Thinking of visiting Mount Etna?

If you find yourself in Sicily then one must do is visiting Mount Etna, the most active volcano in the area.  It has been active for over 2700 years and whilst not a danger at present it has erupted as recently as New Year 2023.  An ever present landmark all around the Catania area it was a place we just had to see as close up as possible. It is recommended the best times to visit are between March and September, especially for hiking. As we write this on 3rd April, it’s minus 3°C and snowing up there.

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Driving Tour around the Sicilian Coastline

We had looked into the idea of property buying in Sicily, particularly the local €1 home renovation schemes. It was easy to imagine us doing that and having somewhere nice and warm to retire to.  We set up some visits to view properties, but after extensive research, we found that we were highly unlikely ever to be able to obtain a visa to live there due to Brexit. We had already booked and paid for our flights, so we decided to go ahead with our trip and see the sights of this magical island. Hiring a car we decided that driving around the Sicilian Coastline anticlockwise was the way to go!

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A September Weekend in Gibraltar

A ladies weekend beckoned to celebrate Joy’s birthday and as Joy’s sister in law lives in Gibraltar we decided to go and spend a long weekend there. I had been to Gibraltar before but only for a day trip so was excited to spend more time there; especially as we had booked a beach chalet and the forecast in September was pretty nice.

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Visiting Athens in February/March

An unusual trip for us was visiting Athens in February.  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 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 Weekend in Baku, Azerbaijan

A November weekend saw a trip to somewhere which is technically classed as part of Europe (or at least a small part of it is!) – Azerbaijan. The reason for our visit to the capital, Baku, was not only to add a tick to our list of visited European countries, but also because we were inspired by the BBC Series Race Across the World. Azerbaijan has been an independent country since 1991, when it left the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was also formerly part of Iran, North West Iran to be precise, and it is that Persian legacy that is most prominent in modern-day Baku. The city is known as Baku to the rest of the world; however, the locals call it Baki and pronounce it with a very soft k.

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A Day Trip to Cairo from Luxor

A day trip to Cairo was something we would never have 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 5 am 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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