Gruffydd “Gruff” Planchant born this morning, August 3rd 2010, at 2:19am, 7lb 5oz. Mother and baby both doing well except for Gruff’s sore head and Rhian’s lack of sleep. For those wondering how “Gruff” is pronounced, it’s just the same as Griff.
We were very lucky that our camping trip to Dorset coincided with a beautiful later summer’s weekend. As well as visiting the River Cottage Autumn Fair for the birthday of Hugh’s biggest fan. We also enjoyed walking, a spot of mackerel fishing off Lyme Regis (and cooking the spoils), eating too much and sampling some [...]
We arrived in Paris by TGV from Basel. A comfortable journey made all the more entertaining by the conductors attempts to seamlessly switch between German, French and English. We spent the afternoon wandering around the 5th and 6th arrondissements and reading a collection of posters outside the Jardin du Luxembourg. The final night of our [...]
We enjoyed a great two days in Basel with Nicole and Christian. While we were there we explored the old town, took in the views from Bölchenflue, visited the Roman amphitheatre at Augusta Raurica, cheekily enjoyed a free beer at the Feldschlösschen brewery, took in a spot on the Rhein where France, Germany and Switzerland [...]
Our lightning stop in Munich began with an early arrival at Hauptbahnhof. We took the U-Bahn to our hotel but we were too early to check into our room so we headed straight out to explore. The city map we were given at our hotel had a short walking tour so after an excellent breakfast [...]
Our mammoth overland journey from the edge of Europe to Munich began at Istanbul’s Sirkeci station with the Bosfor Ekspresi. We decided to splash out on a compartment in the sleeping car for the Istanbul to Bucharest leg of the journey. However, on arriving at the platform, we discovered that the train only comprised of [...]
More wonderful scenery on our journey from Erzurum to Kayseri and we were very lucky to have a cabin to ourselves the whole way. On the downside we arrived in Kayseri at 4:15am. After sitting in the station waiting room for the sun to rise we set off for the otogar. Arriving at the spot [...]
The six hour bus journey from Doğubeyazıt to Erzurum took us past snow capped mountains and through a blizzard! We were expecting it to be cold but this was something else. We used our twenty four hours in Erzurum to explore the city and to eat two very good meals. One of Cağ kebab at [...]
A night in Doğubeyazıt gave us the chance to catch breath after Iran. We also took the opportunity to visit the impressive Ishak Pasha palace. Doğubeyazıt is a Kurdish town and it felt very different to Maku even though we’d only travelled around 50km. We enjoyed two good meals in Doğubeyazıt. Finding something tasty to [...]
The journey from Tabriz to Maku was very scenic. We first passed snow capped mountains then rolling hills decorated with flocks of sheep their shepherds and sheep dogs in tow. As we approached Maku the landscape became more rocky and we crossed a deep narrow gorge with a river flowing through it. Maku itself is [...]
