-
Vilnius: Knights, Russians…And Frank Zappa
Tuesday’s snow melts away quickly as a rise in the mercury brings heavy grey skies and occasional drizzle, the ice patches on the uneven pavements are once again just harmless puddles. A 17-mile train ride out of the capital brings us to Trakai, a lakeside town which in summer is a popular destination for city dwellers and tourists alike. Trakai is a town surrounded by water, built on both lakeside flatlands and grassy peninsulas, and is a ramshackle mix of timber clad houses and characterless rectangular apartment blocks, but its popularity is down not just to its watery location but also to its stunning castle structures. One of the castles…
-
Vilnius: Stories And Histories
Imagine walking across a bridge in the middle of a capital city and being met with a sign on a shop wall reading “border control”, passing entry instructions to the Republic which include a smile icon, multiple flags with an open palm as the centrepiece, and then finding yourself alongside a wall with the Republic’s constitution detailed in over 40 languages, including such clauses as… “Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation” “Everyone has the right to be happy” “Everyone has the right to be unhappy” “Everyone has the right to have no rights” And concludes with the Republic’s motto… “Do not defeat…do not fight…
-
Wintry Days In Vilnius
The temperature touches minus 7 as we head back to the hotel after our evening meal, frost forming fern patterns on car windscreens and turning pavement puddles into treacherous mini skating rinks. But the air is clean and crisp, the moon is bright and we breathe in the tastes of proper winter for the first time in a long time. By first light next morning the snow is falling and the cobbled streets have a covering of pure white as workers shuffle to offices and factories, huddled inside heavy overcoats and hidden behind hats and scarves. For us this is a bonus: we hadn’t expected to see snow this early…
-
California Dreamin’
All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day I’d be safe and warm if I was in LA California dreamin’, on such a winter’s day. Four years ago, in October 2017, my sons and I waved a tearful farewell to my daughter Lindsay as she disappeared through the barrier at Heathrow and set off to begin a new life in Los Angeles. At that point, as she gave one last look over her shoulder and headed off to a brave new world, I never thought for one moment that it would be more than four years till I saw…
-
Opening Doors To New Destinations
This week it will be a calendar month since we arrived home from Greece, and we seem to have spent a good deal of that time watching and waiting for the time when we can book our COVID booster jab. It seemed to us that the undeniably most sensible course of action was to wait until the booster jab was sorted before we looked at setting off on another lengthy adventure. Our patience broke though, and we quickly put a pre-booster short city break in the diary for later in November. Then, at the weekend, our raspberry-and-yoghurt breakfast was interrupted by a whoop of joy as the booster rules changed…
-
London: Simply The Best
We live only about 65 miles from central London, we’ve literally made hundreds of visits between us, we’ve travelled to many cities in many countries, but London still stands out as one of the great destinations of the world, somewhere where it’s impossible not to have a good time. And this week, we certainly had a good time…. Tina Turner in her heyday was a magnificent performer, the shows I was lucky enough to witness back then were just plain brilliant, and we still both enjoy giving Tina a spin on nights in: so it was with some considerable excitement that we entered the Aldwych Theatre in Drury Lane to…
-
Padstow And The Rick Stein Phenomenon
Having been a regular visitor to Padstow over so many years, it’s been interesting to watch the influence of internationally famous chef Rick Stein develop and evolve over the years. Its most obvious effect has been to create a micro economy in a county which generally offers low employment prospects. Rick Stein was actually born in Oxfordshire, but relocated to Padstow at the age of 24, having fallen in love with the area on family stays at their nearby holiday home, even though one such visit ended in tragedy by way of his father’s suicide. Mobile discotheques and night clubs were among Stein’s early failed businesses before the first restaurant…
-
If It’s In Your Heart…
It seems just about impossible that my first trip to Padstow was over forty years ago, in 1979 in fact. Since then I have visited Cornwall, and Padstow, so many times that I couldn’t even hazard a guess, but I do know that it’s a very long time since the little harbour town, the surrounding Camel Estuary and the wonderful Atlantic coastline found its way into my soul. When a place gets you like that, it rarely leaves you. To this day, over 42 years later, I still give an excited shout as we cross the boundary into Cornwall, and get a sense of joy as we pass the signs…
-
Where Next?
Since arriving back in the UK from Greece, our thoughts have straight away turned to where we can go next and, despite travel restrictions having been given welcome simplification recently, there is still a minefield of information to work through in order to make any plans. Our first thoughts were to take a relatively short break soon, and then after that, depart for another lengthy trip probably starting just before Christmas. And so began our wading through that minefield, bearing in mind that any destination which requires quarantine on arrival is not in our thoughts. Negative tests before departure yes, but quarantine no. Initially, our choice for the short break…
-
Journeys In Greek Food
Our very good friend Terrie, food specialist and food historian, always wants to know more about our food experiences on our travels, so this post is for you, Terrie. Taking time to travel through a country brings with it interesting regional variations to cuisine, and our recent Greek trip was a good example. Some dishes stayed pretty constant, some showed subtle changes as we moved through the regions, others were peculiar to a specific region and disappeared from menus as we moved on. Feast your eyes on this selection….
