The pandemic is gathering speed. Waiting for the train from London to Canterbury and they announce that it's running late as a passenger...

Taking the waters. The scenery on the bus to Karlovy Vary is dramatic, wintry stark black trees, misty greys, soft mulberry shades...

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...

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...

Fear and trembling. Heading home to meet up with the daughter, her partner and an Australian couple who've been living in England for 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...

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

From chaos to quiet sophistication. Back to Catania to a house hotel room up three flights of stairs! My room is called the Silk Road,...

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

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...

Left the Aphrodite Suites, Naxos and ran into absolute chaos with lack of food on top. That situation does not a happy lot of women make....

Naxos is the island where, in Greek mythology, Ariadne, princess of Crete is abandoned by her lover Theseus. Ariadne had fallen in love...

Nearly thirty years ago my husband and I went to Paros and fell in love with all things Greek. It was the days before mobile phones and...