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 [...]
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 [...]
Continuing the theme of returning to cities for a third time we took the Golden Temple Mail from Amritsar to Delhi. I didn’t have the most pleasant of journeys from Amritsar. I’d been gloating to Rhian that I’d avoided any prolonged sickness during out fifteen weeks on the sub-continent only to pick up a nasty [...]
As with most tourist destinations in the north of India, Agra had been badly affected by the fall in tourist numbers following the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. This clearly had a devastating effect on small businesses struggling to survive. The less serious, yet extremely annoying, effect on us was an intensification in the hassle [...]
On arriving in Orchha (by musical auto) we immediately bumped into our friends from the Mumbai to Hospet train, Paawan and Sushma. They invited us to join them rafting down the Betwa river that evening. The sight of the riverside tombs as the sunset was truly memorable. The next day we took in Orchha’s sights [...]
The overnight train journey, in first class, from Mumbai to Jhansi, was made all the more pleasurable by sharing our compartment with the lovely Paawan and Sushma and their two gorgeous sons. As well as keeping us entertained during the long journey they continuously fed us with the delicious home-cooked food they had brought with [...]
The Brihadeeswarar temple made Thanjavur (formerly Tanjore) well worth stopping off at. Unfortunately we weren’t in town at the right time to see the huge monolithic Nandi statue receive it’s fortnightly milk and turmeric bath. We had an enjoyable day exploring the remaining sights of Thanjavur. The palace museum with it’s wonderful collection of Chola [...]
We took a bus from Chennai to the seaside village of Mamallapuram. Renowned for it’s stone carving tradition dating back to the fifth century, the town is still home to numerous craftsmen earning a living from carving stone. We were fortunate to be visiting during the annual dance festival which provided us with our first [...]
We went to Edinburgh for the 6 Nations match last week. Possibly the most inept performance I’ve ever witnessed (and I watched Swansea during the pre-regionalisation season). I can’t see us scoring a try this season never mind winning a match. The performance could not have been more different than that of two years ago. [...]
Spent the weekend in Haarlem and Amsterdam visiting Geraint. Enjoyed sampling the local beverages and snack food (Broodje Haring – basically a raw herring in a bread roll). We even managed some culture.
