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 …
Chasing the sun, Fri, 24 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a Cave, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Slovenia
Yesterday we drove up to Hrastovlje, a small village where Jemma found a medieval walled church with a famous Dance of Death frescos. It was closed as we arrived late, so we went to the village inn where we had …
Chasing the sun, Wed, 22 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, City, Ruins/Excavation, Temple
in Europe, Italy
We woke up to amazing views of the Gulf of Trieste. Park4night is an awesome map and has helped us find so many great parking spots. This spot was just outside Prosecco, on the slope down to Trieste. Our first …
Chasing the sun, Tue, 21 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, City, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Italy
Wine land. Arrived in he evening, drove up a very steep road to a parking spot. Walked down for some Prosecco, started raining, walked back up in the rain, soaked. Next day watched sunrise from the hill we were parked …
Chasing the sun, Mon, 20 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, City, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Italy
Waiting overnight to walk around the walls was totally worth it. Fantastic views of town, the mountains around, seeing the town change from every angle… Great stuff. Annoyingly, all the information plates that tell you about the town and the …
Chasing the sun, Sun, 19 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Museum, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Italy
It was too much. More and more people were showing up and a couple cars were blasting music pretty loud, so around 11pm we bailed and found a lovely spot by the road a bit down the hill. In the …
Chasing the sun, Sat, 18 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a Mountain, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Italy
We started today slow. We didn’t get it of bed until 11, spending the time on sorting photos and just chilling. A much needed break from our typical chase after the next attraction! Throughout the morning, more and more cyclists …
Chasing the sun, Mon, 13 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
with Ania, Michał
at a City, Museum, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Italy
Day 1 First day in Venice! We left the van at a carpark on the mainland and took the bus to Venice – this seemed to be the best option for us, as parking is really limited and expensibe on …
Chasing the sun, Sun, 12 Sep 21
Jemma and Simon
at a Castle, City, Museum, Temple
in Europe, Italy
We woke up to more incredible views – I’ve been very pleased with the parking spots we’ve found so far on this trip! Mountains with the small city of Trento in between them. We decided to leave the van where …
