Middle-aged flash packers

It’s rare that somewhere is prettier in reality than in carefully taken tourist photos, but Cesky Krumlov is one of those places. After an easy 4.5 hour drive from KG we arrived at Penzion Svojse, dumped our stuff and headed out to explore CK. I’ve always wanted to visit Bohemia. I imagined its history to…

Last night we ate out in Kranjska Gora. I ordered stuffed calamari. I imagined a delicate filling of breadcrumbs, herbs, maybe a minced prawn. Nope. Spam and cheese. I ate most of it as I was hungry but it was very odd and I wouldn’t recommend it. Today we decided to drive to Mojstrana and…

I’ve decided that Slovenians have some sort of genetic aberration that has made them half mountain goat. They seem attracted to steep slopes and even those that look as though they’ve overindulged on the goulash fly up the hills with ease. Parents carry their babies and children with them. It’s quite amazing. We decided to…

I have to confess we did cheat a bit on this one as we caught a bus up to the Vrsic Pass. I’m so glad we did. We both had had more than enough walking by the end. At the bus stop we got talking to some other Brit walkers. They had the same walks…

Breakfast at Sweet Days lived up to it’s name. Chocolate pear cake, jam tart, fresh watermelon and pineapple. Also freshly squeezed orange juice from a Heath Robinson style machine. A kindly Belgian man helped me with it before my fingers were shredded. He comes to Peschiera every year and has done so for 30 years.…

Our night in the too cool for school Hotel Wetterhorn passed predictably. Hot and noisy. Breakfast was well presented but spartan as you’d expect. The other guests at breakfast were of a similar age or older than Steve and I. I wondered if they’d have preferred a lampshade on their retina burning bedside light bulb…

I need to start by making an apology to a lady from Minnesota. I’m sorry I laughed at your TripAdvisor review – you were right. More to follow. Today we left the comfort of the Hotel Turna and set off into Switzerland to visit the Trift bridge near Gadmen. It is a suspension bridge that…

Unfinished business because on a previous trip with other road warriors , Jan and Nik, we had wanted to visit Liechtenstein and walk this trail but couldn’t as the weather was appalling. Fast forward a couple of years and here we are in Liechtenstein on the most beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the…

An overnight stop in Metz proved to be uneventful and not particularly inspiring. After stopping in a few French towns/cities over the past few years, I’ve found them to be uneasy, slightly depressing places. The charming old French buildings have been replaced with shiny new shopping malls and apartments . The influx of immigrants from…