Travel Blog

I arrived into Prague in the early evening on Tuesday and checked into the Sheraton which is home for three nights. The nicer hotels in Prague are fairly expensive and I can’t say that it represents value for money. I’ve certainly stayed at nicer Sheraton’s with lower rates but this…

What a difference a day makes. Having left drizzly Luxembourg the weather showed some signs of improvement as I headed for Germany - somewhere I’d never been to. My final destination was a castle in Colmberg which is a town near to Nuremberg some 250 miles away. I was originally…

I like living on an island separated from continental Europe with only the Welsh and Scots to share a land border with (you can’t have everything). But there’s something adventuresome once you cross the English Channel and arrive at the largest continuous land mass on the planet with over 80…

Following on from the beach, Georgia and I had 5 days with Jo in Williamsburg. Our days were filled with trips to see Jo’s new horse Rio, shopping, long walks and cheeky lunches. It was at one of the lunches that I first became acquainted with the Red Hat Society.…

Georgia and I were fortunate enough to be upgraded to business on the way out while brother Alex and cousin Caroline were in the back row by the toilets. Sister Laura and nephew Felix didn’t fare much better next to a man who needed a seatbelt extension. IAD immigration was…

Saturday morning marked the end of the trip and we got officially released from the care of Son who certainly took his responsibilities seriously. As I was in a different hotel I’d said my goodbyes the night before so I was ready for the final few days of the trip.…

Our early Thursday morning departure from Dalat was via one of the Royal palaces. The Art Deco architecture was quite ghastly as were the interior furnishings. The last king of Vietnam used it as one of his residences. In 1945 when the communist party came to power and Ho Chi…

We left Quy Nhon, which I have to say looked quite a nice place and headed out of the city a few miles before being reacquainted with our bikes. We were due to ride 95km which was the longest of the trip but the sun was shining and the scenery…

After getting off the train ride from hell, we had a short ride to our hotel which was actually described as a resort. I think that might have been taking it a little far but there was a nice pool and some treatments on offer so I went with it.…

Monday saw the real start of our tour as we left Hanoi early and headed toward the village of Mai Chau for a homestay. Our guide, Son, said that we would all be sleeping in the same room which he was obviously joking about. We cycled a total of 65km…

I mean I could have just gone direct with Vietnam Airlines but point-chasing Paddy isn’t a member of SkyTeam (not to be confused with Team Sky or the Judean People’s Front) and a cursory look at the airlines in that particular alliance makes me think I never will. Aeroflot? The…

A few days ago I had an email from South African Airways asking me to make an offer for a business class upgrade from Vic Falls to Jo’burg. I followed the link and made a paltry offer which according to the website was rated as “poor”. Nothing like being abused…

I arrived at the Kingdom hotel in Vic Falls at 10am and delightful Irene managed to set me up with a room straight away. Finally I was in a proper hotel. Bath tub, fridge, TV, safe, ironing board, slippers and the real mark of an top class establishment, tandem toilet…

We left Drotsky’s early and headed back over the border into Namibia to drive further along the Caprivi Strip before dropping back into Botswana. A bit of a faff with the borders but there were no queues and it saved us a heap of driving. A few hours in and…

We left Etosha on Thursday and I have to say it didn’t live up to its billing. The animals really do need to step things up. The lions need to do more chasing, the elephants could show up at the water holes and some reproductive action wouldn’t go unappreciated. It…

We left Khorixas and headed for Etosha National Park which is regarded as one of the top safari parks in the world. En-route we passed through the small Namibian town of Outjo which had lots of non-working men loafing about. It’s well known that the Damara men folk from Damaraland…

Namibia has only been in existence as a country in its own right since 1990 when it gained independence from South Africa. Past names included German South-West Africa and simply South-West Africa when it was ruled by South Africa on behalf of Britain. The currency in the Namibian Dollar or…

A few South Africa facts. The population is around 55m with a land area five times the size of the UK. There are 11 official languages (only Bolivia and India have more). The top four rank thus: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English. There are nine provinces and the largest city…

During the early part of the week the QM2 (fastest cruise ship in the world) was in port part way through its World Cruise which started from Southampton in early January. I saw some bewildered looking folk around town who were probably passengers. Saturday I was set adrift from the…

Cape Town is the second city of South Africa lying on the southwestern coast in the shadow of Table Mountain with a population of almost 4m. People from Cape Town are called Capetonians and about one third are white with English as the main language. Right now Cape Town is…