Godspeed to Olympos, Tue, 26 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, Transit
in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Europe
The bunker turned out to be totally worth the wait. Already getting the ticket was an experience – as it’s still a military zone, I had to go to the nearby village to get a permission to access. Compared to …
Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 24 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, River, Temple, Waterfall
in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Europe
I crossed to Bosnia and Hercegovina early in the morning and was pleasantly surprised to see my Montenegran SIM card work here. Great, I don’t need to buy a new one! After yesterday’s storm, it got a fair bit colder …
Godspeed to Olympos, Sat, 23 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, UNESCO site
in Croatia, Europe
The last place I visited in Montenegro is Herceg Novi – another town with a historic centre by the Kotor Bay. To be honest, by now it’s nothing special. Castle, fortress, city walls, same old, same old. Then, I braced …
Godspeed to Olympos, Fri, 22 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, Mountain, Sea, UNESCO site
in Europe, Montenegro
Well, don’t trust the weather forecast, is a moral of that story! I got up in the morning to find a fog so sick that I couldn’t see 20 metres ahead, save enjoy gorgeous views of the whole country. I …
Godspeed to Olympos, Thu, 21 Sep 23
Simon
at a Cave, City, Mountain
in Europe, Montenegro
My toe is feeling better today and I’m pumped up with some seaside energy, do time to resume the action! Last night, I drove up to Podgorica’ famed Niagara waterfall and… found it empty. The rock water bed with it’s …
Godspeed to Olympos, Wed, 20 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, Sea
in Europe, Montenegro
The toe I sprained yesterday is still hurting a lot and makes it hard to walk. And thus, today is another day of just chilling by the seaside. I’m determined to make the most of it. First, St Stefan, with …
Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 17 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, Lake, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, North Macedonia
I spent two days by the Ohrid lake. On both, I spent the morning hanging out in or around the van, writing, catching up on things, and generally just taking things slow. I feel I’m running out of steam a …
Godspeed to Olympos, Thu, 07 Sep 23
Simon
at a City, Lake, Museum
in Europe, North Macedonia
This morning I found out once again how awesome the Baron is. Someone was walking around and even knocking and calling, I’m not sure who or why. I didn’t give sign of life and they just left. Minutes later I …
Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 03 Sep 23
Simon
at a City
in Europe, Serbia
I set off towards Belgrade making a stop at Sremsky Karlovsky. It’s a cute little village with a lot of wineries and I quaint little centre. I stumbled upon a mass in the orthodox church and the one thing that …
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, 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, 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, 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 …
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, 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, 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 …
