Short German trips, Sat, 08 Jul 23
Jemma and Simon
at a Sea, UNESCO site
in Europe, Germany
Short German trips, Sun, 02 Apr 23
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, Ruins/Excavation
in Europe, Germany
Trip to two castles after helping Michal move out from Gollanczstraße. Two tickets on the way. Found a ruined building to explore.
Christmas 2022, Tue, 20 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, France
We woke up amidst rather heavy rain wondering how the hell are we going to manage to go to Mount St Michel in that weather. But hey, we are hardcore! We were quite lucky – the rain subsided a bit …
Christmas 2022, Mon, 19 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Museum, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, France
We arrived in Bayeux last night and found a parking spot in the town centre. Unfortunately it was raining heavily all night and in the morning – the weather hasn’t been very kind to us on this trip, but at …
Christmas 2022, Sat, 17 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Graveyard, Museum, Temple
in Europe, France
After leaving the Somme region, we continued on our way to Amiens. The cathedral was extraordinary, with amazing statues and carvings all over the facade. Then we went to the Jules Verne museum in his old house. Simon wanted to …
Christmas 2022, Thu, 15 Dec 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Germany
First winter night in the Baron! We were scared as just before leaving the heating didn’t want to work, but then it started, so all is good. New record: -9. We started our journey to visit Jemma’s family for Christmas …
Short UK trips, Tue, 16 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, UK
Parking around Bath is a pain – ended in a street parking by the university. We started the day in a drizzle checking out the fantastic aqueduct – not Roman but Victorian, allowing narrowboat travel with no locks. We wanted …
Short UK trips, Mon, 15 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Mountain, Ruins/Excavation, Temple
in Europe, UK
We were hoping to make it to Wells to see the cathedral before they close it, but Google lied to us saying we have until 7pm – it actually closed at 5. We once again found a spot to bathe …
Short UK trips, Sat, 13 Aug 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, City, Park, Ruins/Excavation
in Europe, UK
We picked up Boony the van in Bristol and left for Portishead for a fish and chips and a walk through the villa part of town to the beach and back to the town and the really ugly marina. Then …
Short European Trips, Sun, 29 May 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Mountain
in Czechia, Europe
On the way back from Prague, we stopped to see some nature: pretty nice rock formations with opportunities for climbing, squeezing through tight passages, and just frolicking around. Definitely lifted our moods after a rather boring trip to Prague.
Short European Trips, Sun, 15 May 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, City, Graveyard, Museum, Temple, UNESCO site
in Czechia, Europe
Prague turned out quite boring, perhaps even worse than I remember from the last visit. Loud stag and hen parties everywhere, the city centre is overrun by tourism’s lowest denominator. This crowd is served by an assortment of bullshit ‘museums’ …
The Land of no Top Floors, Fri, 18 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
in Africa, Egypt
Diving is awesome! After completing our trial dive, we decided to go full in – we’re doing the PADI Open Water Diver certification that will allow us to dive up to 18m. Basically, we came to Dahab thinking we’ll be …
The Land of no Top Floors, Sun, 13 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
in Africa, Egypt
We thought yesterday was cold! The weather isn’t looking great for our beach time in Dahab, unfortunately, it’s barely 20 degrees, cloudy and quite windy, and it’s meant to stay like that for the better part of the week. We …
The Land of no Top Floors, Thu, 10 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Graveyard, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
Today was amazing! We started off with Maria again, doing another overpriced Ibis tour. First, Ramsess III temple at Medinet Habu. Really amazing, easily one of our favourites – it’s all about tha pharaoh’s wars and victories, there is a …
The Land of no Top Floors, Wed, 09 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
Today was a painful reminder that Egyptian infrastructure is in dire need of modernisation. I wonder how often do they need to change suspension in cars here. The temples of Abydos and Dandera are both awesome, but to be honest, …
The Land of no Top Floors, Tue, 08 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Museum, River
in Africa, Egypt
Our train got back to Luxor just before 10pm and our host kindly ferried us across to the West Bank. Villa Sunrise turned out to be pretty sweet and we’ve got the best room on the roof, with a direct …
The Land of no Top Floors, Sun, 06 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Desert, Graveyard, Ruins/Excavation, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
We slept long and well, if you don’t count the annoying throat ache I developed last evening. I think it must be the dust, because it gets much worse when I’m in the desert. But we got up very late, …
The Land of no Top Floors, Sat, 05 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
We got up at 4:30 today to go to Abu Simbel and see it while the temperatures are still bearable. To be honest, I’m not sure this was necessary, but it seems that this is how things are done here. …
The Land of no Top Floors, Fri, 04 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Museum, River, Ruins/Excavation
in Africa, Egypt
Finally! Freedom to decide what we do when and just take it a bit more easy. We checked out of the boat in the morning, left our luggage with the staff, and headed off with Christina and Marco to town. …
The Land of no Top Floors, Thu, 03 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a City, River, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
Today was quite frustrating. We have a ship ‘cruise’ booked until tomorrow, but we are just docked in Aswan by a noisy street, in between ships, with no view. We have a half-day of trips and a whole afternoon to …
The Land of no Top Floors, Wed, 02 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
at a River, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
It’s Jemma’s birthday!!! How awesome we her to celebrate it in this way! In the morning, I snuck out to tell the crew, so they can prepare a surprise cake for the evening. Tsss, don’t tell her! But despite the …
The Land of no Top Floors, Tue, 01 Mar 22
Jemma and Simon
in Africa, Egypt
Our ship leaves at 2pm, and that’s all the time we have to see the grave of Hatshepsut and the Valley of the Kings! We got up before 6am to make sure we can make it, and had our tea …
The Land of no Top Floors, Mon, 28 Feb 22
Jemma and Simon
at a Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Africa, Egypt
We got up early to get picked up by our guide Ahmed at 8:00. Initially he insisted that we go straight to Karnak, but we convinced him we want to go to the boat first. Which turned out potentially unnecessary, …
Short German trips, Tue, 28 Dec 21
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Museum, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Germany
We woke up really early today to make the most of our day in Lübeck. We were in town so early that we had to walk around a bit waiting for the churches we wanted to see to open! We …
Short German trips, Mon, 27 Dec 21
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Germany
The next surprise location is Wismar. It’s one of the Hanzeatic ports between Lubeck and Rostock that kept changing hands between different rulers and was part of Sweden for some time. We read up on the history on the way …
