A postcard from Cornwall

It was summer, the roses were blooming in the garden despite bursts of heavy rain. One day Laura received a letter.

"Who can it be from?" she wondered

Inside the envelope was a postcard puzzle

Laura tipped the pieces onto the table and started doing the jigsaw puzzle

It was not too difficult to see that there were 4 pictures divided by white borders

Soon she had all the edges done and started working on the middle pieces

"Last piece" said Laura as she put it in place to complete the picture

It was four photos of a village called Boscastle in Cornwall

Laura carefully turned the puzzle over (yes, it can be done) and read the message on the back.  It was from her friend Henry.

"Dear Laura,
We are having a lovely time in Cornwall despite the weather not being the best!  We arrived for a day in Boscastle and it is now pouring down with rain so had to wait in the cafe for ages until it cleared - no real problem as we enjoyed lunch and a cream tea! We went for a walk and admired the wonderful views once it stopped raining it was rugged, wild and wonderful!  We did have a couple of days when the weather wasn't too bad and will blog about the places we visited.  Much love, Henry :-)  P.S. Hope you had fun doing this puzzle postcard."

"Thank you Henry, I did enjoy piecing this together and reading about your Cornish holiday" said Laura

Laura hasn't visited Boscastle but her girl has been there twice, when she was much younger as we had 2 caravan holidays at Tintagel. Boscastle was severely flooded in 2004 because of a severe cloudburst (it hit the national news).  In our visits to the village it was good to see all the repairs that were done and improvements to the flood defences so it was a relief to know that despite Henry's rainy visit the village wasn't flooded again.

A Roman adventure - part 8

It was the final morning in Rome, Heidi, Laura and Clemence the bear were all packed and ready to travel home.

Heidi, Laura and Clemence with their bags. Clemence was a bit annoyed that he and Heidi did not go on any of the outings with Laura, they had to be content with seeing the photos.

There was time for one more short outing after she had officially checked out of the hotel (leaving the bags in a locked room).  Near Termini Station in Rome are the ruins of the baths of Diocletian - part of the complex was converted into a church by Michelangelo, part of the buildings are now a national museum.  Laura decided to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli.  Another church with an immensely impressive interior.

Santa Maria degli Angeli has a large pipe organ in one wing of the church 

It wasn't nearly as big as St Peters, however like St Peters, Santa Maria degli Angeli had marble floors, enormous columns, capitals and decorated arches

After visiting Santa Maria degli Angeli Laura and her girl walked around the outside of the baths of Diocletian which is now a museum, there wasn't time to visit the museum however she found the gardens.

The gardens alongside the baths of Diocletian had lots of Roman statues and funeral monuments

It also had an enormous fountain - an ancient Krater in the centre formed the fountain - it was one of only 2 still remaining  in Rome apparently.  There were goldfish in the pond and Laura and her girl enjoyed dabbling their fingers in the water.

A pussy cat was living in the garden, Laura was amused when she found it sitting on one of the funeral monuments

 Soon it was time to collect suitcases and catch the Leonardo Express train back to the airport.  The train was very modern and included a display screen showing the progress along the route.

Roma Termini to Fiumicino airport

On the train Laura said goodbye to Rome

Laura watched out of the window as the train approached the airport

Laura was very satisfied with her holiday in Rome, she had seen some wonderful places and done some very interesting, fun things during her 5 days in the ancient centre of the Roman empire.

(see also Part 1 of Laura's adventures in Rome, Part 2 when Laura visited the Palatine Hill, Part 3 when Laura explored the Roman Forum, Part 4 when Laura discovered the Colosseum, Part 5 when she explored the narrow streets of Rome, Part 6 when Laura visited Vatican City and Part 7 when Laura visited Ostia Antica)

A Roman adventure - part 7

On her last full day in Rome Laura took a ride on the metro train then a train to Ostia Antica, the ancient Roman seaport which was key to supplying Rome.  The river and coast line have changed in 2,000 years so the ruined town is no longer right on the coast.

Near the entrance to Ostia Antica Laura discovered there was a large graveyard filled with funerary monuments.

This was the map showing Ostia Antica with the coast and river routes of 2,000 years ago marked on the map (in green) and the current river route (in blue)

A mosaic near the entrance was uncleaned

Laura poured some water from her bottle on the mosaic and the colours came alive

In the warehouses and family homes Laura discovered this marble pavement

The marble pavement was made up of many pieces of coloured marble

These ruined columns made Laura feel very small - can you see her

Yes, there is Laura standing on a broken column which stands beside the two which are still complete

Laura and her girl exploring a street in Ostia 

In another house (which no longer had a roof but did have walls) Laura found this interesting mosaic which had the word Artemi above the figures

Further along on the southern edge of Ostia was a temple complex

This fawn figure (with panpipes) was guarding the entrance to a temple

Under another temple complex near the main road of Ostia was a cellar area which Laura went to explore

In the small museum (beside a restaurant where Laura had lunch) she saw this sarcophagus for a young child

Near the museum was a room filled with large food storage amphorae, these would have been sunk into sand to keep them upright. Laura wondered how often they had been cleaned out when storing food, she hoped they didn't just refill them without cleaning them. 

After seeing many other buildings and temples Laura found a large building complex which had an amazing circular mosaic floor

The circular mosaic floor only had some damage and was an amazing, lyrical, lively design

Laura could not stop looking at all the patterns, animals, leaves and people in the huge circular mosaic

The bull on the large mosaic was particularly wonderful

Laura had fun copying the post of the figure on another mosaic in a nearby room

Laura walked back to the main road in Ostia Antica and found the magnificent amphitheatre.  It was the largest building in Ostia and was still standing.

In the late afternoon Laura decided she wanted to try acting Roman style

The amphitheatre was huge and Laura felt tiny in the stage but she held her nerve

She kept standing and imagined the amphitheatre filled with crowds of people watching the play.  It was a daunting thought.

She raised her arms and declared "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"

"I love Rome"

"and I love Ostia Antica" she declared to her girl who sat watching from the stalls

Near to the Amphitheatre was a large bath and gymnasium complex.

There were steps leading up to a viewing platform (on top of a roof of the entrance to the bathhouse, which was closed as it was nearly closing time at Ostia Antica) so Laura and her girl went up the stairs to see the view.

From the bath house viewing platform they were rewarded with the sight of an enormous mosaic floor in the bath house, decorated with mysterious sea creatures and horses.  It was the most amazing sight and even bigger than the circular mosaic Laura had admired earlier.

The bath house and gymnasium complex was extensive and it looked like it has several mosaic floors

It was time to leave Ostia Antica, the sun was still shining though was starting to set and the day had cooled down from the 22 degrees it had been earlier.

As she left to catch the train back to Rome Laura took one more look at the information board and map about Ostia by the entrance.  She knew she hadn't seen everything there was to see in the old seaport and had greatly enjoyed finding out about the ancient Roman way of life.

For dinner that evening Laura dressed up in her new ball gown which she got at the Chat 'n Snap. It was a special family evening of celebration, tinged with sadness that the visit to Rome was nearly over.  Still there was one more morning in Rome to enjoy.

(see also Part 1 of Laura's adventures in Rome, Part 2 when Laura visited the Palatine Hill, Part 3 when Laura explored the Roman Forum, Part 4 when Laura discovered the Colosseum, Part 5 when she explored the narrow streets of Rome and Part 6 when Laura visited Vatican City)