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, Mon, 18 Sep 23
Simon
at a Lake, Temple
in Europe, North Macedonia
I have to say that the North-West of Macedonia is a sharp contrast to what I’ve seen before. Suddenly, there is rubbish everywhere. And stray dogs. I guess the dogs spread out the rubbish, too. There were piles on the …
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, Fri, 15 Sep 23
Simon
at a Temple
in Europe, Greece
This trip was quite a spiritual journey for me and I felt the need to spend some time with myself, reflecting on life. For this purpose I decided to drive back up the slopes of Olympos to the Monastery of …
Godspeed to Olympos, Fri, 08 Sep 23
Simon
at a Ruins/Excavation, Temple
in Europe, North Macedonia
Last night I parked the Baron and was turned out being the back entrance to the archaeological site of the ancient and early medieval city of stubbing today I woke up and it turned out being another only lovely and …
Godspeed to Olympos, Tue, 05 Sep 23
Simon
at a Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Serbia
Today did not start the way I was hoping it to. I slept by the Resavska Pecina cave, planning to visit it as it opens at 9am. But it turned out that it’s closed and they won’t open until enough …
Godspeed to Olympos, Mon, 04 Sep 23
Simon
at a Temple, Waterfall
in Europe, Serbia
Miljkov MonasteryMiljkov MonasteryMiljkov MonasteryMiljkovDobreš monasteryZlatenac ZlatenacRadošinZlatenacRadošinRadošinSaint SavaTomic monasteryTomic JakovicManasija Manasija MonasteryManasija Today I discovered why you shouldn’t sleep by a monastery. They very much still ring the bells for prayers at 3am, and then at 6am, and then at 7am, and then at …
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 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 …
Short German trips, Sun, 07 Mar 21
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Forest, Lake, Ruins/Excavation, Temple, UNESCO site
in Europe, Germany
Welterbe Bauhaus Denkmal Bundesschule BernauWalls of BernauAskanierturmBridge by the AskanierturmSilkebucheCold cold March watersJoachimsthal KaiserbahnhofAd for the Großziethen Geopark by the Dorfkirche Golzow This has been a long, long winter. We were pretty well prepared – living on the outskirts of …
Short Polish trips, Sat, 17 Oct 20
Jemma and Simon
at a City, Sea, Temple
in Europe, Poland
In the morning we packed up to leave the apartment, and drove off East. First stop: Pustkowo. Where as a young kid I spent every summer with my grandparents. I called them to check on the specific location we stayed …
Short Polish trips, Wed, 14 Oct 20
Jemma and Simon
at a Museum, Temple
in Europe, Poland
Światowid between multisDancing like the EmperorOrgan in Kamień PomorskiSTORM!!! The weather did not stay nice as long as the forecast promised. The wailing of the wind at night woke us up a lot, and in the morning we woke up …
