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UK and Home

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United Kingdom 14 February Scottish winter? In a way, we had been looking forward to some 'harsh Scottish' weather this week. For most of our trip, we've been extremely lucky with the weather. In five months, we can count truly rainy days on one hand (rain as opposed to overcast and dull!). So far, we think we've had only a couple of days when we didn't see some blue sky and it has been overwhelmingly sunny. And even when it did snow – in Spain of all places! - it only lasted for a day. In one respect, Scotland has let us down! A few days before we arrived in Edinburgh, the whole of the UK was experiencing blizzard conditions. The past couple of days have been positively balmy at 8C plus. Silly as it may sound, this actually feels warm to us after our slow acclimatisation to the European winter! “Disappointment” about the mild weather is about our only “complaint” about Edinburgh. Even though we haven't been here for more than
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Malta to Istanbul

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Malta 29 January “Movement Sociale” In any other language a “Movement Sociale” could be a very good thing - a social club, a continuous party? One can only imagine the full set of possibilities! But malheureusement, (sadly) – we are still thinking in French!, roughly translated, it means STRIKE! Oh yes, the very day that had to drag our 60kgs (and Paul NEVER exaggerates) of luggage across Paris on the Metro and RER (Regional Rail), was the one that the workers of the Paris public transport system chose to 'take to the barricades'. Some trains were running and we had made good progress, reaching the enormous Gare du Nord in very reasonable time for the second of three connections we had to make to get to southern outskirts of Paris and Orly Airport. The station was alarmingly quiet for a peak hour Thursday? Yep. All trains to the south of the city had been cancelled. So, along with 10 million Parisians, we sought an alternative. Luckily we had considered
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Portugal and France

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January 2009 Out of Africa? .. how trite! On the road again?.... used before? Border crossings can be a total non-event or they can take hours. Our return to Spain and the EU today was at the upper end of this scale. Who would have thought it would take almost an hour to get out of Morocco and into Spain? Nobody in this day and age objects to border formalities. They ensure our safety and security. But do they have to be so inefficient?! It may be jingoistic, but crossing the Australian frontier is always 'efficient'. It may take time, but you can see that things are working to a system. Even entering the USA, there is a 'system' - frustratingly slow and poorly managed - but a system. Again, today, at the Moroccan frontier, it was chaos. We were lucky. For some reason a policeman, controlling the rapidly growing and slow moving line at the border, decided to wave us through to an express lane. Right to the front! Good for us, but what about the unlu
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