Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Day Two Summary (Praiano to Arola)

    I have fifteen minutes at the moment to try and write about our bravery of yesterday. There is no way that I can fit everything in that happened, but I’ll do my best and the photos can come later.

    The morning started in our lovely hotel where we all were, some of us in budget accommodation, some of us in what can only be described as the bridal suite. The breakfast was lovely, especially my five cakes, croissants, meats, cheeses, pastries and other miscellaneous produce. Bev had an egg and complained about it, Gordon looked worried about the walk (he was right to be looking back….) and Steve looked professional and calm.

    After checking out of the hotel we started the walk up to the Path of the Gods. The first part of this walk is up steps within the town and it’s fair to say that of us four elite walkers, we were all exhausted before we even got to the start point. I spent about 25 minutes complaining that the path up to the Path of the Gods (which is on a bloody great cliff) was too hard and looked too scary. As it happened, for two thirds of the way up there was a staircase. This pleased me greatly as it meant no scrambling or scary heights.

    We got to a church two thirds of the way up and had a rest. Bev started to get annoyed by some locals and I started to get grumpy when I saw that the steps stopped and I could see people walking on very dangerous terrain above (which later transpired not to be dangerous, but I do worry). I had a sulk going up the last bit to the Path of the Gods but Bev, unusually, was very helpful and supportive.

    We got to the top of the path and then joined the Path of the Gods. We decided that we’d walk towards the start of the Path of the Gods and then walk to the end point which was in the direction of our accommodation. Actually, we didn’t decide that, we did it because I’m incompetent. We missed the sign, which it later transpired Bev had actually taken a bloody photo of. But ultimately we got lucky, as we saw more of the Path of the Gods.

    And, as for this path, it was stunning. The views were some of the best I’ve seen, we were so high up that it was hard to comprehend just how high we were. If that makes sense. Which it probably doesn’t. We walked along the Path of Gods and I was slightly nervous that it might be difficult, but it was actually surprisingly acceptable.

    Everyone was very brave and we walked to the end of the Path of the Gods and found a restaurant to have a drink and snack in. I won’t dwell on this restaurant, but it was the worst service I’ve encountered in many years and that must be in the thousands of restaurants. I don’t seek to understand their issue, but I imagine Bev upset them. Gordon had an expensive salad and shouted at his B&B owner over the phone when they called and we were then set to get a taxi back.

    Until we discovered that a taxi would be €150 or so for four of us. Gordon was fine with that. Some of us weren’t, we decided to try and get a bus. We go and find the bus stop and to cut another long story short, we had a long wait there whilst Gordon purchased half the cafe bar’s products. However, he bought us all a coffee, so we were very pleased with him.

    The bus came and we hardly fitted on, but luckily there was a seat for me. The others didn’t get a seat, but I didn’t mind that. We get off the bus, ready to connect to another bus, and luckily found the right spot to do so. Steve wandered off to check something and then we nearly missed the bus, but we got on and were then told we couldn’t buy the tickets on the bus and so we got off it again.

    We then walked back into Positano, bought the tickets, looked at the lovely views, and then got the next bus. The bus journey was tremendous along the coast road, really charming views. We got off and began the final 60 minute walk to our accommodation. We were very pleased with how this was going, until we discovered it was uphill. Up a very big hill. No-one had checked that. But we were brave adventurers and we just carried on, unworried by this.

    We then trek up this bloody hill and settle into our accommodation. Well, Bev, Steve and me did. Gordon was elsewhere and he then promptly got lost. But we only discovered that later otherwise we’d have been straight out to assist him. Gordon hardly mentioned that he had wanted to get the taxi in the first place to avoid all of this.

    So, then it was on to the restaurant after a quick change in the B&B. That was an experience as we accidentally got caught in a wine tasting event with some very lovely people. It was hard to extract Bev from that, but we managed and went into this wonderful restaurant with views over Naples. The service there was much friendlier and my three course meal of meat & cheese platter, seafood spaghetti carbonara and a cheesecake was delightful.

    Gordon then turned up at the restaurant, he had been given a lift in and was surprisingly content and happy given the drama of the day.  We then walked back to the B&B (Gordon got escorted back by a chauffeur) and that, as they say, was the end of that.

    This is the abbreviated version of the day, much more to follow….. And photos of course.

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Day One Photos (Lunch-Time Section of Walk)

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Day One Photos (Morning Walk)

    The photos from the morning section of the walk.

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Day One Summary (Amalfi to Praiano)

    The first day of walking took us from Amalfi to Praiano, in what transpired to be an interesting route to say the least….. The start of the day was marvellous for some of us, I had what could only be described as a large breakfast with cheese, meat, croissants, cereals, cake, coffee and orange juice, Steve had a delightful snack in a pub which was included in his accommodation, Bev had breakfast in bed and Gordon had a piece of cake and nearly fell over on some glass steps.

    But the real problem wasn’t that Gordon was at risk of suffering from lack of food, it was the weather. It was raining hard and, to be honest, the day’s walking didn’t look too appealing. There was some talk of the weather clearing up later in the morning and so on that hope we started the walk. Fortunately the weather cleared up soon after and my photos of the day (in a separate post, I’ve put three on here but I have hundreds more….) show a remarkable change in the weather during the course of the walk.

    Packing is difficult when expecting heavy rain, as it’s important to protect the bag as much as possible. I’ve got electronic items in my bag that I didn’t want to get wet, so it took some time to protect everything, but fortunately I was able to. I hadn’t expected it to stop raining so quickly so most of my preparations weren’t needed. Gordon was the luckiest here as he had such a small bag that he just put a carrier bag around his to protect it. We were impressed at just how clever he had been.

    The first section of the walk was really just navigating as best we could onto a path, which worked out well. We soon left the busy coast road and went onto a quieter path and we surprisingly (and worringly….) saw very few people throughout the entire day. The path was easy to follow, just with some quick checking a map every now and then to ensure that we were heading in the right direction, and there was nothing too technical.

    A problem though emerged around two hours into the walk. That problem was the hill we had to climb. Unfortunately I may have slightly understated just how hilly the hill was. But there were very few complaints. Actually, there weren’t really any. Bev nearly stopped breathing at one point, but Gordon was reassuring, kind and calm. There was a lively discussion about dill and something else, with Gordon foraging for some food amongst the undergrowth in a bid to make up for his breakfast. He also was well fed with the quantity of food that Bev had acquired from her breakfast. Gordon had purloined a banana from breakfast and Bev tried to squash it, which I thought was very childish. Although I joined in that game too.

    The hill that we climbed wasn’t entirely pleasant, but it was steps and so it was more of a long trek than anything else. I reassured everyone that it flattened out and then we would start to go downhill. This didn’t entirely happen, it flattened out for three feet and then went up again. There was a little more complaining at this point, but I ignored it.

    A cat then decided that it wanted to kill me. We were minding our own business when this cat jumped out of nowhere and in a cat-like manner was able to jump up a wall and move across it. Around 5 seconds later a large stone came flying onto the path. Some might say the cat did it by mistake and just knocked it as it was moving, but I know that cat had a sinister side. It clearly pushed that stone in a deliberate attempt to cause harm…..

    The paths we were walking must have been there for centuries, they are well built and would have been used by the locals to get from village to village and would have been used by farmers and fishermen as well. So, we plodded on, sometimes even verging into gossip about people we know. I won’t mention names of course, discretion is important.

    The next stage of the walk was along the coast road, just for a short while. This offered some really impressive views of a valley, but the traffic meant that we really just wanted to get off it. It wasn’t particularly dangerous as the cars weren’t going quickly and they seemed used to pedestrians in that spot, but nonetheless it was good to get back onto quieter roads.

    We dropped down towards the coast to partly look for a lunch stop and partly to look for the route down to Praiano. We knew that such a route must exist, but it didn’t appear on the maps that I had, so it was an adventure we knew at the beginning of the day that we’d have. As it happened, all worked out and we connected to that path.

    And, that path, which I called the valley of death, certainly was interesting. The path seemed impossible to me when looking at where it would go. Now, everyone agrees that I’m the bravest person on most trips, but I wasn’t entirely content with how difficult the path looked.

    There were two German people coming the other way, actually the only people we saw on this entire section of the route, so I asked them if there was any danger of us plummeting to our deaths. They assured me that there wasn’t and the path was easy. This was only partly true, as the path wasn’t easy, but they were right that it would have been hard to fall off the hill.

    So, I continued, not entirely confident in the destination of our journey, but willing to proceed. Then I saw what turned out to be a black whip snake which must have been at least 45 feet long. I was very brave and rushed off, not willing to get a photo of it. I assumed it was very dangerous indeed, but I checked later and it’s non venomous and common in this area. To be honest, I still wish the authorities would place them in an area that humans don’t encounter…..

    I then decided to get a bit ahead of the group so that they didn’t see that I wasn’t entirely at ease with the path. Then I managed to miss a huge red sign saying “no” and went the wrong way. I was, once again, brave and recovered the route again. I was fortunate that I could hear Bev yelling, or talking as she calls it, so I was able to find my way back to the main path.

    We then dropped down into Praiano, which pleased me greatly. We then went to a small gym cafe and got involved with the cafe element and left the gym bit to others. Bev kept buying expensive homemade yoghurt and spent about €40 on it, but we didn’t query this. Gordon decided to have a large meal of pita bread with mozzarella. He wasn’t impressed. I had an ice cream on a liquorice stick and complained loudly that I seemed to have become allergic to something on the path.

    We then went to the hotel and I was delighted with my room which was the cheapest and had no windows, but it was nice to be in a prison cell environment as it was peaceful. Gordon and Bev had the most expensive rooms, Gordon because he’s like that and Bev because that’s all that was left, with Steve also having a sea view in a random nearby building. They did have some wonderful views over the sea, but Gordon wouldn’t let us in his room. There was something very shifty going on in that room if you ask me…..

    The meal in the evening was pizza, and for me it was fried pizza, a local delicacy. It’s also a local delicacy in Scotland and since I like fried food, I gave it a go. The base was excellent, light and with the taste of a doughnut, but I was marginally less impressed with the toppings. But this can be detailed on another post. Bev was a bloody nightmare during the meal, chatting up the male staff and screeching loudly upsetting the other diners in the restaurant (particularly Gordon, Steve and myself). However, we didn’t say anything about her behaviour…… Gordon managed to order half the menu, but he bought me a beer, so I was only full of praise about him after that.

    One of the bravest things that I’ve seen this year also took place during the meal, when Gordon deliberately messed up Bev’s dessert before she had taken a photo. She was livid. I’m not for gossip, but she said Gordon needs to watch out this week….. I didn’t get involved.

    After a walk around the town it was then time to return to the hotel after what had been a long day. The distances we walked, around 12 miles, weren’t that long and the terrain wasn’t overly challenging other than for a period of uphill. Tomorrow will be harder, I suspect much harder. But, the views we saw today were stunning and there were surprises around every corner. A most delightful day.

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Day Zero (Photos from Ferry)

    Photos from the ferry journey from Salerno to Amalfi….

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Toraldo

    We had a wait of around an hour for our train in Naples, and so we found time to pop into a little cafe. It’s wasn’t Greggs, but sometimes you just have to make do with what there is…. It’s not the most glamorous of railway stations, but at least we found a few seats at this cafe.

    This cafe has an internal area and an external area where you can order from. I can’t see the point of the external area, as if you order from there (which I did) then you still have to go in to pay. But the food looked reasonably well presented and customers could choose whether they wanted the pizza hot or cold. Staff member who served the food was friendly, although the service inside didn’t feel as organised as it perhaps could have been.

    I went for hot and the pizza tasted fine, nothing exceptional, but the dough was light and the tomato sauce was rich and flavoursome. Given that it was just over £2, it was a perfectly acceptable snack. Bev went for wine, with Bev and Steve both going for some delicious looking pastry which had some rather random ingredients in it.

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – Train to Salerno

    With everyone now in Naples, our plan was to get to Amalfi by getting the train to Salerno and then the ferry from there. I got the tickets, which cost just under £5 each, very reasonable, although it’s confusing as the InterCity tickets (or whatever they call it here) were much more expensive. However, we had the right tickets (we think) and so on we went to the platform.

    I took a photo of the above train for Dylan, vaguely hoping that this lovely train was the one that we’d be on.

    Here’s ours….

    I checked with a member of staff to ensure that we were on the right train, and pleasingly we were. After boarding Gordon broke some of the train.

    We arrived safely into Salerno, although Bev’s last minute expedition within the train caused some concern that she wouldn’t disembark in time. But all was well and the 35 minute train journey was suitably comfortable. No power points on the train, but it was basically clean, although bits kept falling off the interior. They need some new carriages, like the investment that the UK rail network has already received. But, that debate is for elsewhere…..

    Our next task was to find the ferry.

  • Amalfi Coast Trip – They’ve Arrived

    It’s all happening now, the other three members of the party have arrived safely in Naples. So there are now four of us – Gordon, Steve, Bev and myself. But the real talking point is not a person, it’s a bag. Now, I’m not one to go on about anything, nor am I one for gossip, but Gordon’s bag is the smallest backpack arrangement that I’ve ever seen. With the attachment of his charms and trinkets it really may be the talking point of the day. And with that, I doubt I’ll mention it again.

    The plan for today is to go from Naples to Salerno by train and then get a ferry to our starting point of Amalfi. Hopefully this works out…..

    PS, the bag would be ideal for Dylan on a little day trip to the beach.

  • Naples – On fire…..

    Unfortunately, it’s clear Naples has a problem with vandalism and fire. I’ve seen several bins on fire over the last day, this one was by the city’s main railway station and had just been put out and was still smouldering.

  • Naples – Chinotto

    In Malta there’s an interesting drink called Kinnie, which is quite an acquired taste. This is San Pellegrino’s not entirely different drink, it’s not unpleasant….