Travel Blog
We set up our travel blog to keep a journal of our holidays and travels, it is easy to forget details. As we Travel around the world we want to visit as many countries as possible following the sun. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas are all on our list to explore more
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That Was 2025
As has become our custom since retirement, the closing of the year signals a retrospective look at everywhere we travelled to and through, and how the year unfolded. 2025 saw us travelling for a total of 262 days during which we visited 12 countries, 6 of which were new ground for us. 262 days isn’t a new record, falling short of the 270 we travelled in 2023, but we did equal our bed record, sleeping in 92 different beds through the year. We also travelled on more than 35 trains, drove rental cars in 4 countries and caught 30 flights (easily a record) with 14 different airlines. It’s 6 years…
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Taking A Break From Blog Posts
We’ve decided we’re going to press the pause button on posting on this site. Not saying we’re gone for ever, not even guessing for how long we’ll be taking a break, but a break is what it is going to be. Nothing massive about the reason, just that I’ve taken a huge amount of pleasure from writing about our travels over the years, but suddenly for reasons I can’t fully explain it feels like a bit of a chore and a break feels like the right thing to do. Michaela however is more than happy to keep snapping away at the wonderful places we see and will continue to keep…
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Half The World Away…
“Who knows where the road may lead us, only a fool would say who knows who we’ll meet along the way follow the brightest star as far as the brave may dare what will we find when we get there?” La Sagrada Familia – Alan Parsons “In a big country, dreams stay with you, like a lover’s voice fires the mountainside” In A Big Country – Big Country “I’m leavin’ on a jet plane don’t know when I’ll be back again” Leavin’ On A Jet Plane – John Denver “it doesn’t matter where you go in life …what you do…. …or how much you have… it’s who you have beside…
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Philippines: Time To Reflect
It was a journey in which we set foot on 21 different islands, passed through many of the country’s 82 provinces, slept in 18 beds in 15 different locations and enjoyed a host of experiences. On the long journey home we find ourselves debating whether this has been our most varied single country trip so far. It probably has. There was without doubt one constant, something which never changed – the Filipino people. It’s hard to relate the harsh lives in the rice terrace villages of northern Luzon with the tourist trade workers of the holiday islands, yet, whatever their background, whatever their lives, Filipinos are consistently amiable, happy and…
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Funny Moments: Smiles From The Philippines
Again again again again again, see you again…. Every journey brings its funny moments, little encounters which we will always remember with a smile. We don’t always put these in our blog posts – sometimes they don’t fit with the narrative, sometimes they aren’t relevant to the remainder of the text, sometimes we demur just in case someone finds them offensive or insulting. But there’s been quite a few here, so here’s a sample…. It’s customary at tourist sites in the Philippines for those employed in the tourist trade to wear T-shirts with their name and job title on the back – you might get, for instance, “Archie – BOATMAN”…
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The Travellers’ Prayer
To interrupt briefly our Philippines travelogue, we just had to reproduce this. On a weather beaten old sign on the edge of Sagada village, there sits a sign with a prayer. This sign is too dilapidated to be legible in a photograph, so instead we reproduce the text of the sign here in full. There’s no doubt that the words will absolutely resonate with every traveller, particularly the independent ones amongst us, and I dare say give everyone a smile…. Heavenly Father, look down on your humble, obedient servants who are doomed to travel this Earth, taking photographs, mailing postcards, buying souvenirs and walking around in drip dry underwear. We beseech…
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It’s That Time Again…
We love this bit. Printed maps spread across the table, guide books poised and travel blogs open on the right page. The calendar sheets printed off from the iPad take centre stage, constantly being altered, updated, erased and re-pencilled, as we discover new destinations, unearth different transport opportunities and change the planned route one more time. Travel is such a joy that even the planning stage is always a significant source of excitement. Sparks fly every time Michaela moves. There’s only a few days to go now. Next week we head off to Heathrow, flying first to the Qatari capital of Doha for that stopover where we will discover whether…
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Stopovers: Too Good To Be True?
We’d seen the offers, first from TAP we think, but hadn’t really investigated too deeply. It was only when we read a post written by Rochelle at adventuresfromelle that we started to realise that the changing concept of what a stopover might constitute may just be something which we could embrace for our benefit. What happened next seems too good to be true. Qatar Airways will be the chosen airline for our next ultimate destination, and, when booking, they were pushing a stopover in Doha. Further investigation made it clear that the difference between passing through Doha airport within three hours and stopping in the centre of Doha in a…
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Where You From?
“Hello. Welcome. Where you from?” How often have we heard that on our travels? Literally, hundreds of times. It might be a barman, or someone about to tempt you into their shop, offer their services as a guide, or someone just plain being friendly, but it’s the opening gambit for all manner of introductions. Once we English have answered, the next question is usually…. “Oh, England! Where? London? Manchester?” Although for one brief summer a few years back and for reasons which possibly only the English will understand, it was… “Oh, England! Where? London? Leicester?” A while ago, at the start of a long haul flight, we heard two people…
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That Was 2024
Well, our travelling for 2024 is done and dusted and we eagerly await our first adventure of the new year. We think it’s fair to say that although 2024 was another splendid year of travel, not everything went according to plan. What with having to return home when Michaela’s Dad passed away, hiking ability being blighted by hip/groin trouble, becoming unexpectedly Africa’d out and heading to Turkey instead, the year ended up with a shape significantly different from the original plan. You could say it was a year of mighty rivers, as we saw or sailed upon the Amazon, the Rio Negro, the Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Thames and the…
