Holidays

Paraty, Brazil Paraty, Brazil

Paraty’s old town is a criss cross­ing net­work of cob­bled streets, each build­ing painted white with brightly coloured win­dow frames, it’s remark­ably pho­to­genic. Cars aren’t allowed in and only horse and cart nav­i­gate the uneven streets, amongst a few stray dogs. The town is hip and bohemian, and between restau­rants and the odd tourist shop are fas­ci­nat­ing art gal­leries and sculptures.

Iguaçu Falls, Brazil Iguaçu Falls, Brazil

We flew Gol air­lines to Foz do Iguacu, and with our Lonely Planet guide we knew to sit on the left side of the plane for the best view of the falls. It only took an hour or so to get there, and when we landed at 3pm it felt like a dif­fer­ent coun­try; clear […]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We felt unpre­pared for Brazil, we booked the flights and the first week of hotels but left the sec­ond week open for what­ever we pleased. The hol­i­day sneaked up on us whilst we were busy work­ing, and sud­denly we were on the plane from Heathrow, stop­ping at Paris for some Camem­bert and an excel­lent nighttime […]

A week in Madeira A week in Madeira

Our trip to Fun­chal, Madeira wasn’t planned, and it came about through the cir­cuitous route of a can­celled 3 week hol­i­day in Japan, but that’s another and much less excit­ing story. Book­ing last minute, we opted for a one week Thom­son (TUI) pack­age, with flights and hotel included, which is very unlike us. But we […]

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona, Spain

From our trip to Cadaqués, the return route to Barcelona took us a dif­fer­ent way. Up at 7am, checked out by 8am, with break­fast wrapped in nap­kins, the hotel direc­tor dropped us at the bus sta­tion in his jeep. Adiós. On the Sarfa bus we went up and around the moun­tain roads again, bus swaying […]

Cadaqués, Spain Cadaqués, Spain

From Brighton Sta­tion and the usual decrepit First Cap­i­tal Con­nect trains, then Gatwick Air­port and pro­fi­cient Easy­Jet flight to Barcelona, then taxi to Esta­cio del Nord, and a 2h45 Sarfa bus north, through wind­ing pyre­nean roads, down to the coastal town of Cadaques.

Honeymoon part 1: Phuket, Thailand Honeymoon part 1: Phuket, Thailand

After an overnight stay at the Heathrow IBIS, a bus to the ter­mi­nal, check-in and an EAT steak sand­wich, we were on our Thai Air­ways flight to Bangkok. The loca­tion of our hon­ey­moon was kept a tight lipped secret until the last moments; Sam believed we were headed for Japan.

Honeymoon part 2: Chiang Mai, Thailand Honeymoon part 2: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Part one of our hol­i­day was over, we checked out, returned the rental and took an Air Asia flight north, to Chi­ang Mai. With a com­pli­men­tary air­port trans­fer we arrived at Rimp­ing Vil­lage, our next port of call. Unlike the pre­vi­ous resorts, this was a small, per­sonal and homely place — all rooms over­look the pool, […]

Honeymoon epilogue: The journey home Honeymoon epilogue: The journey home

Our jour­ney home started with­out a hitch, up at 5:15am, packed, checked out and whisked to Chi­ang Mai air­port via our trans­fer. After hang­ing around amongst thou­sands of mos­qui­tos wait­ing for the check-in desk to open, we deposited our lug­gage and ate our packed break­fast — hearty tuna sand­wiches. In the lounge we rem­i­nisced about […]

Prague & Dresden Prague & Dresden

I’m cur­rently sit­ting on a train, trav­el­ling from Prague through to Berlin, we’re get­ting off at Dres­den for a day trip. It takes about two hours. The rolling green scenery and river Vltava are going past, bask­ing in glo­ri­ous sun­shine. A group of sleepy Amer­i­cans sur­round us. Wak­ing at 3:45am and fly­ing from Lon­don Gatwick at […]