Category: Europe
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Winter Wonderland, Kiruna, Sweden.
In the far north of Sweden lies a little town called Kiruna. A small town it might be, but it is home to the biggest iron mine in the world, and, more importantly for us, the staging point for three days’ worth of arctic adventures. As the plane descends, the heavy cloud cover gives way…
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Snowy lessons in Christmas.
Christmas Day dawns quite unceremoniously in Cervinia, nestled in the outstretched arms of the Italian Alps. While this quaint ski-town is bedecked with sparking white lights, and the odd decorative reindeer, the shops will be open today and people shall go about their business with, apparently, scant regard to the occasion. This was the first…
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London in the Sunshine
In the fifteen years I have been boomeranging back to London to see family and friends, never has that fleeting glimpse of summer the Brits get coincided so marvellously with my trip… until now. And London in the sunshine is just glorious. The kids and I had a ball with family. For the first time,…
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Magical Cotswolds
It is easy to forget, driving through the built up megalith of London, that England is in fact a patchwork of ancient villages, surrounded by fields of green, in shifting hues and shades. In fact, barely two hours out of London, in The Cotswolds, it is as though you have been thrust into the scenery…
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Magnificent Kew Gardens
If there is one thing Brits excel at, it is green spaces, and the gardens at Kew are no exception. We spent a gorgeous day walking through this magnificent green space admiring the bursts of colour and the lush green surroundings, putting our heads into steamy glass houses and trying not to look down from…
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London Revitalised
I am not sure why it is, but for the first time in a long time, I found myself really appreciating and enjoying London on this recent trip to my old home. I think I moved from “I used to live here, been there, seen that, done it all”, to seeing it again with fresh…
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Find yourself in Rome
When I decided to go to Rome, it wasn’t because I thought I needed it. That came later. It was because Rome is supposed to be the most romantic and wonderful of European cities, and I felt it was worth visiting at least once in my life. I can’t remember why I suddenly hankered to…
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The Canal du Midi
For the final leg of our trip to France, we putter gently down the murky brown waters of the Canal du Midi. Built to create a continuous water way between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, it was completed in 1681 and has flowed ever since. We start our little sojourn at the port of Le…
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The Dordogne, France – Road Trip
We’ve exchanged the sophistication of Paris for rustic, rural France. We arrived into Bordeaux via the high speed train network and headed straight out again in our newly acquired campervan. On the way to St Emilion, in the heart of acres of green, luscious vineyards, we stopped at, what seemed to me to be, the…
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Long weekend in Paris
We have been in Paris for four days and today we make our way south to the wine capital of Bordeaux. Paris is absolutely gorgeous. And the Parisians are wonderful. People often say Parisians are rude and obnoxious, but we have only found them to be courteous, helpful and very relaxed. Compared to Londeners, their…
Reflections from Middle Age 