Greek Easter in Greece and James May's favourite Car + Insects and Creepy Crawlies Blog Spectacular Feature only for you. Part 1.

One of the benefits I receive as a failed and near geriatric international businessman is the exotic machinery that I receive as rental cars as  a Holiday Autos Preferred customer.  Luckily Mrs N arranged the car rental this year and picked me up at Athens Airport in a Fiat Panda. James May (Top Gear presenter a.k.a Captain Slow) an avid Panda fan states "The one I use the most is my Fiat Panda. If I could have only one [car], I would say my Fiat Panda, though I also have a Porsche 911 and a Rolls-Royce."

Mrs N figuring out where the starting handle is or is it the boot release?

As it is now late we stay at the Holiday Inn next to a petrol station and are entertained by Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) speaking French.

Fantastic view from the hotel window of the spectacular  Mount Hymettus where in  antiquity there was a sanctuary to Zeus Ombrios (Zeus the Rain God)

Fantastic view on the hotel TV of the spectacular clown Boris Johnson Mayor of London speaking French

The next morning we head off under blue skies and a fair wind to Πελοπόννησος.

We drive on the Αττική Οδός passing through the new Arc d'Austerity - a touching tribute to Angela Merkel who will be sending Tornado fighter bombers over to Greece soon with dispensing cannisters stuffed with €50 bank notes

 Soon at Argos we stop at Lidl to load up with essential cat food provisions for the coming week.

Grim discovery that a Lidl shopping trolley is bigger than a Fiat Panda

We arrive at the village.

We are greeted by the cheese maker George who in a former life worked as an RAC patrolman on the A33 Winchester bypass.

Mrs N's village house has been overwhelmened by a giant spider

In the next episode candles are burnt at all ends and I discover a scorpion familly in the cellar.

Could Michael Fish organise an ACU Certified Hill Climb Event on Anglesey?

I give up, could he?

What is certain is that the ever optimistic Frank Melling's weather forecast was roughly accurate (except for the timing).  My photographic apparatus did not adapt well to driving rain, sea fog and cavalcading.

 

For a proper description of Thundersprint 2013 please read Richard's excellent report ----> HERE

A video may appear here sometime soon, but whilst we are waiting this is Thundersprint last year in sunny Northwich !----->HERE


The 2013 Version is here!-------->CLICk ME

Life is all about having a good time with Friends!

A sunny Sunday by the Rhein and the Nahe!

Waiting for the ferry at Bingen.

And here we are on the ferry across the Rhine.

And here we are all together....

p.s.

The purpose of this excursionette was to take S to a winch,,,

so she could see us from the air....

The Staffordshire Problem

The lonely planet travel survival kit to Britain devotes less than one page out of 1034 to the county of Staffordshire ("Staffs") and fails to acknowledge the Potteries Urban Area of Stoke on Trent which  has no cathedral but a synagogue, a Minster, a mosque and two sikh temples in its conurbation.

How can this be possible in a county that contains the highest village in Britain, Flash: The village, in the Staffordshire Moorlands, stands at 463 m (1518 ft) above sea level?

Here is the exclusive NW sourced list of things to do in Staffs and I intend to visit and provide reports on these in the near future in a form of Round Staffs Rally:

Ancient High House

Belvide Reservoir

Biddulph Grange

Blithbury Reindeer Lodge

Blithfield Hall

Blithfield Reservoir

Bomb crater at RAF Fauld

Brindley Water Mill

Broad Eye Windmill

Burslem Hall

Cannock Chase

Chasewater Railway

Cheddleton Flint Mill

Churnet Valley Railway

Coors Visitor Centre and Museum of Brewing (previously the Bass Museum) Closed in June 2008

Croxden Abbey

Dovecliff Hall

Downs Banks

Drayton Manor Theme Park

Eccleshall Castle

Festival Park

Ford Green Hall

Foxfield Steam Railway

Gladstone Pottery Museum

Hanley Park

Heart of England Way

Moseley Railway Trust (Apedale)

Ilam Park

Izaak Walton Cottage Museum

Manifold Way following the route of the former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway

Lichfield Cathedral

Lichfield Road

Madeley Old Hall

Michelin Man (giant)

Monkey Forest

Moseley Old Hall

Mow Cop Castle

National Memorial Arboretum

Peak District National Park

RSPB Coombes Valley

Rudyard Lake Steam Railway

Sandon Hall

Shugborough Estate

Stafford Castle

Staffordshire Regiment Museum

Stafford Services M6 North bound

Stafford Services M6 North bound


Staffordshire Moorlands

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

The Pennine Way

The Roaches

Tamworth Castle

Trentham Gardens

Trentham Lakes

Tutbury Castle

Victoria Park

Wall Roman Site

Wedgwood Museum

Weston Park

Whitmore Hall

Apedale Community Country Park  

Six in the City

Apologies for the lack of words, but the first script was wiped out by some blogger malarky..

This is my group for the day, there are three Austrians amongst them

Rain

Steak and Ale pie for breakfast?

Porridge

I order mushy peas for Mrs N  - she has been feeling a bit peculiar of late

Take your pick

One Greek, one Austrian and two mongrels

The pipes on the right represent the West Coast mainline

Boat trip for brass monkeys

Going straight

Tower Bridge - camera on incorrect setting

Canary Wharf

Improving modern art

A dose of converging verticals

The River Thames or Isis if you are in Oxford

This is London

This is London

Land of Hope and Glory at the Albert Hall

NW Room 101 special feature

This occasional feature serves to fill up a gap in my blogging repertoire as otherwise my readership will become negative.

Just to be clear here, it's my blog and if I want to rant and rave I shall and salutations to you all!

FAQs

What is Room 101?

You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is all pink and squidgy. What we have here is a selection from the NW roving camera during January and February 2013.

First off:

Jacuzzi tubs

Second:

Politicians with false smiles*

 Third:

Smiling people who take themselves too seriously....

Fourth:

Clothes shops that only cater for midgets

Fifth:

High speed rail that costs too much to use, destroys the environment and goes wrong frequently leaving me starnded at Cologne with no spare underwear

Sixth:

Sushi

*that would be all of them except those with wooden teeth

The same procedure as last year, Mrs Nikos?

The same procedure as every year, Nikos!

 yes, it's carnival time again helau helau helau................