Month: August 2017

Today we drove from Bordeaux to Versailles, on the southern side of Paris. We’ll be doing a tour of the Palace tomorrow, but this afternoon, we checked into our Air B’n’B, jumped on a bus, headed toward the Palace, and spent a few hours wandering the streets.For whatever reason, I was not inspired to take…

Today, we drove from Zumaia to Bordeaux, another long-ish day of around 7 hours. I didn’t shoot anything along the way, as we just wanted to get there and get settled so we could hit the streets of Bordeaux. Our Air B’n’B turned out to be the dodgiest of them all (I guess one of…

We’ve been in Zumaia for 24 hours and absolutely fallen in love with place. Today, Cath went off and sat on the beach and had some quiet time while I wandered around with the camera taking photos. These rocks are just mind boggling. At the left end of the beach (the Southern end), I could…

As has been our modus operandi on this trip, we decided yesterday afternoon that it was time to start looking for accommodation for our next port of call (for tonight). We were originally going to go to San Sebastian, but when she started looking for an Air B’n’B there, Cath said “It’s more expensive than…

While we absolutely loved the atmosphere in Fao, it wasn’t an overly photogenic town, so this ended up being a bit of a rest day for the camera. But come the evening, I was starting to feel guilty that I hadn’t shot anything all day. So I dropped Cath back at our Air B’n’B and…

So, having decided to skip our second day in Lisbon, we packed up the car and headed out to Bellum to see the Tower of St Vincent. We then headed out to the area known as Sintra about an hour’s drive west of Lisbon. This area is full of historic buildings. The one place that…

Today we headed back into the centre of Lisbon and wandered the streets some more. We saw some beautiful architecture, some REALLY old footings (dating from the 1st Century AD!) and a great view across the top of the city from a rooftop somewhere. We got to about 8 o’clock in the evening and decided…

We left Portimao and started heading toward Lisbon..But along the way, we decided to stop in Lagos, which was also on the South Coast. It was a beautiful little town and we wandered the back streets looking at all the beautiful white-washed buildings, the cobblestone streets and marveling at some of the frescoes that adorned…

Today, we went on our boat trip to see the sea caves. While we were waiting to get on board the cruise boat, I noticed the dodgem car ride adjacent to the wharf, with its NSFW artwork. There’s that open-European-mindset again! The sea caves can be found all along the South Coast of Portugal, and…

We left Cordoba fairly early in the morning (at least, early for us… about 8 o’clock) and headed to Seville. We stopped to take a walk through the Royal Alcazar of Seville, which has been made (even more) famous by the TV show, A Game of Thrones. The Royal Alcazar has been used as the…

The next day, we visited the Mosque and the Alcazar of Cordoba. The Mosque was visually stunning.A wonderful mix of artistic styles which included classical Roman influences, and very obvious Moorish influences as well. Again, the opulence of the building and its inherent artworks boggled the mind. Then it was on to see the Alcazar,…

We hit the road South heading for Cordoba. After a couple of hours, it was time for a break and we’d been seeing all these castles on every second hilltop. Cath spotted one and suggested that we get off the highway and stop for a look. To be honest, I was a little dubious about…

The previous afternoon, Cath and I had wandered around the streets of Toledo together. Today, we decided it would be a good opportunity to go our separate ways and explore the streets for ourselves. I enjoyed the opportunity to just wander aimlessly and explore my fascination with all these beautiful old  doors. Take me to:…

Our two days in Barcelona were over way too soon, and it was time to hit the road for our next destination, Toledo. A couple of hours out of Barcelona and it was time for a break. We stopped at Zaragoza and marveled at the four pillars rising above the cathedral. The interior was equally…

Saturday morning, we decided to head off to the Castillo de Montjuic. Montjuïc Castle is an old military fortress, with roots dating back to the mid 1600’s, built on top of Montjuïc Hill. From here, we could see our next stop, La Sagrada Familia, 4km away. A couple of trains later, we arrived at La…

Friday morning, we went into town, wandered through the St Josep Mercat (food market), and visited the Erotic Museum, amongst other things. With the heatwave currently hitting the Iberian Peninsula, we headed back to our Air B’n’B for a mid-afternoon nanna nap and a shower to freshen up. That evening, we headed back into town…

Our two nights in Carcassonne done, and it was time to leave France. Rather than take the expensive and boring motorway down the coast, we decided to head to Barcelona via the high country and ski fields that straddle the French-Spanish border in the Pyrenees mountains. But a first stop had to be the little…

Today, as we were getting ready to start our day, I shot a few images from the bedroom window. Maybe 15 minutes later, Cath was sitting on the window sill, looking out at the same vista I had just shot. The morning sun was hitting her softly, and from inside the bedroom, it was a…

4 hours later and we were awake at 03:00, with our body clocks not yet synced to the other side of the planet. It was obvious that neither of us was going to get back to sleep, so we decided to get up and hit the road. Given that we had a big drive ahead…

And so we’re off! This trip has been over 15 months in the planning…. which is kind of a loose description, as a lot of this holiday is going to be booked on the fly. With the exception of our first night in Geneva, our couple of nights in Paris, and our couple of nights…