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The Hills are Alive
Day 6 – Bad Reichenhall The ghost in the machine has given up on us. No strange switching on of the a/c in the early hours. Phew. Packed and breakfasted, we headed off for a final visit to Lidl. This time we had hoped to buy something for dinner for when we arrived in Bad Reichenhall,…
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The Hills are Alive
Day 5 – Ribeauville to Riquewihr loop The air conditioning turned itself on again, this time at 6am. No idea what’s going on here. Would take the batteries out but what if it goes completely rogue and won’t switch off at all?? I’d made a bit of a fuss about wanting to see the picturesque…
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The Hills are Alive
Day 4 Strasbourg I don’t know about the hills being alive but the air conditioning certainly is. We have a ghost in the machine. I could find no earthly reason as to why the a/c came on at midnight but I switched it off and it didn’t come on again. It’s Strasbourg day today. The…
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The Hills are Alive
Day 3 – four castles hike/Molsheim old town Our hotel is very proud of being green. It’s not painted green of course but it has green credentials. The usual “keep using your towels”, “use the hand wash for everything” etc etc. so why do they put you in a hot room with a duvet the…
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The Hills Are Alive
Day 2 – Laon/Molsheim We survived the night, I actually slept reasonably well. Thank goodness for the sleep kit. I notice Booking.com rates the Premiere Classe hotel as “pleasant”. I think they omitted the un. Breakfast was a porridge pot which tasted of cardboard, it went straight in the bin. Undaunted, we decided to embark…
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The Hills are Alive
Road trip to Austria September 2025 Day 1 – Laon, France Lying on a beach in the day , sipping cocktails at a beach bar at night holds quite a bit of appeal to me at the moment. Sadly it doesn’t for Steve, hence we are catching a ferry to Calais and motoring through France…
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Bulgaria – Roses and Trains 2025
Velingrad/Lake Batak/Dorkivo – days 9 and 10 we decided to take time out from our spa hotel to visit Lake Batak as we had driven past it last time we came to Bulgaria and it looked lovely – lots of sitting areas and a busy town. We thought we might be able to find a…
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Bulgaria – Roses and Trains 2025
Velingrad -day 8 train to Bansko and back A workout then breakfast ( fruit and a very small pancake) and we were ready to go on our train adventure. The section of the Rhodope Railway we rode takes about 3 hours each way. It’s state owned and is a functioning mode of transport for ordinary…
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Bulgaria – Roses and Trains 2025
Plovdiv/Velingrad day 7 We were packed up and out by 9.30am in order to complete our exploration of Plovdiv. First stop, the singing fountain. Bulgaria is generous when it comes to providing public spaces. Everywhere, however humble, has a well maintained park and Plovdiv is no exception. Everywhere we walked, it seemed that we were…
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Bulgaria – Roses and Trains 2025
Day 6 – Plovdiv A much quieter night was had thank goodness. I decided to research the insanity that is the Bulgarian school prom and it really is madness. Families take out loans in order to pay for their children’s party, clothes and hire cars. It holds more importance than a wedding. Bonkers. Anyway, nothing…
