10.00am: Well, here we are back in ‘holiday-mode’ where we’re spending six days in and around the beautiful town of Marlborough. Marlborough is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. The town boasts a population of between …
Read More
Category:Holiday
Holiday: Israel – Day 5 (2020)
It’s our last full day here and if the weather forecast is to be believed, it won’t be a day for anything outside! A quick look through our guide-book offered some indoor-alternatives, so we dressed accordingly and headed out into a very grey day. We were umbrella-less due to ours self-destructing during yesterday’s adventures with …
Read More
Holiday: Israel – Day 4 (2020)
The weather forecast for today, Wednesday, is not so good! In a word: ‘showers’! In another word: ‘cold’! Time then, to discover more of Israel, but from the inside of somewhere! 😃 To maintain our sense of adventure (but mostly to dodge the showers!) we’re diving again into the world of Jerusalem’s public transport system. …
Read More
Holiday: Israel – Day 3 (2020)
A slightly earlier start to today as we have a list of places to visit including our continued trek around more of the old city walls that we started yesterday. On our planned itinerary today… Luckily, the weather is much-the-same as yesterday with only a slight chance of rain. Our first stop today was Temple …
Read More
Holiday: Israel – Day 2 (2020)
Well, the forecast was a good start to our day! We slept well and headed for breakfast on floor 8 at a very relaxed 8.45! 😋 An excellent selection to eat, setting us up nicely for the day. We set-off around 9.45am and hatched a plan to see as much of the old city as …
Read More
Holiday: Israel – Day 1 (2020)
Today was a day of travel. Luton to Jerusalem was pretty much 12 hours door-to-door! We do get about don’t we??? 😁 4.12am: Yes, it really was that early! 😵💫 We soon packed-up our things at the Holiday Inn, Luton, and headed downstairs to wait for our pre-booked taxi. 5.15am: Our Taxi was on time, …
Read More
Holiday: Israel – light!
We’re off to Israel for a few days — and we’re travelling light! No unnecessary baggage (what will I do without the sink?). Just the essentials then, for our 2,446 mile, sub-five-hour flight. And keeping to the theme of ‘light’ and ‘easy’, we didn’t even use our car. Instead, David dropped us at the station …
Read More
China – By the numbers!
Welcome to my second – and final – piece reflecting on our recent holiday in China, (the first was posted HERE yesterday). Our 19-day adventure included shiny modern cities, smaller towns, rural locations, large retail malls, small local shops – and pretty-much everything in between! We saw the uber-rich, the rich, the poor and the …
Read More
China – What we learned!
After almost three weeks immersing ourselves in ‘the Chinese way’, here’s the first (of my two-part) light-hearted look at our experiences. Part 2 is tomorrow. The People With a population of around 1.4 billion, in the big cities it certainly felt like it. In the more rural locations, however, you’d never know! Families used to …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 18): Scrutiny On The Buses
Our penultimate day in Hong Kong – and the holiday! Gosh, it feels like we’ve been out here forever! After my recent episode – On the Buses – we’ve now scrutinised our Big Bus sightseeing tour from yesterday, and whilst we didn’t cover everything we planned, we did pretty well! 😁 I therefore feel a …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 17): Hong Kong – On the Buses
Well, hello there my Reader, thanks for stopping-by. It’s Day 2 for us in Hong Kong – day 17 of our 19-day adventure in China. 😁 We’re sight-seeing today by Bus today taking in the sights of Hong Kong, courtesy of the Big Bus Tour. We’re attempting to cover as many of their routes as …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 16): Hello Hong Kong!
Evening all! We’re now on the final leg of our Chinese adventure – we’re in Hong Kong! 🙂 We landed around 4.30 local time (09.30 KMT) and headed for our home for the next four days – The Kerry Hotel. Ralph and Karen are here in HK for the first time, whilst it’s the fourth …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 15): Shanghai Lights
Greetings reader! 👍. It’s a rare no-official-tour day today! No pagodas, no squirrels posing as fish (or vice-versa) and most of all, no mad Chinese motorists to worry about! 😉 Today’s Post, therefore, is about just one thing – the spectacular light show here in ‘The Bund‘ area of Shanghai city that wows the crowds …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 14): Suzhou on a Choo-Choo!
Morning! 😊(Sorry it’s late again!) Today, we’re on the train heading for Suzhou! But before all that, what could be better than meeting a new Tour Guide? …it’s meeting TWO new Tour Guides. First up, there’s Mark who’s looking after us in Shanghai, and later we were to meet Stephen, for our Tour around Suzhou. …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 13): Shanghai Surprise!
Afternoon all! 😎After yesterday’s temporary suspension of my blogging activity (I blame me ‘OD-ing’ on pagaodas!) I’m back; and since you last looked, we’ve moved to the right, and up a bit – travelling north-east to Shanghai, city of finance. Getting there though, meant a scarily-early alarm call! I think we’re competing with our friends …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 12): Lazy Day on the Li
This is the Post I should have written on Friday (the 18th), but it was such a full-on day, I ran out of time! 🙄 A super-early breakfast at 7am today and we’re thankfully, checking-out of this very disappointing Sheraton. A tired hotel, desparately in need of a makeover with a complete lack of organisation …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 11): Sightseeing in Guilin
Morning all! It was breakfast at 8am this morning, in preparation for Jeremy, our Guide, and his half-day walking-tour of Guilin at 9! Techy note: Connectivity here in our room in Guilin is a nightmare, with even the VPNs refusing to connect. Worst of all, it’s random. 😮😮 Although the weather doesn’t look too promising, …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 10): Guilin for Guinness!
We checked-out of the Hilton Hotel in Xi’an this morning. Next stop is Guilin – a two-hour flight courtesy of China Southern Airlines. We said goodbye to Nina (our Guide) and Mr Su (our Driver) and headed for check-in. After a delayed take-off, we arrived in Guilin at around 1.45pm. We were now 874 miles …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 9): Sightseeing in Xian
Morning all! Another day, another Temple! Pagoda Mad Chinese motorist sight-seeing opportunity! 😁. Here we are in Xian (or more correctly, Xi’an) cultural capital of China. Xi’an has a population of 9 million (and most of those seem to be on the road (or IN the road, trying to cross) at any one moment in …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 8): Tour of Ancient Pingyao City
Evening all! We have just a single day here in Pingyao, so we’re making the most of it with a walking tour of the ancient city tour hosted by our Guide, Mona. Later this afternoon, we’re on the ‘bullet-train’ taking the 302 mile journey to Xi’an. Today, we welcome guest-blogger, Mrs P as I’m all …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 7): In Search of Temples
Morning all! It’s Sunday and I feel the need for some Temples! We have a plan!! 😁 After breakfast (at the far more reasonable hour of 7.30) we checked-out and met Mona and Mr G in Reception. It’s cold today (although I didn’t really notice – but that’s normal!). The locals are all dressed-up in …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 6): A Date with Datong (Eventually!)
It’s Saturday! No chance of a lie-in though as we were all up at the ridiculous hour of 3am! 😮Why? We needed to get the first flight to Datong – the CA1119 courtesy of Air China at 6.20am – what could be simpler! We met Michael and Dung in the hotel lobby and took the …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 5): Summer and a Nest!
Out and about in Beijing again! It’s our final day here as tomorrow, we take the short internal flight at ‘silly-o’clock’ to Datong – the next leg of our Chinese adventure! On today’s travel plans… We’re getting into a bit of a routine now! Just like yesterday, we met Michael and Dong Dung (Ooops! I …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 4): Wonder Wall
Morning Reader! 👍 It’s Thursday and whilst we’re here in China, we just had to visit The Great Wall! (or at least, part of it!) We met our guide, Michael, and our driver, Dong, in the Lobby for 8.30am and headed north from the Hotel. It would have been a two-hour drive to this iconic …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 3): Imperial China
We’re in full tourist mode today! So it was up at 6.15, breakfast at 7 and meet our tour-guide Michael, at 8, in the hotel-lobby! 👍 On today’s itinerary… Tiananmen Square Monument to the People’s Heroes Tiananmen Gate Mao’s Mausoleum Great Hall of the People The Forbidden City Tea tasting session! Beer tasting session …although …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 2): Arrival in Beijing
We’ve landed! It’s Tuesday morning here in Beijing! ..and the weather is just perfect for a gentle stroll… And when I say ‘gentle stroll’, I mean an accompanied two-hour walking tour of Beijing’s local neighbourhood – the ‘old town’. It was delightful! We checked in to the Hotel around 2pm and were soon unpacking! As …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 2): Extra
An extra Post showing-off some of the architecture in our first hotel – The Grand Millennium Hotel, Beijing. Boy, they certainly know how to impress! Click on any of the miniatures for a larger view! Wow! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into …
Read More
Holiday – China (Day 1): Travel Day
We’re off! From home, we took the train (1 hour) into St Pancras International and then the tube to Heathrow T5 (65 minutes and 25 stops!). It was all a bit of a challenge with four suitcases, two carry-on bags, two handbags, a back-pack and a laptop case – but at least they saw us …
Read More
The Great (Fire)Wall of China!
It’s our big holiday-of-the year soon – to China – with our long-time travel companions, Ralph and Karen. But this trip is going to be a little different from our previous adventures together in terms of how we keep you up to date. Why? In China, most western-based social media activity is completely blocked or …
Read More
Holiday: Return from Oz – Day 18 (of 18): By the Numbers
Auto Cross-posted from my Blog…