Travel 2010 – Monaco, Vence, Valbonne, Days 4 and 5

Saturday, 16th/Sunday, 17th October 2010 – Monaco, Vence, Valbonne, Days 4 and 5 Saturday we again got off to a slow start – though I did slot in my training run (13k) before breakfast (having watched Nico Hulkenberg vanish into the distance outside – I never saw him come back). At breakfast they were losing…

Travel 2010 – Monaco, Antibes, Day 3

Friday, 15th October 2010 – Monaco, Antibes, Day 3 Friday morning I got up relatively early and went for a swim in the hotel pool – which was heart-stoppingly cold that early in the day. The sun was just coming up behind the building and hadn’t hit the water, but I soon warmed up and…

Travel 2010 – Monaco, Days 1 and 2

Wednesday, 13th/Thursday, 14th October 2010 – Monaco, Days 1 and 2 I’ve been missing in action for such a long time now that it’s very hard to know where to start, so I’ll make it simple and go with where I am right now and what I’m doing. After a long complicated summer, Lynne and…

Travel 2009 – Portimao, Silves, Faro, Estoi, Day 5

Monday, 14th September 2009 – Portimao, Silves, Faro, Day 5 Monday morning we were in no hurry at all to do anything or go anywhere, apart from needing to check out of the Globo by noon. We had a leisurely breakfast, packed slowly and were ready to go by 11. Bills paid and car packed…

Travel 2009 – Zeltingen-Rachtig, Traben-Trarbach, Bernkastel-Kues, Erden, Wehlen, Urzig, Jezus-Eik, Days 5 and 6

Monday, 8th/Tuesday, 9th June 2009 – Zeltingen-Rachtig, Traben-Trarbach, Bernkastel-Kues, Erden, Wehlen, Urzig, Jezus-Eik, Days 5 and 6 Monday dawned sunny and fine, so we had a late, leisurely and extremely good breakfast. The hotel specialises in organic produce from the immediate area as much as possible and also various smoked and home-cured meats and fish….

Travel 2007 – Macau, Day 6

Friday, 16th November 2007 – Macau, Day 6 Again we went out to take photos on a corner, though this time we took all our kit to the press office first. Then we grabbed the first available press shuttle bus and went to Hospital Hill, somewhere neither of us had been before. We got there…

Travel 2007 – Lisbon, Day 2

Saturday, 20th October 2007 – Lisbon, Day 2 Saturday we had a late-ish breakfast then headed for the Praça do Comercio where we discovered that the princely sum of 17€ each we could play with the historic tourist tram, a splendid electric tram of some early vintage, which would take us for an hour and…

Travel 2007 – Lisbon, Day 1

Friday, 19th October 2007 – Lisbon, Day 1 Three facts stick in the mind after our visit to Lisbon: There are no flat surfaces in Lisbon – it’s always up or down. All statues of great navigators have a seagull permanently attached to their heads. It may be symbolic… It’s bad news when the bottom…

Travel 2006 – Vienna, Day 3

Sunday, 3rd December 2006 – Vienna, Day 3 Sunday was slightly less frenetic than Saturday had been. Again we started with a superb breakfast in the hotel, then took a slow wander along to the Hofburg. It was a chilly day, but we wandered round the outside for a while, and along the Ringstrasse before…

Travel 2006 – Vienna, Day 2

Saturday, 2nd December 2006 – Vienna, Day 2 Saturday got off to a good start (though everyone was a bit sleepy). Breakfast proved to be excellent, with some superb bread and rolls in all shapes, sizes and textures, and hams, cheeses, spreads, jams and things to go with them. There was plenty of fresh fruit,…