Cuba day 7

Lynn, Brendan and I decide to get up early at 7.30 and head around the village with Ramses and some of the others to get some good shots before breakfast. The sun is a bit harsh but we manage to get some good portraits. The locals are very amenable and friendly although having Ramses with us is a great help.

Today is our last day in Trinidad and we decide to take a long way home through the mountains to a waterfall along the the way. So we head off early after breakfast about 10.30.

It's a long wind drive through the mountains and the roads are very poor which makes the journey more difficult. Ramses stops along the way at a few sights. In particular at a farm where we are introduced to the owners and can take photos. The journey to the falls takes us a good three hours. We stop here for lunch and head to the falls for photos.

It's just after midnight when we arrive at the hotel and 2am before I head to bed after we have a few night caps. The others stay up to 4am!

Cuba day 6

Last night the bed was a bit hard and the pillow like a sack of potatoes, but we get a great breakfast and the family are really nice.

The plan today is to go around the town with Ramses to take photos and he is a great guide and gives us plenty of tips. He introduces us to people on the street and this helps us get into it. We take our time, experiment and get up close. Ramses also gives us advice on settings and composition.

After a nice lunch we relax on a beach on the carribean sea and get some sunset shots. What a lovely and relaxing evening. We head out tonight to a state run restaurant and again the food is good if not outstanding.

We get back to our house just after midnight and open the locks to gain access but we have to pass the sleeping owners to got past the kitchen and then to our rooms at the back of the house.

Cuba day 5

This morning up early and getting ready for the long trip to Trindad de Cuba, we are all really looking forward to this.  Ramses and Keith head off to pick up the rental minibus which just about fits us all with our gear. It's a good long trip from Havana to Trinidad de Cuba and the roads are not the best, even the main motorways have massive pot holes!  Along the way we decide on a stop over for lunch in Cienfuegos which is a great contrast to Havana as it is kept meticulously clean and well maintained, it makes us all think why Havana cant be mmaintained in the same way.

After anothe couple of hours we arrive in Trinidad and a little confrontation between the minibus and the narrow gateway into the parking lot of our base accommodation we arrive safely and keen to get out and explore.  Trinidad is also a very different world locked in a time warp with cobbled streets and humble houses and is a UNESCO Heritage site. We have decided to stay in paradores rather than in an hotel. These are like bed and breakfasts at home. You stay with a family in their home. We have three houses between us spread around the village.

The lodgings are very basic yet comfortable. In fact we feel like we are intruding on the family as we have the best rooms and the owners sleep in the main room next to to front door. In fact when we come in at mid night we open up and have to pass the sleeping owners. But I would highly recommend it as a way to see and meet the local people.

We have a really great meal and plan the next day.

Cuba day 4

Monday, Valentines day, but it's a slow start, eventually we set out at eleven and head for the Capitolio. And today the sun comes out and it's lovely to have the warmth on your face. The Capitolio is closed for renovations for two years. So we head around the back of it to the cigar factory but they don't let you in with cameras or video. So instead we just have a coffee in the shop there and watch a lady there who they have making cigars. Next we head into the area called China Town but to be honest apart from the gateway into it it doesn't look very Chinese but we get a few more photos. We deiced to break up and a few of us head to get a bite to eat before heading down to Ramses's store. As usual times gets away from us with our exploringf and we are late as we are supposed to meet the rest of the gangs there for 2.30.

Ramses shows us his work and it is fabulous, there are some magnifient shots that he has take on Havana which inspires us to get more shots.  He brings us to a local restaurant and we decide on an early dinner. Our first really disappointing meal my meal was as hard as leather.

Off home early as we have to pack for our trip tomorrow with Ramses to Trinidad de Cuba which sounds brilliant.

Cuba day 3

Today, Sunday, starts poorly again and after breakfast some of us decide to head early into the cathedral for mass and three of us decide to walk into the old town and meet the others in a cafe there at 1pm. It took us 3 hours to stroll in but we are taking it slowly and photographing as we go.

I have to admit to not knowing an awful lot about Cuba before I went, and I am looking forward to learning about here, but for quite some time I’ve wanted to go and see Cuba. I wanted to see this place that appeared to be locked in time, colourful, vibrant and with people who enjoyed the simple things in life. I felt that a lot of this would change in the coming years and that this was the time to see it. When it is said that Havana is locked in a time warp you might think that it is stuck in the 50's & 60's and that nothing has changed and that it is as pristone and majestic as the time when the clocl stopped.  But that is not the case, the clock has stopped alright but since then it has been steadily crumbling, it reminds me of the time sequence in the film the "Time Machine" where he goes forward in time and all the buildings age and crumble about him.  You can still imagine how majestic many of the buildings once were.  But it amazes me how people live and survive in buildings that appear to be falling about them.  Though everyone still look, well fed, clean and happy if not very well off.

After our long and fascinating walk we get to the cafe bang on 1.00pm and have a coffee and listen to a small Cuban band.  We lunch in a local cafe and then walk around the town to take more photos. the weather is fine for photos and we are getting into taking photos and asking people if they mind us shooting them. Most don't mind and some look for a peso.

We arrive back at hotel for 5pm and to rest before meeting Ramses at 7pm.

We have a great evening with Ramses who gives us plenty of advice and suggests a great itinerary for a two day trip to Trinidad de Cuba. The food here is much better than we expect but then Ramses knows all the best places to go.

Cuba day 2

The Hotel Nacional is a grand old hotel that has seen better days. The rooms and corridors are musty and could do with a face lift. But you can see how majestic it once must have been. The rooms are large with plenty of space and the main reception area still has a grand feeling about it. The ceiling is beautiful. The hotel itself overlooks the Malecon, the broad roadway, seawall and boardwalk that strehches 8km along the coast from Vedado, to the Harbour Mouth in Old Havana Town.  Today the Atlantic waves break high over the sea wall. In fact today the weather is very poor and parts of the Malecon is closed to traffic because the sea is breaking over the road. The hotel grounds are quite extensive with two swimming pools and a tennis court though today they are naturally empty. A nice bar is on the veranda of the hotel ground floor where one can enjoy mojitos and snacks.

We head to the large basement restaurant where they put on a really good breakfast which should keep us going for a good part of the day.

We are here to take photographs so even though the wind is up we decide to get out and explore. The plan for the day is to go to the Old Town, Havana Vieja, to look for our guide, Ramses, who will take us to Trinidad de Cuba for a couple of days, and then to take a bus tour to orientate ourselves.

We get a feel for the town which is very run down but the people are friendly and some of us are brave enough to ask for photos and to get some architectural shots. People seem happy to pose but others come looking for money or want to sell you cigars or other tat.

Our tour of the City in truth was not great, a combination of the weather and a poor route. We end up back in the old town and this time we find Ramses's shop but he is off today.

Though when we get back to the hotel and having a rest before going out I get a nice surprise and a call to the room from Ramses who is down in the lobby and a couple of us meet him, and he's a good guy. We find a good Paladores, a home restaurant where we have a very good meal and head back to the hotel for a few night caps and to listen to the music on the veranda. Off to a good start let's hope the weather picks up.

Cuba, Day 1

Well we are on our way and it's going to be a long day, but we are all very excited and really looking forward to see Cuba. We fly to Havana with Air France via Paris so we are up at six for our Cityjet flight from Dublin to Paris. We arrive in Paris at 12.15 and we have about half an hour to get through the maze that is CDG airport.  After a few bus rides and plenty of queuing in CDG we get on board our flight and finally about 14.30 we take off and we have a 10 hour flight to look forward to. We will arrive 19.00 local time in Havana. So day 1 is spent travelling but we can't wait. Well we've arrived and we get our first experience of what we will come to believe is a Cuban pasttime, queuing.  The queues for immigration are huge even though there are over 20 stalls. But it takes forever. Then it's the bagsk, another delay, and then we spend an hour on the bus waiting for all the passengers. We tired, hungry and getting ratty. I say we will all sleep tonight!!  But tomorrow we will get to see Havana!

Cuba, here we come!

In August 2009 a number of friends from the local camera club headed off to South Africa, Kruger National Park and Capetown. We had a fantastic time there and you can see my blogs about the trip on this site, here. While there we decided our next trip would be to Cuba. All but 1 of that gang, plus an extra two who have joined us, are now heading off in the next couple of days.

We will be spending most of our time in Havana but a couple of days in Trinidad de Cuba. While planning this we met with some members of Drogheda Camera Club who had done the trip previously and they gave us some very valuable advice and contact names in Havana.

I belive it is a great time of year, hot but not too hot hopefully sunny and not much rain. Plus we avoid the rainy season.  I'm hoping to get some great phots and video and to see this great country which is locked in a time warp but which I expect will change over the coming years.  The people, although not wealthy, are supposed to be very friendly.  We fly with Air France via Paris on Friday and I can' wait!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

A gang of us went to the WFH conference in Buenos Aires in July 2010, given we were going such a long way we decided to make a holiday of it and visited Buenos Aires, Colonia in Uruguay, the Iguazy Falls on the Argentine and Brazilian border and Rio de Janeiro.  Needless to say we had a great time and details of our trip can be seen on this blog.  Sharon and myself took a fair bit of video and it's only now I've got around to doing anything with it.  Something to do on these wintry days.   I've created the first video of the Buenos Aires part of the trip the rest will follow soon.  So here it is.

Buenos Aires, Argentina from Shay Farrelly on Vimeo.

Books from Blurb.com

As an enthusiastic amateur photographer I have thousands of images, but most of these don't really see the light of day, they never get printed, except the ones I want to use for competitions, and I always get comments like, "we never really see any photos you take".  This was one of the reasons I set up a couple of websites so I can publish my images and have family and friends see them.  Then there's Flickr, Facebook and a myriad of other sites where we can show off our work.  Slide-shows and videos can also be used.  But still a lot of people say, "I prefer to see actual real images" not just on the internet or a PC, iPad or TV.  So through a few members of the camera club I was introduced to Blurb.com, which is a website to make and publish your own photobook.  You can personalise the book in any way you want and you can include print as well as photographs.  I used the facility to download their software package that allows you design and create you book locally on your PC and once you have finished you can copy it up and have it printed and delivered to your door.  For printing there are a number of options of the type of book: softback, hardback and dustcover.  There are also a number of different qualities of paper.

For the last 5 years a number of us travel away each year as a group of lads for a few days to different places in Europe and we always have a great time.  To celebrate our fifth year and our seventh trip I published a book, called "Boys on Tour" with loads of my photos but also included some of the stories of the trips and the reflections of the lads.  It was a great success and the book itself is great quality and a marvelous memento of our time together.  Best of all everyone loves it. 

Wordpress

In a few months it will be a year since I set up my web-site using Wordpress and I must say it's a pleasure to use.   When I decided to set up a web-site I was worried Iwould have to spend too much time and effort setting it up and maintaining it, but It has not turned out that way at all.  Ok in the start you have to spend a bit of time deciding what your site is going to look like but Worpress and the many different themes available really make this very easy.  you don't need to know any code or how to manage databases or anything.  I probably spent more time looking for a theme I liked and then configruing it to have the look and feel I wanted.  And thats all it was configuration.  After that it's a dawdle to write posts, create gallerys, upload images and get access to my videos.

A great boost was the iPhone app of Wordpress this meant I would write my blogs on the road so at the end of the day on the taxi, car or train home to the hotel I could write my blog of what happened that day.  I could even upload photos I took on my iPhone.  Once written all I needed was a WiFi connection in my hootel or a cafe to upload my updates.  this meant everything was written when it was fresh in my head and family and friends could follow what was happening while we were away.  This worked great this year when in Argentina and Brazil, I worte the updates and the following morning everyone could follow what we had done.  In fact at one hotel we had no WiFi and I got emails asking what was wrong and when would the next update be!  Of course Skype was also brilliant for contacting home and saying hi to all the kids.

So overall I must say my experience with Wordpress has been very positive and I would highly recommend it. 

Panasonic TM700 update

I've had the TM700 for about 6 months now and I must say it's a great machine.  It's renewed my interest in video.  The quality of the video is truly amazing, very detailed and sharp and I'm not even using it on it's higest setting as that's too difficult to edit, but more on that.   The TM700 is such a portable and easy to use device, very easy to carry around with you, in fact you can get it in a decent size coat pocket.  We've been away a good bit since and I've taken it with me and enjoyed using it.  The only problem is now finding the time to edit the movies but I've decided that's an activity for cold winter days which we are getting close now so nearly time to start editing.

My fear when buying a HD camcorder was would I need to start upgrading all the rest of my system.  Get a higher specced PC, a BluRay writer drive, a BluRay player, more hard disc, a new version of Adobe Premiere and so on which all sounded like a big spend.  But no in the end I've managed.  I updated my ram to 8GB and my operating system to Windows 7 64bit and I'm still using Premier CS4 and it is managing fine.  I don't record at the highest level or in Progressive mode as I know Premiere won't handle this format.  I also know if I get too sophisticated with too many multiple tracks in Premiere it would struggle, but I'm getting away with it. So I've put off the decision what PC to upgrade to, but I know a Core i7 would be great.  The biggest issue was deciding what format and media to write the movies too, I thought I would need a BluRay disc writer, but I got around this as well.  What I did was to buy an LG BluRay player that has Wifi and also a USB port that means I can add a portable hard drive to the player and watch my movies on the TV in this was.  This works very well and also means I don't need to spend hours authoring and writing to BluRay discs.  Now I edit my moves and write them straight from Premiere ot the different formats I want.  Highest quality and size to the portable hard drive from watching on the TV and smaller more compressed formats for the web.   There are some great web sites where you can upload your HD movies like YouTube and Vimeo and you will find a link on the right panel to see my videos so far.

I've even tried doing a bit of editing on the iMac with the new iLife version 11 and it was great fun creating a trailer movie using it's new feature for this and it only took 10-15 mins, you can see it here.  But I sense the Mac with only 2 gb of memory would struggle with the editing of HD content but I might try it for the craic.  Any way the TM700 is a great video, very portable, very versatile and easy and enjoyable to use.

iPad

This year I had a big birthday in August and it was time to decide what to get. I would have loved the new Sony VAIO Z series as an update to my current laptop but it's very expensive and in the current environment it's hard to justify a spend like that. So instead I got the Apple iPad and I must say it is a great little machine. Everyone in the house gets great use out of it not just myself. It's so handy for getting on the net, for those times when you couldn't be bother to start up a laptop and wait for it to load and login you've nearly forgotten what it was you wanted to look up. Whereas you can just put your hand on the iPad and you're ready instananeously to start browsing. The only thing that annoys me though is that Apple won't run Flash, I just hate it when you pick it up to check something and then disciover you can't see it if it's a flash website.

There are so many good apps you can get and they are all reasonably priced and the graphics on some of these are amazing.  Also it is so easy to get an app, you can search for it, download it and have it up and running in minutes. There are some great reference apps, like google maps, news apps, receipes, travel etc. Great games and even very good productivitity apps like email, word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. Although I haven't done it yet but being able to rent or buy a movie and see it on the iPads lovely screen is also a great application. I'll probably do this for the kids when we are travelling abroad to keep them amused. A great app I got over the weekend is Remote by Apple which means you can use your iPad to control what songs play on your iTunes on your Mac or PC, next I just need to be able to wirelessly route the music to my hifi amp and I've seen just the hardware to do this from Arcam, the RDAC, a great bit of kit!

Overall the iPad is a great little machine much easier to read than the iPhone or iTouch, very portable, very versatile and beautifully designed.  Another great device from Apple.

Sting at the O2 Dublin

I haven't been to a concert in years and now 2 in three weeks but what two to go to, Michael Buble and Sting. This time the venue was the O2 and this was also a first for me as I haven't been here since it was renovated from the old Point. But before I cover the concert we first headed with some friends for a pre-concert dinner in Peploes on Stephen's Green, another first.

We had a beautiful meal and very reasonable €25 for a three course meal that was excellent quality, a restaurant I will definitely go to again. A short taxi ride to the O2 which was was short in distance but took a good half hour with all the traffic heading to the concert.

I was very impressed with the O2, 9,500 seated capacity with plenty of bars and very accessible and not a bad seat in the house. Sting was backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra with about 50 musicians in total. Firstly the acoustics were excellent and we didn't leave with ringing in our ears it was a real pleasure to be able to listen to every note so clearly just like listening to your hi-fi in your own sitting room. The energy of the conductor, Stephen Mercurio, transmitted to the orchestra and he really appeared to be enjoying himself and the arrangements were marvellous.

But what about the man himself, well only a couple of days before I heard his album Symphonicity and didn't really like what I was hearing, but in retrospect it's better than my quick listen, so I was worried that this wasn't going to be a great experience but I needn't have worried. He started bang on 8pm and he was only about 30 seconds into his first song and I thought hiw voice was going to break and feared he's not going to last the night. But no, his voice just got better and better.

It's not until you hear the string of hits that you realise what a prolific writer he is and he covered all his best hits:  Lose My Faith,  Englishman in New York (great Oboe), Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Roxanne (just great),  Russians, Fields of Gold, When We Dance, Next to You, Moon Over Bourbon Street, Ghost Story, Every Breath You Take and on and on.  He had only one back up singer, Jo Lawry,  which was a bit suprising given the size of the orchestra and she did only one duet I Say Your Name which she did very well and made me want to hear more from her.

All in all we had a great meal, a great venue, a great experience and a great night.

Michael Bublé

I've loved the sound and songs of Michael Bublé since he was first discovered on this side of the Atlantic by Michael Parkinson and I bought his first CD. He is probably the only singer my wife and 4 daughters all agree on and he is continually played in the house or car. I'm not a great concert goer, in fact I can't remember the last concert I went to, that I paid for anyway. We saw Niall Diamond as a corporate outing in Croke Park. None the less I was willing to make an exception for Buble but we were on holidays for his last trip to Dublin and heard rave views from friends who had gone. So when we heard he was here in September we decided the whole family would go.

He is the first artist to perform in the new Aviva Stadium and what a great venue. The setting, stage, lighting and especially Michael Bublé was brilliant. He is not just a great dinger but a great performer and does am excellent show. He charming, chatty, witty and doesn't take himself too seriously. As Sharon says there is nothing worse than an artist who just gets up there and sings their songs without saying a word. Michael engages and entertains the crowd. Surprisingly this is the largest audience, 45,000, that he has performed in front of, he has regularly played to crowds of 25,000, but this he was relishing. He broke the ice with some very funny and entertaining stories and performed a very good mimic of Michael Jackson as part of the show.

Half way through the performance he walked through the crowd singing all the way as he was thronged by adoring fans to a second stage that was set up on the sound equipment half way down the pitch that wasn't immediately obvious to us. The crowd just loved him and he had us all like putty in his hand, a real entertainer and even I, a concert skeptic, would be happy to attend when he comes back again. Well done Michael!

The best photos I could get with my iPhone!

Sorrento

No trips today so we get to explore our base city here on the Amalfi which is Sorrento. We are staying in the Hotel del Mare which is situated next to a sleepy harbour called Marina Grande. It's right at the outermost point of the city squeezed in between a cliff-face and the sea shore. Where we are is a nice, quiet and sleepy part of town which is not overrun with tourists and the locals are very friendly. We have a lazing morning planning to explore the centre of town and watch the Liverpool and Man Utd match at 2.30pm. It's a long uphill and winding walk and only one of us is up for that so the remaining three get the local bus which needs to be small in order to get around around some of the corners here.

We spend the day wandering up the main streets looking at the highlights, like the cathedral and do a little window shopping. K sees a small little shop where they make and sell music boxes and the workmanship is fantastic.

We plan to have a quick lunch and sit down in the square to watch the match when we discover that the match isn't until tomorrow, damn. We get a little lunch and a huge ice-cream and meringue before heading back.

Some more of the photographs are here.

Amalfi Coast Trip

Massimo our driver from Sorrento Silver Star Car Services, arrived just after 10.15 am to take us on tour of the Amalfi Coast. Firstly I would like to say that everyone from the car service: Luisa, Lucia and Massimo were tremendous looking after us. We began by getting an excellent view over Sorrento from the road above. The drive along the coast is along a winding and in places very narrow road way. The day was also helped by the fact that the weather was brilliant, about 28c and sunshine all the way. Massimo stopped along the roadside at all the best viewpoints so we could take our photographs and video.

Positano was our first stop a beautiful town that slopes down the mountain side right down to the beach. After some photos from the road to get a panoramic view we headed down to the very busy little town. The narrow bustling streets lined with shops, boutiques, bars and cafes lead down to the stoney beach with boats and sun-worshippers. Our hour flew and we headed next to Amalfi, Massimo's home town.

Along the way we had a short stop at the Emerald Grotto. An elevator takes you down to sea level where you then get in a small boat inside the cave dripping with stalactites. At one corner a beautiful blue/green light shines into the cave below the crystal clear water. This is a natural phenonamon caused by a breach in the cave wall below the water line that let's the sunlight shine into the cave.

Amalfi is another lovely Coastal town but flatter and not as hard to walk around. We get an hour to explore and have a quick bite. Definitely a town I would consider basing myself if we come back here again with the family.

Revello is our last stop about another 5km along. However, this is not a Coastal town but high up overlooking the coast. Again a winding narrow road is masterfully negotiated by Massimo and we are all delighted we are not driving.

We spend another delightful hour exploring this town although some parts of the town required you to take some steep walks to fully appreciate it and at the end of the day this was beyond us, so we finished it off with a cup of coffee and tea in the lovely town square.

It's coming up to 6pm and we've had another great day and Massimo brings us home. It takes an hour for us to get to the hotel. Hiring a car and driver is a great way to see the coast you take it at your own time and see the places you want to see, and we can recommend www.sorrentosilverstar.com and ask for Luisa.

Some more of the photographs are here.

Views from Positano

The Piazza in Revello

Capri

Capri a lovely island off the Sorrento peninsula inhabited by the rich and the famous "even the poor are rich here" says our guide, Gerry. But he also says that the only problem with Capri is that there are too many tourists and he's not wrong. We should have guessed this when the people were thronging to get about the hydrofoil. It only takes 20 minutes on the jet or hydro foils or 40 minutes on the ferry to get to the island. When you arrive on the island there at least a half dozen other boats disgorging their passengers that must number in the hundreds per boat. You are then met by numerous guides offering their services and minibuses to ferry you to one of the two towns on the island, Capri and Anacapri.

We start off with Anacapri. Our bus takes us up the narrow roads where you think the buses and cars would have to be smeared in butter in order to pass each other the road is so narrow and winding. Our first stop is the chair lifts that take you to the top of Mt Solaro (589mt). Where you can get panoramic views of the island and the Bay of Naples.

A quick look around, a cup of cappuccino and then we head back down. We have a nice light lunch of salad, pizza and ice-cream for a reasonable €15 before heading to the Town of Capri. This also is at a height overlooking the grande Marina. The town is full of expensive and named boutiques (Prada, Gant, etc). But it's difficult to just wander around and enjoy the ambiance due to the crowds.

But the weather is beautiful and we head up back streets to get to see the place better. Time to head back and we take funicular train down to the Marina and out return boat. But even this takes an age as the queue for the train is huge and reminiscent of Disneyland.

Finally we make it to the boat with a rush and now we are sitting here tired and falling asleep as we head back to out hotel. But another good day all the same.

Some more of the photographs are here.

Video from the Chair lift.

Pompeii

Luisa from our limo company, Sorrento Silver Star car services, suggested we take in Pompeii on the drive from the airport rather than return there another day which would save us both time and money. She also recommended an excellent guide Lucia whose knowledge of Pompeii and general Italian history was exceptional. We had a very good 3 hour tour of the ruins. It was amazing to see this city which was caught in a moment of time when mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 and buried the city in lava and ash. Pompeii was originally founded in the 7th or 8th century BC. It came under the rule of many different regimes.

Touring Pompeii a number of different things strike you. Firstly and perhaps most obviously is the devastation caused by the eruption. People and animals are caught forever carved in the positions that they were at the time of the eruption and the agony and fear can be seen in their poses as they tried to protect themselves from the instant devastation that was forced upon them. You can see how they tried to breath in the all encompassing ash that was falling around them that was probably burning them and suffocating them at the same time.

The city was covered in over twenty feet of ash that solidified over time and Pompeii was forgotten until more than 1600 years and excavations began to uncover the city. These excavations have gone on for over 150 years. Many of the artefacts were stolen or are displayed in the museums in Naples or around Italy. However enough of the ruins and frescoes are left to show the majesty of the former city.

What strikes you then is how sophisticated society and civilisation was at the time of the eruption. Beautiful houses and mansions, theatres, gardens, frescoes, pavings, aqueducts, sewerage systems, the baths, the forum, basilica, temples, hotels, shops, markets, brothels and the cobbled streets. The architecture and engineering was incredible and ordinary life was not all that different than today. There were traders, farmers, shopkeepers, slaves, soldiers, politicians, and even the equivalent of what you might call fast food restaurants. In fact you can see the counter tops where the food was stored and served from little shop fronts to those passing by.

A truly amazing experience which was brought to life for us by our guide Lucia, thank you very much!

Some more Photos from Pompeii here.

Boys on Tour - Amalfi Coast

We're back on tour again all set and ready for another great adventure after the disappointment of having to cancel in May due to the volcanic eruption. Mind you we start with another volcanic eruption however this ones quite a bit older it's Pompeii. Up early and we meet at 5.30am so we get a full day when we arrive. Not a great start though as the flight is delayed 30 mins due to restrictions at Naples airport.

Our base will be in Sorrento in the Hotel del Mare near the marina. From here we plan to take the Amalfi drive along the coast and we plan a trip to visit Capri. It looks like the weather will be good, in the twenties, sunny and dry. We've booked a limo company to take us around and to do the airport transfers so that should mean we can just sit back enjoy it and take it at our leisure. We're here from Wednesday to Sunday so a good break plenty of time for sightseeing, relaxing, some good photos (I hope), good food, a few drinks and great company.

Here's a trailer of the video to come!

Amalfi Coast - Trailer from Shay Farrelly on Vimeo.