A restful weekend in the French countryside…

We met a more tired looking Lara the next day outside our apartment and caught the 11am train to her parents’ house for the weekend in Malesherbes, about an hour and a half south of Paris. Malesherbes is in the Loire Valley region of France and most well-known for some large Château’s such as Fontainebleau, however we were here just to enjoy the company rather than wanting to go...
read more

Paris continued …Ooh la la

On our second full day in Paris we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower by metro determined to climb the 669 steps to the midway platform and then the lift to the top. Unfortunately it wasn’t the clearest day and we could barely make out the Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre where we would be spending time with Lara later that afternoon.  The Eiffel Tower is perhaps the first man-made structure the...
read more

France? That wasn’t in our plans!

We never exactly made plans per se about travelling in Europe; it was more an idea of which countries we wouldn’t visti – France and other ‘western’ European countries were toward the top of that list. This was mainly becuause we’d travelled there previously and also due to the high cost of travel/living in this part of Europe.  However, sometimes the best thing about making...
read more

Bella Barcelona y el grandioso Gaudi

We had booked to stay in Barcelona for two nights after the cruise and were fortunate to get into Tripadvisor’s  #1 recommendation for ‘Specialty Lodging’ which was situated close to the downtown area. We were even more grateful for the beds when we learned that the following night two of the league’s top football (soccer) teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona, were playing at the Barcelona...
read more