-
Days In A Small Country: Exploring Andorra
Andorra is the world’s 16th smallest country by area, and the 11th smallest by population, with only just over 75,000 residents in the whole principality. Such is the mountainous terrain of its 180 square miles that while only 1.7% of its surface is arable, there are 350 kilometres worth of ski runs. No prizes for guessing what is the biggest contributor to Andorra’s GDP then. One of the reasons we were looking forward to Andorra is that we don’t know much about it. OK, so we know that it’s one of Europe’s smallest countries, that it’s a mountain country high up in the Pyrenees with plenty of winter ski resorts,…
-
A-Z of Travel Preparation – Part 3
Time is moving on and the anticipation and excitement is growing; we’ve moved into the last 100 days before our lifetime adventures of long term travel begin with a flight to Bangkok. And so we’re trying to get everything place now and trying to forget nothing. Continuing our check list A-Z: I is for insurance. Finding travel insurance has proved a lot more difficult, and expensive, than we thought. The main obstacles have been our ages (62 and 54)and the length of time we’ll be travelling. Most policies have restrictions on these things, and many companies supposedly offering tailor made policies actually turned out to be a waste of time…
-
A-Z of Travel Preparation (continued)
Continuing our summary of all that there is to do when planning a major trip and a long spell away from home. Our retirement is imminent and our lifetime adventure starts at the end of January. Amid the growing excitement, there is much to do, so many things to think of. Like. E is for entry conditions. In some parts of the world, it’s not possible to just travel with an open ended stay and with complete freedom. We’re heading to South East Asia first, where 30-day visas are compulsory (although some can be extended), so it’s necessary to plan your departure as well as your arrival. In some instances,…
-
A-Z OF TRAVEL PREPARATION
We are now right in the throes of preparation for our major adventure – retiring later this year then embarking on pretty much full time travel from early 2020. As we work through these preparations, it strikes us just how much there is to organise and to get into place before you can go. It’s not just a matter of upping sticks and catching a plane – there’s so much to think of, and put into place. So over the next few days, here’s our A-Z of how to be organised enough to take this on. A is for accommodation, and Airbnb; it’s also for apartments. We’re going to leave a…
-
The Best Of……. Breakfast
Lots of travel blogs carry “best of” lists, like the top ten things to do in so-and-so, the top ten sights in wherever. We haven’t done much of that, so as we build up firstly to our next trip to Greece (16 days and counting) and secondly to our World trip next year, we thought we’d have a go at a few different ones. Best breakfasts? Here we go: Stone Town, Zanzibar. Tembo House Hotel. Plantain curry, garlic spinach and hot spicy beans, washed down with ginger coffee. Amazing. The buzz as the spiced coffee sets fire to the curry flavours on your palate is an incredible start to the…
-
Photography by Michaela
Travel and photography are inseparable joys. The stimulation of experiencing different cultures, different cuisine, taking yourself out of your comfort zone, are the very essence of travel. Photography is just one of the ways you capture those moments, those memories. But follow this link http://www.thehungrytravellers.blog/photography-by-michaela/ to see another dimension as our travel photos are skilfully turned into stunning paintings by artist Norma K Read.
-
The World’s Greatest City
Theatres, culture and Iconic sites of interest around London
-
Our strange invitation
The story of how we came to be part of a private party in rural Turkey
-
From Amman to Wadi Musa: seeking the real Jordan.
So the plan starts well, a fairly leisurely breakfast and a quick shuttle back to the airport terminal to collect the hire car, obviously nothing can go wrong. Except that a slightly surreal misunderstanding means that our bodies and our car are some 90 minutes apart, with our car, bizarrely, waiting for us at a military airport instead of the main one. We only know this because a guy from the same hire company spots the paperwork in our hands, and asks who we are! But the guy, and his company, Omaish Rental, are just so helpful and so eager to please that they find a replacement car and get…
-
The adventure begins
This is unusual for us, normally our adventures start in the dark early hours and a pre-dawn drive to an early flight, so it’s odd to find ourselves kicking our heels at home waiting for the time to leave. But this journey is a 4pm flight, so it’s a train to London and tube across to Heathrow, a bite and a couple of beers in Terminal 5, and we’re away. We’re flying with BA this time, which is also unusual. The flight is fine, the only items worthy of comment being the quality of the food (good!), and the amusing fact that dinner and air turbulence arrive at precisely the…
