An unusual trip for us was visiting Athens so early in the year. Not huge fans of the height of the summer experiences where it is uncomfortably hot and crowded, we went to the other extreme and went in February! Not sure quite what to expect weather wise we arrived for our week arriving to a surprisingly comfortable 18 degrees!
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A Week in Cyprus: Exploring Limassol and Beyond
Our trip to Cyprus in July 2022 saw us revisit the pandemic, with mask-wearing in enclosed spaces mandated again. Though not everyone strictly adhered to the rules that had been re-introduced just a week before our visit, a week during which Nigel had his first experience of COVID. Aside from that inconvenience, travel was back to normal with the country having no entry requirements whatsoever. You could enter completely unvaccinated, or even whilst still testing positive for the virus. Nigel was by now testing negative, although a few symptoms remained, this was real-life “learning to live with COVID.”
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A Day Trip to Cairo from Luxor
A day trip to Cairo was something we would never thought we would consider; however given it was an option from our Nile Cruise operator and we were keen to see those pyramids, here we were about to board a plane in Luxor for a 5am flight to Cairo. A little groggy but excited for our adventures we checked in, boarded our flight and away we were in the Egyptian skies!
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Spending a Week on a Nile Cruise – Luxor to Aswan
A 7.45am pick up awaited us on our 3rd morning in Hurghada for an exciting trip to join our boat for a Nile Cruise. What we hadn’t thought of however was researching the length of the trip (a quick Google maps search informed it was 4 hrs)……. Only the transfer bus we were on took 7 as we were one of the first to be picked up! We and a family of 4 Canadians were the only ones who spoke English but were stuck on a bus where the guide talked for hours in German. It wasn’t a fun experience and we felt like we would never get there but eventually arrived in Luxor to board our boat for the week, the MS Royal La Terrasse.
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A Week in Hurghada – Egypt
Egypt has always been a place I have been interested in since school lessons which spoke about mummies, hieroglyphics and pyramids but until recently we had never had a plan to actually get there. There had been some reasons we hadn’t visited before, some political unrest at times and finances as it appeared expensive and unaffordable. On this occasion we found a really good deal for 2 weeks, 1 week in Hurghada at a 5 star hotel and a week on a Nile Cruise. With both being all inclusive and approximately £499 each for 2 weeks including flights, transfers, accommodation etc we decided it would be a perfect anniversary trip. In addition end of March/beginning of April would hopefully not be insufferably hot. We decided why not lets do it!
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Cruising the Norwegian Fjords – P&O Iona
As a celebration of good health, Mum and I took a September trip to the Norwegian Fjords and booked the last fjords cruise for the year on Iona in the hope that we may have a chance of seeing the Northern Lights. This was the first cruise (besides a river cruise) that either of us had been on so we were complete novices and unsure what to expect. As someone who suffers from mal de mer I was a little apprehensive of how I would manage but had read loads of reports that the bigger the ship the less movement – here’s hoping!
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From Fort William to Edinburgh (via Loch Lomond and Glasgow)
Waking up in Fort William we hoped for a lovely clear day so we would get an amazing view of Ben Nevis; alas it wasn’t to be. We headed to the Corpach Sea Locks after breakfast and check out. The locks are the starting point of the Caledonian Canal and the big attraction seems to be a shipwreck; this was a bit off the beaten track but recommended to us so we had a quick look given its close proximity to Fort William.
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Driving from Ullapool to Fort Willam (via the Isle of Skye)
Ullapool is very small village with a population of approximately 1,500 people. Waking up there was a lovely surprise; the sunrise was beautiful and despite the following overcast weather it was a pretty little place. We headed down the road to the coastal road to have a daytime look around the area.
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The NC500 – Inverness to Ullapool (via John O’Groats)
A tired Carol & Nigel had arrived in Inverness; somewhere we started our original Scottish tour back in 2020 prior to lockdown being announced. We liked Inverness but this was only a stopping point as we had seen it before. We were roughly planning to following the NC500 route from here on. For those of you who don’t know the North Coast 500 it is a driving route of over 500 miles which offers stunning scenery, rugged mountains, fishing villages and beaches. It was unlikely given the time we had we would manage the whole route so we needed to be a little more selective about where we were feasibly able to visit.
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Aberdeen to Inverness – The Start of The NC500 Route
Aberdeen was great location for a few nights over New Year. We had grand ideas that it would be somewhere lively for Hogmanay; however we were disappointed to learn that in Scotland they still had covid restrictions meaning that there were not allowed to be any pubs open late and only selected venues were operating a late licence. The ironic thing was England had lifted these restrictions and many Scots were heading to the likes of Newcastle for a good New Year knees up! Not to be deterred we decided to stick it out and see how we got on!
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