food and art treasures waiting to be discovered in Gaziantep
Gaziantep is just 100km north of the Syrian border. It's the foodie capital of Turkey and one of the mosaic capitals of the world.
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from the holy to the profane on the road to adana
Today we were travelling from Goreme to Adana. Highlights? A superb underground monastery, awesome Roman aqueduct, and glorious food..
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Rediscovering your inner child in beautiful Cappadoccia
An elfin wonderland of balloon parties in the sky, upside down underground apartments and holey cheese wedge houses. Alice would have loved it..
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palermo is both gritty & wondrous
Palermo is a frantic place, loud and dirty, friendly and gruff. It’s like a place you might find in a story from the Arabian nights.
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the slow road up, down & along the murray river
The COVID pandemic has restricted our travel options overseas so this is the era of aussies rediscovering Australia. Niran and I love driving and the options for travelling from Sydney are…
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a scenic way home from victoria to sydney
– avoid the freeway and enjoy country australia – We were just about at the end of our two week road trip around central and northern Victoria, and were preparing to head back to…
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a leisurely ride on the tumbarumba rail trail
– a peaceful ride through lush countryside – Upfront let me declare that Niran and I are not exactly exercise freaks! Nonetheless, we opted to spend the entire last day of our…
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a quiet day in and around castlemaine
– gentle beauty & peace found in the run-of-the-mill – We had decided to spend a quiet day exploring a few small towns in and around Castlemaine. There’s nothing grand…
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immersing ourselves in the vic gold rush
– a trip through some amazing australian history – The 1850’s Victorian gold rush is one of the major events that we all remember from our primary school history days.…
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gold and old towns around daylesford
– old towns, old cemeteries, old mines and ghosts – We had decided to explore a little of Victoria’s gold mining heritage a part of our two week road trip through country…
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exploring painted silos
– faded glory days and resilient determination – The silo art trail in north west Victoria is becoming a major tourist attraction. We’d seen a string of painted silos on our…
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the endless lake mungo
– a place of lost dreams and enduring stories – A visit to Mungo National Park is an easy day trip from Mildura (see our other post for more Mildura day trip options). Mungo is on…
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day trips from mildura
– the meeting place of rivers, desert and sand hills – Mildura can be a little quiet on weekends, so we organised a couple of side trips to make the best of our short time in the…
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lake tyrrell, ethereal and incredibly beautiful
– a vast expanse of salt, sky and stars – We had spent the morning in Echuca and were now on our way. The road from Echuca to Sea Lake traverses vast expanses of flat, yellow…
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a paddle steamer on the murray at echuca
– a gentle paddle up an iconic river – We had decided to follow the iconic Murray River along the Victorian border and were headed to Sea Lake after a brief stay in Rutherglen. An…
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slow down in benalla, victoria
So you’ve decided to drive from Sydney to Melbourne (or vice versa). Why not take the slow road and make it an opportunity to see a little more of Australia? That’s what we decided…
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lovely sticky wines in rutherglen
Rutherglen occupies a special place in the Australian wine industry as the home of Australian fortified wines. You can easily spend a day in Rutherglen cycling between wineries and enjoying a…
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an interesting drive from Sydney to Melbourne
Search for directions for the trip from Sydney to Melbourne, and Google Maps will instantly suggest the direct but unimaginative route via the Hume Highway. But if you want to experience some…
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…..ooohhh vienna!
We had decided to all meet in Vienna for the weekend. Calum & Mini were coming from Budapest where they had been for the week; and Niran and I were flying in from Munich after he finished…
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the treasures of empire
Sunday was a much more relaxed affair! We started the morning with breakfast at Vollpension – which is a cafe run by grandmas and grandpas. What a brilliant concept! We were welcomed by…
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lake inari
We woke to the clearest and brightest day of our stay. What a shame! We thought we would spend our last few hours on the lake. Some beautiful shots – it was a very special light we…
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huskies and northern lights
Our final full day in Lapland! And this was to be a special one because finally we were going husky sledding! But as this wasn’t planned until midday, we decided to take the short taxi…
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the early bird catches the fish..
Enjoying a day of ice fishing and snowshoeing in Finnish Lapland
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meeting the sami
We woke to a pitch black day – goodness it’s hard to get up in the mornings here! Breakfast was in the main building so we geared up and hauled ourselves over there in the dark.…
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an inari welcome
What to wear in Finnish Lapland in the arctic winter? We were soon to find out that getting dressed for the cold isn't child's play!
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not your usual greek landscape
milos is not your usual greek island – it's so much more – sulphur mines, fiery red rocks and moonscapes
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village life on milos
sleepy villages and local life are the unexpected pleasure of visiting an out of the way Greek island like Milos
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the churches of milos island
he simple, monotonous ringing of the bell at the church above our home seemed to punctuate our daily routine and no matter where we found ourselves on the island the regular peal would force…
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the fishing villages of milos island
Can you imagine a more idyllic life? Sun drenched and dazzling white against the azure blue of the meditteranean, the fishing villages of milos island are to envy..
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off the beaten track in greece…milos island
How to decide on the right Greek Island? So many to choose from! Especially if you've never visited Greece before. Luckily, with our choice of Milos we struck it lucky the first time.
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breezing though bari
Only a few hours and so much to see. Bari is a bustling, modern lively town which spares a solid nod to its rich past..
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meandering thru villages in valle d’itria
Tradition and faith permeate the fabric of the small towns of Villa d'Itria. On our last full day we decided to learn some more..
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the whitewashed town of ostuni
– sun-drenched laneways, foodie delights – Today was Niran’s birthday and we decided to visit the “white town” of Ostuni, which is about 13 km to the north east…
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travelling into a sumptuous past in lecce
It's like travelling into a baroque forest of stone tendrils, flowers and vines. The architecture of Lecce in Puglia is sumptuous and hints at a past steeped in both tradition and an…
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charming locorotondo
Locorotondo is a charming village, still not quite on the main tourist map but on its way there. Whitewashed houses and honey-coloured stone – a beautiful village buried in Villa d'Istria
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alborebello, disneyland in puglia
By all accounts it's overrun by tourists (which it was) but nonetheless it's worthwhile seeing because it's a UNESCO site.(also true). Pretty and quaint but challenging in terms of its "authenticity".
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a detour to francavilla fontana in puglia
With its gorgeous honey coloured stone buildings, it's hard to believe that the village of francavilla fontana doesn't feature in any of the guidebooks. The ghost-town facade doesn't easily…
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off the beaten track in italy & slovenia
– rugged alpine beauty and rolling vineyards – This was going to be a more relaxed weekend away than the last two, as it was a driving holiday and we had a whole three days. The…
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a long weekend in istanbul
Istanbul has to be the most engaging city in the world. Utterly ramshackle, slowly decaying and incredibly gorgeous and ugly in equal parts. It's both welcoming and indifferent. A city of huge…
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a sweltering long weekend in madrid
We had picked the hottest weekend of the year to visit Madrid, or so it seemed. But the nights were languorous and the tapas bars met every expectation..
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a long weekend in dublin
This was our second visit to Dublin. A town with two faces – party central whilst solemn and dour. And home to some of my favourite works of art..
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a weekend in regensburg
– sausages on the danube – Regensburg is a small town about one and a half hour’s drive to the north east of Munich. It could be done as a day trip but we decided to take our…
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oslo in 6 hours….
This was Day 12 and our last day in Norway. So we had to make the best of it in terms of seeing Oslo before we had to leave for our flight at 4.30. The weather had started to clear up the…
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driving from heggenes to oslo
Day 11 of our trip to Norway. Not much to report today as we spent most of it doing mundane things. We left Herangtunet Hotel early after breakfast. One final shot of our wing – we were…
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hiking up to skaget in norway (or not!)
Day 10 of our visit to Norway. Before starting on today’s blog, a quick squizz at the view from our room, taken yesterday evening. Not bad hey! Back to today. We had been anticipating…
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driving from aurland to heggenes
Day 9 of our visit to Norway. It poured and poured today! It was a driving day, thankfully. So we just took our time and visited a few landmarks on our way. Having seen the small village of…
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a farmstay at aurland
Day 8 of our visit to Norway. We began the day with breakfast at our farm, 29/2 Aurland, where we were served with local produce – fresh milk, fruit and cheeses. Seriously good. Then we…
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a drive north east of bergen
Day 7 of our trip to Norway. The day began uneventfully as we drove to our next location. This being Norway there were, of course, some spectacular views that punctuated our drive along the…
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wandering around bergen
Day 6 of our trip to Norway. A slow day wandering around Bergen today. I was only vaguely aware of this town until recently when my sister recommended a UK TV series to me called Shetland.…
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waterfalls..tunnels..fjords and ferries
Day 5 of our trip to Norway. As it’s Sunday, it’s fairly quiet. Which was just as well, because today we had a long drive to Bergen and it was good not to have to contend with a…
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hiking in haukeli
Day 4 of our visit to Norway. We were amazed to wake up this morning to this! What a difference a day makes! Today we resolved to take a hike from Huakeliseter Fjellstue to Kista. Kista is…
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rain and more rain…
Day 3 of our visit to Norway. Well we thought we had seen the worse of the rain on our first day, but today it just came bucketing down and put paid to all our plans. It was a day spent almost…
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hiking – or not! – around dalen
Day 2 of our visit to Norway. We’ve been a bit worried about just how “active” our limited hiking skills would allow us to be on this holiday, and today was going to be our first test. We…
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a visit to heddal in norway
Day 1 of our visit to Norway. This morning we picked up our car at Gardermoen Airport and began our 10 day drive around central and southern Norway. Sadly, it rained pretty much the whole day…
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chocolate box salzburg
Living in Munich is fantastic. It’s so central and therefore makes it easy to get to so many places we want to visit in Europe. So on the spur of a moment over lunch on Saturday, we…
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old is new is old in amsterdam
We like to amble on our holidays and Amsterdam is a great city for walking provided you’ve grown eyes all the way around your head so that you can spot kamikaze bike riders coming from…
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the historical melting pot of split, croatia
We caught the Krilo ferry from Dubrovnik to Split. It was an easy bus ride on the 1B service just outside Dubrovnik’s Pile Gate to Port Gruz 1. I was expecting an office or at least a…
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the walled fortress town of dubrovnik
Arriving in the old city of Dubrovnik at night is magical. Ours was the last flight in and we decided to opt for the shuttle bus into the old town. We bought our tickets at a small vending…
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