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Holidays and holiday reading
H and I had planned a German rail jaunt which would take us back to Budapest but reports of Deutsche-Bahn’s service were so discouraging we decided to give it a miss using Salzburg as our starting point instead. Best skip to the end if you’re only here for books: this will be a long one. […]
Eight Days in Austria, Two Days in Switzerland, Five Days in France and Three Books Read More »
Once a year H and I travel north to see our dear friends M, who lives one side of the Pennines, and N, who lives the other. This year we rented a cottage in Holmfirth on the Yorkshire side planning to meet N later in the week, sadly scuppered as he and his partner had
Three Days in Yorkshire, One in Shropshire and Most of a Book Read More »
I had two reasons to feel a little superstitious about our Ghent trip: firstly, we’d planned to go in March 2020 days before lockdown at home – Belgium got there before us – and secondly the last time I travelled on Eurostar we both caught covid. H and I gathered our courage and set off
Three Days in Ghent and One Book Read More »
H and I had been to Stockholm years ago arriving in the middle of an August heatwave so humid we didn’t do nearly as much as we’d planned. Consequently, my memories of the city were hazy, although the image of a young woman taking a piglet for a walk has stayed with me. We thought
Four Days in Stockholm and One Book Read More »
Aiming to break up the winter gloom, H and I took ourselves off to London for a few days planning to catch up with a few friends and family plus take in a bit of culture. We arrived on a gloriously sunny afternoon and decided to visit the National Portrait Gallery which underwent a substantial
Three Days in London and One Book Read More »
We’d had such a lovely time when we last visited Portugal, pre-pandemic, I suggested a Portuguese railway jaunt to H. Our plan was less ambitious than our Central European holidays with just three stops and a flight either end, the first one to Porto. We’d visited the city back in September 2001, a strange time
Fourteen Days in Portugal and Two Books Read More »
Our June holiday in The Hague started well but became a bit of a nightmare when H and I both went down with a nasty bout of covid, overshadowing much of the summer. We decided a short, easy break in Lyme Regis would finish off our recuperation. Things didn’t get off to a brilliant start
Three days in and Around Lyme Regis and Just One Book Read More »
H and I enjoyed our 2022 stay in The Hague so much we wanted to explore more of the Netherlands but after spending more hours of my life than I care to think about looking for somewhere as nice as Residenz Stadslogement, decided to return and use it as a base again. The first two
Eight Days in the Netherlands and One Book Read More »
H and I visited Manchester two years ago to see friends and visit the Derek Jarman exhibition which we both loved. We had the much-restored Rochdale Town Hall in our sights this time, more of which later. Our hotel was a stone’s throw away from Manchester Cathedral which looks more like a pretty parish church
Three Days in and Around Manchester plus One Book Read More »
This was our first big rail jaunt since 2018 when we’d taken the Eurostar to Amsterdam, flying home from Warsaw two weeks later. Our plan for the next one was to venture into Ukraine, sadly no longer an option. Instead, we decided to wend our way though Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to Budapest,
Sixteen Days in Central Europe and Three Books Read More »
Our first trip after the 2020 summer of social distancing and lockdowns was to the New Forest, staying at Daisybank Cottage, a delightful Arts and Crafts B & B on the edge of Brockenhurst. It was a slightly odd experience, hardly surprising in the circumstances, but we enjoyed ourselves very much. This time we stayed
Three days in the New Forest and Most of a Book Read More »