a saying that the flight can't take off until the weight of the paperwork matches the weight of the plane". And upon landing we were welcomed to Catania Airport and blessed with the catchphrase "If you're here on business, may it be a pleasure, and if you're here for pleasure, may it be the business".

The flight was good, and the little "Deli" snack pack that we got with a salmon roll and some other goodies, was surprisingly good quality.

We arrived at Catania in sunny and warmth and sat on the plane watching our baggage being grossly mishandled by Italian airport staff before heading to arrivals.

First Impressions

Don't you find that first impressions of a foreign country are always of the loos! After a two or three hour flight you kinda need to go, and it's the first thing that you notice is different. The brand names are different, the flushes work differently, the signs are in different languages. If I was designing an airport I'd make the toilets in arrivals the most amazing place, shiny, gleaming, spotless, automated. Just to make a good first impression. Catania's loos were reasonable, but it alerted me to the fact that I really was no longer in the UK and I'd have to get used to things being a bit different.

Baggage collection was a bit slow. The Italians might throw your luggage around but they take they don't do it because they're in a hurry.

We grabbed some pizza (cheap, yummy, and needs little Italian to order) and then headed to collect our car. And guess what? IT'S BLOODY RAINING!! We've travelled 2000 miles to escape the crappy English "summer" weather. We're about as far south as you can go without leaving Europe. And it's dull, cloudy, and wet. How depressing.

Driving....getting it right!

We picked up our hire car, a little Nissan Micra with aircon, central locking, radio and all the mod cons, without needing to speak much Italian...thankfully.

We reported some un-documented scratches to a very stern Italian lady who didn't seem to care all that much. And then the fun began.

I've never driven on the continent. I'd been told lots of things about it:

• it's fine
• you'll pick it up quickly
• just follow everyone else
• watch out for roundabouts
• the biggest problem is grabbing the door handle instead of the gear stick

And most of them proved true.

Driving on the right wasn't a problem at all. Judging the width of car was hard - I'm so used to having the middle and edge of the road being the other way around, and Sally let out a few muffled "eeeks" as I drifted too far right, but generally it was OK. My biggest problem was non-roundabout junctions; turning left off main roads (must remember to stay on the right) and working out which direction traffic was coming from.

So, psyched up and ready to get it right, we headed off. Now, I'm a pretty organised person. I had a little green plastic folder with our passports, all the printed-out doucumentation for the holiday, pre-paid vouchers, maps of the airport parking and hotel, and so on. So when Sally ask "Where's the directions to the hotel?" I naturally had the answer.

"Errr...I don't have them"

So - praise the LORD (literally!) for our borrowed SatNav. A few screen-touches and we had directions to Masseria degli Ulivi. Phew! What an idiot I am.

The drive was quick and easy. The Sicilian driving didn't seem as crazy as I expected (though this was to change later in the week), and we arrived safely at our hotel. To find....oh.

It looks like it's still being built.

Masseria Degli Ulivi

You hear all these nightmare stories about people turning up to their holiday destination to find that their hotel is still a pile of bricks and a bunch of uninterested builders. So when we turned through some blank, concrete pillars, into a gravel courtyard with several diggers and some big piles of aggregates, we had to do a quick double take. "It's fine...everything's fine" we said to ourselves.

The hotel turned out to be amazing and we think they were just building some new rooms.

Set about 15 km outside the town of Noto, Masseria degli Ulivi is a converted olive farm. Simple, but charming. Not grandiose, and fairly limited in facilities, but with only 18 rooms, an excellent (if a little expensive) restaurant on site, acres of land, a tennis court and swimming pool, and no one or nothing around for miles, it's a perfect place for a quiet retreat, and to use as a base for exploring the historic south-east of Sicily. If you want a 5-star luxury experience, look elsewhere, but if you want to get away from it all and chill out, we'd highly recommend it.

But it was still cloudy and cold. Boooo.

We ignored the dullness and the lack of sunshine and took a very British dip in the cold swimming pool before wandering around the hotel grounds. Foreign places often feel like they're not quite finished and this is no exception. Bits of path were missing, and it felt like they'd not quite completed some of the work they'd planned. But this is the mediterranean way and it in no way detracted from our enjoyment - I offer it as a simple observation.

We grabbed an amazing proper Italian Cappucino and set and planned our week- there's lots to do!

The hotel dog arrived to welcome us and took a liking to my clothing. He was VERY naughty and appeared to be pretty untrained and untrainable. But he was fun to have around. Perhaps Italian phrase books should have a "dog instructions" section. I sense he didn't understand "SIT!" and "DOWN!" but I didn't know the Italian equivalents and my attempts at Italian-style arm waving and gesturing seemed to go unnoticed too.

We ate in the hotel's excellent restaurant. It was expensive for a full meal with wine but really good food. Very earthy Sicilian dishes - I had Gnocci and rabbit - and truly heavenly, but strong, local wine. Worth the money, but we probably couldn't afford to eat here all week.

We enjoyed many hours deep sleep that night!

Cycle Touring Article

This is a completely blatent note to self. But it deserves a note on why I have to make it.

I have an article on the web. I want to save a reference to it but the site isn't one I'm following with Google Reader via its RSS/Atom feed. Normally I'd spot the article on Reader and "Star" it to remind me about it being useful.

I'm sure there are tools out there that allow me to usefully save links to pages that are of interest. But what/where are they? Any tips gratefully received.

In the meantime, here's a useful article on Cycle Touring for beginners that I spotted. Cycle touring is something I've dreamed of since getting into cycling and, while it's not something I expect to be doing in the near future, I hope to give it a go one day.

Here it is then: Preparing for a Cycle Tour

A Week in Sicily Part 2: Travel

Preparation and Leaving

I mentioned before about our booking problems and needing to go on holiday from Monday to Monday.  Well, I was busy leading the music at church until about 9pm on Sunday, and our flights were leaving Gatwick at 8am.  After some deliberation, we'd booked into the Europa Hotel near Gatwick (cheap, tacky, horrible beds, but only £54 for a night!).

Sunday, then, was a day of preparation and packing.  It was a bit frantic, but we were pretty organised and managed to check in online.  I was, initially, a bit sceptical about doing this, but it's dead easy.  You log on, choose your seats, and print your boarding passes.  Then when you get to the airport you just do a bag drop and go through security.  Easy!

Packing was confusing too.  What to take?  It was going to be averaging 25 degrees, but we were planning climbing Etna, which is 3000m and the Rough Guide recommended taking winter clothes.  Do we pack hiking boots?  Day sacks?  Gloves and hats?  Heck, yeah, we've got big suitcases so chuck it all in!  In the end we were glad we did and we used and greatly needed all the above!

So, after church (my third time leading the music...which went OK, but not brilliant), packing up the guitar and music and throwing everything in the car on Sunday night, we headed for Gatwick.  The holiday had begun!

Satellite Navigation

Some good friends of ours had loaned us their SatNav system (a Garmin nuvi 310 Deluxe).   This was to be a VERY useful bit of kit, depite occasionally having some very funny ideas about how to get places.

We'd taken this on a little test run on an errand in Swindon a few days before.  I'd struggled with having the extra information to hand - where to look?  Signs?  The road markings?  The Garmin?  Aarrgh!  And it didn't seem very good at preparing you for junctions.  Imagine approaching a roundabout with three exits and three lanes.  The Garmin would say "drive...0.2 miles...then...enter roundabout".  But which lane do I get in?  By the time it said "enter roundabout...then...take...third...exit", it's too late.  So I had to do a bit of learning about combining the SatNav's guidance with signs and cues from the road.

And the trip to Gatwick was another trial, including driving some places I didn't know (it took us M4 and A329 through Bracknell and then onto the M3 before hitting the M25).  More about the Garmin later.

This route to Gatwick was pretty quick - about 1 hour 40 minutes!  The Garmin delivering us to our destination perfectly, and the Europa hotel being as awful as we remembered.

5 hours sleep then, and it's off to the airport!

A Week in Sicily: Introduction

I know I only just wrote up our last holiday.  I probably did that just after we'd booked the one that we just got back from.  So I'm determined to write up this one before we book the next.

Booking Problems

I'm not good at booking holidays anyway, but we were, for various reasons, constrained to going Monday to Monday this time, which greatly reduced our options and added to my stress levels.

The search process in brief was:

1. The aim was to go somewhere both sunny and interesting.
2. We were reluctant to use agents, but Thompson were excellent and gave us some pointers.  Thomas Cook weren't so helpful, but tried hard.
3. We considered various places: Malta, Sicily, Bulgaria in particular.  But our date constraints made finding flights at decent times very hard.  Who are these people that check in at 4am for 6am flights?  And who's flying the planes at that time of morning?  Weird.
4. We did lots of looking online too, but trying hard to get an all-in-one package.

In the end we booked a Flight/Car/Hotel online with Expedia.  It was a bit above our budget but we really wanted to go to Sicily and had exhausted pretty much all other options.

The package would have been cheaper had we booked with Alitalia, but we found out about their looming bankruptcy and paid over-the-odds to fly British Airways.  This had other advantages, such as being a direct flight, and departing at the more sensible hour of 8am.  Thanks to my dad for pointing out Alitalia's troubles as we were about to head home and click the "Buy this holiday" button!!

What we got

A little more detail...

We flew BA direct to Catania/Fontarossa Airport on the East Coast of Sicily, then hired a small car, and headed south towards the ancient town of Syracuse.

Our hotel - the simple, charming, out-in-the-country retreat of Masseria Degli Ulivi - was located just outside the nearby town of Noto - itself a beautiful and historic place worth exploring (and one of the highlights of the holiday, if I might say so).

We were there for a week, driving round, exploring the Eastern side of the island, sampling the food and wine, and relaxing poolside and on the beach.

It was a great, relaxing break.

The Highlights

There will be more about the holiday posted later, but if you don't want the detail, here's the stuff that you really should know if you want to know what we got up to, or if you fancy a trip to Sicily yourself.

• The Hotel, mentioned above, is a great place to chill out and explore the island - just watch out for the naughty puppy on site!
• Sicily is a very rural and traditional place - at least, the Eastern Coast is.  This means that everything shuts from about noon until about 4pm.  So MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A LUNCH PLAN.  I had a very stressful day driving around trying to find lunch with only a minimal grasp of the language.  It was not fun.
• In fact, the hotel didn't offer lunch, so we were out and about most days.  The best way is to find a grocery or supermarket and get some supplies and make your own lunch.  Milano Salami is fantastic!  Don't go for the sliced bread...yuk!
• We borrowed a Sat Nav system with European mapping from a friend.  This was hugely helpful and saved us hours of time, lots of faff, and probably lots of arguments too.  But, as always, use wisely!  They do get funny ideas about where to go sometimes.  If you think you need to stick to the main road, then sitck to it!
• Sicilians are lunatic drivers with little regard for the road.  Pay attention, drive with confidence, and give them a wide berth and you'll a) be fine b) witness some crazy overtaking and turning first hand!
• Driving on the continent for the first time wasn't so hard, though turning at junctions was often confusing.  Having the car layout the other way around was probably more taxing for my head than the driving.
• Things that must be done:  1) Climb Mt Etna (more detail on this later) 2) Visit Pantalica 3) Explore Syracuse on foot
• Food is generally good to excellent and you get what you pay for.  Coffee is awesome!  Local wine is also pretty incredible, but watch out - it's strong too!
• Don't take any kangaroos with you.   You'll have to read on to find out why! ;-)

Pre-holiday Cycling News

There's a few little notes I wanted to make about cycling before I left for Sicily.  Better late than never!

An Almost-Accident

The week before we left for holiday I nearly had a nasty accident.  There's a bit of my ride to work where I head downhill on a cycle path which then meets the corner of a road (if you're really interested it's here on the corner of Affleck Close).  There's not much traffic on this road and I'm always careful descending the shared cycle-pedestrian path because there are sometimes other pedestrians and cyclists.  But once I've hit the road I'm generally pulling away pretty quickly.

On this particular day, a woman in a car was heading towards me (east, if you're looking at the map), and she decided to turn right (south), seemingly without seeing me.

I don't want to relate this story just to have a go at the woman - though I should add that I was wearing my long-sleeved, flourescent yellow waterproof jacket, it was morning daylight, and I was QUITE visible thank you very much - no, these things happen.

What was interesting was the reactions.

1. The woman's reaction in the car was to stop.  When actually, the best thing she could have done was accelerate away as quickly as possible and get out of my way.
2. My brain quite quickly made up its mind that I might not stop in time and I was fully prepared, not for a big crash, but to gently tumble into the side of the car.
3. Fuzzy (my bike, for those not yet in the know), even with brakes really-hard on, refused to be thrown sideways into a skid.  He just wants to keep moving forwards.  I did just about managed to lock up the rear wheel but it's a LOT of effort.
4. We did manage to avoid each other - but the womans face said "What are you doing???".  Indeed.

Yes, accidents happen.  This one, fortunately, did not.  But I was left with a thumping heart and the feeling that, in an emergency, your brain can process a huge amount of information incredibly quickly.

And sometimes that's a very good thing!

Strains, Chains and Velomobiles

Actually nothing to do with chains, but it sounded good and pedals doesn't really rhyme with much.

Well, OK, it rhymes with "medals" but that's about all.

Anyway, during my PB 35 mile ride to Cholsey a few weeks ago I was fighting against an odd pain in the right side of my stomach.

After this ride I had quite persistent niggles with my right hamstring and in my back.

I wasn't sure if these were related.  I'm still not.  But it did get me doing some thinking about my riding position.

Position is all important on a bike because the repetetive, strenuous motion amplifies any minor problem.

I looked at a few things.

• Was I pedalling equally with both legs? No.  So let's do some work on balancing that out.
• Is my saddle straight?  Yes, and it's at a good height too.  But I'm not sure I'm sat on it straight.  Maybe I sag to one side a little?  Have to think about my position there too.
• What about my feet?  Well, my cleats (the clips on the bottom of cycling shoes that clip into "clipless" pedals), weren't in the same position on both feet - so I've adjusted them, and replaced the cleats at the same time.
  

Will all this make a difference?  It's hard to say right now as I've not done a longer ride for a while.  It will be interesting to see how things are now.

Of course, in the background the stretching and strength work that I don't do enough of will have to continue too, and as the nights draw in perhaps I'll get more opportunity to do that.  Then, come next spring, I'll be REALLY fit and ready to go!

Maybe.