Friday 10th January 2020 Before we left the UK we had pre-booked a local guide for four hours for our first morning in St Petersburg to show us round the city – again through London-based Russian travel specialists RealRussia. This is a tactic that we like to use in countries where the languages and scripts are almost totally unfamiliar for us: walking, talking and using public transport but not entering sites helps us to get a feel for a new location. We can then decide the buildings and cultural sites that we want to visit in our own time at our own pace. In his Tour Manager role, Robert has visited many great locations but dislikes being shuffled through at the pace of the guide and prefers to be able to set his own agenda and timeframe. We met Marina in reception and explained the sort of tour we wanted. Marina was both very knowledgeable and happy to accommodate our requests and it was a pleasure to spend the morning with her walking around the sights and learning more about this fantastic city. First we asked for a lesson in using the Metro and Marina took us to buy tokens […]
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![Rock[s and] the Kasbah, Rabat](https://i2.wp.com/iciel.uk/imagesTH/19-09-Morocco/Post8/19-09-08-feature.jpeg?resize=570%2C350)
Thursday, 21st November 2019 We had a leisurely start to the day then set off to walk the walls and the coastline. Our first landmark was the old lighthouse, which became visible through the Bab Laalou [below left] entrance to the Cimitiére Chouhada. The day was rather overcast and the Atlantic Ocean was demonstrating the impressive force of nature as it . . . . . . . crashed onto the shore by the lighthouse. As we walked on past the lighthouse and past the Plage de Rabat it was clear that work was well underway to make this area a seaside destination for tourists. The beaches need to be kept clean, but a promontory was being built out into the sea and the facilities and infrastructure were being improved. It was also clear that the man-made breakwaters were very effective: once round the headland and into the estuary, the waters were almost still. You can climb up to the battlements of the Kasbah where there are panoramic views across the mouth of the river and out towards the breakwaters. Our route back towards the town took us past one of the ancient, ornately-carved entrances to the Kasbah. From here […]
Monday 8th July 2019 The day started with what should have been a train journey from Alghero to Sassari, but no, we had another bus replacement service. I seems as though the narrow gauge railway is closed so that they can replace it with a tram service. Sassari is the second city – or as some might say – Sardinia’s equivalent to Birmingham. On arriving in Sassari we walked in 36ºC heat [almost 97ºF] to our hotel. Google maps said it was a seven minute walk but it took significantly longer than that and was most definitely not “mostly flat” as claimed. Sassari was a stop-over for us rather than a destination in its own right on our itinerary but despite the heat, Matilda insisted on going out to see the Piazza Duomo and the cathedral which is dedicated to Saint Nicholas. We passed through Piazza d’Italia . . . . . . where the arched porticoes reminded us of an enjoyable trip to Turin and recreating scenes from the film The Italian Job. Then on to the cathedral. The cathedral appears bright in the sunshine with clean almost modernist lines from the direction we approached and looks as though […]
Overnight Thursday 14th and Friday 15th March 2019 The start of this journey was very civilised. We asked at reception for a taxi to the station and they arranged one of their own hotel cars and drivers and provided chilled bottled water for the journey. After the tuk-tuks we used earlier on the trip, a 4×4 with air-conditioning and a driver with a chauffeur’s cap is quite a contrast. During the drive we made the extraordinary discovery that it is possible to drive in India without using the horn at all. On this journey we were allocated a two person berth. Because we had managed to log on to the Indian Railway website using the wifi at our hotel, using our PNR we were able to ascertain our cabin and coach number prior to the journey to the train station. The train started in Kolkata so the allocation of cabins is easier, they potentially are more disjointed if you are joining the train at some point later in the journey (we might experience that issue later on the trip). Already our longest scheduled train journey at 21 hours, the trip from Kolkata to Agra was extended by a six hour […]
Thursday, 18th October 2018 The guide books say that petrol is cheap in Luxembourg. This explained why, when we first entered the country from Belgium, the road was lined with petrol stations. Slightly belatedly, we remembered this as we were driving out of Luxembourg so we were very pleased to see that an enterprising fuel company has turned what used to be the border control buildings into a petrol station, allowing us to fill up at £1 a litre as we were literally leaving Luxembourg on our way to Metz in France. Metz lies at the point where Moselle and the Seille Rivers meet – a strategic point appreciated by the Romans. The free aire in Metz is by the River Moselle but just a short walk into town. We set off with Ralf, who is always desperate to get out of Alan whenever we arrive in a new place. We realised in traffic today that just the sound of the hand brake is a trigger for him to get excited about the possibility of stopping. We spent about half an hour walking round this pleasant historical city, walking over bridges . . . . . . . and past historical churches . . […]
![Sighisoara, Dracula’s birthplace [allegedly]](https://i1.wp.com/iciel.uk/imagesTH/18-05-Danube/Post8/18-05-08-feature.jpeg?resize=570%2C350)
Tuesday, 14th August 2018 One of the things Robert likes about the main stations in Romania is that many have a vintage, stationary, steam engine on display out side. We left Cluj-Napoca on a train at 09:37, the rail route to Sighisoara is about 120 miles [approximately equivalent to Birmingham to London]. We are scheduled to arrive at 14:01, that’s near on 4.5 hours [average 27mph]. Oh well, sit back and remember the reasons we travel by train. Matilda who, when traveling, likes to read books set in the area she is visiting, was able to make significant headway towards finishing her current book: she has been re-reading Bram Stoker’s classic gothic novel Dracula on this journey. Robert watched a couple of documentaries on his iPad, then watched the fields go by. It would appear that sweetcorn is grown extensively in this part of the world, however, none of the local dishes seem to include it, so we wonder what it is used for, or whether is it just exported? Throughout the whole journey we ran parallel to a massive new engineering construction comprising a new railway line, half finished bridges, laid ballast, drainage channels and virgin trackwork. It is very nice […]
The campsite in Norwich was very peaceful and you would not expect to find such an oasis of calm so close to an English city. We will certainly use this again if we are visiting relatives there. Ralf has not been himself today: primarily evidenced by not eating any breakfast. This may have been because he shared some leftover cold pizza with Robert and Matilda before the morning walk. But just ten minutes into the walk he stopped and refused to continue: he then declined to eat. The day has therefore been spent being very attentive to his every whine and whimper as dog vomit in the motorhome is something to avoid. He became very agitated travelling through a village on the way from Norwich to Southwold and Matilda suggested stopping in case he felt unwell. We found a place to stop beyond the built up area and Ralf jumped down and proceeded to sniff enthusiastically all along the hedgerows. No noticeable signs of illness. It is possible that he feels that the slower progress through towns, with the many junctions, pedestrians and traffic lights indicates a stop is imminent and therefore, as many people travelling to new places do, he […]