Road trip (Week 2) – Settling down in picture perfect Slovenia… but only for a while…

Kanal ob Soči

Kanal ob Soči

Friday, 22 September 2017 to Thursday, 28 September 2017
On Friday we woke up to an amazingly blue-sky day in Budapest. This is what we came here for but unfortunately we had to move on… but we will be back… We had to be out of the hotel by 10:00, we were out by 11:00 thanks to a lovely and understanding young receptionist.

We drove towards the Slovenian border with this vignette thing still restless and murmuring in the back of my head – as you may recall from last week’s blog – but once again I chose to ignore its pleas and stick my head in the sand… Continue reading

The start of our road trip – Six countries in six days… exhausting but exhilarating!

Prague

Prague

Friday, 15 September 2017 to Thursday, 21 September 2017

It rained most of the day in Amsterdam, no surprises there; it had been the norm for the last week or two. But, we were okay with that, we had to start packing in order to write the next chapter of our journey. We were scheduled to pick our rental car up at Schiphol Airport tomorrow for our month long road trip to the east of Europe. Our main destination would be Slovenia where we intended to visit friends Marina and Steve whom we met on Koh Samui. They came to visit us in Chiang Mai (Thailand) and again in Budva (Montenegro), now it was our turn visit. Continue reading

Amsterdam blessed us with more water than expected, but we had a swimmingly good time

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Friday, 8 September 2017 to Thursday, 14 September 2017
A grey and gloomy looking day greeted us Friday morning. It was misty all around; it was raining felines and hounds out there. Late morning the rain petered out to nothing and then repeated the same cycle… over and over again throughout the day.

During one of these lulls we slipped out to the Jumbo Supermarket for some sorely needed food stuffs. By the time we finished shopping it was raining on our parade once again. Fortunately Adri, the one with the good sense, took an umbrella along, we got home mostly dry. Continue reading

Amsterdam, a wonderful city filled with amazing architecture, culture and canals

Red light district

Red light district

Friday, 1 September 2017 to Thursday, 7 September 2017
It was freezing today; I closed the sliding door behind me to keep some warmth close to my body, hugging that hot coffee mug close to my chest had zero effect. We spent the day coopd up inside the apartment busying ourselves with admin and blogging, with plentiful breaks in-between for reading and such, a thoroughly relaxing day.

Continue reading

Amsterdam, our new temporary home in Holland, or is that the Netherlands?

Weesp

Weesp

Friday, 25 August 2017 to Thursday, 31 August 2017
We had to wake up at 05:00 in order to leave the hotel by 06:00 to be at the bus station at 06:30 to get on the bus to Amsterdam at 07:00. Easy… did I just say easy?

The Paris metro was never designed with Adri and I in mind, we were not about to carry those heavy bags up and down metro stairs… again. So we opted for a taxi this time. Last night I tried to reserve a taxi for 06:00 this morning but was told it was not possible, I had to make the reservation at least 12 hours in advance. Hmm… okay? I let it go. Continue reading

About This Site – An Introduction

Travel And All… This site is not a Travel Guide, or a How To Guide, or a Ten Best Guide, although you may find some of those aspects interwoven within these posts and pages. This blog is essentially about us living our lives while travelling, slowly and deliberately, savoring each moment as it passes.

Some background to this site… We used to publish our blog on a different blogging platform but found that it was just too limiting for what we wanted to do, hence the reason we are now in the process of migrating all those posts to our own web site here Continue reading

Paris continues to captivate while it oozes charm and chic

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

Friday, 18 August 2017 to Thursday, 24 August 2017
Yesterday we arrived in Paris, thoroughly tired after negotiating busses and bus stops with poor signage and metros and metro stops with poor traveller facilities such as escalators to do the heavy lifting. Above expectations, we finally did arrive at our hotel safe and sound. So, of course we slept in this morning and got up just in time to go for breakfast.

Rain was forecast for Paris today and it sure delivered on its promise. As I drew the curtains aside I was met with a gray Paris with gray clouds clouding the sky. Rain was softly falling, sometimes increasing just a tad in intensity, it was great!  Continue reading

Friends came to visit us in Lyon, and then we moved to Paris

Musée des Confluences Lyon

Musée des Confluences Lyon

Friday, 11 August 2017 to Thursday, 17 August  2017
As you may recall, Estee and Dries rolled into town yesterday but we decided to give them the day off to recover from their trip from SA as well as the copious amounts of beer and such that was consumed last night. Continue reading

We got into traboule, then we got into more traboules, but we eventually found a way out

Théâtre gallo-romain on Fourvière hill

Théâtre gallo-romain on Fourvière hill

Friday, 4 August 2017 to Thursday, 10 August  2017
It was mid afternoon when we took the metro to Croix Rousse for supper, but of course it was way too early for that, we had less important things to do. Lyon is the silk capital of the Europe so a stay here would not be complete without a visit to one of its silk related museums. We chose the one closet to our selected restaurant for the evening which happened to be La Maison des Canuts (House of the Lyonnais silk workers). Continue reading

We tried to beat the oppressive heat with Paix Dieu, but it only made us Delirium Tremens

Cour d'Appel de Lyon at night

Cour d’Appel de Lyon at night

Friday, 28 July 2017 to Thursday, 3 August  2017
We looked from our lounge window towards the parking area of our apartment building where a young family was busy packing their van for the holidays, which obviously starts today… and we contemplated how cool it would be to go on holiday… Hmm… Okay. Continue reading