We have been joined by our friends Sandy and John from Darwin. Spent one week in St Remy in Provence, a very central and charming village. Provence is foodie heaven and we took great advantage of the excellent restaurants and wine. Of the many sights, my highlights were Gordes, Van Gogh trail in St Remy and The Pont Du Gard. I am sure each of us would have a different list! From Provence we were really lucky to spend a night with friends, Hilary (yes fancy that!) and Bob in Carces in their newly built and fabulous house. More great food and fun and we were all sad to not be staying longer but the Cinque Terre could not wait. The Cinque Terre I f you haven’t been, you must go. Make sure you go while ... read more

Spanish Beach scene The Costa Del Sol is a long strip of resorts of mixed appeal. We stayed in a small town called Nerja which is largely populated by British Tourists -described as the land of “Spam and Chips”. An apt description in some ways. We did, however, find great pleasure in renting beach lounges at one of the more sophisticated spots, Marbella. An idea which could catch on in Sydney. You can even get your coffees delivered to your sun lounge. This was quite a good way to relax for a couple of days. It goes without saying really that Australian beaches are hard to beat. However, the water was cool and clean. For me a day trip to Granada to see the famed Alhambra was a highlight although it was very hot. Perched high ... read more

Moved down into Spain and on the way stopped in the Pyrenees which was very like Barrington. In Spain our first stop was at Bilbao mostly for the Guggenheim museum. It is a fantastic building both inside and out. The photos do not do it justice. We spent one night out in the sticks at an old country (16th century) house. The owner had done a great job restoring it and the views across the valley were lovely. Down the road was another similar building proudly displaying a date 1777! We have had great fun in the tapas bars sampling the food and wine. Some surprises like embuchardo or lamb intestines which actually tasted quite nice when cut thinly. We ended up in a town, Lograno, which has been proclaimed by Lonely Planet’s Blue List as ... read more

Decided to use Navman for the first time. I found it unusual that Navman didn’t accept the destination but thought it was just the street number and so removed that and it seemed to accept it. The system worked perfectly well until we got to the final 200 metres. First Navaman instructed us to go down a One way street the wrong way. Roger didn’t mind doing this until we got to a Piazza at the bottom of the street with 3 traffic police blowing madly on their whistles. I presented our Navman screen and they pointed and insisted “No.” We decided to park and investigate. (Luckily I remembered to write down the name of the street we parked in.) We proceeded back to the Piazza and asked the police for help. None spoke English but ... read more

Just thought you might like to see a few images of this island. I am sure that you are already over reading my bits of news but perhaps the photos are worth sending. Love Hil... read more