First time down the Lenzerheide pass to Chur in Smart Arse and it coped very well. Some very tight hair pin bends but at least, on the way there at least, it was downhill all the way. We headed first for the station as wanted to check the way there and parking facilities ready for train rides later in the week.
We drive right through the bus station, which is also part train station as the train Read on...
The last time I was on the West Coast of Ireland, I experienced the air as so clean, so refreshingly sharp, so sweet, that I gulped. Inhaling as quickly and as deeply as I could, filling my otherwise polluted London lungs from the City with clean Atlantic air. This time was no different. Landing at Shannon Airport, County Clare, I recalled how much I enjoyed the quiet, friendly, simplicity of it. Read on...
The weather is now treating us well. Sunny for most of the day. A headwind for the first half and then in our favour. We had a snack in Killybegs, which is a big crushing port, but light on cafes open on a Sunday so we ate at a Mace convenience store before travelling along what is one of the most spectacular coastal roads in Ireland. The road went up and down but provided some great views of sand Read on...
The train arrived in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg at 1552. By the time I arrived at the hotel, there was little time for anything besides a short walk and a bite to eat; however, as I was settling into my room, I heard patriotic music from the street below. Stepping onto the balcony, I saw several folks involved in some kind of ceremony across the street from the hotel at what I later learned is t Read on...
This is the first kosher tour from Israel to Egypt. Our day started early meeting the group and our tour leader Cindy Kline at Ben Gurion airport at 9.30am. We were travelling on a tour entitled In the footsteps of the Exodus with Rabbi Professor Joshua Berman. Rabbi Berman is professor of Tanach at university, Tel Aviv and has served on the international of the Museum of Bible, Washington D.C. Read on...
Seventeen hours on a coach is no ones idea of a good time, but if anything could be worth such an extended period of purgatory it would surely be the chance to indulge in a few days of leisurely sailing through a tropical archipelago. And having spent the previous two weeks giving both my upper body (on my Noosa River kayak trip) and then my lower body (on the Cooloola Great Walk) a workout, I fig Read on...
I had several housekeeping items on the London agenda. I had been watching the Iceland weather and saw that the days had been cool and windy and the evenings had been down right brisk and windy. I went shopping again for some sturdier footwear, heavy socks, gloves and a stocking cap. I also needed to update all the tour information since I really hadnt even looked at the Iceland trip since I left Read on...
After last nights Flamenco exhibition, it would be difficult to find anything more fun in Sevilla, so its time to move on again. This time were leaving Spain again, even if its just for a few hours, to visit Gibraltar, which is actually part of Britain. We cant actually bring the bus into Gibraltar, both because its too big to get very far, but more because the bus and our luggage inside are subje Read on...
Days 430 to 434. Week 20 the year . A whole shedload of days disappeared and no sign of life on the horizon as things change day on day. The weather has been awful . Rain . Heavy most of the time swelling the river Dee up by over a metre. The river looks lovely when it is fast flowing but nature is cruel . The Sandpipers chicks have been washed away by the sheer force of the water. The Kingfishers Read on...
The day started as regularly. Breakfast was very decent and the sky was looking to rain. Although we started out riding dry, the rain came quite quickly. Fortunately, the rain did not last. Little weather problems for the rest of the day.
Some decisions were made to shorten our ride. Instead of biking around the bay close to Setubal, we decided to take a ferry, shortening the ride significantly. Read on...