Lynne Brown

Mumtraveller

Lynne Brown

Keeping this travel blog enables me to reflect and record my journeys as well as communicate with my family and friends.
I shouldn't be amazed me that complete strangers in this travel community will want to read about what I am up to as they are a great bunch of folk.
I have swapped my home and hospitality for many years now and always I have met such wonderful open, generous and friendly people. Travelling alone lots of the time I am never lonely ..there is always the travelblog to keep me company.
Planning for future trips and onwards now. Don't let the grass grow under you feet.



Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam August 18th 2019

The main aim of these few days was to visit the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum , so more art and booking on line makes it easy. In fact the Van Gogh Museum has timed entry and is very restricted so we didn’t have much choice about when we could go and we saw many people being turned away at the door who had just rolled up !! So if any of you are planning on going there , book ahead. At the Rijksmuseum we were there before it opened which enabled us to enjoy an early morning stroll in the gardens before we entered. It is so spacious with very wide hallways that even though there are lots of people there we could enjoy getting close to most of the paintings. The famous Night Watch ... read more
From a Bridge
Bikes on a bridge
Canals

Europe » Czech Republic » Prague August 8th 2019

By now we had sussed out the trains so we anticipated a bit of a melee getting our seats , but this time it was a far more luxurious train and although the seats weren't all together we were in an open carriage so could easily move between our allotted seats. We discovered Dresden to Prague is a very scenic train ride, most of the time the tracks follow the river Elbe and through some very scenic gorges , with some great cliff and rock formations. This was my first visit to Prague but Chris had been a few times and as our Airbnb apartment was not too far from the station we walked and were greeted by our host to find that we were in a great location right behind the newly renovated National Museum ... read more
Old Town Square
Streets of Prague
Jan Hus Memorial

Europe » Germany » Berlin » Berlin August 1st 2019

This holiday was a bit different from my usual travels ....I like big country landscapes but when an offer of a home exchange to Dresden popped up the trip morphed into a "why not visit Berlin and Prague moment , followed by why not take trains and where else can we go , why not Amsterdam " and so it became a cities tour . For the first part my son Chris and his wife Anabel along with 6 year old Maya would travel with me . Half way through they would return to the UK from Prague and Jenny would then join me there for more Dresden and Amsterdam. Maya, for a 6 year old , is a great walker but some of the sites in Berlin are spread out so a Hop on/off bus ... read more
Maya runs by the Berlin Wall
Lamps
Korean Peace Pavilion

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Port Macquarie February 10th 2019

There is always that little voice in my head when I get home from a nice long trip which says " you haven't finished the blog !!"- well now is the time to silence that voice. It was the middle of December when I arrived at Port Macquarie (PM or Port as its called ) airport ...straight off the tarmac and into a building site I spotted Susan ( there seem to be no security measures here )... I looked in vain for signs to say baggage collection to be told its coming on the trailer !!! sure enough a sort of tractor thing pulled up with the bags in tow. I was driven to my new abode ,Susan and Geoff, more home exchange friends were to be my hosts for the next couple of weeks ... read more
Riverside ,Kempsey
Spanish Mission style chapel, Port Macquarie
Town Green

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Caloundra January 10th 2019

9 December to 18 December 2018. In the last few weeks I have been zooming along the East Coast of Australia starting in Queensland , the Sunshine Coast , Gold Coast , then NSW and Port Macquarie and Forster and finally Sydney to finish. When flying in to Brisbane and needing to get to Sunshine Coast there is a great bus company ConneXion which will pick you up at the airport in a big bus , takes all the punters to Aussie World on the highway and then decants you into a mini bus which then drops you at the door of your destination ....all for a reasonable amount ! Perfect. So here I was with Vikki,who I met with her friend Bobbie ( visiting her later on the Gold Coast ), when we were in ... read more
Gorgeous Glasshouse Mountains
VIkkis tropical garden
Bushland Sculptures

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Hawkes Bay December 28th 2018

November 19 to 9 December In my last three weeks in New Zealand I was able to spend more time with friends and not rush about quite so much ...so there were some leisurely walks in Long Bay and lunches at the new cafe at the Sugar Factory and in Cornwallis Park in the midst of a hailstorm...I’ve never seen hailstones quite so big ! Thanks to Jackie and Goff I was able to stay in their delightful cottage on shores of Lake Rotoiti... it’s like a tropical paradise there with massive tree ferns dipping over the deck so I enjoyed one beautifully sunny day and 2 days where the rain pelted down ...that’s why it’s like a tropical paradise there I think !!! But it was a time to enjoy some peace and read a ... read more
Stunning Cape Kidnappers
That highest point you can see is where the gannet colony is.
Flower pot

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty December 7th 2018

15 to 18 November Time is running out for Jenny’s Visit and we are grateful to Maree and Paul, who we met in Cambodia last year, for entertaining us and showing us the delights of Whakatane and Bay of Plentry. Breakfasting on poached eggs fresh from their chooks we set off with Maree and explored the town and harbour of Whakatane ( for those who aren't in the know a WH is pronounced like FF) ...the sun was shining as we whizzed around visiting Ohope, Opoktiki with their delightful small museums and a newly built Maori community centre. And all the time stunning scenery , coastline , spits, beaches hills and mountains . Don’t we just love all the place names and trying to pronounce them !! Lots of places begin with Wai which means water ... read more
Mount Maunganui
Powhutakawa tree
Who left that boat there ?

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island December 4th 2018

10 to 15 November Jenny only has 8 days in the North Island so we are on a quest to see as much as possible and as we arrive in Wellington on a very early flight ( thanks Diane for taking us to the airport at the crack of dawn) we actually had picked up the rental car and were at Zealandia almost as it opened 9.15 am. This is a dammed valley in the city of Wellington which has been fenced off to be predator free and eventually will be replanted with native trees and plants and provide an environment for New Zealand birds and native anilmals to thrive. In evolutionary terms New Zealand‘s land mass was split off from rest of Gondwana before mammals evolved so birds had a free rein and many were ... read more
Art Deco At Napier
Remembrance at Featherston
Wellington

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Lake Pukaki November 28th 2018

It’s always an aim in South Island to visit Mount Cook and to be able to see it , which I actually did back in 2011. So fingers crossed Jenny and I set off from Oamaru and again taking a route less travelled we came upon a place where there were Maori rock paintimgs and a mobile coffee van ! Yes it really was , not a camper van disguised as a coffee van .... like the famous Jucy Lucy vans ( I forgot to put a photo of one in the last blog). It’s not very often I get an uncomfortable feeling about a place ,Takirora, but as we walked under the rock face to see these paintings I didn’t like it , if there was an earthquake we wouldn’t stand a chance. My experience ... read more
A beautiful drive along lake
Dark clouds appear
Mount Cook not to be seen

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Oamaru November 24th 2018

Nov 6 - 8 NOTE (If you missed the last blog about Milford and Queenstown go back through the previous ones as they don’t seem to be in order. And I hope someone is reading these as the emails aren’t going out to my subscribers ...well I have to try and catch up !) Leaving Queenstown we drove along the Cromwell Gorge and aimed to take roads less travelled acros Otago and this we managed to do , as always just stopping whenever we saw a brown tourism sign . There are lots of lakes/ dams along this route and New Zealand makes much of its electricity from hydropower ...we could see why ! Driving over old suspension bridges , and quiet roads ( hardly another car ) into small towns like Clyde and Ophir we ... read more
Dam at Clyde
Little Blue Penguin
what’s this we see ?




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