Trip highlights - Europe

Prague: A sculpture remembering the victims of the totalitarian regime - the haunting nature of the series of statues with lessening parts of the bodies present remains in my mind.

Florence: works by Michelangelo etc all over the place!

Assisi: the landscape and the climb up the hill above the church.

Rome: Attending the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday evening.
Attending Mass on Easter Sunday in St Peter's Square.

Naples: Climbing to Vesuvius crater and seeing the ruins at Herculaneum surrounded by the present day town.

Switzerland - my week staying in Locarno and walking in the Verzasca Valley near the village of Corippo where my Scettrini ancestors came from.

FRANCE
My cycling trip !!!! + (see separate cycling post)
Arles: the quality of light on the stone.
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer: flamingoes, and horses being ridden in the sea in a traditional ride.
Lourdes: A place that has made a deep impression on me and given me ongoing food for thought
Cahors: the way the town was encircled by the River Lot; meeting so many doing the St Jacques pilgrimage walk; buying new smaller jeans in a nearby village and getting them hemmed up to fit me there and then in the shop!

Orleans was not my favourite place, but here I was picked up by a 'good samaritan' - when I was lost and totally drenched in the rain, she picked me up in her car and took me to my hotel.

Angers: the old and the new Apocalypse tapestries.
Tours: learning more about St Martin, whose 'presence' had been in the French countryside I had cycled through.
Amboise: great view of the Chateau from the camping ground
Blois: realising how fit I actually was when I cycled a long route to the chateau.

JERSEY
-coastal walks
-stained glass tour to see the works of Bosdet
-finding Payn family locations
-friendly helpful rural locals
-neolithic remains

IRELAND
Glendalough: walks/climbs in the fine weather
Kilkenny: - friendly hostel and lots of music pubs you could stroll into in the evenings
Cork:- the activity in the Franciscan church = heaps of people there on weekdays for Masses and confessions.
Cobh:- quite emotional place - knowing so many emigrants left poverty behind and never returned to their families in Ireland
Glengarriff: - walks (on the road) up high into rugged rocky hills, especially in the Kenmare direction
Dingle: archaeological tour on peninsula, finding a harbour walk away from the traffic, a wonderful music concert
Limerick: Knowing I was close to where my ancestors had lived. Finding people who knew how to spell my surname and who told me it was a 'really Irish name"
Westport: climbing Croagh Patrick
Donegal: the 'Hills of Donegal" bus tour ( only runs in summer).
Derry: learning about the tragedy of Bloody Sunday and gaining a little understanding of what had gone on here.

Paris: Going to Notre Dame as my farewell to Europe - seeing audiovisual display in the darkened cathedral Saturday evening; going to Mass with Gregorian singing then hearing the bells pealing out over the square as I left to get my baggage to head off to the airport.