The Rebuilding of History. This is a small but beautiful town, we have a lovely room overlooking a river and we come across a great vegan...

Beautiful old hotel and lovely big room overlooking a park. When we look out the window, there's a fluttering of snow. We wander off...

Of elegance and swans. Prague station is an art nouveau wonder and again, dressed magically for Xmas. My hotel is opposite the Erotic...

Home of Bach and chocolate! I'm sent off with Xmas cake, apple and water and I'm leaving for Leipzig, which boasts the biggest railway...

The city of Xmas markets. Still battling my cold, I'm off by train to Hamburg. A conductor collects me from 2nd class as evidently my...

Place of fairytales. The cold is brittle here but I'm loving wearing coats, hats, gloves, layering. My cold has followed me on the bus to...

Fjords, fog and Glog. It snowed whilst waiting for the plane to Bergen, Norway's second largest city. I watched the big fat flakes slowly...

Ice bars and Vikings. A couple of reasons for my trip to Norway, one perfectly normal - the Xmas markets! The second, was to see a...

A beautiful interlude. It's raining as I leave for Lake Bled but the autumn colours are only enhanced by the rain, everything varnished...

I fell in love! A female taxi driver picks me up, it's a rarity in Italy but she says there's ten in Trieste, she's Romanian, starting a...

Coming home. I have never been here in the autumn. The colours are amazing. The rusting leaves, saffron golds, the turquoise depths of...

Food, glorious food. Have booked myself in for a week's Italian lessons in Sicily. stopping overnight in Catania near the fish markets. ...

Of snake charmers and charming men. The Riad is beautiful, my room feels like I'm swimming in a turquoise sea. I eat at the restaurant...

This is a prelude, a short interlude to the best story of my 14 months away. We came back to Lisbon to divert to other locations, other...

Passion, paella, flamenco and bars. I've returned for a couple of days in Madrid, en route to meet up with the daughter in Portugal to...

MIND ALTERING. Ah Madrid! What an entrance through the airport! Stunning architecture. After a day's travelling, we dropped our bags off...

We arrived to autumnal air, crisp at the edges and cooling to our souls and bodies. Now I know why Italians escape to the mountains. Our...

Sometimes I don't research a place enough, this was that time. Trapani looked a good option on Instagram but in reality, it wasn't. We...

Woke at dawn and looking out the window, saw people just going home, the girls with high heels in hand and maybe a partner, a lover...

So bae departed today to Cyprus and we were to leave for Crete. Bae's boat was very late and was so tiny and the seas so rough that she...