We made an early morning exit from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris once we worked out how and drove through the French countryside and spent our first night in the beautiful old town of Semur en Auxios. Now, we expected this trip to be a tour of food but I don't think we appreciated the extent of how much this tour of gastronomique was to become... The French are well known for their cuisine and the importance of food in their culture but when you are in France, this importance becomes even more apparent with specialist food stores and artisan [View Full Entry]

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So here you go, finally some photos (we are so lucky to have these, thanks ZAR) [View Full Entry]

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Sorry folks, no photos for this blog. Something has gone ary with our memory card and the camera won't show us the photos. Hopefully, part 2. Also, put up with spelling mistakes, i'm not using an english keyboard. OK Near the end of our first full day at the resort, the biggest decision we had to make was which cocktail to order from our private plunge pool and be brought to us by our butler while we watched the sun set over the vast Indian Ocean... We were greeted at Male International airport and taken by speedboat to our resort in [View Full Entry]

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It's appalling that it's taken so long to publish this blog but for our amusement and for those who still care, here we go... After an early AM departure (thankfully we were on time - both Moscow and local as the trains all run on Moscow time which is 5 hours different from Moscow) we were on the train again. The #004 Trans Mongolian train is a shorter journey, only 30 hours to Ulaan Baator (UB) which pales in comparison to the time we spent on the Rossya (which we only took half way) of over 3 days. Getting on the [View Full Entry]

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Trans-Siberian Shane & Evonne As we set off from heatwave Moscow (low thirties - very unusual even at the height of Summer), we were both excited and apprehensive. Three days on a train is a long time but we were looking forward to idle days resting and staring out the window watching Siberia pass by. We awoke to a loud smash only 6 hours into the Trans Siberian trip (at 3am!). A hooligan had thrown a rock at the train and smashed of course, our window (see pic). Luckily we were unhurt as the rock only shattered the [View Full Entry]

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Russia - Part 1 Shane & Evonne Russia - the land of extremes! At the border crossing between Estonia and Russia, our first thought of Russia was, "What have we got ourselves into?" as we tried to fill in our customs cards (which were only in Russian) at 2am. This thought once again came to mind as we stepped off the bus and walked into the metro station in "commy" St Petersburg when an animated woman came out of nowhere and asked us for money, in Russian (just what you need after a night with no sleep). Of course, w [View Full Entry]

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Tallinn - Estonia , the city of all things old, trendy & tourists. We arrived in Tallinn, Estonia after travelling across the Baltic Sea from Finland (Evonne - I didn't see any whales :( ). Our first feeling of Tallinn was that we were moving further away from home. Once we moved away from the docks into the old town, we were pleasently surprised by how well preserved the medieval city is (even if it was full of tourists, like us). We arrived at our guest house (located in the old town) a bit tired from our nights of drinking in [View Full Entry]

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Finland Tour Shane & Evonne[url='/Videos/3236.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3236.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Helsinki - Finland Before we dive into another travel update, Shane & I would like to thank all those who have been leaving messages & comments. It's really good to hear from home, they mean so much to us. Thank you :) Finland; the land of hip fashion, coolness &... shopping. After leaving Sweden (the bus from Haparanda took 20 seconds to cross the bridge to Finland) we arrived [View Full Entry]

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Sweden Tour Shane & Evonne[url='/Videos/3203.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3203.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Jokkmokk - Sweden Sweden, the country of warm hospitality, wilderness & expense (you even have to pay for public toilets). After a long day of travel from Amsterdam to the south of Brussels (Belgium) to catch our flight, we arrived in Stockholm very late. The first day was spent feeling a bit anxious & wandering around the central part of Stockholm. Our first swedish meal was a [View Full Entry]

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