We’ve now had a few days to experience different ways of doing things and thinking about things. Hoorn itself is a gorgeous small city. Back in the 1600s, when Holland was expanding its colonial interests with Indonesia being one of the main objectives, Hoorn played a vital role for the Dutch East India Company; or… Read More »
Lynette arrived at Schiphol Airport this morning and our exchange partners set off to our place in Australia. Despite the last few days being fine and dry, the rain decided to descend today; not bucketing or even doing anything more than lurking about, damp and dispirited. But, who cares? We’re in a lovely town for… Read More »
After two very full and long flights via Abu Dhabi comes touchdown finally at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Despite a fairly quick processing through immigration, bags seemed to take forever to come through and for a while I was very worried that my guitar had found another owner somewhere between Sydney and here. Eventually it too… Read More »
As usual, we have found a number of tools to help with our travel plans. Other readers may find these useful too. Please use the comments section if you’d like more info or you have other tools that you find really useful. Tripit We’ve been using Tripit for many years now and it really… Read More »
After our bike and barge tour, (described in the previous two posts), we trained back to Paris and then caught a TGV to Nantes. It’s an really interesting city indeed and we checked into another great AirBnB before getting a feel for the city. Here’s a few shots: just click on an image to open… Read More »
We leave La Ferté sous Jouarre and head through more beautiful countryside toward the small village of Gandalu where we have a look at the interior of the centuries old church and castle before making a stop for tea, cake and cider at a Bed and Breakfast which has been created in an old mill house which… Read More »
We leave Lyon behind as we catch the TGV to Paris. These marvellous trains hurtle along at speeds around 300 kph. First class seats are often available for only a few extra euros as the rail company set out to fill all seats. 1st class comes with power sockets at the seat and wifi access.… Read More »
This trip, we decided to use trains around France in preference to hiring a car. We’re very glad that we did as the experience so far has been excellent. We embarked on the TGV from Lyon this morning at 9.04am and are so far on time to reach Paris just after 11.00am. Two hours. The… Read More »
When we planned this trip we decided to spend three nights in Lyon as there seemed to be a sense that it would be a city worth spending time in. That has certainly been proven to be the case and yet it feels as though we may only have touched the surface. Leaving Avignon, we… Read More »
Avignon has lived up to expectations. Our AirBnB is spacious and in the shadows of the Palais des Papes. The huge doorway from the narrow street belies the space behind the facade. The modern additions of bathroom and toilet to a fourteenth century building add some quirkiness to the place but it’s spacious and quiet.… Read More »