http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/vicarious travelling/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from vicarious travelling en-us Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:45:13 BST Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:45:13 BST Just a quick note to let everyone know that there will be some extensive delays in uploading blogs for a little while.In a matter of two daysOur laptop has broken. The hard drive has fallen to pieces it actually rattles when you shake it and makes grunting sounds when youm try to turn it on. So we're trying to have it fixed and trying to recover all the data photos etc.Michael's luggage went http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Tennessee/Knoxville/blog-288266.html Monday 31 March 2008Our little Ka photo was quite comfortable and easy to drive. It made it easier on Michael that Britain drives on the left hand side of the road. We also received some helpful advice about safe driving from the road atlas that we bought from the service station photo. With a car maps sunshine Cadbury Cream Eggs to fuel the driver and music we set off on our big road trip http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/Chester/blog-285434.html Wednesday 26 March 2008After a couple of hours on the train from Sowerby Bridge we arrived at Leeds train station and caught the free city loop shuttle to the bus station. The shuttle gave us the opportunity for a quick tour around the city because the bus station was the last stop on the loop. From the bus station we caught the Ripon bus out to Killinghall where Barbararsquos cousin Lucy lives. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/blog-284116.html Monday 24 March 2008Our flight landed in Manchester early in the morning and we immediately hopped a train to the city centre. We werenrsquot actually in Manchester to see Manchester though. We just needed a cheap airport in Northern England to land in. When we arrived in the city centre our total sightseeing of the city consisted of the metro from Piccadilly to Victoria station. At Victoria we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/West-Yorkshire/Halifax/blog-283887.html Friday 21 March 2008It was an unnecessarily early start getting into Dublin city centre because the tour organisers at Paddywagon Hostel were not running on time. This didnrsquot surprise us very much because when we tried to book the 3 day tour over the phone the operator was quite confused and disorganised also. While we were waiting we chatted with other tourists and hoped that the Paddywago http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Northern-Ireland/blog-283485.html Friday 14 March 2008After rising above the drizzly clouds of London we flew briefly in sunshine before ducking under the clouds in preparation for landing in Dublin. As we descended the rolling green hills of Ireland came into view. It was a strange feeling for Barbara. She had never been to Ireland before but somehow arriving there felt like coming home ... but not quite Her family left this cou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/Dublin/blog-283332.html Saturday 8 March 2008We touched down on time at Stansted airport amidst typical London drizzle. The formalities at the airport were unfortunately also reasonably efficient because we ended up with nothing to do while waiting 2 hours for our bus to the city. We had prebooked our bus ticket with Terravision because of scare tactics on the EasyJet website that you may be stranded there without a bus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-281350.html Sunday 2 March 2008The flight into Copenhagen was very bumpy due to strong winds. The offshore wind turbines photo hinted to us that strong winds were quite common there but it would be until wersquod actually visited in Copenhagen that we would learn that the Danish winds are not only strong they are constant and they are icy arctic winds... brrrOur plane bumped along swayed from side to s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Copenhagen/blog-280842.html Sunday 24 February 2008Back in Oslo we were all exhausted after the long drive so we opted for an easy yet delicious dinner of smuggled Swedish salmon and an early night.Monday 25 February 2008We woke late in the morning to find that while we were away for the weekend Spring had arrived in Oslo photo. The snow had melted the trees were budding the sky was blue and the sun was shining.Despite http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Ostlandet/Oslo/blog-280827.html Friday 22 February 2008With Jamesrsquo car filled to the brim with ski gear and beer that had been chilled in the lsquofridgersquo photo meaning that it had been put on the balcony to be snowed on overnight we drove off into the mountains on our way to Hemsedal.The road was icy and increasingly snowy as we left Oslo and drove to higher altitudes. Light snow was falling and the landscape http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Ostlandet/Hemsedal/blog-280808.html Monday 18 February 2008As if it wasnrsquot bad enough that Flight Centre had issued our tickets later than promised that their travel route advice was ridiculously uninformed nor that the overcharged us a significant amount for taxes which took us a month to get refunded only when we stepped onto our plane to Norway photo squeezed into our tiny seats and read the purchasable menu did we r http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Ostlandet/Oslo/blog-280789.html Friday 15 February 2008Eight ours later including a scheduled 45 minute stop in Zaragoza which we didnrsquot know about we arrived in Barcelona. Despite being after 6pm the main post office was still open so Michael collected his international driving licence from the Poste Restante while Barbara minded the luggage at the metro station. We then caught the train to Sant Cugat to visit Barbarar http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-280779.html Tuesday 12 February 2008We arrived in Madrid in the evening and navigated easily from the bus station to the city centre on the metro. We wound our way around the very busy Puerta del Sol and found our hostel nearby.We arrived to find Sant Jordi Hostel very newly refurbished and very clean and tidy. The staff were quite friendly and advised us where we could find food nearby to cook. We ducked out http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-280724.html Spain San Sebastian BilbaoSunday 10 February 2008Between the train changes a suspiciouslooking character hanging around outside our compartment all night and a loud character down the hall who figured himself a train conductor constantly yelling at us for locking the door to our compartment due to the previously mentioned suspicious character we didnrsquot get much sleep during the night. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/blog-271759.html Friday 8 February 2008Our bus arrived at Porto bus station early afternoon. The lsquobus stationrsquo was basically a big shed which was half way through being renovated. There being no signs in sight to direct us anywhere probably because of the renovation so we enquired at the information desk. The instructions from our hostel advised catching a Metro to it. In Barbararsquos best attempt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-271443.html Tuesday 5 February 2008Over the rolling hills of Portugal we drove around the southern coastline past the popular seaside town of Faro and up the western coastline towards Lisbon. We stopped at a service station along the way for the driverrsquos rest break. We werenrsquot excited by buying dinner from a diner with such a name photo.It was quite late when we arrived in Lisbon so we caught http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisbon-and-Tagus-Valley/Lisbon/blog-270746.html Saturday 2 February 2008Our bus arrived in Seville after 8pm and it was almost 830pm by the time we found our way to Seville Samay Hostel and checked in. Reception warned us that the next day most of the shops would be closed and would close at 9pm that night so we should hurry to get groceries before they shut.Accordingly we darted over to the supermarket to have them shut the door in our face a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-269850.html Saturday 2 February 2008It was an early start for Barbara who woke to plan our next move as we had to check out by 11am and we didnrsquot know where we were going yet. Michael was still exhausted and slept. We wanted to go to the carnival in Cadiz but could not find any accommodation available there so decided to go to Seville instead. Barbara booked accommodation in Seville and researched bus r http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Tarifa/blog-269487.html Thursday 31 January 2008Exhausted after a 515am wakeup in Fes to catch the 650am train to Marrakech and with disturbances during the night from rowdy locals outside our hotel we were hoping to sleep for much of the journey. Unfortunately the locals had other ideas. Once again the local women found it fascinating to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with a man let alone a western on http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-268178.html Tuesday 29 January 2008Stepping onto the pier it was now the first time either of us had set foot on African soil well concrete anywayThe docks were chaos. There were people trucks boats cars and MORE people going every which way. There wasnrsquot really any signage at all to speak of so we just followed the crowd who were in turn following people who looked like they were official in so http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/F-s-Boulemane/Fes/blog-268070.html