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Around Northern Portugal: Lamego-Amarante-Braga
As you approach Amarante by the road from the main A4 motorway, you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about, for at this point the absolutely lovely old town is hidden behind an array of modern structures, traffic islands, concrete and steel. Walk no more than 200 yards from the bus station, turn in to Rua 31 Janeiro, pass the lively traditional tabernas and head towards the São Gonçalo Bridge, and yet another enchanting town quickly reveals itself. And oh wow is it lovely. Almost impossibly lovely. The Rio Tamega flows slowly through the centre – serenely slowly, except now and again when it skips over…
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Michaela’s Favourite Photographs #14. Sometimes The Simple Things
Versailles, France, 2015. And here we end this short series of some of Michaela’s favourite photographs, with a shot of beautiful and stunning simplicity. Leaving the glorious palace to explore the sumptuous gardens, the rain started to fall with extraordinarily bad timing, just as we stepped away from the sanctuary of the grand building. And yet the rain brought a gift: clear, dainty raindrops clinging to leaves and flower heads throughout the gardens, nowhere more perfect than on this delicious pink rose.
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Da Nang: The Modern Face Of Vietnam
Laying our Vietnam ghosts has been such an edifying process, we now have a very strong affection for this country after our bad times here at the onset of COVID when we met with some real hostility simply because we were British (this was when the pandemic had taken a stranglehold in the UK more than anywhere else). We’d also had bad food experience, the meals we ate in Hanoi back then were consistently poor, a bit like being given a bowl of washing-up water where if we were really lucky the dishcloth had been left in the bottom. We always knew though that this was not typical – every…
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Into The Cloud Forest: From The Sea To The Sky
Bidding farewell to Reymar is like saying goodbye to a friend, he has been one of the most helpful and sociable hosts we have ever had on our travels. As we pull out of Quepos bus station, we are very conscious of leaving the lovely high temperatures behind as we head towards the colder air of the mountains and cloud forests. The bus journey from Quepos to Monteverde is a bit less comfortable than the earlier journey from San Jose, in fact it borders on gruelling by the end of the long day. First it’s three and a half hours along the Pacific coast to Puntarenas where, after a bit…
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Plitvice Reflections
By the time we reach our last night in Mukinje, we are 8 days into our tour of Croatia: over those 8 days we have walked, according to Fitbit, a total of 73.19 miles, an average of 9.15 miles per day. Michaela captured some impressive wildlife shots along the way:-
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Loving Where You Live
A walk in a bluebell wood in the Kent countryside, England
