So, we eventually found the hotel and the next day we got up and started the feeding frenzy. The hotel was a like a nice Jury’s Inn and offered the usual standard breakfast fayre in the cooked food department; scrambled eggs (but with ham in), fatty streaky bacon and mini frankfurters. Now I like a frankfurter. […]
Read More →“Fancy a cheap holiday?” Ah my favourite 2 words. Cheap and holiday. They go together like fish and chips, or pie and mash or Eurovision and failure. The suggestion came from our friends Rachel and Tibu (see other Spanish blogs for the full relationship). Tibu is Spanish (come on, how many people from Lancashire do […]
Read More →Yesterday when we were getting our bearings in Pisa I stumbled across a poster advertising the Vespa museum. (I literally stumbled. The pavements here could challenge Sofia and Bruges). I love Vespas. I used to have one, but ultimately it was impractical. Forgive me if I have said this before (Matt Cherry will tell […]
Read More →Yes we are on holiday again. I know there have a been few cries of disbelief on Facebook today, but I have worked nearly 3 weeks so needed a break. Well actually we always have a winter weekend away before Christmas with our friends but due to diary clashes it happened a bit earlier than […]
Read More →So we finally decided to go for a walk. People keep telling us how lovely the walks are in Madeira but the main problem I have with them is that they are usually outside and inevitably involve hills. I’m not a great walker for 3 main reasons 1) I have bad knees 2) I’m overweight […]
Read More →Ok, before we get started, lets do some Parish announcements – I know some of you also had birthdays yesterday and weren’t mentioned, but you never asked. Quiet bairns get nowt, as Karen would say. – I have now fixed the previous blog titles so they read Day 1-9 (sorry Tessa, that was confusing having […]
Read More →Well dear reader I left you last night with some breaking news. When I was writing last night’s blog, the phone in the apartment went, which surprised us as we had forgotten that we had a phone. It was our host who informed us that tonight was Fiesta night in Machico. He suggested if we […]
Read More →The forecast for today was overcast and when we woke up the planes flying over our heads looked as though they were flying into a misty haze, so we decided that it was time to head off to Funchal. We drove on the VR1, exited through the gift shop, and picked up our photo. Karen […]
Read More →Apparently there is more to Madeira than the beach, so we decided that it was time to explore the centre and North of the island. As you know if you read day 2 blog we have a hire car. So far though we have only really used it to get from the airport terminal building […]
Read More →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 […]
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