We arrived in Utrecht from Antwerp (via Rotterdam) on the quick and efficient NS intercity rail. Our hotel was nearby to the train station and also nearby was the Hoog Catherijne - one of the largest shopping malls in the Netherlands!! After a quick rest, we went to explore the town on foot. Utrecht is basically a smaller, compact Amsterdam (and dare I say prettier). On our last trip to Europe we met two girls from Utrecht, and they told us their hometown was much prettier than Amsterdam (home pride) convincing us to visit. I'm glad we did now! We had a relaxing walk around town stopping for tea and pie by the canal. I then had to walk around the shopping mall while Bill waited at the hotel. Later in the evening, craving some Japanese ... read more

We left our French troubles behind and took to train north to Belgium via Lille, a town on the French-Belgian border. I had found a French ‘budget airline' of trains called Ouigo – the tickets are significantly cheaper and its €5 extra for luggage. Quite a good concept actually, it’s still a high-speed train but with no on-board bar. The next train we caught from Lille to Brussels was the Eurostar that had come from London. Once in Brussels, we took a local train to the nearby town of Leuven. Leuven is a very pretty town – a university town – on the Flemish/French language border (we learnt that from our Intrepid friend who is from Leuven). Our first day there we just walked around town to orientate ourselves and had dinner in the main square. ... read more

We left Barcelona early on a stormy morning and caught a fast Renfe train to San Sebastian in Basque country, all the way across the other side of the country on the west coast. 5 and a half hours later we were in San Sebastian or Donostia in Basque language. The Basque language, we quickly learned, is vastly different to any language we've heard and we learned that no-one actually knows the origins of the language though we were later told there was a study to find out the linguistic origins of the Basque language and it was established that it's the closest language to the caveman surprisingly. But everyone speaks Spanish of course, and really I only heard Spanish around me, even bar staff speaking amongst themselves spoke Spanish so I'm not sure of the ... read more

We left the mountains for a long drive to Batumi. Situated on the Black Sea coast, Batumi is 20km from the Turkish border and is Georgia’s 2nd largest city. We arrived in the late afternoon, and one of the first things I noticed was the number of casino's in town. Later, someone told me Batumi is the ‘Las Vegas' of Georgia. We went for a hunt for some real coffee as soon as we got there, and had a mediocre cappuccino (but we did find a cute kitty cat). We had dinner with half our group at a fantastic restaurant on the water – the sunset was nice shade of pink and, randomly, fireworks started in the evening. It was a nice introduction to Batumi. The next day, our Intrepid guide Tamta did a city tour ... read more

We departed Sheki for the Georgian border early on Sunday morning (which happened to be Bill's birthday!) Our leader Balash was a very good leader, shook all our hands individually and left us at the Azerbaijani- Georgian border where its approximatley a 700m walk to Georgia. We met our new leader, Tamari, on the Georgian side and were taken go our homemade lunch in the Kakheti region (which happens to be wine region). We feasted on delicious Geogian food and sampled homemade chacha, a vodka-type spirit made from grape skins. Afterward we visited a traditional winery where the wine is produced using the traditional methods of fermenting the wine underground in claypots, the wine prodded with a rake type implement and skins, stems and all thrown in which gives the white wine an amber colour. The ... read more