Monthly Archives: July 2015

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Ullandhaug – Stavanger

Evening time from Ullandhaug tower

Evening time from Ullandhaug tower

My parents are away on summer holidays and for logistical purposes and for the change in scenery we decided to stay over at their place for a night. They only live a 5 minutes drive away from me, but you feel like you’re more away from the centre of town than that. When we were there we decided to take a little walk up to a tower on a hill a few minutes walk up the road. The view up there is very nice.

Met this little fellow on our way

Met this little fellow on our way.

When I lived with my parents I used to go for walks in this area all the time, but having plenty of opportunities closer but it’s been a while since I have walked here. The weather was a bit on and off, but it was quite lovely and warm.The tower  is called Ullandhaugtårnet, meaning Ullandhaug tower, it is a tele tower built in 1964 on top Ullandhaug a hill in Stavanger. The top of the tower is 200 meters above sea and this makes it the highest point in Stavanger. And from the viewpoint here you can see all of Stavanger and beyond. The tower was built where an older tower was erected in 1896 in commemoration of the battle of Hafrsfjord (a famous Viking battle), but this was mostly destroyed in World War II. So the new tower is built where the old tower had been.

View from another side of the tower.

View from another side of the tower.

On our way down we had to go by a shop and get some coffee for the morning and as the nearest shop takes you past the Iron age farm we decided to go up and have a look. The houses wasn’t open as we were there quite late, but as long as you leave the sheep be and remember to close the fence you’re allowed in at all hours to have a look. The farm is a recreation of an Iron Age Farm found here by archeologist and everything is recreated just the way they found it. You can come here and get a glimpse of what it was like to live in Norway 1500 years ago.

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Picture of the Iron Age Farm, you can see Ullandhaug tower in the background

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Porto Venere

Porto Venere

Porto Venere

At the end of our tour of the Cinque Terre the boat took us to the town of Porto Venere. This is a lovely little town close to Cinque Terre.

Old Church

Old Church

We had some time to take a look around here and I enjoyed walking in this cosy town. We did not have the time to go up to the old church that is at the top of a hill, but  must say the people living in towns like these must get really fit, because they mostly consists of hills.

Happy touist

Happy touist

After we had a little look around we went to a little restaurant and had a wine tasting. The wines we tasted was white wines from the area and from Cinque Terre. The one from Cinque Terre you could taste a little salt, coming from growing the grapes in the steep hills so close to the sea. We were also served the local olives,  and Farinata a savoury pancake made with chickpea flour

Street of Porto Venere

Street of Porto Venere

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Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

While in Italy we decided we had to do some sightseeing and decided to go for a full day guided tour to a place we’d heard many speak warmly about, so off we went to a guided boat tour of Cinque Terre.

Harbour of Riomaggiore

Harbour of Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre means five lands and are the name of five fisher villages in Liguria region in Italy. The villages make up the Cinque Terre National park and are a UNESCO World Heritage site. The names of the villages are:  Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

Steep hills in Riomaggiore, you need to be fit to live in Cinque Terre

Steep hills in Riomaggiore, you need to be fit to live in Cinque Terre

We started off in Riomaggiore and got some time to look around before the boat took us on to the next villages. We did not go to the villages of Corniglia and Manarola, but saw these from the boat.

Vernazzo

Vernazza

Next stop was Vernazza where we had time to wander the streets, get some gelato and go for a nice little swim.

Swimming in Vernazzo

Swimming in Vernazza

After this we came to Monterosso al Mare. We had lunch and tried some of the famous sea food with locally grown lemons and pasta with their famous pesto.

Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare

I managed to sneak in a little swim from the beach in the old part of town, we walked around the old part and went through the tunnel that connects the old part to the new.

Tunnel in Monterosso al Mare

Tunnel in Monterosso al Mare

Our guide from Bellaitalia Tours, Martha, was a very good guide and Cinque Terre is truly a sight worth seeing!

Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare

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Photos from Lucca

Here are some photos from inside the walls of lovely Lucca:

Amfi Piazza

Amfi Piazza

This photo shows the amfi piazza, this used to be an amfi theatre but when it wasn’t used anymore they used the structure to build houses leaving a nice oval piazza filled with small restaurants and shops.

Really big lemons

Really big lemons

This photo is from one of the shops selling locally produced food. Some of it they even  grew themselves.

Piazza San Michele

Piazza San Michele

Duomo di San Martino (the Cathedral)

Duomo di San Martino (the Cathedral)

Walkway around the town by the wall

Walkway around the town by the wall

The town has many lovely Piazzas

The town has many lovely Piazzas

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Mirror – Guest post by Kevin Morris

The wonderful Kevin Morris at newauthoronline.com has been so kind as to agree to do a guest post for me. I proudly present the below post and urge you to go visit his wonderful blog and check out his works on amazon!

Many thanks to Maja for inviting me to write for her blog. I want to share with you one of my poems “Mirror” and say a little about it’s meaning. First the poem:

“The mirror sees it all:

The writing’s on the wall.

To the girl he calls.

She turns to him and falls.

Gazing in the glass,

She sees the truth at last.

Hides it with a laugh.

Would that she could break the glass”.

The above poem deals with first time prostitution. The mirror can be seen as a literal mirror reflecting back the young woman and her client. The glass can also be construed as a metaphor for the conscience of the girl. The mirror shows both the lady’s literal descent into prostitution, “she turns to him and falls” but also acts as a metaphorical glass reflecting back her emotions. She tries to fool herself into believing that sex work is no big deal, by hiding “it with a laugh”. However the final line, “would that she could break the glass” reveals her desire not to see what she has become.

“Mirror” can be found in my book, “Dalliance; A Collection Of Poetry And Prose”, (http://www.amazon.com/Dalliance-collection-poetry-prose-Morris-ebook/dp/B00QQVJC7E).

Thank you again to Maja. I really appreciate the opportunity to share my work with you all.

Kevin

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Dublin’s Writers Museum – A Guest Post By Maja

I did a guest post for the wonderfull Kevin Morris over at newautoronline. Check out his great blog.

newauthoronline

Many thanks to Maja of The Thoughts And Life Of Me (https://thethoughtsandlifeofme.com/author/masgautsen/) for the below guest post. I have always wished to visit Ireland and Maja’s article rekindles in me the desire to do so.

Kevin
Dublins Writers Museum
I was over the moon when one of my favourite bloggers asked me if I wanted to do a guest post on his blog. Then I realised I had to both come up with something to write about and then I have to actually write it (what have I gotten myself into?). I ended up deciding to give a recommendation for a great place to visit if you are a fan of literature.
Ireland’s Capital Dublin is one of my favourite cities. I’ve been there quite a few times both as a regular tourist and to go over to visit friends and family. Some of whom think I should get a…

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Hotel Napoleon – Lucca

After the wedding we went off to a small town in Tuscany called Lucca. It is a very lovely little town where, as with many of the old towns in Tuscany the old part of town is inside an old wall. We stayed outside of the wall at a very nice hotel called, Hotel Napoleon for four nights. It would probably have been nice to stay in the old part of town too. But as we had a car it was nice to get a place with parking, air condition was also one of the criteria in choosing a hotel and at Napoleon the temperature was perfect.

Hotel Napoleon

Hotel Napoleon

We had a lovely large room at the 5th floor, the top floor of the hotel. From our large balcony (you can see the view in the video at the top of the post), we had a lovely view and could see into the old walled town that was only 10-15 minutes walk from our hotel. The staff was nice, breakfast was ok and this is definitely. a hotel I can recommend to anyone who wants to visit the lovely town of Lucca.

Music festival in Lucca

Music festival in Lucca

When we got there it turned out we missed the fact that there was a music festival going on in Lucca all of July. There were many great artist coming, and while we were there John Legend, Los Lobos and the Script had concerts. We didn’t have tickets, but could still hear some of the concerts while eating our dinner and walking around Lucca in the evening. They sounded much better that the local saxophone players going from restaurant to restaurant all day playing the same songs over and over.