There’s a song about this one, some fella called Frank sang it… It’s also the location of nearly every film ever made, apart from the good ones like Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

I personally have never been all that fussed for visiting New York but H had been a couple of times and found a good deal online so managed to persuade me to go!

At the time it was the longest flight I’d been on, never previously left Europe, and having a glass back I was a little apprehensive about it (quietly) but to be honest duration of the flight was fine, and given it was a relatively short trip I thought the travelling might be a bit much for the length of stay but actually it was ok.

We’d found a cheap hotel not far from Time Square and the transport system is easy to use so was quick and painless getting from the airport. The hotel itself – well it was cheap so… Let’s say no frills… The room was marginally bigger than the bed that was in it…

We managed to time our visit to coincide with President Chumps inauguration so actually, apart from Robert de Niro saying his piece outside perma-tans office the city was reasonably quiet! And it was January so it wasn’t warm!

I think my response to what do you think then was “I’m not underwhelmed” it’s a big city, not like a great sprawling mass but vertically! The architecture is all very impressive and you find yourself walkimg round saying “oh I saw that in a film”.

Some of the touristy stuff is a bit expensive, and it’s not like London where museums are free (all museums should be free btw) but you can buy a multi ticket that covers some of the big attractions, that we used at completely the wrong time for the Empire State Building!

There’s a lot to see, a lot to do, the place is nuts and really doesn’t stop, bars, cafés, restaurants, clubs… We went to a proper Jazz bar one night was great! And I had a beer that came out a saxophone in BB kings bar another day – nuts!

You can walk for days, and I would recommend walking (even if New Yorkers look at you like you’ve completely lost your mind when you ask how long it would take to walk somewhere) I mean what is the point of going somewhere and just seeimg it from the inside of the Subway system!

I’ve been, done it, don’t feel the need to go back – I’ve got the rest of the world to explore. H loves the place she’d probably go back tomorrow, definitely go, everyone should to say that they have, it has something for absolutely everyone!

September 2016

So not a place I’ve ever even considered going or shown any real interest in mostly probably because of the associations and what most people our age go there for, H booked us a weekend in Amsterdam because she got tickets for Bill Bailey? Standard.

What an eye opener Amsterdam is! It’s not even a question of what you think is right or wrong it’s about how things are perceived, viewed and handled. Whatever your opinions on the many cultural differences it’s got to be seen to be believed.

I mean the rubber ducks, what on earth is the deal with the rubber ducks?!

The sex museums are hilarious in parts and so brazen about everything there’s no awkwardness, you can sit on as many sex toys as you like, the men stood on the streets trying to entice you into sex shows at midday like it’s just normal have some of the best pitches going.

The museum of prostitution is actually a thing! And, let’s say, insightful, another eye opener into the history and culture surrounding it.

The flower markets are immense. I mean huge! If flowers are your thing then wow are you in for a treat! Every bulb imaginable, assuming that, like me, your imagination as far as bulbs are concerned is severely limited.

The waffles are mega! Are they the national dish? The beers pretty good too…

There is of course some heritage of a different tact that must be seen, not least the Anne Frank house. Everyone will be familiar with the story behind Anne Frank and what happened during the two wars but like Auschwitz and other sites of significance only visiting somewhere like this really drives home what happened and truely makes it real.

The architecture is astounding in places, sat by the canals looking at houses lining the banks that look like they would fall over if they weren’t all leaning on each other! We went up a bell tower too which ended up being very educational about the history of Amsterdam and Holland as a whole!

It’s a great place to go for a very different city break but when you go it’s well worth having a look around some of the obscure museums for some insight into the history. Oh and if it ties in with a Bill Bailey tour- he is so clucking funny it hurts!

Add it to your list, doesn’t matter when you go, it’s not a weather dependent destination so you can easily pick up a bargain flight and hotel and quite literally do what you want when you get there!

July 2016

The most expensive question I’ve ever asked!

There’s two slightly differing versions of events for this one, H’s and the truth!

So we were coming up to our “anniversary” let’s go away for the weekend, something sensible nothing too extravagant just a night away.

The Dales it is then, holiday cottage in Selside, not far from Ribblehead that H found on booking.com (Ginger & Wood B&B). Really nice place as it happens, everything you would want and expect from a cottage in the Dales, including authentic Dales water (the brown peaty kind that looks like good beer – Disclaimer, it’s not beer, don’t drink it!)

So we get up in the morning, I have a ring in my pocket, every intention of doing the deed, terminating my freedom, H isn’t in any rush though is she! I’m getting antsy, she’s still in bloody bed!

Finally get going and I have to listen to her going on and on about how her colleagues think I’m going to propose this weekend, but she knows I’m not (genuinely didn’t know apparently) and she is killing me!

The Yorkshire Dales are an amazing area, absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, with loads to explore and see and with a few cracking tourist spots like Ingleton Falls. Now we love a good waterfall, and we’d both been before but not together. It’s a great walk, around 4 miles, that’s challenging enough for avid hikers but easily completed by nearly everyone.

The weather was it’s usual Yorkshire summer best and was belting it down, so H went marching off, with me walking behind thinking this would be a good spot to… Oh wait she’s gone again..

This went on for about three miles of waterfalls until I had to physically restrain her, standing on a mesh bridge over a gorge. The short of mesh bridge with gaps in that would be the perfect size for a diamond ring to drop through if you were to drop it…

Luckily, drop it I did not! And in a typically masculine, abrupt way, whilst juggling chainsaws (or something else really manly) I got the job done and off we trot! H swore at me A LOT she told me to duck off loads!

The day after, all freshly engaged we headed to White Scar Caves, just a stone throw away from Ingleton. A great little jaunt and worth a look!

We’ve been back since, taken friends and recommend it to everyone, so any time you’re in the Dales hit up the falls at Ingleton and Aysgarth and Hardraw. And then there’s the caves and the hills and the villages and just everything!

If you’re feeling more adventurous and energetic, there is of course the Yorkshire Three Peak challenge – 25 miles of hiking in under 12 hours up… well three peaks obviously – Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. Our b&b would be a great stop over the night before (or after!) or there’s some other places locally such as the YHA…

(Note to this story- Sam omitted the part where he got down on one knee, did all this spiel about how much he loves me, how he can’t imagine his life without me etc. And then he won’t admit it but he definitely cried!!)

May 2016 – Proper holiday number two together, who can believe we left it six months!

I’m sure that we use Instagram like a holiday brochure, have you seen this and add that to the list, not even sure if that’s what happened with Dubrovnik but H suggested it, I looked at a couple of pics and off we trot!

We flew with Monarch, you can’t do that anymore! But there’s plenty of options because it’s mega popular. We went in May, we tend to hit places on the peripherals of their high seasons, you get good weather but slightly fewer people, but you do run the risk of the odd day of questionable weather and finding things aren’t open yet or already closed.

The first appearance of sunstroke! Evidently even in May it gets very very warm so I bought a cap, it says Dubrovnik on it, I look like a mega tourist, I do not get burnt or sunstroke. H did not buy a cap, does not look like a mega tourist but definitely did get burnt and sunstroke!

This one we found another apartment, double room, private bathroom, shared kitchen area, private balcony with great views for drinking wine in the evening sun. It was about a mile away from the old town straight up the road. On arrival trying to find out where we supposed to meet the owner H walked in on an old lady sat on the throne, useless information but hilarious.

I’ve said before we like to walk, and in Dubrovnik I have to absolutely insist that you do the same! Give in to curiosity and go through that gate, down that alley or anywhere else because the place is full of hidden gems!

First walk down a back “road” (I use the term road loosely here) we saw someone come out a gate in the wall, stuck our heads through and there was this unbelievable cove with a beach and a timber shack of a bar propped up on the side of a cliff, that was us done! We didn’t need to see anymore we could go home happy!

It goes without saying we carried on exploring, back roads and alleys with timber ramps on the stairs (it’s good of them to put them out for your suitcase isn’t it H?!)

The old town is fantastic, it’s like something out of Star wars or Game of Thrones or something! Beautiful buildings, clean well maintained streets, every nook filled with a shop, a bar or a restaurant. Opportunistic “bars” set up on rocky ledges on the outside of the city walls.

We walked along through all the newer hotels and stopped for a drink in one with photos on the walls of the celebrities who visited in the past (including the Queen apparently, either that or they got a photo from Google, but I’d think that kind of thing is frowned upon) with a huge sun terrace over looking the sea and the old town and was pleased to find you don’t pay extra for the privilege.

I reckon you could easily spend a few days walking around the old town discovering something new or just lounging in the sun watching people walk by, but we like to get out a bit so we booked on for a cycling vineyard tour.

You meet at a pre disclosed location (it’s not like James Bond stuff, you pay and they tell you where to be and when!) little mini bus trip out of town a bit with your guides who give a bit of a tour on the way there, rock up to a vineyard and get given a bike. Now cycling when under the influence is very dangerous, luckily this isn’t what happens here.

You get on and get going and they take you round all the local sites and give you a real insight into Croatian life, and show some sights that are a very poignant reminder that it really wasn’t that long ago that they were embroiled in a war and some communities, businesses and families are still rebuilding.

It’s a little different this cycling tour, there’s wading across rivers to negotiate and everything which was great! On returning to the vineyard you get into the wine before being bused back to Dubrovnik.

The food again is generally very good they have their own take but we found a lot of obviously Italian influenced menus with a Croatian twist. The seafood, as you would expect is awesome, I had some of the biggest prawns I have ever seen in a great restaurant overlooking the harbour in the old town.

All in we had a jolly good time and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the place, but personally I wouldn’t want to go near the place in their high season! Was busy enough when we went!

January 2016

At some point over the summer Miss K had taken me to Tan Hill Inn, the highest inn in Britain. So it stood to reason that, when looking for a weekend away, the logical next step is the highest pub in Scotland.

You’d think it’d be perched upon a peak in the Highlands but as luck would have it it’s only in Dumfries and Galloway so not a million miles away.

So not really thinking too much about it, and definitely not taking into account the fact that by the very nature of the place it’s high up, in a country that sees more snowfall than us, I booked their “wigwam” for early January, sometimes it pays to think about things before doing them…

I checked the weather forecast before we set off and having only held a driving licence for about six weeks I was cautious so plenty of clothing was packed along with a shovel, you know “just in case…” it’s Scotland so you can’t hold out for good weather but it’s advisable to check before you set off and pack for every possibility because you can easily experience twelve seasons in a single day! (Scotland has twelve seasons, eleven of them are cold)

Straight off the motorway and on to a rather scenic road covered in snow, it was interesting and it definitely made us, ermmm clench a little. It made for a spectacular drive though, the views and roads over are probably fantastic at the best of times but blanketed in white powder it was something else, not that I saw much because obviously my eyes were firmly focused on the road!

Pulling up to the Wanlockhead Inn initial impressions made us wonder if we were in the right place! Looked deserted, but once in we were given a very warm welcome and shown our accommodation for the weekend.

The accommodation was what can only be described as a glamorous shed on the skirts of the car park, which isn’t to take anything away from it, it was a fantastic, cosy little pod with heating and electricity but any water related facilities were to be found in the main pub, except, and this may have changed now, there was no shower, so was a hand-wash only trip!

That was no issue for us it was two days of very much just relaxing, a couple of long walks in the snow, reading, travel scrabble (I always lose, H is a terrible winner) and a few games of pool in the pub.

The village itself also has a lead mining museum which we were told is worth a look (but wasn’t open, they probably weren’t expecting tourists in all the snow) they do gold panning in the river, and on our departure day the guys from the pub were going snowboarding locally too.

So on the departure day… The last night it snowed, and snowed and snowed and I reckon, without exaggeration because I don’t do that, there must have been about 12ft of snow in a half hour period! The gritter was out but I have to say his efforts were futile.

The surrounding hills are stunning and I imagine that what we saw was a tiny area compared to what is there to be explored, but time and weather did restrict us from being too ambitious. Definitely take your walking boots, bikes, snow mobile etc and have a good crack at getting lost in the hills! (I’m not actually suggesting that you try to get lost because that’s just silly and dangerous…)

It snowed so much that a branch snapped off the tree above our hut under the weight of the snow sat on it. H started to have a mini meltdown so wanted to get going early so we weren’t stranded, only issue was that the snow was so deep it covered the number plate of the car.

That shovel doesn’t sound so excessive now does it! So I dug us out the car park, H revved the balls off the car, then I dug us up the hill out the village whilst H revved the balls off the car…

Once we finally got to the top, a local drove past and offered to show us the best way back to the motorway, via the clearest roads, excellent we thought so in we get and off he goes, us following…. Except he goes and we only sort of follow because obviously he has winter tyres, we do not. We’d just approached the turn off from the way we had come two days earlier, when suddenly he appeared back to check we’d not fallen off a snowy ravine and plummeted to our deaths, and also to warn us not to go that way as we’d never make it. H didn’t take any convincing with this and we continued on to find a safer route back to the M74.

All in it’s one of those places that, if the highest pub in Scotland is on your list to tick off, you’re keen walker/hiker and fancy somewhere different to base yourself for a couple of days or even if you’re heading further North and want somewhere to spend a night to break up the journey it’s well worth a shot.

http://www.wanlockheadinn.co.uk

Our first holiday together, and the start of something special!

October 2015 – need to cast our minds back four years and nearly thirty trips for this one.

Like, presumably, the whole world does when visiting Florence we flew into Pisa for this one, full of excitement, intrigue and (not anxiety but a feeling of the unknown in a good way)

Being our first trip away together definitely added an extra sense of excitement to the holiday and we had a rough idea of what we wanted to see but apart from the last day in Pisa we were winging it.

As I remember we landed at a bit of an awkward time so after we’d taken the reasonably quick, easy and inexpensive bus from Pisa airport into Florence we headed in the right direction for our accommodation in the search of food of any description.

We more often than not like to book an apartment or something similar as we like the versatility and in this case we stayed at the Itaco Apartments – Leonardo, which we found on Booking.com (a website we use A LOT, along with Air BnB)

We were met at the apartment shown what’s what, given some great local insights and left to explore. The location of the apartment was ideal, enough within a couple of minutes walk for necessities (like pastries for breakfast) but also close enough to all the major attractions to be able to comfortably walk everywhere. When we say comfortable to walk some people would possibly disagree! We like to walk, you see more, you find things you wouldn’t from a taxi or a bus and it’s good for you / helps justify all the food you inevitably eat on holiday, and the Italians are very good at food.

Florence is absolutely stacked with history, culture, art, architecture and covers all bases. The galleries hold some of the world’s most famous works of art (advisable to prebook tickets for some exhibitions). The Bell Tower, Duomo and Piazzale Michelangelo offer fantastic views (the latter especially at sunset) and the back roads and alleys hold some superb restaurants. Miss K (as she was then) had a bit of a moment climbing the Duomo, we think probably a touch of vertigo and maybe a little claustrophobia as there is a lot of steps, in a tight space with a lot of people. So whilst it’s not to be underestimated it is well worth persevering with, I obviously did what any loving partner would do and let her descend by herself and powered on through, took one for the team and had to admire the view by myself…

Whilst we were there we took the opportunity to take a bus to Sienna for the day which is a medieval Tuscan city and, if you have time and the weather is good, it’s well worth the trip. We managed to pick the only day of rain we had so spent the time we were there running between bars, restaurants and shops! A beautiful place all the same.

Pisa – we decided that we had to visit the leaning tower, I mean why wouldn’t you! Proper hive of tourist activity that one! So many people doing the obligatory “holding up the tower” or “leaning on the tower” poses (including H). Again it’s a must see thing, everyone has to go at some point in their lives, but do it before it falls all the way over! There’s not a whole lot else in Pisa to see so even half a day on the way to the airport is plenty.

So we’re in Italy, one thing the Italians seem incapable of doing badly – food! I mean, seriously, even the sandwiches are better there! The one real revelation for us though – zucchini flowers, stuffed with stracchiano cheese and deep fried! We could eat them three times a day! So good, salivating typing about them, and it was four years ago!

Obviously being four years ago you’d think memories might be a little vague, and they are but two meals stood out and we’d definitely recommend

Hosteria del Bricco – this one we just came across after watching the sunset on the Piazzale and walked in on the off chance, the food was superb.

Trattoria Baldini – this was a let’s go that way instead tonight, away from town but close to the apartment. The service was fantastic, the waiters were brilliant! And the food was and is worth every bit of the recommendation.

Caffè la Terrazza at La Rinascente – great spot for an afternoon refreshment with a great view.

Check out the photos page for more