Walk like a Venetian...

Hello my very patient friends and readers....I am back after my summer blog-break and here with fresh stories of my travels...

...Miss Lola could sense something was afoot and tried to get herself into a strategic position to join our party.....

....thanks to all the points we have collected on our travels this year we were able to start our journey in the style to which I have become accustomed....can you guess where I am?...yes, its the Eurostar terminal.....

...before you know it you are in Paris....ahem...someone might have attended to my fur before we left...what will Europe think...and straight after Brexit too...BOL

....we had a bit of a wait in Paris for our next train...so we stopped for an ice cream and a cup of tea in the Gare du Lyon....

...before boarding our sleeper train to Venice!!....here is the bathroom in our cabin...ok for me...but I am not sure how the typist is going to fit in here....

....a furry comfortable experience...once we figured out where to put that ladder!.......

....and as the sun went down over France and the train picked up seed, we settled down for a most relaxing night's sleep....

...typist and I went for breakfast i the morning....meagre fare I must say....but we were only an hour or two from Venice by then so we did not mind really....

....this is Verona station....we are Two Gentlefurs of Verona...! BOL...sorry about the dirty window..it rained hard overnight we were told....

.....and there was much excitement as we approached Venice over the bridge from the mainland......

...and before we knew it we were off the train and into our water taxi on the Grand Canal...step on it James!

...not THAT'S more like it....

...our hotel was straight across the Canal from St Mark's so we washed ourselves down and headed straight out into town...we shall not mention a certain incident where a certain member of the party fell out of a bag onto a street and was almost lost on day 1...no no...we shall not mention that...

....we stopped for an obligatory stop of the gondolas on the canals...

...and we walked and walked and looked at all the beautiful buildings...Venice really is a marvel...this is the Theatre...for one night only!!...

...our hotel was most comfortable I must say...

...and everyone knows I like a big pool....jolly hot today...well in to the 90s....

...ad a magic Tv which came up out of the bed!....

...and beautiful gardens...with our own little duckling called Cips who came to greet everyone (much to the consternation of his mum) and a rabbit who hopped around on the lawn...

...we enjoyed our early morning breakfasts the most...siting in the gentle sun by the canal....cappucino perfectly made...

...and a chance to catch up on events in the world...

....before hopping on to the Vaporetto (water bus to you and me) at our local stop...

....a great deal of walking...art galleries and churches and lots of views to take in.....

....and best of all the wonderful cafes for lunch...we ate with the barrow boys and gondolieri as they seemed to know where all the best fish was to be found....

...Churches...the one cool place in the whole city...phew!

...and in the afternoon back to the pool for some R&R...

...which plays havoc with the fur...how does a dog keep his frizz at bay in this heat?....

...that's better...

....I visited his palace...but the Doges was not at home....

....one paw in the wrong place and you could end up in the slammer...they did appear to have a penchant for locking people up and throwing away the key...typist beware!

.....bit gaudy if you ask me...

...but the views are amazing...

...a furry tiring first day in the Serenissima....what a CITY!...

...I shall pop back with more from Venice very soon my pals...but I think that's enough for now...you'll be as tired as we were...!

The Sporting Life...

Hello my friends....we have been a bit AWOL on the blogging front as the old typist has been chained to his desk at the salt mine these last few weeks...*grumble*....

We have finally managed to prize him free and have insisted he turn of his e-mail and take some me-time...or should that be him-time?....

...we decided that the best sort of R&R would be some cycling....so I jumped on to my cross bar perch and off we went...

....I tried to keep the pedalled fuelled with the odd carbohydrate gel....and we made sure to follow our navigation closely because we were heading off in to unknown territory....

....we did manage to navigate our way to the excellent Cafe on the Lake at Barns Green....blueberry and lemon cake and a cup of coffee to pep us up after about 30 miles on the road....

....we found our way up in to the hills...at one point the puffing and panting had gotten so loud that I thought I might have to post myself back home...

...after 55 miles we stopped to discuss detailed race tactics...something like that anyway....I'll have the chips...

....*whispers*...I have to tell you that not much of the salad got eaten...but we did manage to cycle 85 miles in total and the sun shone after lunch to see us home...

I will also whisper to you that the reason we are training hard on the bike is that in September the typist and I will be cycling from our home in the UK to Cologne in Germany to help raise much needed funds to build schools in Africa...we wrote a blog about that...and we would be very grateful if you would read that one to..its right HERE...assuming the Germans still want us to come after that Brexit thingy....

....and today, we headed off to Wimbledon...we are very lucky because we get a coulee of free tickets every tear because William and his band play to entertain the crowds by Centre Court...a busy day ahead....

......here they are...entertaining...for my followers on Twitter we did Periscope some live footage from the event and you might be able to catch it if you see my timeline...or you can also hear it by clicking this LINK

...I think I'm well enough known in these parts not to have to use the back door...

...front door...that's better....

...we were lucky enough to see Andy Murray warming up on one of the outside courts....again. we did get some footage you can view HERE

...even mr Lendl was enjoying himself...

...they say this fellow is good...but he looks a bit stiff in the shoulders to me....

....a bit of ladies doubles in the sunshine....

...and a quick trip to Marley Mound...I beg your pardon...Murray Mound...

...its been an exhausting couple of days for some....

Woof....Clapton....

A week away...

Hello my friends...I have been unexpectedly away from BT HQ all week.....

....the typist and I were expecting to be away for one night...we started our journey basking in the spring sunshine at our local station....

....we went to St Pancras to the Eurostar station...there were lots of French children going back to Paris after their visit to London...they sounded very excited...

...we enjoy the train because we can relax...let the train take the strain as they used to say....

...we go under the sea and emerge in a place called Fretun....this used to be called Calais Fretun...but the name has changed...we smell something funny going on here...

...the people you meet on the train....excuse me madame, we did not realise this was the Ladies...

....we changed train in Brussels...there is a strong military presence at the station after recent events....a good thing too if you ask me...

.....when in Belgium, do as the Belgians would do....*reads about cycling*...another good reason for taking the train and not those awful planes....*relaxes....thinks about a nap*

...we passed through Rotterdam...we enjoy the brightly coloured Dutch trains....

....after a most relaxing day we reached Amsterdam....Amsterdam is full of bikes...

Yay!...upgraded to a "junior suite"...most comfortable...a nice place to catch a proper nap after dinner....

....a place we know well...Monday morning at the train station in Arnhem....a little bit bleary-eyed after a 5am wake up...

....the weather was not at its best for our day in Arnhem...typist went out for a jog in the evening and got wet and blown about quite a bit....

...some of us were more sensible....

....i made a point of checking in the mirror very carefully in the morning....i don't want another case of "bed head" like yesterday...

....in search of breakfast....then in the afternoon we found out that we had to stay on for more meetings so rather than going all the way back to the UK only to return 24 hours later we decided to stay on...

...but not in Arnhem...it was a big holiday in the Netherlands and so we decided to head back to Amsterdam to wait...here I am in the lobby waiting for my limo...(for Spinal Tap fans...)

...back in Amsterdam...no upgrade this time though....just an evening working at our desk before heading out for dinner...

....keeping an eye on the UK weather as we heard that some our pals had snow!...

....its not dignified but it is efficient....typist is removing any signs of fluff and dirt from my travel bag...it keeps my fur neat and clean when we are on the road....

...after some work we went out for a walk around...it was a day to celebrate the birthday of the Dutch King...central Amsterdam was free of traffic and everyone was wearing orange...

....there was a big fun-fair....

...and a most enjoyable sunny afternoon was had by all....we had lunch in the square before heading back to the hotel for work....

...and later a little stroll to the station to buy our tickets back to Arnhem....

...the 8.23am to Nijmegen....its become part of our routine....Arnhem is the last stop on the line before Nijmegen...

...we had the big office....because most of our colleagues had taken an extra day off work!!...

....we had a comfortable room back at our hotel....he jogged on a treadmill this time...

...the glamour of international business travel peaked with "sunset over the car park"...

...a dog has to keep up appearances when abroad representing his employer....

....and after 5 days way we were finally heading for home...6 hours will see us all the way from Arnhem back to BT HQ....

...sometimes a surprise can be a good thing...

Woof...Clapton...