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After the travel… comes the art
So I’ve returned home to New Zealand after an extended 3 month trip around Europe and specifically for art inspiration: – a tour of the Scottish Highlands and islands. I’ve returned with hundreds of photos and lot of memories and so the painting commences. I was looking for moody misty scenery and rugged coasts, and […]
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Good news! We’ve a saint in the family.
After some considerable effort: a car ferry, a one hour drive, and then parking and catching a short pedestrian ferry (no tourists are allowed vehicles on the island) I arrive in the tiny sacred island of Iona… permanent population around 100. It is very close to the far western end of the island of Mull, […]
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On a viking ship heading north…
Finally two months into my trip I’m finally at the northern tip of the Highlands waiting for the Viking ship the Northlink company called Hamnavoe. Actually I drove onboard for the 1.5 hour trip from the unfortunately named Scrabster (Thurso) to Stromness, Orkney which is on the island they call the mainland. I’m getting quite […]
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The long road…
And so you may be surprised that the very non-religious Ms Pacifica did the Camino. Well some of it, (and clearly not roughing it by staying in Albergues -dorms!). But some walking was done, and some cycling too, and some pilgrim menus were eaten for lunch. What was very handy was they don’t have lunch […]
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The back door to Venice
After a peaceful night in the hills near Padova, but with VERY early rooster alarm clock we had a delicious breakfast on the terrace. Our bnb host had a brochure about a nearby villa and gardens designed by Luigi Bernini, the scandalous younger brother of the more famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Called Villa Barbarigo was […]
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Bologna – (and the Three T’s)
So I took a cheapish flight from Budapest to Bologna with Wizz – a Hungarian budget airline. It was fairly agricultural experience; penned in like animals going to slaughter in a tin shed in 35 degrees to eventually walk out to the airplane – budget airlines don’t get airbridges! However, just over an hour after […]
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Still Hungary…
Leaving Ms Viking in Prague I took the high speed train back to Budapest which is now like returning home for me. I stayed in a brand new Airbnb Apartment right next to Zsuzsanna’s and unpacked and popped over for a small glass of wine at my favourite breakfast café the Gerloczy, and when I […]
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Penguins in Prague
We have finally left the Danube for the Vltava. Same, but different. It still has river boats, is the same colour and similar size, but Prague has a nice yellow line-up of Penguins. It also looks great at night. Certainly there are tourists here in Prague. Bus loads of them, plus a smattering of American […]
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The jewel in the crown….
The jewel for tourism in Czech Republic (second only to Prague) is Cesky Krumlov. It is tourist heaven. Really the only place we have been where there are wall-to-wall souvenir shops, buses of tourists: asian and indian, and the start of the US school/college kids. It is very picturesque though. It was Saturday morning and […]
on my horizon... 