We will be celebrating just one New Year while we were away, and we were determined to make it a memorable one. And what better way than to treat ourselves to a bit of Royalty? The King of England, Charles III, owns a property in Transylvania, and when he isn’t staying there himself, it can be booked by commoners for […]
Category: Retirement
Veliko Tarnovo, a Lovely Stopover in Northern Bulgaria
We were on a mission to get into central Romania for a special booking we had made for New Year, but wanted to break the journey a bit. We had read that the small city of Veliko Tarnovo was a pretty place, and worth including in any Bulgarian tourist’s itinerary. And so it proved to be! Although we only had […]
The Adriatic Coast: Izmir and Ancient Ephesus
Our journey takes us back to the coast, further north, against the backdrop of the Adriatic. Izmir is one of the biggest urban centres in Turkey, and very much centred on local residents. While there are things for visitors to see and do, they are in the background of daily life. Thoroughly modern and very vibrant, this is a place […]
Another Geological Wonder in Turkey
After our restful stops in Antalya and Bodrum, we headed inland again to see another of the great attractions of Turkey, the white terraces of Pamukkale. Photos of the beautiful aqua pools against a pure white background feature prominently in all the tourist advertising for visitors to this country. When we saw them for ourselves, we weren’t disappointed. They really […]
Relaxation and Resorts on Turkey’s Mediterranean Coast
Travelling south after our awesome visit to Cappadocia, it was time for some R&R at a couple of coastal resorts in Turkey. The first, Antalya, is a large city on the Mediterranean coast, the second, Bodrum, is a smaller resort city located where the Mediterranean meets the Aegean. After more than five months of moving about and doing lots of […]
The Surreal Landscape of Cappadocia
One of the must-see destinations in Turkey is the other-worldly landscape of Cappadocia. This volcanic region has been weathered over millennia to form an amazing array of formations, deep valleys that contain tall stone chimneys that look like elongated toadstools. For centuries, the soft stone formations have been hollowed out to form cave dwellings, some of which are still occupied […]
Four Days in Fabulous Istanbul
The next stop on our marvellous adventure is Istanbul, the age-old city where East meets West. The only city on earth that sits across two continents. Split by the Straights of Marmara, the eastern shore is in Asia, and the western parts of the city are in Europe. For more than two thousand years, the trade routes between Asia and […]
A Ten-Day Adventure in Jordan
Our adventure continues off the beaten track, and mostly off the grid, in Jordan. We spent two days in the interesting capital of Jordan, Amman, before joining a group tour. The tour started with a five-day trek of over 80 kilometres from Dana in southwest Jordan to the World Heritage site of Petra. After the walk, we spent a day […]
A Week on the Nile
Jan has dreamed of cruising up the Nile since she was in her twenties. It was always going to be in our plans, and we were delighted when our vacation club, Karma, announced that it had acquired a boat and would be offering cruises from mid-October this year. We expected a leisurely week, relaxing on deck while the river passed […]
Four days in Cairo
The next phase of our journey has begun. We’ve temporarily left Europe behind and have begun our travels through Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Eastern Europe. This will take around 90 days, by which time we will be able to re-enter the Schengen zone for another stint in Europe. Our first port of call is Egypt. What an amazing […]
North-Eastern France
Our first 90-day period within Europe draws to an end. Visa requirements mean that we can only stay 90 days in every 180-day period, and our adventure will have consumed all of them by the time we get back to Paris. The last post was from Baumholder in Western Germany, and from there we had about a week to travel […]
Strasbourg, Colmar and the Moselle Valley
Another double-story post this time and across three countries! This part of our adventure saw us crisscrossing borders over a fortnight. After leaving southern Germany, we drove back into France for a few days in Strasbourg, a city on everyone’s must see list when in Eastern France. Colmar, a delightful town, is an easy day trip from there. We then […]
A Long Weekend in Prague with Natalie and Dom
We finished our time in the marvellous Czech Republic with a long weekend in Prague and surrounds. Natalie and Dom had a bank holiday in the UK, so they were able to join us again. We had been in Prague in 2016, and did most of the tourist things then. This time we got to a couple of the places […]
A few days in Český Krumlov
We move to the south-west of the Czech Republic, based for a few days in Český Krumlov, an incredible medieval town with an enormous castle. All the travel brochures and websites say Český Krumlov is one of the must-see destinations in the country, and we can attest to that. On our first walk through the town, there were simply jaw-dropping […]
Palaces and Beautiful Cities
The next part of our adventure takes us into the Czech Republic, and into the land of palaces, lovely quiet cities and great local wines. The capital of the Moravian region, Brno, was our first stop. Brno quickly put itself up near the top of our favourites so far, along with Kraków and Antwerp. Make sure you visit when you […]
Mountains, Castles and Art
After a great weekend in Krakov with Natalie and Dom, we headed south and into Slovakia. The border region between Poland and Slovakia is the home of the High Tatras, an alpine mountain range. When planning our grand adventure, this was one of the places we wanted to visit to do some walking. It was every bit as good as […]
Dom’s home town
After our wonderful walking and cycling experiences in Saxony, we needed to transit through southern Poland to get to our next walking destination in Slovakia. Natalie’s partner Dom was born in Kraków, and still has family there. He and Natalie have visited his home town a few times, and they were keen to meet us there for a weekend and […]
Back to nature in spa country
As you would know by now, much of the planning for our trip has been to land in places that offer classic walking trails. Saxon Swiss National Park in Eastern Germany was one of our main walking destinations. In this Post we take you with us on one of the all-time great walks we have done, to a local tourist […]
A few days in The Netherlands
Hot on the heels of our last post about Belgium is this story about our next stop in The Netherlands. Although only there for a few days, and really originally meant to break up our transition from France to our first main walking destination in Germany, The Netherlands turned out to be a little gem for us. We took in […]
Chocolates, Waffles, Canals and one last Battlefield
Our first stop after leaving France was in Belgium, famous for many things, including its world-renowned chocolates and Belgian waffles. Based in a small city just outside Brussels, and near the site of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, we managed to use the great train system here do day trips to three cities, Brussels, Antwerp and Bruges. We also […]