Europe
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Photographic Memories #5
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #5: Mother Russia What makes this photograph special to us is how it captures the very essence of the way we had pictured Russia probably since childhood: a frozen river, austere architecture, smoke billowing into the morning air from the tall chimneys of factory buildings, it is the Russia of our mind’s eye. This was sunrise in St Petersburg, captured as we made our way…
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Photographic Memories #3
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #3: The Accursed Mountains One of the great thrills of travel is that wonderful rush of excitement we all feel as we start out on a new journey, whether it’s a train pulling away from a major city, or leaving port on board a ferry, or even setting out on a hike in new territory. This photograph was taken on just such an occasion, as…
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Photographic Memories #2
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #2: Skies Over Volos This is another photograph which for us captures a memory of a special moment. After splitting our time between the mainland of Greece and a handful of the Sporades islands, we were now heading back on board the ferry from Skopolos to the mainland port of Volos. In the final stretches of the Aegean, a few miles from port, we moved…
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A Different New Year’s Eve
With our travel adventures for 2020 complete, and our plans for 2021 on hold until there’s more clarification around travel restrictions, we have nothing current to write about. We do, however, have a load of stories from past travels, which we hope may be interesting or amusing. Such as this one with seasonal relevance…… Krakow, Poland, December 30th, 2016. It had been a great few days on this winter city break: cold weather, a visit to Auschwitz, evenings in the main square and in Kazimierz, vodka, beer and food. But now it was time to head home and enjoy the new year celebrations in our village pub back home. Our…
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COVID: Living In The Heart Of The Beast
Kent, England, December 22nd, 2020, and a COVID drama is unfolding right on our doorstep. In the last 48 hours over 40 countries have suspended all flights to and from the UK and our nearer neighbours in Europe have closed all other UK transport routes, following discovery of a new variant of COVID here in England. The source of this new variant, which evidently spreads considerably more rapidly than the parent version, is the county of Kent, which is precisely where we live. Not so long ago, the UK Government decreed that any country with an infection rate of over 20 per 100,000 population was a “dangerous” country: now, districts…
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Bobsleigh Run
With our travel adventures for 2020 complete, and our plans for 2021 on hold until there’s more clarification around travel restrictions, we have nothing current to write about. We do, however, have a load of stories from past travels, which we hope may be interesting or amusing. Such as…. December 2017. Riga, Latvia. Apart from our general liking for a city break to witness some “proper” winter, our main reason for heading to Riga was the opportunity to take a bobsleigh ride. Of course, Riga provided many other reasons to be cheerful, although the anticipated snow was conspicuous by its absence. Locals were distressed at the lack of cold, worried…
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The Curious Tale Of The Day Bag And The Dress
With our travel adventures for 2020 complete, and our plans for 2021 on hold until there’s more clarification around travel restrictions, we have nothing current to write about. We do, however, have a load of stories from past travels, which we hope may be interesting or amusing. Such as…. Puerto Tazacorte, La Palma, March 2018 The island of La Palma, in the Canaries, had given us better than expected sunshine and some great food. Puerto Tazacorte has its own charm, the blue Mediterranean and its snow white surf crashing on to the jet black volcanic sands of its beach. After a day exploring the island by hire car we grabbed…
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From Turkey To Quarantine
And so we start our 14 day quarantine which will most likely run straight into a period of further regional lockdown given the high current COVID rates in our corner of England. We’re a little sad that the Turkey adventure ended the way it did, with our time in Antalya cancelled and an abrupt end to our newly found social life in Side. In the final three days after making our decision to return home, we did manage one last trip to our favourite riverside eatery in Manavgat before it all shut down, and even managed a quick dip in the Med on each of the last two days. So…
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Making Roots And Planning Routes
It’s fair to say that we’re getting a bit restless. Here in Side it’s a little bit like becoming becalmed at sea, eager to press on with this voyage and even more eager to make more voyages in the future. Settling into a single place for an extended stay was always on our agenda, but probably not for several years yet. It’s an experience we’ve added to our repertoire rather earlier than intended, but then our travel in 2020 has been a very different shape from the original picture. Until COVID intervened and blew our plans apart, our intention after retiring last Christmas was to travel for around four months…
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From Dalyan To Kas: Along The Turquoise Coast
The turtles, kingfishers and other natural wonders of Dalyan continue to wow and entertain us as we see out our last few days in stunning and peaceful surroundings. Our time here has been very chilled, helped undoubtedly by the lovely apartment: we would strongly recommend to anyone visiting Dalyan to stay right beside the river to get the most out of your stay. Taking breakfast whilst turtles swim around you is a very peaceful way to start your day. Take a look at the video link belowhttps://youtu.be/P_NBoKT5jKE Over our last couple of days we revisit Iztuzu beach to soak up the October sun, take a drive out of town and…
