After leaving Lac Leman we drove along the north edge of the lake heading for Chateau de Chillon. The journey was uneventful and we arrived just after lunch and ate at a convenient MacDonalds. Not my favourite choice for eating but it was all that we could find. The chateau is spectacular, an architectural gem set on the edge of the lake and within sight of the Alps. It is the most visited historical monument in Switzerland and it wasnt hard to see why today. The castle and the area around it was full of visitors many Japanese. It is very difficult to think of adjectives to describe this castle built in 1005 - pretty, charming, interesting - the list goes on and on. One can almost imagine Guinevere, King Arthur and Lancelot being inhabitants of ... read more

Holidays are here again and it’s France this time. We had booked a rather strange one – 1 week in a chalet in Annecy and the other week would be spent in Brittany visiting friends who ran a bed and breakfast just outside Dinan. Our half way stop along the way was going to be Beaune a beautiful Burgundian town with the famous Hotel Dieu and the multi coloured roofs of red, brown, yellow and green. Our journey was uneventful as the car swallowed up the French motorway miles. Just like the M6 when it was first opened. We arrived later in the afternoon and were staying in a Campanile just outside of the town. By the time we arrived the visitors had thinned out and we found a peaceful oasis of calm. How can you ... read more

Morning broke as it always does in France, bright clear and quiet. We were on our way home and work was beckoning next week. We work early and ate our breakfast in the local Campanile pondering on what we planned to do over the next few days. We were trying to make the most of what was left of our short break before returning to the toil and hinderence of work. There was so much to see and sometimes it is hard to make a decision. Much depends on taste and time. It is easy to fill a fortnight up with places to see and things to do and then to realise there is so much more left that you could have taken the time to see. . We knew we were going to drive up ... read more

We hadnt been on holiday for quite some time - 2001 to be exact and our holiday to the USA. What had happened in between was house hunting and house moving which got in the way on holidaying. We moved into our new house in 2001 just before we flew to Chicago and whilst the house seemed a good idea at the time gradually we began to realise it just wasnt what we wanted or needed. For a start we had two cars and a van. The house only had a small garage and drive and this meant that the van had to sit across the road which was hardly convenient. The estate seemed fairly quiet to begin with but gradually more and more houses were being built and with this more and more families moved ... read more

We left Indianapolis and had to decide where to go to next. We had a few days to fill before we drove back to Chicago to meet up with relatives again. We had ideas that we would like to see Oklahoma and Texas but felt we didnt have enough time to do both of them so instead we headed north to Dubuque in Iowa. Dubuque is located along the Mississippi River, not quite as wide as it is in St Louis nor was it quite so muddy. The city lies at the junction of three states of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. It is one of the few cities with hills in Iowa. We noticed a difference in countryside. Gone were the flat cereal growing farmlands and were replaced by mile upon mile of green meadows, Dutch ... read more