As Jon and my time in london wound down there was less and less time to see more of Europe. Although it was my fourth visit I just could not get enough of Rome and find myself seeing something new to love about the city each visit. This time I went with Jenny, Paul, Sargon and Jon. Bruno was the instigator of the trip but he never made it to his flight and couldn't join us. This time I stayed on the other side of Rome near the Villa Borghese Park. This was a quiter part of town which didn't really suit my style of being in the thick of things. It was a short weekend trip with little time to do soooooo much. First stop was the Vatican to take another look at the Sistine ... read more

A short blog to inform you about the 3 most boring days at the Alands. The Åland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. It is the largest island in an archipelago of near 6,500 others, most just small uninhabited rocks and though an autonomous, self-governed territory of Finland, the Aland Islands, for historical reasons, are way more Swedish then Finnish. They have their own unique culture, Swedish dialects, flag, and stamps, and remain one of the most popular summer vacation destinations for Swedes and Finns, alike. Hence we headed there to get some beach time and soak up the sun..........NOT! It's main town, Marieham is a sleepy place full of geriatric retirees taking a weekend break. We were literally stuck on an Island surrounded by oldies and pouring rain. We took ourselves to the ... read more

What a train ride............ the Bergan rail! 8 hours of untouched scenic landscape, with the occasional small village here and there and its highest point in Finse where we reached 1,222 above sea level. We left most of our luggage in Oslo because we were going to return there in a few days. Poor Belinda realised at the highest point above sea level that she really didn't pack appropriatley with only a thin cardigan to keep her warm lol, but the train ride went really fast and before we knew it we were in the west of Norway, the second largest city, Bergan. Now one thing that I still fail to learn is that Sundays are a bad day for any traveller. Loads of things in Europe are always shut and public transport is at a ... read more

Here is the final chapter of my trip through France with mum. It may be very late but it still only feels like yesterday that we were there so hopefully the typing will flow as fast as the pictures downloaded. To be truthful there were small dramas all the way along our journey but this final week really took the cake. I did mention Provence in my earlier blog but more detail is certainly required. So we arrived in the old monestry part of Vaison-La Romaine and needed to take the car halfway up a mountain to get to our accomodation. Mum kinda had a fit as we drove through the very, very narrow cobbled streets. But we found our boutique B and B L'Evêché. Aude & Jean-Loup Verdier have turned part of their stunning home ... read more

So I had heard lots and lots about Cappadocia before I arrived in Turkey. Loads of people had told me is was stunning and as usual when I arrived with images and opinions about what I had seen I again, did not feel effected in the way others had. The Cappadocia region is a result of the vulcanic eruptions which occurred in Erciyes, Hasandag and Gulludag. The region formed a large tableland from the vulcanic tufas and together with the erosion of the Kizilirmak river and wind over tens of thousands of years there appeared the chimney rocks . The first Christians used the underground cities from Cappadocia has hidden underground cities. They had to live in the underground cities for long durations without being able to go out so they developed these underground cities by ... read more