With our foreign holiday plans in tatters (for this year at least) due to you-know-what, we’re still travelling, but instead, we’re staying closer to home and re-discovering the UK. Recently, we spent a brilliant time in Scotland and for this latest trip, we’re the opposite end of the country – in Devon. But first we …
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Category:Holiday
Holiday: Scotland – Day 8, Seven Days a Highlander!
Well, we’ve just spent the past seven days in Scotland. The first half was a bit ‘off the beaten track’ with friends in Gartly, Aberdeenshire and then we drove to Inverness’s largest hotel – The Kingsmills – for the remainder. Not sure if that makes me a (temporary) ‘Highlander’ or not!? Although we’ve been to …
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Holiday: Scotland – Day 7(8): My Birthday 2020
Thanks for all your good wishes, cards and gifts! They’re mostly all back at home and I’ll enjoy them when we’re back tomorrow! Here we are then, in Bonnie Scotland, on the occasion of my 64th. It’s another day of discovery today and we’ve got two locations in mind:- Nairn – a well-known seaside town …
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Holiday: Scotland – Day 6(8)
My last day of ’63-ness’ today, and we’re off to Loch Ness! Given our complete failure to spot any dolphins during this trip, I don’t hold out much hope for an encounter with Nessie! KEY FACTS ABOUT THE LOCH22 miles longAverage depth of 433 feetMaximum depth of 744.6 feet1.8 cubic miles of water1 monster We’re …
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Holiday: Scotland – Day 4(8)
Well, that’s the first half of our Scottish break over – and it passed really quickly! After a relaxing and VERY enjoyable few days with Richard and Lynn in Gartly, we’re off to our next (and final) ‘home’ for the final four-days – the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness. In some respects, our leaving was perfect …
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Holiday: Scotland – Day 3(8)
It’s our last full day here before we drive to Inverness tomorrow – and we’ve a busy one planned (nothing new there ehh?!) After yesterday’s adventure that took us to the rather beautiful areas of Banff, Portsoy and Cullen (ending with a drive through next-door Buckie) today, we’re soaking-up more of the area to the …
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Holiday: Scotland – Day 2(8)
I was up early, mainly down to me setting the clock an hour fast! The weather forecast looks promising (although not quite as warm as it predicted yesterday) and so on Richard’s advice, we’re heading for the Moray Coast about a 40 minute drive from base-camp. 11.15am: First stop was Banff, a small town and …
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Holiday: Scotland – Day 1(8)
We always go away for my birthday and this year is no exception. Although the official celebration is still a week away, we thought we’d start early! What a difference a year makes! Twelve months ago for my celebration, we were in central London, shoulder-to-shoulder on a sweaty tube-train! This year, we’re heading in completely …
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Holiday: Marlborough – Day 5 (of 5)
7.00am: Morning! 😁 The latest weather forecast suggests that it’s not going to be as bad as we thought, but we still need our weekly dose of ‘retail therapy’! So, we’re NOT packing the sun cream, instead, we’re heading for Swindon Designer Outlet. Last time we were here was back in March 2012 during Ann’s …
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Holiday: Marlborough – Day 4 (of 5)
6.30am: A bit of a lie-in this morning! 💤 According to the forecast, it’s another warm one today, so we plan to make the most of it. We’re heading out to Heale House and Gardens in nearby (ish) Middle Wooton and then onto NT’s Cherhill Downs – armed with a picnic of course! Actually, the …
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Holiday: Marlborough – Day 3 (of 5)
6.10am: I certainly slept better than yesterday and if they can get the service right at Breakfast after yesterday’s fiasco, then all will be right in the world! 7.55am: It’s breakfast time and I’m happy to report that it all went very smoothly and there was no visible wounds showing on the staff from where …
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Holiday: Marlborough – Day 2 (of 5)
6.45am: Morning all! 👍👍 Strangely, I didn’t sleep too well, waking up at 2.30am (!!!) accompanied by a head that felt like I’d overdone it on the shandies! Disappointingly, I hadn’t!!! I popped a few pills and tried to get back to sleep. My pounding head (like my hairline) receded quickly, but I never really …
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Holiday: Marlborough – Day 1 (of 5)
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 …
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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 …
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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. …
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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 …
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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 …
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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, …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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. …
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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 …
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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 …
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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, …
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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 …
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