Barbara's travels continue 2018

After a very short time in Russikon, which just gave me time to say farewell to work colleagues and friends and also spend time with other close friends, I was back once again waiting for the last plane I will take from Zurich before I leave for NZ! It was a very early start but I have to say I really appreciated the dawn! I knew it would be wonderful because before I went to bed, I had a quick swim to cool down, and was totally overwhelmed by the magnificent starry night and peace. It was a perfect flight with no turbulence, so I made up for the lack of sleep, apart from when we were going over the Swiss Mountains! I had a fantastically chatty driver who picked me up at Bari airport and took me to the b and b for only 15 euros. Great service and value for money. I certainly got to practise my Italian. It was so good to get back to it. My room is on the top floor of a tower, just opposite the old castle of Bari, right in the old town. It's a great room, though I have struggled on

It would be hard to imagine a bigger change than from the peace and slow- moving life of the canals to the bustling city of Manchester with its incredible  number of newly- finished, part-completed and just started building sites - Commercial blocks, shopping malls and appartment blocks ranging in  height from just a few storeys if in an older, renovated building such as a church or library, to the second tallest building in Britain with 65 floors, 27 of them being the Hilton and the rest appartments!  I have to admit that for the first few hours I was seriously thinking of immediately heading to the Lake District, but as I sit in a pub garden in one of the city's quiet alleys chatting to two lovely Georgian ladies, I am pleased I stayed. My hotel is fabulously located in one of the few remaining medieval parts of the city. The hotel is certainly old, rather run down, but superbly located. My room is fine, though in need of some TLC, and to my amazement, there is an iron in it, on

I fully expected to wake up feeling a bit stiff after all the walking the day before, especially as it had been in temperatures around 30 degrees, but I felt fine.  Wow, we were so lucky with the weather throughout the cruise.Today was possibly a little hotter, in fact, this is the warmest Autumn Bank Holiday on record, with average 28.5.  I decided to make the most of this beautiful Caldon Canal by walking it again. It was great to have the boats just behind me and to be able to get my water bottle filled half way along! Great service once again.  Henry was always on the lookout, mainly for ducks, and generally stayed on board. He always got agitated when Neil was off the boat and occasionally dived in, to be fished out by Neil at the bank of the canal. At least he could cool off! At the junction of the Caldon and Trent and Mersey there was a really sharp turn, made more problematic by theboats coming towards us, behind us and to the left. Anyway, Mick, the Duke's steerer did a f

Once onto the Caldon Canal, we almost immediately turned into a 'staircase lock', which seemed unbelievably complex to those with no prior canal experience, and which was an amazing piece of ingenuity dating back several decades, yet still very much in use now and to be used in the future.  The view from the top looking down the staircase was fantastic. It was rather scary to watch Henry scurrying around so close to the top of the lock. Luckily, he is very sure- footed! Once we were at the top of the locks, we quickly passed through the industrial parts of Hanley and then into the main canal, so lush and green . Like the Macclesfield, we were soon only surrounded by woodland and ferns, just so easy on the eyes, and again, such solitude and silence. There were areas of allotments, with gardens brimming with vegetables, sloping down to the waters below.  What a gorgeous canal this was. If I ever do another canalcruise, and I think I will, I would choose the rural ones. It doesn&

Day two of the trip and the weather really was great, with good patches of sunshine and otherwise pleasant temperatures with a little cloud. This was perfect for our trip. After a couple of tricky corners with two seventy foot boats, we turned onto the Macclesfield Canal, and soon came to a short, but nevertheless impressive aquaduct. This is the view from it on to the double locks down below on the Trent and Mersey . What clever builders they had hundreds of years ago!  The Macclesfield was much more overgrown than the T and M, but I almost preferred it because it was unspoilt and not developed. There were some cute little cottages by the locks And lush forests along its banks. The bridges were perfectly reflected in the still waters. This spot appealed to me as we floated past, and in fact, this is where we are now moored for the night. It is so peaceful, and yet, just behind the hedgerows is a fairly sunstantial little town, even though it seemed we were in the middle of nowhere! S