Karen really loves the beach. She grew up less that 5 miles from the beach and would spend many an hour there walking (other peoples) dogs and generally doing beachy stuff. Admittedly this was Seaburn beach (the name derives from the effect that the wind that comes off the North Sea has on your face). […]
Read More →It’s fair to say that we are staying in a well weird place. Nice, but well weird. The apartment block we are staying in was obviously built in the 60’s, but its surrounded by overgrowth and you wouldn’t know it was here. You know how on I’m a Celebrity, it looks like they are […]
Read More →You left us having just got settled into our apartment. Our host had very kindly left us a bottle of wine and some bread, ham and snacks. He also told us that that nearest supermarket was “10 minutes walk” away. Now I have put “10 minutes walk” in speech marks, but can I suggest for […]
Read More →So we land. Well it was a Boeing it was more of a thud followed by a shudder followed by being thrown back into our seats. When will a Boeing ever be able to land like an Airbus? Moan over. We alighted (as that is what you do from a mode of transport. What’s wrong […]
Read More →Hey, hey, Summer is finally here! Bring on the long evenings, sitting in the garden, BBQ’s. Oh hold on…apparently it’s the 2nd October. I think I missed Summer. Still today is the first day of my Summer holiday and according to all the fashionable magazines October is the new July. Just to explain I have […]
Read More →Mine and dad’s boys’ adventure continued today. A bus, train and a tram journey all in the same day. Holidays don’t get much better than this (as Greg Wallace would say…if he presented Holiday 2015…and liked transport). Today we went to Ghent (which the Belgians spell Gent, which explains why you find so many men […]
Read More →Myself and dad have become real men on this holiday. No, we haven’t wrestled a bear with our bare hands or anything like that, but we have observed a lot about buildings. (Perhaps I should have said we have become real “blokes’). Every morning we have discussed the roofs, plumbing and cladding of the neighbours’ […]
Read More →We arrived in Bruge by 10:00 am, dropped our cases at the left luggage in the station and then headed off around the town. Those of you know my mum will know that last year she had her knee replaced. She had the other one done the previous year. In fact, at Christmas, when dad […]
Read More →So, after returning the Samurai Kid’s knife to the car, we headed up the gang plank (if they still call it that these days) onto the ship. We were greeted by a very friendly couple of Philippine assistants who checked our tickets. We then were greeted at the door by another couple of stewards, from […]
Read More →You find me writing this bobbing around on the North Sea. Let me explain. My dad has always had a thing about going to Bruges. No idea where this has come from. I have only been to Belgium once and found it a slightly odd place. It is best know for being the head of […]
Read More →Today is the last day of our trip and over the past few days we have been chatting about the highlights. In true Nick Hornby style we have. Compiled our “Best….” List. Best Apartment: Como. (Closely followed by Vienna) Best Selection of mugs : Prague Best Blogging position: Prague Best Wifi: Vienna (24mbs download. Woohoo) […]
Read More →After 3 weeks of the technology all working beautifully, it has all gone pear shaped in the last 24 hours. It began when we checked into our final apartment, a tiny loft apartment with a bed right up in the rafters which you access via a ladder. But it did of course have wifi (we […]
Read More →We have now arrived in Freiburg in the heart of the Black Forest (I wonder what cake of the day will be?). We spent the afternoon wandering around this lovely old city (town? Who knows!). My nose took me to the flower market around the cathedral, not because of the flowers but because of the […]
Read More →Compared to 20 years ago touring around Europe has become a lot simpler due to the Euro. Gone is the challenge of trying to use up all your money buying random duty free and chocolate at the airport, only for your flight be delayed for several hours and so you haven’t got any money for […]
Read More →I may be a bit obsessed by time. I do have a bit of a penchant for clocks and watches, so being in Switzerland I’m like a pig in muck. Everywhere you turn, clocks and watches. But it’s not like I have been taking loads of pictures of the clocks on this journey. Ok, maybe […]
Read More →Today was the day which filled me with both excitement and dread. We were going to spend most of the day travelling across 2 countries on 3 trains a boat and a tram. The potential for missing trains (or boats) was quite high. The plan was that we took a train from Como to Bellinzona […]
Read More →After our success(!) with the bike tour in Amsterdam we have been keeping a eye out for bike hire to have another go. The great thing about Amsterdam was that it was flat and had cycle lanes. Prague was neither flat nor had cycle lanes. Vienna had cycle lanes, was flat but wanted €35 a […]
Read More →It’s wrong to say that nationalities have stereotypes. Everyone is an individual and their personality is not dictated by the place they were born or raised. But let’s be honest, French people do shrug a lot. On my journey I have noticed at least some people who live up the their national stereotype. Stereotype 1 […]
Read More →Our travels have bought us into Northern Italy to Como, a town that dates back to Roman days and still has a medieval wall around it. (Not to be confused with Kokomo which the Beach Boys sang about in the film Cocktail. I did.) The main draw of the place is of course the lake. […]
Read More →You may have got the idea now that this trip is mainly about traveling on trains and eating cake (what, you haven’t? Then you are an idiot). The more I travel on trains, the more I realise that it is the future of convenient travel (well in Europe at any rate. I’m not sure I […]
Read More →Globalisation is a a subject which divides opinion. Some embrace the idea, others like to smash in McDonalds windows because of it (although I have to admit l felt like doing that after the last time I ate there). On the one hand, if you arrive in a strange land with strange custom, language and […]
Read More →Our main reason for coming back to Budapest was to do the things we ran out of time to do last time. The main one was a trip to the thermal spas. The one we opted for was the Szechenyi Baths which are in the Varosliget park. When you read reviews on various websites there […]
Read More →One of things which we had planned to do in Vienna was to either go to a concert or an opera. The one good thing about both of these art forms is that it doesn’t matter about language. You may remember from Day 9’s blog that Ingrid had put us onto a hot tip which […]
Read More →Whenever we go away on a city break we do tend to visit the odd art gallery or two. So far we have done the Van Gough museum in Amsterdam, Mucha in Prague and today the Leopold Museum, home of the works of Gustav Klimt. Well I say the home….. The Leopold is a vast […]
Read More →Before we came to Vienna I knew very little about the place. All I really knew was: 1) A classical concert on BBC2 every New Year’s Day came from here. 2) They were big into music. 3) They made nice fingers. We hadn’t even really got a guide book so I hadn’t been able to […]
Read More →Yesterday I left you with us having been on the Big Bus Tour. This morning we did the other line (lots of Palaces really) and this afternoon we decided to do the “20th Century and Films Walk” (well it was included in the price). We turned up five minutes before the tour started at the […]
Read More →The internet is a great thing. Discuss. Actually, no let’s not go there, let me rephrase that slightly. The internet has made travelling a lot easier. Not just for the booking of travel and accommodation, but also choosing where to eat and what to do. Here is a quick example from last night. We had […]
Read More →Having experienced some Czech sport, the next thing on our agenda was some Czech culture. Opera? No. Music? Nah. Black Light Theatre? Oh yes Black Light Theatre uses a black back cloth and people dressed as ninjas (i.e. all in black) to move objects around. I seem to remember that it was used in a […]
Read More →The only problem with interailing is that with it effectively being one city break after another, it can be fairly full on. Today we decided to take a rest from the usual tromping around the city and chill in the park. I thought today would be an ideal opportunity to give my new Panama hat […]
Read More →This holiday we have mainly been staying in appartments. We have been using various web sites to contact the owners. The owner of the Prague apartment has been very vocal and has e-mailed me frequently about arrangments. She gave me “clear” instructions on how to get to the appartment. So we arrived bright and early […]
Read More →