It's that time of year - the schools are breaking up and we are getting ready for our summer holiday. Looking forward to a bit of heat as we head into Bulgaria, Greece and perhaps Turkey (getting car insurance for Turkey is a real challenge). We fly into Sofia on the 25thJuly accompanied by Great Uncle Bulgaria... with the aim of having him appear at least once in very Blog. Not planning on stopping long in Sofia as it's your typical communist block capital with a small bit of old culture thrown in. Hired an "intermediate" sized car - that should be fun with the boys in it. - we'll see how that goes. Should at least be fuel efficient! After Sofia we are driving to Bansko where our friends the Nannerys (hello Paul, Mary, Caoilin ... read more

Tuesday 30th July - Relaxing Had a great day relaxing around the pool. Those who wanted to swim swam, those who wanted to read read. Those who went Pink went Pink! In fact most of us went a little Pink - and we had run out of after Sun so that will be on the shopping list for tomorrow! A great day in the Sun with the temparature hovering around the high 20 C's. We decided to eat out tonight and on the way back via Curtis I spotted this very nice restaurant (Parillada A Meson) on the road into Arzua so we took a short drive out too it. It looked closed i.e. there was no-one there at all - but it wasn't so went in. Inside it was very nicely decorated and a nice ... read more

It's that time of year - the bags are coming down from the loft - the sun tan cream is being taken out of the drawer - I'm getting a hair cut - well had a hair cut. It's the summer one - 3 on the side with a 4 on top - just in case anyone is interested. We leave Thursday for Madrid and spend a couple of days there before picking up a car and heading to Galicia and an organic dairy farm. Eleanor is getting her herding skills warmed up! Then after a week we move closer to Santiago de Compostella - which is supposed to be where St. James is buried and is the end of the "Way of St.James" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James But before we get in the car and leave Madrid ... read more

August 6th – Caribbean Coast Up early today – our room had A/C but it was still warm and brilliantly blue sky. Breakfast was good – the French owner even made scrambled eggs and brought out b lack pepper – great. Proper coffee too. A very nice stay and very cheap. If you think about it bed and breakfast – with swimming pool for about £16! We are reasonably close to where we are staying for the last 4 nights – so we drove along until we found it – but as we weren't due to be in until that afternoon we went past and along to the end of the road – Manzillo Beach – great beach, good swimming and snorkeling. We stayed for quite a while then picked up some shopping and by then ... read more

Real Rain Forest Up bright and early – tremendous storm in the night – must have been inches of rain. But when we got up blue sky and clear. Breakfast was part of the “cash” deal so down we went. It was really really nice – including fresh fruit and fried breakfast which included Pino Gallo (rice and beans) and Fried Cheese – which was very nice – but should we have put it on bread? Spent quite a while in the restaurant as the WiFi was really strong so uploaded a blog and a considerable number of pictures. This one may have to wait until we next get internet access. We had a choice of “reserves” to visit – the Monteverde reserve is world famous but very busy. The St Elena reserve is a little ... read more