Budapest Bastion

I'm off today on my first trip since moving back and also my first US city break.  I loved all of our city breaks in London and it's something I hope to continue here.  So in honor of that here are my last bit of photos from our Budapest trip.  The Fisherman's Bastion was a great place to take in the views of Budapest, Hungary.  Up, up, up in the furnicular to stroll around in the sunshine. Budapest was definitely one of my favorites. 

Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest

Everyday I want to blog and every day I don't have the words.  I'm sure they will come back to me.  In the mean time, I'll just post photographs.  These are from our visit to Budapest, Hungary.  On our last day before heading to the airport, we took the tube to the City Park to visit the Vajdahunyad Castle.  In 1896, the castle was constructed for the 1,000th birthday of the Hungarian State.  It was a temporary structure for the Millennial Exhibition.  The castle was built to showcase the history of Hungary through its architecture.  The people loved it so much that it was eventually rebuilt to be a permanent structure and now houses a Museum of Architecture. 

Budapest City Break Photo Journal

Matt and I would probably travel full time if we could.  Alas, we have to work to be able to afford to travel.  If only we could win the lottery.   So city breaks are sometimes our only outlet.  As often possible, we leave on a Friday night and explore a new city for the weekend.  Our general criteria is a direct flight of less than 3 hours and good value for money.  That's pretty easy to do from London, tons of options.  I'm planning a future post of our favorite city breaks as well as some tips.  We're still settling in from the move  and I'm leaving for Texas on Monday. So for now I'll just post some of the photos from our Budapest city break.  (If I call it a "photo journal" will you forgive me for not writing much?)

Gloucester Cathedral & City Break

Not all city breaks require a trip to the airport, right?  Sometimes a road trip is in order and England has plenty to see and do.  Gloucester offers a cathedral, a city center and a revitalized Victorian port to explore.  It's only a 2.5 hour drive from London so it's an easy one.  Gloucester is in Gloucestershire, neither of which is pronounced like it looks.  Kind of like Worcestershire sauce.  It's "glaw-ster"  and the county is pronounced kind of like "glaw-sta-sher".  Matt will probably tell me this is still completely wrong because of the American accent in the mix, but it's close enough.

Galleon Cruise in Gdansk

Here are a few more photos from our weekend in Gdansk, Poland.  They're from our ride on a pirate ship and an important historical monument.  You may wonder why pirate ships in Gdansk, but it makes perfect sense.  Gdansk is one of the maritime cities of the Hanseatic League, an association of towns along the Northern coast of Europe that banded together in the 13th century.  The league dominated Baltic trade into the 19th century.  It was developed to organize and control trade, but it was also needed for protection from pirates.  So when you go to Gdansk, plan to ride on a pirate ship.

Gdansk, Poland City Break

I've said before that one of my favorite things about living in the UK is the close proximity to the rest of Europe.  After just a few hours on a plane, you can be in the most incredible city.  Like most of our weekend City Breaks, this one started with Google Flights. We filtered by flight duration (3 hours max), non-stop, and price (£150 max).  For 2 hours and less than £100, a trip to Gdansk, Poland was the obvious choice. 

Gibraltar Inside Out Rock Tours

Our weekend in Gibraltar included a private tour with Inside Out Rock Tours and Carl.  We found them on the internet and Matt booked it last minute with a phone call from the hotel.  Carl was happy to take us on a private Standard Tour.  Because we opted for a private tour it was a bit more expensive, but it was worth it to have Carl and the van all to ourselves.

A Weekend Break in Gibraltar

At the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain there is a little spot of land with the most interesting history.  Gibraltar covers only 2.6 square miles and is a British Overseas territory.  I'd certainly heard of the Rock of Gibraltar, it's the logo for Prudential Insurance and I grew up hearing their advertising phrase "own a piece of the rock."  When we traveled through Spain by train on our way to North Africa a few years ago, we spotted the rock off in the distance.  But this time we were going to see the rock up close, inside and out. 

The Macaque Monkeys of Gibraltar

I'm baaaaaaack!!  Monkeys!!  Let's just ignore the fact that I haven't blogged in a month, shall we?  And look I brought you monkeys!!  Yes, it's a blatant effort to distract you from my lazy blogging.  But lapses happen because, well you know, "life".  Now I'm back and hopefully on a much more consistent basis now that we've completed our move to Surrey.  Next week I'll be telling you about our city break to Gibraltar.  But today we'll ease back into things with... monkeys!!  Macaque monkeys to be exact.

Weekend in Malta - Part 2

As usual when we take a weekend break, we booked our return flight from Malta late in the day.  This meant we had most of Sunday to enjoy more of the sun and sea views.  

Weekend in Malta - Part 1

Oh dear, I think I've overdone it.  I'm five weeks post surgery and feeling good.  But, I was ambitious this week and we did some running around.  Today I'm back in bed, tired and sore.  Because it was laparoscopic and I don't have a big incision, it's easy to forget that it was still major abdominal surgery.  Even with the very slight setback, I'm so happy with my recovery.  One more week of rest and back to work.

January and February are typically travel periods for us.  Every effort is made to escape the winter blues.  Because we knew that there wouldn't be any trips for a few months, we managed to squeeze in two weekend trips in January this year.  The first was Malta.

Day Trips with British Airways

I have an epic case of itchy feet.  I want to go to all the places, all the time.  But Matt has it much worse.  He loves loves loves to travel!  Even the not so fun things like airports and flying (I still really hate flying.), he loves this stuff.  This is a man who has a spreadsheet showing every flight he's ever taken (over 600) and exactly how many miles he's flown (over a million).  He's even been known to fly out in the morning and return in the evening, just so he can go somewhere.  In fact, he's taken several day trips like this.  It's usually with his mates because I've been reluctant to suffer two flights in one day.  But I did join him for his latest trip to Hamburg, Germany.  So, I'll let him tell you all about taking a day trip with British Airways and I'll show you some photos from our time in Hamburg.

Berlin, Germany City Break

I previously posted some photos from Berlin and our annual Christmas Market trip. We were only in this vibrant city for a few days and most of our time was spent at the markets.  But you can't visit Berlin and not see some of the famous sites like Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall.  So, here are a few more photos of the city from our visit. 

Oh, the Places we will go in 2016!

I realize that all travel bloggers do this kind of post and if I'm honest I tend to skim through them a bit.  But it's one of my favorite things to do, looking back at the places we've been in the past year and planning a whole year's worth of new travel.  I really document all of this for personal reasons, so don't feel bad if you just skim through this post.  After writing about what a difficult year I had in 2015, I must admit it was one of our best years for travel.  

Berlin Christmas Markets 2015

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope that you had a wonderful one!  Apologies for the past few weeks of silence on the blog.  It's been one helluva year and as it came to an end, we were both just not really feeling like going all out.  We didn't even put up a tree or decorate at all.  Not in a Bah Humbug way but just in a quiet, restful way.  We had a very relaxed Christmas which is just what we needed. 

Easter Markets of Prague

Last December we were scheduled to visit the Christmas Markets in Budapest.  However, a hospital stay meant that we had to cancel.  When I heard about the Easter markets in Prague, I knew we had to go.  I'm a bit embarrassed to be posting about Easter Markets when everyone is getting geared up for the Christmas Markets.  But, maybe you'll add it to your travel plans for next year.  Because the Easter Markets in Prague are delightful.

Eating Prague Food Tour

One of my top London experiences was the Eating London Food Tour which I took a few years ago.  What a great way to experience a city... through your stomach.  I knew that this same group also has an Eating Prague Food Tour.   It was at the top of our list for our city break in Prague.  It didn't disappoint.  

Prague City Break

You may not believe this, but I have a blogging calendar.  I use a notebook calendar and post it notes.  A pending post goes on a post it note (I currently have 36 of them) and once it gets published, I write it in the calendar. I have this plan delusion that I'm going to post three times a week so every time I sit down to blog, I have to go through the process of moving the 36 post it notes further along in the calendar in sets of three.  When was the last time I posted three times in one week?  No idea.  Since I started working full-time, I often don't post three times in a month.  But I am still a blogger and I'm determined to continue.  In fact, I'm going to sit down right now and write three posts to publish this week.  No really.  I am.  I also have the perfect location to write about this week... Prague. 

Horningsea, England

During our weekend excursion to Cambridge,  we stayed in a tiny village just outside the city called Horningsea.  The village has one pub and one restaurant with rooms which is where we stayed.  The Crown & Punchbowl is an old coaching inn dating back to 1764.  Old coaching inns are dotted around England and we will always pick one of these over a regular hotel.  We've had the best luck. 

The City of Cambridge

After two years and only 4,000 miles, we decided that it was time to get rid of the car.  It was used so rarely and just costing money.  But not before one last UK road trip.  As you know, I love London.  But I also love getting out of London, so our next weekend city break was Cambridge.