Another visitor

 I've spent the week hosting a very old friend of mine ... I mean, he's not old but I've known him a long time, since my teens in fact. 

I went to Berlin in 2018 with him, my first time abroad as Sue. This time I was just showing him round my new area. In fact, a lot of our travels were repeats of what I took Roz to see last week. But as the weather was better, there are more worthwhile photos.

Both Roz and I had encountered folk dancers from various countries in Sanremo last week, including some very colourful people from Panama, morris dancers from England and other groups from Switzerland, Austria and more. This week we bumped into various folk dance groups from central Europe.

Dancers from Romania

Dancers from Slovakia

We also visited Villa Nobel, which was the final home of chemist Alfred Nobel, originator of dynamite, peace prizes and the like. Some of his lab equipment can be seen, as well as the naval gun he had brought over from Sweden to test his products. 

Rather a nice house, which is now a museum and conference centre, with a pretty garden.

The thing that tickled me most was this Fiat 500 railcar:

You can drive it from either end!

Nearby is Villa Ormond which houses the International Institute for Humanitarian Law and the beautiful grounds around it double as a botanic garden full of subtropical plants.

The best bit is the Japanese garden with its waterfall and turtle pool:

I thought I'd also share this last photo from Ventimiglia, which I described last year, as I found this stand of umbrella pines very beautiful, especially with the city on the hill beyond, a hint of the Alps and the war memorial on the right.

It's been good to have close friends to stay as these years of Covid have left me unusually isolated. I may manage to go to Britain before the end of the year, and I've been invited to France for Christmas, so I'm hoping that life can get back to some kind of normality.

Sue x