Brian and Jacqui

Hello happy bloggers.. No doubt you are wondering what happened to us.. all good. We are back in Adelaide in our little renovation project and still trying to keep warm despite it being late November! That apparently is the Adelaide Hills for you! So where did we get to? Well... after Ireland we took a flight to Slovinia where we caught up with friends of mine from Cairns for a week of meditation and relaxation with a few lovely day trips thrown in for good measure. Such a beautiful. scenic country of forests, lakes and mountains (snow topped even in late August when we were there). We visited the Lipizzaner Horse stud in the south of the country to see those wonderful white horses in action, the wonderful town of Bled (again - favourite from our ... read more

Hello all, Well.. we have just come to the end of our UK and Ireland trip now. The first two weeks were in England with friends as you read on the previous update and then we had a few days in London where we took in the sights of the Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames and wandered through the city.. We then hired a car and headed to the west coast of Wales via Tintern Abbey (11thC) and then to the very end of the land to a little village called St. Peters where there is a beautiful old cathedral. From there we toodled (as you do in England) north to the mountains and Snodonia where we did some hiking (not enough to burn off all the big yummy english breakfasts I'm ... read more

Hi all, Had a wonderful few days in Paris and said our goodbyes to Mike who was staying on for a few extra days with a friend. We took the Eurostar train under the English Channel and arrived in London ok.. not even wet!. Had a wonderful four days in the north of Devon with friends Christine and Andy and their little boy Ben. Stayed in an old manor overlooking a little fishing village. The grounds were complete with a gorge, waterfall and little stream so lots of great walks. Spent days wandering around in the villages and along the coast. We are heading off to Wales tomorrow for a few days of driving in a hire car, hiking in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia and taking in the Welsh sites. From there to Dublin on ... read more

Hello all, Just a quick update to say all is good here... weather has been beautiful. We met up with Mike who looks like an Indian mountain guru after spending 6 months in Asia! Having a great time.. We travelled from Spain on the wonderful French high speed train to the Loire valley.. vinyards, farming, little villages and wonderful chateaus. Have been having lots of relaxed walks, taken in many of the sights, a good few coffees, a little French language practice, daily yoga under Mike's instruction, wine tasting and a good dose of french food. Still in search of the infamous French Onion Soup... Have seen a few of the little french villages (many of the medieval streets and buildings remain), two of the chateaus (palaces) in the Loire valley, in Paris the Eiffle tower, ... read more

Hello happy bloggers... We are back travelling western Europe this time. We started in Portugal 10 days ago .. landing into Lisbon. A few days exploring the old city and climbing up to the fortress on top of the hill overlooking the city. From there on to Sintra in the hills where the kings of old spent the hot summer days hunting and generally enjoying the spoils of Aztec gold that was being returned by explorers to the new world. From Sintra we headed north to Nazare on the coast for a few days of sun and surf.. not that either of us surf you understand.. but the waves were worthy of it. On to the hilltop town of Tolmar encircled by its wonderful wall and overlooked by a fortress. Wonderfull little place.. then to Coimbra ... read more

Hello Bloggers! Last you heard from us we were heading into austria on the last leg of the trip. We hired a car for a few days and drove from the south through the Glossglockner mountain pass (spectacular scenery) on to Hallstadt (the cradle of the Celts) and then to Salzberg where we had a wonderful four days roaming the streets of this beautiful city and soaking up the last of the good weather. From Salzberg we took the train across the border and into the Czech Republic to Prague via a beautiful little town called Czeky Krumlov on the bend of a river and overlooked by an impressive castle complete with moat and brown bears - one of the highlights of the entire trip. Prague was as we all know a city of fantastic architecture ... read more

Hi all, Trust you are all well.... Jacqui here. Brian is having a snooze today rather than writing this together as we usually do - the life of a traveller! Last we updated the blog we were in Macedonia so quite a bit of water has gone under the bridge since. Lake Ohrid was a wonderful spot. We had a great room right on the shore of what is one of the largest lakes in Europe. Beautiful scenery all around with little churches and monasteries dotted along the cliffs on the edge of the lake. Hopefully we can add some photos for you all to see this time. From there we took a bus over the mountains and down into Albania - probably the poorest country we have visited so far and unless one has a ... read more

Hello bloggers! Since we last blogged we have travelled down the Turkish west coast through the Greek Islands and now up to Macendonia. From Troy where the last chapter ended we continued south along the Turkish Mediterranean coast to Bodrim via Bergama and Selchuk. Bergama was inland somewhat and the site of a huge Roman archeological site complete with amphitheatres, arches, aquaducts and temples (all ruined) on top of a rather dramatic hill overlooking the town and surrounding valley. The countryside has been devistated by millenia of overgrazing, deforestation, and olive growing and more recently major drought. So all in all very bare and dry. Certainly not the landscape the Romans would have enjoyed with forests, elephants, bear, lion and the like! At Selchuk are the ruins of one of the greates Roman cities (Ephesus for ... read more

Hello Bloggers! For those of you waıtıng wıth baıted breath to hear the latest, apologıes for the delay ın updatıng thıs - we have had some dodgy ınternet connectıons over the past couple of weeks ın Bulgarıa and Turkey - but not to worry ...here we are. The keys on thıs are a bıt funny too so please excuse the ı ınstead of i.. So last we left you we were ın Brasov, Romanıa... one of our favourıte towns of the trıp so far, we stayed an extra day and then headed south just an hour to Sınaıa, a lovely lıttle town ın the mountaıns establıshed as a monastary for some more hıkıng. Not as dramatıc as the mountaıns ın Slokavıa but stıll quıte pıctuesque wıth forested slopes and waterfalls ın places and a couple of ... read more