Category: Blog

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…

Friday 17th July Really? Already? Meh. In all honesty, I will be glad to be home, and crazy as it might sound, I think I’ll be glad to go back to work. What I’m NOT looking forward to is the crazy cold winter that Sydney has put on in the 3 weeks we’ve been gone.…

Thursday 16th July Today is my paternal grandmother’s 91st birthday, so I gave her a call to wish her a happy birthday and apologise for the fact that I have not, in two and a half weeks of searching, been able to find her a birthday card. I reminded her that we are currently in…

Wednesday 15th July We’ve got a big day planned for tomorrow, so today was a day to just hang around in Kinabalu. We wandered the streets, visiting some places we’d seen two years ago as well as popping into a couple of shopping centres that were still under construction when we were here last. The…

Tuesday 14th July This morning, we decided that even though it didn’t make for particularly spectacular viewing, we nonetheless would do some more snorkelling off the beach to kill some time. Noon came, we checked out, and waited for a taxi to arrive. He picked us up around 12:30 and we began the 250km journey…

Monday 13th July Monday dawned, and the SMS messages to and fro with the rental car company began. We explained that we were booked into a hotel in Kinabalu tomorrow (Tuesday) night, so come hell or high water, we had to have transport of one description or another. They advised that they would be sending…