The main reason for our visit to Iceland was to chase the northern lights, the Aurora Borealis. This is never a certainty. Firstly when you book you are told the tour will be cancelled if the sky is not clear then there is no guarantee that you will see anything. Most of the tours do at least offer you another trip for free if you don’t see anything.
Europe
Cold, Cold Reykjavik
Reykjavik in February is beyond cold. With a thermal vest two jumpers and a ski jacket I still wasn’t warm. It was dark, windy and about minus 7 but it was amazing!
Icons of Switzerland
Switzerland brings to mind mountains, snow, woodcarving and fondue so we set out to find them all in the short time we had in the country.
Looking Round Lucerne
Lucerne is in the German speaking part of Switzerland but luckily for the language challenged Brits, as they do in so many countries, they all speak English. Other parts of the country speak Italian, French or Romansh which is not an official language and only spoken in a few mountain valleys. So in the shop labels are in three languages meaning, even without help, bad french and guessing get you what you need.
A Surprise Return – Orkney Revisited
When we visited Orkney on a beautiful summers day we knew it was worth another visit. We just didn’t expect it to be so soon.
Canterbury Sculpture Trail – Part Two
Next on the Canterbury sculpture trail is Millers seat by by Tim Norris. It is fittingly made from wood as it replaces the carved trees that commemorated the 1987 hurricane.
Nearer to Home – Canterbury Sculpture Trail
Canterbury City Council has produced a sculpture trail. This is aimed at getting people to see more of the city. So with a large collection of grandchildren in tow we decided to give it a go.
Luxembourg for Christmas
We first planned a weekend in Luxembourg in 1973. Something (I’ve long forgotten what) came up and we never went. So its been a long time on the to do list. Christmas seemed a good opportunity to spend a few days away somewhere reasonably near but as usual it needed to be somewhere we had never been.
So – Luxembourg.
Villages of the Algarve
We visited many more rural villages in the Algarve and they did begin to merge into each other in my memory. Pale cobbled streets, hills, an old castle, remains of ancient walls and small museums. Each village had all or most of these things. Loule was nice, Alte was particularly beautiful (and hilly), Faro had mosaic pavements but only the villages of Querenca and Tavira stood out.
Exploring Historic Algarve
Away from the coast there are many historic villages that look as if they have been forgotten by time.