Our Travels

You can read the full story of our trip here, but these are my own observations and highlights from it. I really didn’t know what to expect of this trip. We’re not experienced cruisers, and anyway, Hurtigruten were at pains to point out their ships are not cruise ships! MS Finnmarken is about the size of the largest car ferries you see around the world. Indeed, she carries cars, and plenty of cargo as well. But the passenger decks are…

We weren’t planning to stay at the Palais Medina & Spa in Fès, however we weren’t happy with the location of our accommodation we’d booked, so we cancelled and reserved a room at this 5* hotel. The hotel is situated on a main road, opposite the medina and next to a good sized shopping centre. We booked a standard double room with bed & breakfast and were allocated one with a lovely view over the pool and medina. Our room…

We flew into Crete from London, arriving quite late at the quirky little Heraklion airport. We’d arranged a transfer as part of the booking, and we were pleased to find it was a very comfortable, well air conditioned, leather seated Mercedes Minibus – these things are important to me! First Impressions The transfer was only 25km and we arrived at what we knew to be a private peninsular – indeed the gates were firmly shut! The peninsular is adjacent to…

I remember my parents talking fondly about their boating trips to the Norfolk Broads in the 50’s and 60’s, so trying it for myself has been on my agenda for many years. Interestingly, once we’d booked it, everyone I spoke to who has been described it as one of their best ever holidays, and those who hadn’t almost universally said it is something they want to do one day.  Little wonder then that over 3 million people holiday in the…

We’ve not had a boating holiday before, so when good friends of ours were thinking of booking their next trip on the Norfolk Broads, we decided to join them. The lovely thing about the Norfolk Broads is that it’s an easy introduction to boating, there’s 120 miles of waterways and no locks to deal with. We had booked a 35ft Brinks Concerto for our week, with two double cabins and two bathrooms. As we had choice of cabins, we went…

We were looking forward to eating out at a few pubs during our tour of the Southern Broads. We managed 6 during our week, and had some fabulous meals as well as tasting local ales. The pubs are listed in the order that we visited them. The Maltsers, Ranworth Ranworth is a picture postcard setting, there’s a village green with a local shop, and the tower of St. Helen’s church peaks out from the trees. The Maltsers is visible from…

Our first night in Barcelona was spent in the Best Western Hotel Alfa Aeropuerto which is the closest hotel to the airport, they offer a free shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel door but for ease we jumped in to one of the many taxis that queue at the front of the airport doors for a flat 20 EUR fee. We took a quick dip in the indoor pool and whilst we had it to ourselves it was…

The Mercat de la Boqueria, also known as the Mercat de Sant Josep is a magnet for tourists. This superb food market is situated between La Rambla and the plaza of Sant Josep, it’s a busy, bustling and vibrant place. We tried twice during the afternoon and again in the evening to find vacant stools at one of the tapas bars in La Boqueria, without success. So that mission remains top of our list for our next visit to Barcelona.…