Greenville, North Carolina - and great PIZZA!

WELCOME TO THE EMERALD CITy

Tar River, Greenville, North Carolina

Lovely Southern home in Greenville.

Greenville, North Carolina is widely recognized as the thriving cultural, educational, economic, and medical hub of Eastern North Carolina. Enjoy world-class events and East Carolina University and the Greenville Convention Center. Experience our vibrant art, live music, and culinary scene in the Uptown Greenville and Dickinson Avenue Districts.

AND

If you're ever in town be sure to visit Luna Pizza Café

Perhaps, like us, your travels sometimes include crazy, one-off visits to places you hadn't really planned to visit. Right now we're taking a road trip to Eastern North Carolina to use free hotel nights before they expire on June 30th! Just returning from the UK, I hadn't expected to be packing up again and leaving hearth and home!

First stop was here in Greenville because I had read an article in a magazine about this amazing pizza place. The owner, a former university professor at East Carolina University, enrolled in a famous Florence, Italy pizza academy to learn the intricacies of making fermented dough and how to lightly char Neapolitan pies in a high temperature oven. Long story short, he retired from teaching and opened Luna's here in Greenville......and soon there will be more locations, hopefully one closer to home for us. . . . . . like right across the street from us in north Raleigh's burgeoning Midtown PLEASE owner Richard!

Our favorite Neapolitan pizza EVER was enjoyed in Palermo, Sicily. Our ship dropped us off for a day ashore and after sightseeing we ended up sitting outside with friends overlooking the water enjoying fabulous pizzas!  A VERY close favorite  has to be this pizza Margherita tonight at Luna's right here in North Carolina, excellent in every way, along with an amazing appetizer, Involfini do Melanzani (rolled, stuffed eggplant), and we shared the best Tiramisu dessert ever!  The dining experience was so enjoyable. Beside the wonderful food, Walt the Manager, and Kelly our server, were most hospitable and helpful, and took time to chat with us.

Perfect Pizza Margherita 

Good to the last crumb!

Very good Italian rosé!

We just may be heading back to Greenville again soon as tonight's meal
 was fabulous!
Back on the road tomorrow heading to Elizabeth City via the historic towns of
 (Little) Washington and Bath. 

I had hoped to post this last evening however the WIFI in the hotel room quit!

Time flew by with new friends -

I do like being at home again. . . . . . but getting away and flying across

 the pond was so enjoyable after such a long time.

Seeing family and old friends, and meeting new friends or making

 acquaintances was fun.

Our new friends included a sweet elderly blind man, Monty, from Wales, 

whom we breakfasted with at the hotel on several mornings, and two

 amazing ladies, Myra and Pat who are gorgeous, funny cousins in their

 eighties. They were on holiday from Newcastle. They kept us in stitches

 even when we couldn't quite understand their Geordie accents. 

There was also Wendy whom we met on a bus ride and discovered

 we were at the same school together. We talked about the teachers we

 had and the silly things we did as teenagers. Such as sit in the classroom

 seats next to the French doors and stick our legs out sideways to get a

 tan on those few and far between sunny days of early English

 summer. . . . before the school holidays started and we were

released from uniforms, Panama hats, ankle socks, and uptight

 rules and regulations of an all girls' Grammar

 School back in the 1950's!!!

An evening visit, one of several, to our favorite pub, and luckily

 just a hop and skip away from our hotel, was interesting. We ordered

 drinks and food and settled in to listen to some awesome live music. 

We sat at a table next to two men, one a surgeon, both part of a 

Trauma Team who go to Africa to help provide free surgical care for

 patients with broken bones and traumatic injuries in rural Kenya. 

Very interesting conversation for us as we have visited there and have

 seen how botched, or often no surgery, leave men, women and children

 unable to walk properly, or to use their arms to work and provide for

 their families.

If interested in reading more about, or supporting this worthwhile charity,

go here:  https://www.futurehealthafrica.org/traumateam

Bob outside the Hole In The Wall, favorite Torquay pub.

Bend your head though, the beams are very low!

Torquay's Oldest Pub – Circa 1540

With its cobbled floors and low-beamed ceilings, the Hole in the Wall has been a regular for smugglers and business people alike. Providing a traditional pub atmosphere with great food and quality beer, the Hole in the Wall aims to provide first class service with a great social experience for all. Good selection of ales to include Doom Bar,  Butcombe Bitter, Otter Bitter and with as many as four changing guest beers and traditional real cider too, you will not be short of choice!

I'm busy catching up here at home. Unpacking and laundry, lots of garden chores as lack of rain and very high temperatures - it was 99F when we disembarked our flight in Raleigh - have wreaked havoc on plants and shrubs, and the grass is browning out. However the figs are plumping, daylilies blooming, and some hydrangeas survived and welcomed us back with paler shades of blue.

 Have a great weekend - I'll be around to catch up with you soon, and hope to add more stories from our really fun trip.

Up, up and away!

Composing this in the hotel's Concierge Lounge. Looking out through the large

 windows at Heathrow's runways at the landing and taking off of planes.

From all corners of the world, displaying their colorful painted tails, we can

 name them being this close.

They are different from this hilarious illustration of 'flying machines' 

I found in a corridor downstairs when searching for the gym - not to exercise

 just for something to pass the time!

We're stuck at the airport hotel today.

This day, of all days, brought the greater London transportation strike.

There are no trains or subway, the busses are limited and being

monopolized by commuters requiring an alternate way to work, so our

 planned day into the city for a look about, and perhaps a bit of shopping, has

not materialized.  

You win some, you lose some!

The old plan for this day included keeping a costly pre-paid appointment

 for the required COVID test to return to the US. Thankfully that regulation

was lifted a week ago and we are hoping to have the fees refunded.

Instead, what was going to be a free day, has turned into a minor lockdown

day. We had breakfast here. We took a walk around the large hotel property,

 and will walk again later as it's a beautiful sunny day. 

Now I'm sipping Britvic Spicy Ginger Ale - "Lifting Spirits since 1938" it says

 on the bottle, it works! I'm nibbling Brontë biscuits, "Great British Biscuit

 Bakers since 1895".

Silly as it sounds, it's little things such as this that make me feel I'm really

 at home again.

Traveling to London yesterday via the National Express coach, the

 green, grass of home flew past the windows. . . . . 5 hours of great

scenery in sunshine and blue skies.

Supper last night was at the nearby Pheasant Inn pub. 

We've eaten here for many years when flying out of Heathrow as it's

just a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

This time tomorrow we should be back in Raleigh following the long

eight hour direct flight.  

I'll be back here once settled and caught up with the most

important tasks awaiting at the house. . . . . and definitely 

the garden.

It has been a wonderful trip home and I'm already planning the next one!

Kissing cousins, brother, husband - "my guys" ---------

A short distance along the coast from Torquay is the smaller, a little more old fashioned seaside town of Teignmouth.  At the mouth the of the River Teign, beneath the cliffs and sloping hills, it was for several years the home of my mother her parents and siblings, and has always been the home of my dear cousin Sue. I spent many summer holidays there as a child and teen, we two girls were loving cousins then and still are to this day despite an ocean between us!

 

Teignmouth seafront

Mary (me), cousin David, cousin Sue, my brother John

We are the four cousins, our three mothers were sisters. Sue (79) lives in Teignmouth, David (78 today) in Torquay, John (70) in Southwest France, and yours truly (78) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Getting together has taken three years due to the pandemic, however yesterday we managed to do it. . . . . .. and in brilliant, hot sunshine we hugged and kissed like never before!

Bob, looking debonair in a borrowed hat, when we sat on a rooftop restaurant for

lunch in Teignmouth. Unbelievable weather here - hot, dry and non-stop sunshine every day.

Supper last night with John (today he's flying home to France) at our favorite fish 'n chip shop SALTWATER in Torquay.

Off to meet up with a really 'old friend' this afternoon - at a quaint tea room overlooking the bay. Jackie and I have known each other since before birth!!! Our respective mothers actually met at the maternity hospital before we were born!  We've remained good friends all these years and always pick up where we left off last time. . . . . . .as only best friends can!

Home sweet home - I'm really here!

 

Just so you know, we made it and we are having beautiful weather to 

see Devon at its best - sunshine, perfect temperatures, light breezes and blue skies.

So much to do, places to go, people to see.

No time to do much on the computer. . . . . but I'll catch

 up once I'm back!

Best wishes from South Devon, England.

Garden wildlife surprise -

 Oh deer!!!!

This sweet faced doe (I think) was resting quietly in the back garden

when I opened the kitchen window blinds early yesterday morning.

She must have had breakfast as the hosta leaves were decimated, the 

climbing roses nibbled, she looked very comfortable and relaxed. . . .and

didn't hurry off.

Look at those eyelashes - I want them!

Thatcher Rock, Torquay, Devon. . . . . . . .I'm on my way home!

Many thanks for all the kind wishes left on my last post wishing me

a great trip home to see my family and friends after waiting so long.  

Those were the days. . . . . . .

Great vintage train travel posters remind me of how

 my home town looked when I was growing up there.

Some things have changed, others remain the same.

Torquay will always be home though and I'm longing

 to get back next week after three years away due

 to the pandemic. 

 

Today a hair cut. Tomorrow manicure and pedicure.

Items to be packed are ready and waiting.

Fingers crossly tightly that this trip will go without

 hitches. . . . because "there's no place like home."

Long May She Reign............

 

Commencing today and continuing through this

 coming weekend, the Platinum Jubilee Celebration

 of the amazing 70 years Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

 has ruled will hold the UK in its grip. Pageantry, street

parties, concerts, bunting blowing in what I hope 

will be a gentle breeze, and brilliant sunshine.

No other British monarch has sat upon the

 throne this long. Queen Victoria made 63 

years, no king has ruled anywhere near

 that long. 

Long live spirited, spunky British women!

Once a lovely princess . . . . . . . .

The Princess Elizabeth ~ Buckingham Palace 1945

by Cecil Beaton 

~ Attached to this photo is my precious personal memento from the

Coronation on June 2, 1953 - I was 9 years old ~

British VOGUE cover ~ April 2022 Issue

.......then suddenly a Queen!

We won't be there for the huge celebration having 

planned this trip prior to knowing it was even 

going to happen. We had to cancel so many times

 during the pandemic lockdown we lost count of 

what was occurring and when!

Anyway, crowds are not my favorite thing

anymore so perhaps it's better we will 

be arriving when it's all over!

Hoping to see some of the celebration

on television over the weekend.

Will you be watching?

God Save Our Queen.