Travelling allsorts

There is more to Edinburgh than the Fringe but that's the focus of this short post. Just over a year ago, we were staying about an hour away from Edinburgh and decided to spend a day at the Edinburgh Fringe festival so we went online and looked at what entertainment we might like to book tickets for. We chose Toby Hadoke's Dr Who inspired sequel about life with his step-son. Meanwhile, wandering around the streets and parks of the City (we had good weather), we spotted a number of celebs, including Toby Hadoke, the very funny Tim Vine and 'Ted' from Scrubs. We couldn't get there last summer but look out Edinburgh, this year, we are coming back!

Terry meets Julie at Waterloo Sation every Friday night, Harry Potter met the Weasleys at King's Cross to go to Hogwarts, Paddington Bear was found at one of the other stations but not, definitely not, St Pancras. St Pancras station was chosen as the gateway to Europe and £millions were spent expanding and upgrading it, much of the architecture is award-winning, some of the integrated ideas are innovative as well as functional. As a traveller, clutching my executive class ticket and weekend luggage, I arrived at check-in/passport control - a bit busy but it only took ten minutes to reach the front of the queue. Then the awakening... where were all those spacious areas so prevalent in photographs on the internet? The waiting area was one enormous sardine can! There were very few seats and from what I could see, they were all uncomfortable stone-like structures. That was the moment of realisation - airport departure lounges are not so bad after all, even Luton. That said, the t...

There is a distinct theme of 'funny men' on a trip to the North of England. Staying in Cumbria, you can visit Morecambe, home of Eric whose statue graces the promenade between the road and the beach, which borders the enormous Morecambe bay. There's a well-known anecdote about Morecambe and Wise sharing a bed in their comedy sketches, something like "if it's good enough for Laurel and Hardy then it's good enough for us". Just a few miles across the bay is Ulverston, the birthplace of Stan Laurel. Of course, there is a Laurel and Hardy statue in the town plus a museum, complete with free film shows - a must-see for young children as well as their great-grandparents. Not sure if Mr McGregor counts as a funny man but he can often be seen sitting on a bench outside a cottage close to the home of Peter Rabbit creator, Beatrix Potter. There is a visitor centre dedicated to the world of Beatrix Potter and you can visit her home and gardens at Hilltop, ...

Our short break to Toscana / Tuscany in Italy began with our arrival in Pisa and a quick visit to the leaning tower - from the outside only as there was a queue to climb the eight storeys of steps - tickets are now available for tourists to enter the tower, unlike our previous visit. You will note a recurring theme throughout the post that refers to long queues and full car parks during Easter so if you can arrange your visit for a less busy time, you will probably benefit. Our next stop was Siena  (you may recognise this from the James Bond film ). We parked reasonably easily about 100m from the northern gate then wandered along the busy streets and crowded piazzas, taking in the architecture and popping inside a few buildings for a different perspective. So many people though! For a change of pace, we decided to visit a couple of smaller walled villages. Monteriggioni is a tiny place where, apparently, Ezio from the Assassin's Creed game lived for a while. So compa...

Gare de l'Est The first weekend in April didn't have the best weather forecast for Paris (cloudy on Saturday, rain on Sunday) but we had booked the London to Paris Eurostar train and our hotel at the Gare de l'Est, a 5 minute walk from Gare du Nord. Arriving on Friday, there was time for a stroll - via the Notre Dame* cathedral - down to the bistros of the Latin Quarter and a brisk walk back to the hotel in the cool night air. After a huge breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed for the Sacré-Coeur* (further than it looked!!) and Montmartre, the Artists' Quarter, which is situated immediately behind it. The weather was beautiful - sunny and warm, as we then found our way back down the hill to find the Moulin Rouge (big disappointment, don't go out of your way) and a café-bar. Duly refreshed, we wandered over to Gare St Lazare of Claude Monet's oil painting fame (from an arty viewpoint, the modernised station was also disappointing) past the fascinating ar...

New Year's Week in Florida was a mixed bag of temperatures: from mid-20s Celsius to mid-20s Fahrenheit! No rain, though. Mostly sunny and a cold, cold wind. The TV forecasts are quite accurate and allow you to plan your week, e.g. theme park, beach, shopping mall.   At the Theme Parks Surprisingly busy. Parks schedule annual maintenance during the winter months so one of the rides in each park may be unavailable. With Disneyland Paris so easily accessible, we decided to limit our Disney time to the Animal Kingdom. We took the Jeep Safari and rode Expedition Everest, a slightly more intense version of Big Thunder Mountain. We bought a 2-day, 2-park ticket for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We were stunned that Express Pass , their version of Disney's free fast-pass system was being offered throughout the parks for $60 per person!!! (And even more stunned that people had actually bought them.) Interestingly, a big new section is under construction where Jaws us...

I don't think we made the best of Jamaica. We stayed at a very nice all-inclusive hotel in Montego Bay, which sounded glamorous because I always think of the song. The staff we encountered were friendly and the food was pretty good. I'm not sure why 'very nice' was disappointing. There was an uninspiring shallow beach which we had virtually to ourselves because guests seemed to prefer the pool areas and security staff guarded the beach perimeters to ensure that the private beach stayed private. And I think that was the problem, we felt like prisoners - might as well have been guantanamo bay as montego bay. Of course, we were allowed out of the hotel but always with an underlying message of lurking danger which, if you have children with you, you take no chances. To join escorted tours and even to hire a taxi was priced astronomically high per person, so we elected to remain in our open prison. Thank goodness it was only for a week.  (Montego Bay : Bobby Bloom)...