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Next Stop Nairobi
After what has been for us a lengthy spell at home in England – it’s just over seven weeks since we flew back from California – we’re on the cusp of what is potentially our most adventurous trip so far. Our first stop will be Nairobi, though only for a single day before we’re off on an 8-day safari tour of other parts of Kenya. Somewhat unusually for us, this initial tour is not self guided but one in which we will be taken between destinations and out into the national parks by pre-booked guides and agents – the logistics and complications of individually booked destinations made the pre-planned option…
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Adventures in Vietnamese Football
We depart briefly from our usual style of blog post to complete a report from our recent flirtation with football in Hue. Don’t run away, it may just amuse even those who aren’t football (soccer) fans. From the exterior the Stadium Tu Do looks like it could do with a bit of a facelift. Built in 1930 by the French who unimaginatively named it Stade Olympique, it bears all the hallmarks of a stadium which has received minimal investment since its creation. The ticket office is a little plastic table out in the street where a tiny ageing lady sells match tickets, pineapple chunks on sticks and bottles of water.…
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Tam Coc to Hue: Inside The Imperial City
The climb to the dual peaks of Hang Mua is a hefty ascent of over 500 steps which are so irregular and uneven that coming back down is almost as tricky as going up, but the magnificent views from the top make every bit of the effort worthwhile. Sweeping panoramas across the lush green paddy fields, towering karst limestone hulks and twisting rivers lead the eye eventually to the urban sprawl of Ninh Binh city. These views hammer home just how much water there is here: villages are islands and roads are causeways. At Hang Mua, gardens have been laid at the foot of the hills and a few cafes…
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What Do We Miss About Home?
Funnily enough, it’s not usually the very first pint of English ale which goes down a treat and makes me realise what I’ve been missing: no, it’s more often than not a few days after we’ve returned and we’re now settled in a pub somewhere, absorbed in chatter whilst quaffing beer and scoffing peanuts and saying to ourselves, “yeah, this feels good”. That’s the moment. These days though, we don’t miss much about home when we travel, and it’s with a little sadness that we say we don’t miss too much about England either. Since we left these shores on our first post-retirement adventure in January 2020 we’ve spent over…
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This Was ‘22 Too…
I had to talk Michaela into allowing this brief post to make the blog, as it’s not about travel, but you see something very significant happened during 2022. My beloved football club did not after all disappear, surviving only by the skin of its teeth. We were saved, and there is a twist in the tale. To those who do not have a sports club close to their heart, this may not seem hugely significant, but to a lifelong fan of a hometown English football (soccer) club, it’s massive. Born and bred in Derby, a season ticket holder for many, many years, I only relatively recently reduced the number of…
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Beer, Tapas & Champions League: Southern Spain, Buoyant Germans & A Dash Of English
Michaela drops me off at the airport and we kiss goodbye: it’s going to feel a little odd being apart for a few days having been welded together on our travels for so many months. Adrian climbs out the back of the car looking more than half asleep, but then it’s so early that it can’t reasonably expect to be called morning yet. We’re booked on a red eye flight that’ll be in the air before the birds are; Adrian came down last night as we live much nearer to Gatwick than he does. “At least with me here you can’t go to the wrong bloody airport” he grunts. We’re…
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Leaving The UK Again
It may be just a little bit harder than usual to leave the UK this autumn. Rampant inflation, soaring energy bills, a clueless and incompetent Government who have set about destroying both the economy and the nation’s reputation in one go, rail, bus and mail strikes….these are all things which will really make us wish we’d stayed at home. For those unfamiliar with the sarcasm of British humour, welcome. So it’s with absolutely nothing approaching a heavy heart that our plans for autumn and winter travel are coming together. This Monday, 3rd October, I’m off to Spain for a few days – but not with Michaela who is spending a…
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Split: The Role of Hajduk
Being a big football (soccer) fan, I’ve always been fascinated by the role of a football club in cultural history: there are great histories here which tend to pass unknown to non-football fans, stories which far transcend the game itself. The reason Barcelona became so big, and the part Espanyol played in that story, is a stirring tale on its own. The history of Hajduk Split tells a parallel tale to Barcelona, in as much as, during times of extreme political oppression, the football club became a critical point of identity when such individual nationalism was prohibited. During the long years of communist rule and the enforced unification of Yugoslavia,…
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The joys of Old Madrid, and the joys of football
The real reason for the trip to Madrid is to experience Spanish football and the match between Atletico Madrid and Sevilla in Madrid’s new majestic stadium
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(Kind of) next up: Madrid
Heading for the warm sunshine of Madrid from the Chilly May weather of England
