Geo: 55.7724, 37.5965We had two visits planned during our brief stay in Warsaw, the History Museum and the Uprising Museum. Both were closed - the only reason we could think of was it was National Donut Day, the hotel had them on reception, we were given them at lunchtime and a very attractive slim blond Polish girl wanted me to try her donuts in the street, at least that is what I think she meant (almost all the girls are slim and attractive, despite eating lots of heavy soups, sugar coated donuts and potatoes fat Poles of either sex are a rarity).The attached picture is of the Palace of Culture, a present from the people of Russia back in the 60's, the international equivalent of that horrid china vase from your mother in law. When I ... read more

Geo: 50.9351, 6.95979The elderly couple managed to climb 533 steps to the top of Cologne Cathedral this morning so despite the adverse comments yesterday we are not quite dead yet.A very tiring day spent wandering round Cologne, quite a nice city with lots of squares and car free zones. Most of the buildings are new on account of some work done by the British in 1944. After the cathedral and a huge German lunch of ham hock, a chunk of meat about the size of a rugby ball, we struggled round the main art gallery which has a fine collection of Picasso's and Wahol paintings but I am afraid we lowered the tone by doing a Harry Worth with one of the exhibits. If you don't know who Harry Worth is ask you dad (or look ... read more

Geo: 52.4915, -2.99804Gill and John are off to China in February. This blog has been created to bore the folks back home and to save us a fortune in postcards.The map below shows our route, we have booked all the trains, boats and planes (actually we don't intend going in boats unless something goes horribly wrong) and all we need now are the visa's. This is not as simple as it sounds, we need four; Russia, Mongolia, Belarus and China. You have to apply for each one in turn as your passport cannot be at two Embassies at once, but we are hopeful that all the paperwork will be completed in the next two weeks.As you can see from the map below we are travelling the whole way to China by train, we could have flown ... read more