Cotswolds weekend with friends

This weekend was spent in the Cotswolds with Matt, El, Clare and little Livvy. We had a different cottage to previously which of course meant we got horribly lost trying to find it. (The GPS wasn't nearly accurate enough at the end.)

The weather was a bit miserable on Saturday so we went to Gloucester Quays and got some lunch.

Because we can.

Loves her pasta

A lot.

Livvy was quite happy feeding herself so we could also eat.

After lunch, the weather had cleared up enough to take a walk along the cannel before doing some shopping. Although you wouldn't think it from some of the photos. At least it stopped raining.

Day time, I promise.

It was a bit windy.

We had fun getting Livvy to walk in the wind. She loves it and giggled as much as we did. But she does only have little legs so went in the carrier.

The gang

After a walk we did a little shopping (I think I am completely finished with Christmas presents now) and Matt and I had fun putting hats on the kid. (We were left unsupervised!)

Not a fan. Though so cute.

We had a quiet night in, with snacks (no dinner needed after a giant lunch), DVDs and a fire when Livvy had gone to sleep. We really are party animals. 

After cleaning out of the cottage, we stopped at Stow-on-the-Wold as it was only a 10 min drive away and wondered around.

Our cottage.

Chilling.

We stopped in a cafe and got Livvy some lunch. She really enjoys looking at pictures of herself on the phone.

Waving at herself

Giggles. 

Not sure how this one happened.

Matching jumpers.

The trip back wasn't too bad though I hit some nasty traffic on the way back Clare's. Looking forward to the next catch up.

And today I managed to get my USA visa approved so looking forward to some travel next year. :)

Last day in Florence

On our last morning in Florence, I finally got some photos of our room.

Our view

Ceiling of the breakfast room

The weather was rubbish on the last day but we didn't need to get the taxi to the airport until about 11am so wondered over to Santa Maria Novella, which was about 2 minute walk from our hotel.

Inside

Court yard.

I have never seen so many church with skulls and skeletons and cross bones.

The church was much larger than we expected with a small museum and a serious of passages for an underground graveyard. 

The underground graveyard.

But with a view of the stars

Coy devils.

In the museum they had a series of reliquaries, containers usually holding relics, often parts of saints.

From St. Sebastian.

Hi of St. Ptolemy.

We flew back that afternoon. :( I miss it already.

Around Florence

On the Monday morning, we had tickets for Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral, and the Duomo. Maybe we were a bit slow or the information wasn't as clear as it could have been, but we didn't realise we had tickets to climb the Duomo until we were starting climbing. There are 463 steps to the top.

A well deserve pause.

It starts with a square spiral staircase, which was reasonably roomy. But I was still happy to pause and look at the statues. On the way up we also went around the lower inside part of the dome.

Looking down on the church

Looks unpleasant

Then the stairs become a never-ending (or feels like) spiral staircase. I managed to stop a few times to take a few photos (and a breathe).

The lat part was a steep staircase and ladder to the top. The view was worth it.

Shadow of the Dome

At the top

Over the edge

For some of the way down it was the same route as the way up, which was interesting when other people were coming up. There were some close encounters. We also went along the upper inner part of the dome, and got close up to the paintings.

When we got down, we headed to a cafe in the plaza around the cathedral for a much needed rest.

Our tickets included entry to the main part of the cathedral, the baptistry, and the bell tower. The queue to get into the cathedral was too long to bother but there was no queue for the baptistry, so we popped in. A baptistry is just a smaller chapel and this one was older than the cathedral. And the bell tower was another 414 steps so we decided against that one.)

We did a bit of shopping before dropping our bags off at the hotel and headed towards Santa Croce and the other markets for a little more shopping.

Neptune

More ice-cream

Santa Croce is a lovely church and is the burial place of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli.

Not sure how he is but he is not happy.

doing restoration.

Michelangelos tomb.

Galileos tomb.

Galileo with his telescope.

A Henry Moore

We headed back to the central market for a late lunch again but didn't quite make it in one go. Cannoli was on our 'must do' list and this seemed like the perfect time. 

Pistachio and chocolate

We finally made it to the central market (thankfully with minimal badgering from the street market) and up stairs for food. Again a lovely person came and brought us wine.

Lunch

We spent the afternoon chilling out before our last nights dinner.

So pretty

So tasty

At this point, we really did not want to go home.