Italy Summer's almost over After we left England - what now seems like ages ago - we made a pitstop in Menèrbes at Sally's house before going on to Italy and the long-awaited change of clothes since we were still travelling with our winter clothes at this time. Menèrbes is the arch-typical
England Back to civilization After three weeks of dial-up internet and overall very little contact with the outside world, we're back in the real world (in this case, London) with broadband, shopping and all the other good stuff that comes with it. Ireland was beautiful and relaxing but three weeks was probably
Ireland The Paddock We've been in our little 'hide out' house for over a week now - no radio, no TV (well, 2 stations and one is in Gaelic) and only dial-up internet. Coupled with not reading the paper or going to the pub much, we have no clue
Scotland Sheepman to the rescue! Back at Stonehenge, we saw a little sign on a meadow about pregnant sheep getting stuck on their backs. Apparently it happens quite frequently that pregnant sheep try to scratch their back, fall over and can't get back up again. It was a cute flier with a big,
England Knitting pretty I just saw an article on the BBC website about a town in Kent where the Afternoon Club knitted a model of their town. The group has around 40 members and it took them 23 years to finish the project! Then I remembered a little exhibition we saw at Alnwick
England Riddles! Travelling means you eat out a lot and in Britain that means you spend a lot of time in pubs. Thanks to our Good Pub Guide, that usually means very cozy pubs with tasty food, good beer and lots of senior citizens. (This is something we already noticed in Barcelona
Scotland Scottish cuisine A couple of nights ago we were invited for dinner at Jen's and James' house, friends of Vicky. The day before, Jen had asked whether there was anything we didn't eat and I had replied in grand fashion "we eat anything"! (Note to
England A short note on sheep You might have heard the joke about New Zealand's population: there are 48 million sheep on the islands, 3 million of them believe they're human. I think the UK isn't too far off either. (Which makes sense, Kiwiland being a colony and all...) It&
England Keeping the Barbarians Out The Romans made it all the way to England during the peak of their empire. This is common knowledge to historians and those who have read the first book of the Falco series by Lindsey Davis. The English took well to the commerce and markets but the highland clans were
England Go Ape! You might think that Wainwright would turn in his grave, hearing that we spent a day in the Lake District without walking. But I'd like to imagine that he would have had just as much fun up in the trees as we had. Yesterday we went on a
World The trip so far As some of you might know, this blog was supposed to have been started a few months ago. But then travel got in the way. cough cough So this is a little visual update on where we've been so far! (These aren't the actual roads taken
England Helvellyn We hiked up Helvellyn today - the third highest mountain in England! Which sounds impressive until you realize that it's only 950m high. Caracas lies higher than that. Zuoz lies at almost twice the height. So it might not be the most impressive feat but was chosen over
England Otters and such Today was our first day of proper English weather - clouds, fog and plenty of rain. But having been here for over a week now, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Mostly for our car's sake we were hoping for later, say July, because it acts
United Kingdom Open: any reasonable hours As Eddie Izzard famously remarked in one of his skits "Look, you're British, so scale it down a bit." We've been experiencing that first hand on our trip, mainly in form of tourist attractions. It's not that there aren't any,
England A little history In quite a few of the cathedrals and abbeys we've gone to, we noticed rather modern and funky looking stained-glass windows, like the ones above from Winchester cathedral. We assumed the windows had been blown out during the war from the bombings and when it came to rebuilding,
World Beirut Conor was very excited to go to Beirut. Until he realized we were going to Bayreuth. (Say: Bye-roid.) Oh the disappointment... This quaint little Bavarian town only pops up when Wagner is mentioned (big festival each year) but surprisingly people live here all year round. For example Martha and Henri
Spain Leaving Leaving the empty apartment was sad. In fact, it was so sad that I forgot to return the keys to the portera so we had to turn around and go back. (Hadn't gone too far yet, thank goodness.) At least that gave us a chance to get breakfast
