Palace Bari

As it turns out, filling that day wasn't so much of a problem.... we tootled out of town, found a beach, wandered about & looked at the boats; tootled back, found somewhere to eat, had a chat with a few Brits and - hey presto! - before you knew it, time for bed! But the one on board was a bit more of a challenge... all 13 hours of it! BIG ...

... depends as much on whether it was in 15 increments twice a day on the tube, on whether your friend (over)hyped it up, whether it's part of a class or something you picked up on a whim, whether it's hot out or work is kicking your ass, whether you're embarassed to be seen holding the book in question, whether you know the writer or the subject matter.

Hornby's approach was to embrace all that contextual ...

... thinking they may give us a glass or two, but how wrong could we be... they instead asked us how much we wanted... we through the esky onto the bar and said can you fill this!! They just smiled and said 'of course'.... things are starting to look up in the hunt for ice in europe!!

Once in port we boarded the bus again and maid our way to Athens to meet up with extra people who will be joining us on our cruise through the greek islands!

Until Athens...

... down for the night. Some people were sleeping on the deck. There was a pool, which people were using already and a Ala carte restaurant and a Self service one. Dan and I got a drink and claimed a seating area and a few other found us until we had 8 chairs or so. We were almost too afraid to get up in fear of losing them! We went in shifts to have dinner at the self service restaurant. We went around 7.30pm and had tortelli ...

... the coastal resorts in August - the idea of travelling somewhere quiet and undiscovered was very appealing.
We passed very few cars on the journey to Matera, which was actually rather refreshing having spent last summer trying to get away from the over-crowded tourist resorts.

As the road headed up to the mountains, we passed ancient hilltop towns and villages clinging to rocky limestone plateaus. Often seeming more Greek ...

This is where Pietro, an old Italian guy, jumped into Bruce and navigated us to the trulli. He saved us from a traffic jam in the narrow streets of Puglia.

Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)

Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" – meaning “dome”. See the pictures of the wee houses.

We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus – meaning “beautiful view”. It was beautiful.

... is so close and they have approached behind so fast that between mirror checks you have missed their arrival, comes as quite a shock at regular intervals. Today I was thinking that all this time driving in Italy I haven't seen any accidents, that was one thought to soon! One after another I see warning signs of accidents ahead, it all happens on Saturday. Where possible the emergency services perform a swoop and scoop operation, it seems if there ...

... store to get some supplies. Anyhow, we set off in the cold rain and wind, heads down, thoughts on more pleasant things. 8 km down the road I was yelling through the barrage of rain at Ainaz to pull over at the next shelter, as I just could not go on for the time being. She was distracted however, and seemed to be talking with a van pulled up alongside her. Upon closer inspection, the van (and the occupants) were from ...

... some Russian arts fair going on in town. Adding to the puzzle was the question of why the completely untouristed castle by the water was asking a €12 admission fee. It's perhaps understandable in light of admission fees we've encountered elsewhere, but seriously - supply and demand? The whole labyrinthine historic quarter made for a pleasant surprise for me. For a city with such a rough-and-tumble reputation, it was pleasure to ...

We just missed the Ferry to Greece by minutes, as a lady began Labour whilst on a Ferry from Croatia to Italy (no direct ferry between Croatia & Greece...bloody politics) So now we will have to stay in Bari for a night and we will eventually arrive in ...