Hi all. Top tip even before the actual travel stuff.

Don’t go on honeymoon the day after you get married. You got to get people to take suits back, freeze the cake, take flowers to someone to preserve in resin… And in our situation, have a mile round trip so we can pick up our belongings each time as there was no vehicle access to the pier where we held our wedding. With a hangover.

Thanks to friends and family this did actually go better than planned so by 1pm I was like… Lunch wifey?!?

Didn’t actually say that at the time. I just said “Kay it’s lunchtime and I want fish and chips”.

By the time we arrived at parking for Bristol Airport, we didn’t know if we were too early or too late, we just parked up and had a nap for an hour.

No issues with the airport or flight. We did treat ourselves to the front row given the occasion.

Introduction

Anyway. We arrived in Barcelona. Barcelona is Spain’s seconds biggest city and the capital of Catalonia. There’s some history between the Catalans being independent of Spain so look that up at your leisure. Barcelona lies on the east coast of the country and is about a 2.5 hour flight from the UK.

If you land in terminal 3 do not be tempted to walk aaaaages to the metro like us with anything over a backpack. Pay a few Euro for the bus to somewhere central and THEN get your metro pass. I’m gonna big up the metro pass shortly… But from easyJet (terminal 3), with luggage, it’s like a scene from Apocalypto. That is a significant top tip.

Costs

Flights with easyJet including front seats but no additional baggage came in at £412. Bristol airport parking was 40 quid for 5 days booked ages in advance.

We stayed at Best Hotels Autohogar (3*) costing £390 for four nights including a decent breakfast. We also stayed in a Best Hotel in Andorra for one night that was just £60 for a 4* including breakfast, swimming pool and gym if time allowed.

The Barcelona hotel was perfectly adequate and was located in the Parallel area of the city with brilliant transport links and Las Ramblas within walking distance.

The metro passes were not cheap but we got our money’s worth. They included airport transfers that would’ve cost around 6 Euro. 4 days were 48 euro each.

Day to day spending on food etc wasn’t too bad, but if you’re a regular reader of this rubbish you will know we usually grab take out and don’t go boozing.

The three hour FlixBus to Andorra cost 25 quid per person per way, which was reasonable.

Anything else I’ll probably chuck it in with the itinerary.

Getting Around

See above. I’ve covered a lot already. I found the metro map easy to follow (although this is a talent of mine I reckon) and the bus service was excellent if you prefer more relaxed, longer, above ground travel. Google maps worked really well especially with walking routes.

To complete the set there are also two cable car rides and a funicular you can enjoy.

The beach isn’t far from the main city area at all. In fact, I’d say it was part of it.

Andorra was a bit different as they only had a few public bus routes. Fine for us but should you want to go hiking, skiing, rinsing the duty free etc. you probably should hire a car.

Things we didn’t do…

I never know why I put this here before things we DID do, but if you’ve gotten this far you’re aware I’m not making millions writing these.

For this trip, I’m going to be a bit risky and state there really wasn’t too much I felt we missed out on, aside from the usual plethora or churches and museums.

Park Guell is a park showing many pieces of art by Gaudi, the bloke who is (was?) the most famous architect of the La Sagrada Familia (so far). Here supposedly offers the best panoramic views of Barcelona. I disagree and if you reach day four you’ll find out why. We wanted to go here but you have to buy tickets, which were sold out a day before. It’s very possible only a small area of the park requires a fee so you can still get decent views for free, perhaps.

I’ve watched Barcelona in the Nou Camp 16 years prior. In row one-hundred-and-whatever… Two rows from the top. Quite high up considering it held 90,000 before being reconstructed. For that reason we couldn’t do this but it makes the list. For this year and probably next, they do play in an Olympic stadium… See day one.

I won’t cover Andorra in this as we were only there for an evening and a morning. Seems to be a good place for sporting activities such as hiking and skiing.

Itinerary

Day 0

We got to our hotel at, like, 11pm. See previous content for our trials and tribulations getting to this point. Taxi aside we would’ve got there before you. Nevertheless, don’t hate me that we had food from the kebab shop two doors down.

Early night with my wife, feeling rather weird that this is day two of married life.

Day 1

Considering I didn’t have much to do in the weeks leading up to the trip (just the final bits of a wedding to sort!) I did do quite well planning at least our first day in the city.

After breakfast we had a few hours spare and noted that the tube station that connects to a funicular up Montjuic hill. It was here that we identified a cable car that would take us to the castle of the same name, but without our bearings (we went on day 4) decided to enjoy the views over the city and head to our first designated stop and the most obvious, La Sagrada Familia.

Now you may be shocked to see me visiting a building of religious significance on my travels but this is something else and a definite must see.

Work started on the world’s largest unfinished Catholic church a massive 142 years ago in 1882 by Antoni Gaudi, who has loads of stuff around the city. I seen somewhere recently that they hope to fully complete it by the mid 2030’s but who knows! I came here as a very small kid (probably pre 2000) but can’t remember enough to compare, apart from scaffolding that ruins any attempt for the perfect photo. 

Our tickets included an audio guide and a trip up one of the tallest towers for about 30 quid each; just about acceptable.

The queue to get in was surprisingly quick given the hoards outside and I did like that the audio guide being only 45 minutes long, which started outside to detail the incredible artwork such as a model of what the place will look like when complete (if it ever is…) and the murals covering the entrance.

Inside the Basilica was equally as impressive, albeit supported by the guide. It explained how the pillars are to depict trees and branches and some architectural stuff about how on earth they’re finishing the main and tallest spire.

Minor details were also of big interest. What will be the main doors when finished, has stained glass either side differing in shades, so they compliment sunrise in morning on one side, and sunset when the sun is in the west.

From here the tour took us outside to the south west side where you can view a timeline of Jesus’s crucifixion sculpted in to the building. Whether you believe the stuff or not, it was impressive.

Another surprisingly minimal wait allowed us to access the lift up one of two available towers. The passageways were rather narrow but the views were worth it. The second time that day I was perplexed that I couldn’t see the largest stadium in Europe in the distance.

Fun part over. Now to get back to ground level using over 400 steps. I didn’t think this would be an issue but they went on FOREVER and I even had to stop once with dizziness. My knee brace utilised for this exact purpose remained in the hotel room. I think the photo below was taken about half way down.

Reaching ground level and taking a literal pew to extinguish the jelly from my legs and it was time to go after one final take-in of, not only a phenomenal structure, but a really good tour and experience. Well done.

After some local cuisine (KFC if I remember) for lunch we were ready for more walking and no place is better known in Barca for this than La Rambla.

I need to mention getting off at the Placa de Catalunya tube station here. Those of you from Newport will remember the amount of pigeons in the old John Frost Square, but Christ me this was something from an Alfred Hitchcock film. The vermin happily flew spot to spot amongst the outnumbered tourists. I genuinely think there was so many it actually made it less of an issue, I cannot believe Mikayla didn’t freak out, she just kept on looking for her exclusive Pokémon Go treats!

Anyway, here marks one end of the most well known street in Barcelona. The street is lined with high end fashion shops, ice cream vendors, bars and the usual.

One shop I 1000% did not expect to see in the middle of Barcelona….

Ok there were countless plastics in fake (or even worse, genuine) Barca shirts everywhere but this was OTT.

The slow stroll one end to the other took about an hour and ended up near the coast at the Christopher Columbus statue. Not sure what the significance is of the statue but feel free to go find out.

Being 3pm in the UK on Easter Monday, meant Newport County were about to kick off so I watched that on the way back to the hotel before thinking what to do in the evening. We lost 4-0 at home. We wouldn’t win for the rest of the season losing 8 games in a row. I’ve joked (honest) that Mikayla has until October to turn our fortunes around or she may be getting her wife version of a P45.

That evening we considered going somewhere nice for dinner but ultimately chose to go exploring a little more up Montjuic hill. I knew that up here was the temporary home of Barcelona football and in recent trips often use up a few hours to unofficially tick a stadium off.

We caught a bus two minutes away from the stadium. The Luis Companys Olympic Stadium was built in 1927 for something called the 1929 International Exposition (looked important) it only came to fame sporting wise in 1992 when it hosted the Olympics.

My first thought was how small it was. After some googling I found that the stadium actually holds 55,000 seats, so I’m assuming the majority of the capacity is below ground level. Apologies if this sounds boring but it was interesting to me!

The best part of the stadium visit was walking back down to the bus via the “Olympic Ring” promenade with perhaps the sexiest communication tower I’ve seen.

After a little bit of research we identified the bus would take us to a popular place called Playa d’Espanya. This to me acted like the road gateway to Montjuic, but on our way home realised this place acts as a significant bus route not only to the rest of the city but the airport.

Our stop here, apart from being on the way home, was for Arenas de Barcelona, a converted bullring that now houses loads of shops restaurants and a cinema. Somehow we managed to get roped in to paying 2 euro for a lift to the top of the bullring, instead of just using the escalators inside the shopping centre. We avoided the expensive rooftop restaurants instead choosing for something closer to the hotel.

Day 2

We were up super early today to visit the beach and be back in time for breakfast. The man-made beaches of the city really give it that something extra I feel, and the water was clear albeit the sand slightly sharp.

It was a surprise to see the beach almost deserted bar the odd jogger and “yoga doer” but it was around 7am I recall.

After breakfast we had to have a bit of a think what to do. We put a lot of pressure doing a lot on Monday as we’d be catching the coach to Andorra later, but with our hotel so close to the funicular up to Montjuic,were confident a ride on the cable car would still leave us ample time.

In hindsight we had enough time to get off and explore the castle, but if you know me, I’m more than content with a panoramic view.

I still couldn’t see the bloody Nou Camp and started to feel a bit miffed at this point. So the only thing to do was go there.

Even rising from the nearest tube station, we had to check which direction to head. We eventually laid eyes on the stadium, which provided a few answers as to how it’s not viewable from everywhere.

Although 16 years (and a lot of beer in 2008) is a long time ago, I’m pretty sure they actually removed the whole top tier whilst they add a roof to the new design. You couldn’t get close the stadium / building site but the merchandise “street” was still a hit with tourists pathetically believing Robert Lewandowski is any good.

With that last minute detour to the stadium taking longer than we thought, we didn’t have time for lunch before arriving at the bus terminal for our coach to Andorra.

It was here I remembered that the hotel I stayed at on 2008 was on top of the central railway station. Nothing really of note but I was surprised my small brain could recall such memory.

The coach to Andorra was simple and direct, taking about 3 hours. Just before arriving at the bus terminal I caught a sight of their national football stadium… Quite famous for Wales fans and Euro 2016 qualification. I actually visited the stadium the next day, but this photo taken from the bus remained the best as it was otherwise difficult to access.

Andorra is Europe’s sixth smallest country located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees. It’s capital, Andorra la Vella is the highest in Europe. Just reading up whilst writing this, I’m amazed the country is bigger than Malta, yet significantly lesser known.

It was the capital that was our base for our 20 odd hour visit. A slight lack of planning meant I was stuck without WiFi and had to locate our hotel a kilometre away up a steep incline using an ACTUAL paper map. Very impressive.

Our hotel was perfectly placed to start the downhill walk along the main street of Andorra la Vella, lined with countless duty free and boutique shops. We had a token hamburger in McDonald’s as we tried to get tomorrow’s activity sorted and witness a light show featuring the main bridge along the La Valira river that runs through the city.

Reaching the Pont de Paris (Paris bridge), we identified that the light shows are only a weekly affair at this time of year. Our hopes to visit a Tibetan rope bridge the next day also took a hit when the tourist centre explained it too was seasonal and therefore closed. Thankfully they did suggest something we could do instead!

From here we had a really peaceful walk through town and chose a hotel’s all you can eat buffet for 25 euro each to make up for a missed lunch… I think we just about got our money’s worth!

There was also a lift in one of the car parks up the worst of the hill. Good call. 

Day 3

Breakfast was a 4* hotel treat this morning and it was a shame our early start and checkout made a pool visit unobtainable.

The plan today was to take a bus to a small town called Encamp and take a cable car to a ski resort. Not our first choice, but not something you can exactly do in south Wales.

I can’t remember how much the cable car cost, maybe around 9 euro, but the 25 minute ride up was worth every cent. Just look at the photos.

Above was after about 5 minutes and below was very close to our destination “Funicamp d’Encamp”.

At the summit we looked a tad out of place in shorts whilst everyone else kitted out with their skiing gear, but it wasn’t cold.

We didn’t expect the morning to take quite this long and with an equally long descent back to Encamp found time for a quick selfie before getting our arses back to the bus terminal in la Vella with a detour to the hotel (up a massive bloody hill again).

Our plan took a little tumble once we realised we for 20 CENTS (17p) short of a public bus back, and had to take a free bus in to Encamp town centre, draw some cash out, and then catch the bus.

Whilst the situation was starting to become a little bit stressful, we couldn’t help but smile when Mikayla’s aisle walk wedding song came on the Andorran bus radio – Hey Soul Sister by Train.

Long story short I managed to pick up the bags, lose a few calories and still had 10 minutes to visit outside the aforementioned stadium, before our bus back to Barcelona. Worth noting Spanish customs did check bags at the border, but the tobacco wasn’t especially cheap for me to bother.

Back in Barcelona, we were at a bit of a loose end so decided to visit the aquarium on a recommendation. This is not something we tend to do, and now I know why. It was very quiet just before closing, but walking around we were just keen to see the sharks. God their life must be a misery.

They also had penguins. Thankfully not in close proximity to the sharks. That ends my aquarium review.

After a bus back to the hotel, that was pretty much it unless you’re desperate for me to tell you about a walk around a nearby shopping mall for the essential Christmas tree decoration and McDonald’s for tea.

Day 4

Rinse and repeat day 2, early doors for a beach visit and dip in the Mediterranean. Trying to think how I dried my trunks in time. Maybe I wore an old pair of pants instead. I digress…

Our flight wasn’t until 10pm so after breakfast we went to a temporary Harry Potter exhibition by the docks. Given Kay’s love for The Boy Who Lived, or more accurately the potions professor (weird), the exhibition was interactive compared to others we’ve been to. Great for youngsters more than us oldies, but they did squeeze some merch sales out of us.

And another photo of us both. Two in one post is unheard of! Bear in mind for most of my trips she’s in work.

Snape’s wand. Not sure how that has made the cut. But I’m nearing the end and can’t be arsed to edit this further.

Approaching lunchtime, we had a few hours just to tick off a few more things. First up was the market in Las Ramblas for some food.

If allocated the time, I would still be there now deciding. I went with a Gyros, wedges, some meatballs type thing AND a spicy beef pasty. Whilst that was a treat be aware there is zero seating, so had to do with sitting kerbside, a few minutes away from the pigeon republic of Spain we seen on day 1.

From here we had a walk through the narrow streets of the gothic quarter, visiting Barcelona cathedral and Santa Maria basilica, without going inside either. Not sure why this is the only photo I have. We both needed a wee and ended up having a really refreshing lemonade for the purpose of using the bathroom.

Next up was supposed to be Parc Guell, which offers a good view of the city. Tickets for the day were sold out but I found another option. Turó de la Rovira is an old Spanish civil war bunker. It has quite a bit of history behind the area that can be read here… But our main reason to visit was the view.

It did take a painstaking hike from the nearest bus stop, especially when you realise the place your looking at is nearby Badalona, but if you get to the top it is more than worth it. Reading a few reviews people are adamant these are the best views in the city, so the park being sold out was a blessing in disguise.

A purposely chosen route back to the hotel to pick our bags up took us past the Casa Mila in Eixample, another one of Guadi’s work. That was very tick-boxing even for me!

Once back at the hotel we made our way to the airport. Top tip to catch a bus, as if flying to the UK, you’ll save a hell of a walk to the correct terminal of catching the metro as we found out on day 0. You’re welcome and thanks for reading.

Next up, The Algarve with my mother for a Wales game at the start of June (writing this mid June I’ve actually already been, so just pretend).

Welcome and thanks for visiting what is surely to be my last trip away before coming a married man! Saying that, the closest thing to a stripper I’ve come across on these Wales football trips is a few drunken lads with tops off, questionably belting out various Cymru ballads having over indulged in the local lager.

After this result (a 1-1 draw) and the same result versus Turkey a few days later. we ended up needing a playoff to hopefully reach EURO 2024. Thankfully we avoided any away ties, so no going to Poland or Estonia 4 days before my wedding!

Introduction

Yerevan is the capital city of Armenia with a population of around 1.1 million. On the very very very edge of Europe, Armenia is part of the Caucasus region that also include Georgia, Azerbaijan and a bit of Russia.

Armenia has spent a lot of its existence being oppressed. During WW1 the Ottoman Empire mass murdered 1 million during the Armenian genocide. Then they were in the Soviet Union until 1991, and from then to today they have been in conflict with Azerbaijan over borders. Azerbaijan has recently been on the front foot, possibly down to Armenia’s reliance on Russia, that has taken a back seat whilst Putin focuses on Ukraine.

Today many public buildings and hotels fly the Russian flag alongside the red, blue and orange of Armenia. I must admit this did feel uncomfortable, although the pleasant hospitality we “Westerners” received from everyone we met is certainly worth a mention.

I think it’s time for a fun fact. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 A.D. The magnificent Mount Ararat that appears in the background of any decent panoramic picture, is thought to be the location where Noah’s Ark landed. Make of that what you will.

Finding famous Armenian people *to me* is a bit difficult. Peter mentioned singer Charles Aznavour who I’d never heard of, although he was born in France. If we’re going down that route; one website I looked at also mentioned Cher, and even claimed Princess Diana was 1/64th Armenian. Shoop shoop…

Even in terms of football players – and I’m bloody good at these – I can only think of Henrikh Mkhitaryan who has recently retired from the international game. He has however played for a number of top teams including Inter Milan, Arsenal, Roma and Dortmund. He has also played for Manchester United.

Flights, accommodation and costs etc.

I usually break this up a bit more, but as my mate Peter was back in the driving seat to organise, I haven’t got an exact breakdown of costs. In total the trip cost around £700 each all in. This included about £150 on ciggies, taxis and beer, £55 for our day trip, £250 for four flights, £150 hotel and £100 coach/train to Gatwick from Newport. We also had to pay for the premium £44 tickets for the game instead of the £3/£8 options in the proper away end.

Beer and food was cheaper than your usual European country but we did choose places where a beer was more expensive than average. If you find the right place you can get a pizza for around a fiver. The bar visited before the game charged me just £8 for two beers and a G&T! On the eve before the game, I mostly drank £7 pint cocktails and imported Strongbow that added up. Gosh, if I had any more Sex on the Beach that night I would’ve ended up with twins with Pamela Anderson…

Getting Around

Thankfully Yereven international airport is located close to the city, albeit a good 30 minute drive with the city traffic.

Armenia has it’s own group of Taxi apps. The recommended GG app was a big help, with an app similar to Uber that set fixed prices, allowed payment by card, and had lots of cars available. One 40-minute trip we took stuck in traffic cost little more than six quid.

We did stay very central so there were no need to explore the public transport system. They have one main metro line that runs through the center and a maze of minibuses. I think these cost about 20p a journey, but there really was no need to use them. Even the stadium was within walking distance and the taxis we did get were due to laziness or drunkenness.

Things we didn’t do…

In terms of Yerevan itself, I don’t think we missed anything I’m disappointed about. They do love a statue mind, so maybe a walking tour would have been useful to break up my itinerary of booze and football.

Outside of Yerevan, I’m not sure how far you can go to visit the aforementioned Mount Arabat. Our day trip on the final full day was a good idea, although my friend’s day trip choice also included a trip to Tsakhkadzor that sounded a fascinating resort village with cable car, although the feedback was that late-November wasn’t the best time to sit on a cable car with inadequate clothing!

Itinerary

Day one – Newport to Yerevan

Although our trip was technically early Thursday to late Monday, two of these days were pretty much full travel. So I won’t bore you too much. The trip started at 1am on the Thursday to board our National Express to London. To get the best price possible, we flew early from Gatwick to Milan (2 hours), around 3 hours layover, then another flight to Yerevan (4 hours). Taking in to account that Armenia is also 4 hours in front of UK time in November, it was past 11pm by the time we checked-in, so we went to bed, noting that WizzAir really isn’t much better than RyanAir.

Day two – Yerevan sightseeing

We were up nice and early to enjoy the hotel’s minimal breakfast offering before a long morning planned of walking. Planning beforehand, our intended trek covered everything I wanted to see in the city, all in the space of 4 miles or so.

A short walk north from our hotel was the main Republic square with the national museum taking centre stage. It was very quiet today, but still had a smattering of armed police officers. In front of the museum were ‘singing fountains’ that I was looking forward to seeing one evening, although on approach it was obvious these are not operational all year round, obvious due to the lack of water in the pools.

From here we walked through the busy streets that would not have looked out of place in many other European cities. Shops, restaurants, cafes were opening up for the days trade. One shop I popped in to for 40 ciggies, 2 cokes and a water cost me a measly £3.50 before we arrived at stop number one, a Church, to somewhat to against the grain of my usual stop-offs!

St. Astvatsatsin Kathoghike is the city’s oldest church dating back to the 13th Century. For clarity, it is the tiny old building in the picture, encompassed by the much larger and modern St Anna’s church consecrated in 2015.

The older version only had space for maybe a dozen people standing, and frequented by locals to have a quick pray during their busy day. The larger church was somewhere where you could spend a bit more time to sit down and reflect. I don’t really know what else to say.

A short walk from here was a impressively large building that housed the National Opera and Ballet, located in ‘Freedom Square’. We didn’t go inside here, but enjoyed a chat with some other Welsh supporters.

Still going in a quite linear direction we approached the Yerevan cascade, undoubtedly the tourism focal point of the city. The Cascade, or staircase to you and me, consists of 5 hillside terraces connected with 572 steps, 302 meters high. I say building, as under the steps there are areas for exhibitions and cafes. There is also an escalator that will take you up to near the top. Peter was grateful for this, whilst I chose to drag my fat arse up the steps (my foot hasn’t been the same since, a month later).

At the bottom of the cascade is a park that had countless statues, all very different to each other. In hindsight I would have liked to take some extra time exploring these, but I didn’t. I had exercise to do FML.

Whilst the steps weren’t that steep, it was a must to turn around once reaching every terrace to see ever-better views of the city with the massive Mount Ararat becoming increasingly clearer in the background.

Once the initial 572 steps were climbed, it was still a further climb to a square right at the top. In the gap where the cascade ended and the square was placed, it was a building site that hasn’t look touched for some time. It seems obvious that the plan is/was to continue building the cascade to it meets the square. At present, tourists have to use a narrow makeshift path to access the Monumental terrace, housing the 40th Anniversary of Soviet Armenia monument.

This is definitely worth the trek for the best views – I think even Peter would agree, who is reaching his late-70’s! The clouds and insufficient phone camera didn’t really do the view justice.

For such a tourism hotspot it was a bit peculiar to see the project unfinished – and so obviously unfinished. Either side of the cascade also didn’t offer much with a lot of naked hillside, and I thought the bushes and plants could be more uniform. Hark at Charlie Dimmock over ‘ere.

After a well deserved rest at the top, we were now at a bit of a crossroads. It wasn’t long before lunch, but the restaurant I located would be a bit of a gamble. Do we go back down the hill for some lunch or proceed to have a walk through Victory Park and hope we can get a decent lunch?

Thankfully we decided to crack on with the latter. The park, whilst not of particular outstanding beauty, was a nice change from the noisy traffic. The first sight of interest was a disused Soviet era restaurant. I flagged this up when doing my research before the trip. Given the views from what I assumed used to be a dining room, I found it strange that no one had taken it on and it’s not in use today.

It didn’t quite have a feel of a ghost town type place, especially as once we got back on the main path we bumped in to Wales gaffer Robert Page. Catching me unaware, I told him that I was fit for the game tomorrow as I just managed to walk up those quote “fucking steps”. His response was a simple wave and smile. He should have stuck me on the bench at least in hindsight.

Understanding the team was staying at the nearby Radisson Blu posh hotel, I was over being star-struck rather swiftly as we headed to the most dominant statue in the city – “Mother Armenia”.

The current version replaced a similar statue of Stalin in 1962. I’m told the current statute depicts ‘peace through strength’. The site itself houses a small museum and in the courtyard outside has a few war-related exhibits including a tank and a few fighter jets. I assume these would be really impressive if it’s your thing.

Following the statue we had a stroll what is I’m sure a popular amusement park during the summer. Today though, apart from an odd stall open and a big Ferris wheel in operation (I think) overlooking the city, it was very tranquil. It did give me vibes of the Ferris wheel near Chernobyl in Ukraine. A visit there had always been quite high on my list, but who knows the next time that will be possible, if at all.

Eventually we reached the site of where we intended to have lunch. Whilst it didn’t look open from the outside, we eventually made it to the inner garden of tables and had a fabulous lunch of pork and roast potatoes, with a few obligatory beers, coming in very inexpensive. I was so pleased with the meal I left a google review, and regularly reminded every few hundred views it gets. Oh how I wish I added a link to the blog on there!

Well fed and quite tired after our trek, we headed back to the hotel using the taxi app. This took forever on the gridlocked ring road so were well ready for a siesta once back at the hotel.

The nap did me no favours as the effect of two flights and countless steps set in. For tea I suggested the Hard Rock Cafe out of being unable to put the effort to think of anything better. I rarely go to Hard Rock in places, but the memorabilia are a lot more impressive than their high prices for bang average food.

Nevertheless, it was an opportunity to have a beer and cheeky cocktail whilst we arranged to meet up with my mate Donna. Going to the underground Beatles Pub, advertised as the Wales gathering place, was not an option as it was absolutely rammed to we went to a nice bar close by among the locals. We met up with Donna and started what turned out to be one hell of a drinking session. As one group of locals left they were replaced by Welsh fans and in no time at all did we had a sing along. As always, very well behaved, even the bar manager was too busy taking videos to quickly serve me.

This was only a 2 minute walk away from where 40 odd fans got arrested for doing absolutely nothing. Unfortunately when away, with the best reputation around, you can still be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a lot of countries police.

Still, the night luckily went without any handcuffs and we ended up in the now quieter Beatles bar to drink them out of cider. I managed to walk Donna close to her hotel before giving up and getting a taxi for the remainder of the few hundred yards costing £1.32!

Day three – Matchday

I allowed Peter free reign on match day morning to have a walk around whilst I slowly dragged myself up skipping breakfast.

It was one of those times where I genuinely felt I needed a beer to sober up(!), so just before midday, that’s what we did.

I did succomb to a pizza lunch with more beers before meeting up with Donna again with the designated Welsh pub and had a few more drinks in here, cautious of the time, gambling on whether to take 40 minutes to walk to the ground or book a cab.

Deciding on the latter but still giving ourselves an hour before 6pm kickoff, the traffic was as bad as feared but ‘drive’ got us within a few minutes walk of the ground in good time. By good time, meaning time to buy two beers to watch the game with.

The ground itself, Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, was small, 14,000, with a single tier of about 25 rows around an athletic track. Although the track meant we were some way from the pitch, this didn’t spoil the atmosphere and the game was well attended by the locals.

The game itself got off to a bad start with our goalkeeper not doing enough before Armenia made it 1-0. Although we equalised before half time through an own goal (which I missed as I was queuing for another beer) we couldn’t get the much needed win, and I don’t think we deserved to either.

This result was disappointing as it meant our qualification hope was no longer in our own hands. Leaving the ground, I think the three of us were a bit dejected. We definitely needed that ad hoc stop off in a dreadful cocktail bar to get some gin and local brandy down me. Waving Pete home we somehow agreed the Hard Rock was the chosen bar to go for drinks.

With some band on and a few beers we had a good night, especially meeting our friend Chelle who I hadn’t seen since pre Covid. I have no idea how we came in to contact but she’s always a good laugh so it was great to bump into her and her pals. A mix of still getting over last night and all the excitement meant I was fasto well before last orders. Donna helping me in a taxi for the second night running. Perhaps this is why my fiancé doesn’t like coming to the pub with me? *Sigh*.

A good effort to try and get over the result. Unfortunately though, with these trips the result is a very important element, so it’s not up there with Latvia previously.

Day four – day trip

Right then, back to some actual travel content. Although my head was not exactly in the mood as we were collected for our day trip at 10am.

We planned a trip using TripAdvisor for £110 to escape the city for the day. This is the specific tour (link). Knowing nothing about sights before visiting, we hoped that the trip would do that for us.

I’m going to do something different here and link to the relevant Wikipedia pages, that saves me from blatantly rewording the text instead regarding the history and religion related bits.

Our first stop was Charents arch for a quick stop off, not too far from the outskirts of the capital. This would have, I’m sure provided a great view of Mount Ararat but with the weather being a bit miserable it was a tad underwhelming, as can be demonstrated by my hungover half arsed photos.

Next up was the Garni temple, located in the village of… Garni. Apparently the temple is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. Initially built in the 1st century, it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600’s and reconstructed rather recently in 1975. The views here overlooking the Azat ravine and the Gegham mountains were more appealing than the temple itself that was pretty much empty bar the people sat on the steps taking snaps for their Insta.

Third on the list was the 13th century Geghard monastery that did take my interest more than the previous stops. The area is built in to the cliffs and is still used for services today. I know that, as it was a Sunday morning and we walked right in to a service. Chris going to church on a Sunday? Bloody hell.

Fascinating but typically strange for me. This place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So you know it’s worth a visit even if I can’t articulate it.

Jeez, my reviews of the trip so far aren’t exactly going to get you on a plane to Armenia soon, is it? To be honest it was a good experience dotting around these sights and I think on a clearer day they could have been so much more impressive to me.

Finally we headed to lake Sevan. The lake is the biggest in the Caucasus region and over 6,000 feet above sea level. The exact point we were dropped off, outside the town of Sevan, seemed a bustling tourist spot sometimes during the year, but the stall traders and restaurants were either closed or very hopeful of a decent day’s business. The sight to see here apart from the lake itself was the Sevanavank monastery. Itself a climb of a few hundred steps. I can’t really write much about the religious building, but the views were enjoyed.

I didn’t take any swimwear for a dip to make it three swims on the trot after Turkey and Latvia, which I don’t regret. It wasn’t the warmest.

We double checked that a googled restaurant called Hayetsi was actually open for lunch – we were the only people there when we ordered. Having not eaten for over 24 hours at this point, the food will live long in the memory. Chicken noodle soup to start, some fat pork chops and a bowl of proper chips were devoured and helped me along the way for the trip back to Yerevan that took around 90 minutes.

That evening we went to a ‘sky view’ bar next to our hotel. A posh but almost empty place that didn’t discriminate against my tracksuit bottoms and boring food of another pizza and chips. Proper last night gloom before a probable miserable home game before the impending doom of back to work later in the week and a week’s worth of unread emails.

Day four – Armenia to home

Monday. No-one likes a Monday. I’ll keep this short. Again sacrificing breakfast for a lie in, the journey back to Gatwick, via Rome this time, was uneventful, getting back to the ‘Port before midnight to have a kip ready for Turkey home later the next day.

A very pleasant trip. Not cheap, not outstanding, but another country off the list! Thanks for reading.

Welcome and thanks for reading my rubbish commentary on a trip to Riga.

Overview

Riga is the largest and capital city of Latvia. Perhaps included in with the lesser known European countries, Latvia borders Estonia, Lithuania and Russia – gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Latvia has a population of 1.8 million, uses the Euro currency and has a large coastline along the Baltic Sea.

To be honest, even including football knowledge (Marian Pahars??), I’m struggling to think what Latvia would be famous for. The inventor of jeans, Latvian Jacob Davies partnered with some guy called Levi Strauss. There ya go.

I am pleased to tell you that I had a really good three-and-a-bit days. My main reason of the visit was to watch Latvia v Wales in the football, a game that we won!

Flights and Accommodation

Bear in mind there must have been a good 3,000+ other football fans fighting for airfares. I spent days comparing flights from Stansted, Luton, ferries and trains and in the end forked out the extra 50 quid to fly direct from nearby Bristol. With Ryanair, sacking off any extras, the return trip cost £287 but if you wanted to go ‘usually’ I would be very surprised if the flights were over £200 return. The National Express from Newport to the airport was only £9 each way too.

There are a wide array of hotels available that vary in price and quality, similar to your usual European capital. As the flights were high I chose a budget option for the hotel. Primo hotel is to the west of the river, a side that I guess is rarely visited by tourists.

Primo hotel was €81 for 3 nights including a reasonable breakfast. As my option was a single person room/bed it saved a few quid too. The hotel decor was quite dated but I really couldn’t care less about that.

My friend Peter stayed in the 4* Radisson Blu tower, that was actually only a little more expensive based on 2 sharing.

Getting around

This is a positive section. Following on from my hotel, although outside of the centre, I was lucky to be based on the doorstep of bus and tram stops, a supermarket and foodhall.

In terms of public transport around Riga, a five day ticket cost just €10 and spanned a wide area with buses and trams plentiful and on time. After 11pm the transport seemed to end, but Bolt taxis were very affordable. I didn’t get a normal taxi bit was told Bolt was about half the price and much easier to manage with their app.

Getting to the airport was a linear #22 public bus that was either €2 or included in your day pass. The trip took about half an hour, passing my abode… probably 45 minutes by the time it ended up at the central train station.

As I had a lot of free time I did use a few eScooters provided by Bolt. These were good fun outside of the old town (just don’t bother with cobbled streets) and cost just 22c a minute. Their top speed was also 25kmph that felt faster than previous experiences.

Worth noting that if you are based in the small City centre, you may not need to use any public transport bar the airport journeys.

I did have one train to Jurmala on day 2. This took around 30 minutes and a return trip was €2.20! The cost of public transport in the UK is a shambles.

Interestingly, with the Bolt app I’ve mentioned… you can use the same app for scooters, taxis and grocery delivery!

Costs

I have covered a lot of costs above, so thinking about other things…

The supermarket by my hotel was similar to Lidl and Aldi and prices were as such. Some things a little cheaper, some things a little more expensive.

In the centre, a main course cost €15-25 each and a pint came in around €5-6, again in the centre that is going to be the most expensive locations. A pack of cigarettes is priced at around 4 euro. McDonald’s was also similarly priced. A burger meal costing about 8 quid. Tourist attractions entry ranged between €5-10.

All in all, just expect to pay prices as we would in the UK and you’ll end up being a few quid better off.

Things I didn’t do…

As always, I never know where to put this, but the things I DID do are mentioned in my itinerary below. Thankfully this list is brief…. to the best of my knowledge!

The Blackheads Museum is probably the most visited museum in the City, it didn’t really appeal to me though. Plenty of churches, other museums, galleries etc etc that I never really divulge in!

There is a lot of impressive architecture around the city and I feel a bit daft covering it as little as this. However, with my dodgy feet I seldom had the opportunity to look up!

My friends recommended a canal boat you can get from the park near the freedom monument that goes out to the Daugava river for about €18 per person.

Further afield, Jurmala I’m going to highly recommend, but a little way again is a national park. If I had another full day I almost certainly would have looked at a day trip to neighbouring Lithuania and its capital Vilnius.

Itinerary

Day 1 – Newport to Riga

Well, I’ve written quite a bit already so will try and make this section shorter.

As my flight was 3pm I enjoyed an hour in Newport with a breakfast (by breakfast I mean 2 pints) before catching the National Express. No drama whatsoever.

As Latvia is 2 hours ahead of us, I didn’t escape Riga airport until 9pm. My research getting the bus to the hotel came in super useful, giving enough time to pick up some drinks and snacks in the supermarket and a posh takeaway pizza from a market / food hall.

The market looked as though they had some form of entertainment going on but I couldn’t tell if they were about to start, or packing away, or what the entertainment was supposed to be… *shrugs*.

I secured plans for tomorrow morning, watched a bit of the Rugby World Cup for my sins and went to bed.

Day 2 – Jurmala, Riga and a shitload of beer

I was rather impressed with my 7am awakening considering a few days dodgy sleep pattern. Breakfast was slightly better than I expected with a few hot items and by 9am, caught the tram outside to the nearest train station with the intention of visiting a popular summer resort city, Jurmala.

Ticket bought and train boarded with a bit of guesswork, my designated stop was in a small forest and gave immediate vibes that this was a good idea. The park included loads of areas for active buggers, including sports courts, climbing trails and skating routes.

I set sights on a viewpoint and pleased with my energy getting to the top above the pine trees. Well, nearly at the top. The final 3 flights were an effort to be honest. I don’t struggle with heights, but I was constantly looking down through the mesh steps and by the time I got to the top, was unable to take my hand away from the rail! I’ve been a lot higher with no issues, strange but I survived.

The walking route to the beach was real nice. Coming out of the park to a small street filled with boutique shops, cafes and restaurants just opening for the days trade. I passed an impressive looking church, prior to strolling through the main street that I can only relate to Niagara-on-the-Water in Canada, not much help is it?

The beach was busy but not crowded. There were very few people in the water but I wasn’t going to come all this way without having a swim. I had no issues about leaving my bag unattended but always carry my phone in a waterproof pouch.

Perhaps of interest, when visiting Stockholm in May I was told the Baltic is the most polluted sea in the world, due to only a few small entry/exit points between Denmark’s islands. Thankfully there were no obvious signs viewable of pollutants, although the lack of tide made me think of the moon’s involvement way too much for my small brain.

If you have time in Latvia I highly recommend a half day visit. From the train to the beach is a ten minute walk and will get you back direct to Riga central station.

By lunchtime my friend Peter had arrived in Riga and we met in his Radisson Blu tower sky view bar for a cider playing “spot the tiny international football stadium” in the distance.

From here we had a very brief walk through the old town before choosing somewhere for lunch. I dropped a bollock here as I went for a ample sized fish and chips whilst Pete hit jackpot with a half meter sausage and trimmings! Greedy bugger.

We’re going to hit the fast forward button a bit here. After lunch I returned to my hotel for a nap and struggled to drag myself out for a beer. Thankfully I met up with a few County pals during a Welsh rugby world cup game to settle in.

Settle in and then some. Now technically in Day 3, I soon lost how many beers I had and stayed out until 7 FUCKING A M before crumbling in to a taxi. I returned to the hotel just in time for breakfast. 4 slices of bread plus a pile of bacon. Consumed just before I nodded off and I can’t remember how long I was asleep before hotel staff gave me a nudge and I finally made it to my room!

I really did expect to go out for one or two. Oops.

Day 3 – Sleep and Matchday!

Jeeeeesus I was exhausted today. I finally left the hotel at 4pm!! Pete managed to do some tourist stuff in my absence so when we met, simply enjoyed a stroll through the park, a soft drink and snack at the hotel counting down the hours until kick-off, itself bloody late at 10.45pm.

I was so tired before kick-off I decided to go for a walk. This actually turned in to a 4km scooter ride that started aimless but eventually ended up near the impressive national library building and 1back at my hotel to freshen up and have a lie down.

Every other Welsh fan drinking and singing copious amounts at this point in town as I made my way back in!

The ride and rest done wonders as we made a short 10 minute from Pete’s hotel to the ground, bumping in to the harmless Latvian Ultras and their pyro.

Prior to the game we knew thousands of Wales fans had tickets in the home end, us included, but told that this wouldn’t be a problem. Time for a few beers then!

There were indeed a ridiculous amount of Cymru fans in the home end and on the whole it was a very good atmosphere with the 2 sets of fans. We won the game two-nil, only my fifth Wales trip ending in maximum points!

Such a fabulous atmosphere, but incredibly exhausting standing and singing and dancing. I squeezed in one final cider before a taxi to my hotel via a kebab.

Day 4 – Touristy bits and home

It had still passed 2am before getting some sleep last night so I was surprised as any unnecessarily having breakfast at 7:30. Still, it was gone 11am once I got back in to town to see some bits.

Our first stop was the Riga Holocaust Museum. The site was really insightful to how Latvia and Latvian Jews were affected by both World Wars. The area included reconstructed houses from the initial ghetto and a replica carriage that felt uncomfortable, even empty.

From here we went to Latvia’s biggest market, a few minutes walk from the central stations and town centre. The market is spread across 4 or 5 old aircraft hangers and each is designated a specific area of food. Our gamble was a bit shit as we ended up with the fish market, but had success next with the food hall where we had a refreshment.

Lunch was back in the old town before saying cheerio to Peter as he made his own travels.

Just 7 hours to kill before my flight, and a bed no more! Discovering that St Peter’s (different bloke) Church had an elevator to the top of its viewing tower made the decision for me to get a good open view of the city, although the 9 euro charge was steep. For free, you can go to the aforementioned sky bar in the Radisson Blu and the views are just as good.

The next hour was spent scooting along the riverfront and along the impressive suspension bridge across the Daugava river. I still ultimately ended up at my hotel, sitting outside wishing the time away.

Finally, I did something I often like to try, catching a random public bus and hoping it goes in a circle and drop me off at the same point. Not quite as Gen Z to be considered ‘off the beaten track’ but it was free and time-consuming. The number 56 covered a vast area, I was struggling to keep awake at this point. Now deep in the leafy suburbs I got off one bus earlier than planned before catching the same in the opposite direction a few minutes later back to base.

I sensibly decided to give up on further exploration at this point and headed to the airport. Getting through the airport wasn’t problematic, I had 90 minutes for a kip before boarding my flight home, which is where I’m writing this from now.

The flight is running late. I hope I don’t have to add an *update* because I’ve missed my fucking bus….

*update* Didn’t miss my bus despite passport control doing the utmost.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading my short blog from my trip to Samsun in Turkey. This was my first time in Turkey, with Samsun being a city on the northern coast against the Black Sea. The City has a population of 700,000, that increases to 1.35 million when expanded to the Samsun province. Quite a large place for somewhere I never heard of before… Nowhere near Istanbul and the southern coast housing popular holiday destinations for Brits such as Marmaris, Antalya and Bodrum.

Introduction

For recent posts I use a linear write up template that provides information of flights/accommodation, getting around, costs, what I did and didn’t do. I’m not going to do that here, as let’s be honest, likely viewers are never going to go themselves. Therefore, I’ll mix everything up or leave stuff out altogether.

Day Zero – Armenia home

It was a hectic start to the duo of games that will stretch four days. After finishing work on a Friday, the sun was shining in Cardiff and it was a sellout crowd expecting Wales to continue our decent start with the ultimate goal to reach Euro 2024 in Germany next summer.

We lost 4-2, convincingly, to a team 70+ places below us in the world rankings. I’ve thought of a few words to describe the result, perhaps sobering, a wake-up call, but I’m going to stick with embarrassing. Armenia played well but they should not have been allowed to.

Hope suddenly turned to dread playing a much better team in Turkey the other side of the weekend. On the plane over one bloke said “welcome to hell” (referring to the stadium atmosphere I hope). I laughed this off, as he’d obviously never been to Cambrian Road in Newport on a Friday night.

Escaping the stadium as soon as we could, I was lucky to get back to Newport at 10:30pm for a few hours kip before the trip tomorrow.

Day One – Travel to Samsun

Bloody Stansted! As usual for football away trips I went with my friend Peter who was happy to drive for the first leg. Leaving at 6am we arrived at one of my lesser favoured airports in time for our flight to Istanbul. Stansted has a really good airport lounge (and a Spoons) but given that a lot of the crowd were off on proper holidays and the £30 lounge fee, I came prepared with sandwiches. Baggage control is more depressing than a Tory party conference.

The flight to Istanbul (SAW airport not IST) took around four hours. Istanbul was very busy, security had horrible queues, but once in departures there was plenty of cheap food outlets, seating and smoking area. Lucky, as our flight was ultimately delayed by 3 hours (£350 compensation pending I hope), meaning we spent 5 hours altogether here.

We didn’t get to Samsun until just before midnight. And it was absolutely pissing down. Only Wales could play Turkey in June, with the weather worse than back home!

We stayed in a Hampton by Hilton hotel, out of the city but close to the stadium and airport. The hotel was as expected for a 4*. What initially was meant to be a quick £3 beer turned in to over half a dozen talking to strangers-turned-friends, Tim and Tom. Bed at 5am local time. A long 21 hour day with an hour nap!

Day Two – Exploring Samsun

Believe me when I say that I tried A LOT to find some touristy stuff to do for our 2 days, with poor results. The top of one “things to do” lists started with a museum on an non-extravegant boat, followed by a hike/lake miles out of the area with no day trip coaches, and a statue of a bloke on a horse (commemorating Turkish independence).

Not a lot to go on. Undeterred, we headed to a beachside bar that was going to host the Wales pre-match party. This trip took up to half and hour, yet the taxi fare was only £6 to my delight.

Too early for a beer, we chose a coffee shop instead overlooking the sand and sea. Most shops and cafés don’t sell booze, being a Muslim country. Afterwards we tried to work out the tram system that does not appear on Google Maps. The hotel didn’t tell us this was an option either. The tram cost £0.34 one ride, has only one back-and-forth route for simplicity and got us within a 15 minute walk of our hotel, following a pitstop in Samsun Central for a walk along the parks, another independence monument (pic above) and seafront before lunch.

The nearest tram stop to the hotel was fun. Dropped off in the middle of nowhere among farm animals, trying to find and then access our large building, avoiding a noisy and fast 6 lane road.

Later in the evening we headed back to the beach intending to have a few beers now the Red Wall (name for Wales fans) were in full voice. After a single double-vodka I could tell I wasn’t feeling the blaring music coming from the bars, agreeing to go for some really nice food in a fish restaurant. I’m not a foodie but Pete really liked it. I was happy I tried anchovies for the first time, as well as the total cost of £61. The same back home would be easily double that given food quality and location. We got a taxi home, managing just the one beer before bed.

Day Three – More Samsun and Matchday

A huge reason why I didn’t fancy a session last night was because I wanted a swim in the sea. I like swimming, I don’t do it enough, and it was something I’m pleased to say I did. It was supposed to be thunderstorms all weekend but it was another day of hot sun leaving the hotel around 6am for the 30 minute drive.

The beach was completely deserted thankfully. The sand was free of rubbish, water cleaner than expected and I had a real relaxing hour contemplating what my usual Monday mornings are like. Back in time for breakfast, feeling very Carpe Diem.

Another bonus of exploring the tram line yesterday was that we found a few other bits to do, namely a cable car located between the city centre and beach area.

The cable car wasn’t much to write home about and only a small ascend, although once we got to the top paying £0.27 for the privilege, there was a nice viewpoint and cafe where we stopped for a Fanta. Nothing says sunny plus holiday more than a bloody Fanta.

Back on lower ground, we had a walk around another park area with a cool statue of an Amazonian warrior between two Lions. Apparently a tribe used to reside here many moons ago. Bit far innit? Lunch was a small backstreet greek restaurant off the tourist route. Unsurprisingly we were the only foreigners here, but we we’re spoilt with a kebab lunch that cost just £11 for two, including sides and drinks. I felt guilty paying so little. The kebab tasted like in the UK, why wouldn’t it, but made more presentable and not a ripoff.

Back at the hotel, 6 hours to kick-off, I had to seriously consider my initial plan of yet another cross-city travel to the beach/bars pre-match, knowing it would be far away from the ground, loud and busy (FML I’m a sad boring old man).

Still, after a needed hour kip, I enjoyed four or five beers before getting the short taxi to the ground, the 17 May Stadium. Home of Samsungspor, champions of Turkey’s second division a few weeks prior.

There was a healthy atmosphere outside the ground. Getting in was fine, passing no less than 3 bag and body searches. Nowadays it is not often I visit larger grounds, so I liked being high up in a netted corner with most of the other 1,300 contingent. That’s a lot of people, spending lots of money, going somewhere completely random, to watch 90 minutes of football.

…. And what a fucking shambles of a performance we were treated to, losing 2-0 without providing acceptable competition. It didn’t help we had Joe Morrell sent off in the first half. Not to mention Turkey also had a penalty saved and 2 goals cancelled by VAR.

We cannot attack let alone score. The players bottle it rarely playing to potential, manager tactics for either plan A or nonexistent plan B are shit. I’m not going to talk much about my opinions as I find it hard to articulate myself. It is however, hopefully the last game our manager Rob Page will be in charge of. I’m writing this early on Day Four, so I hope he’s gone before our next game in the Autumn, we’ll see.

The Turkish provided a terrific atmosphere. Even their stupid phone torch light show bollocks didn’t wind me up (that much).

Getting back from the ground was a challenge. There were free buses put on for the majority who wanted to go in to town, but we were only a 10 minute ride away. We got kept in the ground for 45 minutes after the game. By now the trams were no longer running and we would never have been able to book a taxi given the traffic.

After some perambulation, we decided to walk 40 minutes back. We were confident that the route was safe but quickly changed for a shorter route, walking along a slippy hard shoulder against 70mph incoming traffic, with only a phone torch and a white bucket hat to help us be seen by countless lorries. I was disappointed at this lack of judgement (stupid fucking thing to do). We both have been to enough places to know better. I felt very selfish towards my fiancé who was nice enough to finance some of the trip for my birthday.

Thankfully, we got back to the hotel safe, had a single beer amongst supporters, rightfully miserable and angry, getting to sleep at 2:30am.

Day Four – Home

I couldn’t believe how tired I was today. It was Tuesday and I don’t think I had over 3 hours sleep in one go since Thursday night. Grateful that our hotel was so far from town, the 5:30am taxi only took 10 minutes to the very very small airport for our transfer to Istanbul.

Not much really to cover from here to home. I did want to mention that I was sat next to ex Cymru footballer and radio pundit Iwan Roberts for both flights. He moved to a spare seat between his colleagues on our long flight to give Peter and I extra room. Such a nice gesture and it was appreciated. Even budget airlines seem VIP when you have a spare seat next to you!

I arrived home in Newport at before 9pm, so just the 18 hours A to B today, with Latvia plans already underway. Thankfully it’s another new country, so I’m not going just for the football. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for visiting! Since my most recent post in date order (Disneyland) I have also finished off Lisbon in February 2022 and Milan in April 2022. You can view that by using the menu above, or scrolling down (for like, forever) if you’re on the homepage.

Overview

Stockholm is the largest and capital city of Sweden, one of a group of countries that make up Scandinavia. Although a member of the EU they keep their own Krona (SEK) currency.

A cool stat early on is that the Stockholm area (archipelago) includes an incredible 24,000 individual islands! The main city area itself has 14 islands of varying sizes so you are never far away from water or a bridge!

What is Sweden famous for? Having given this zero thought, off the top of my head I’m going with IKEA, ABBA, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Vikings. Sweden also ranks amongst the happiest places to live in the world. A fun fact that regularly pops up on my Duolingo lessons is that the most common language learnt by people in Sweden is actually Swedish, mainly because of the amount of refugees taken in. 90 percent of Swedes can speak English.

Stockholm is only a 2-3 hour flight from the UK and also on popular European ferry routes. It borders Finland and Norway. Like these countries, Sweden is sparsely populated in difficult terrain especially in winter. Around 10% of the 10 million population lives in the capital.

ANOTHER fun fact (fucking hell three already) is that although Denmark doesn’t have a land border with Sweden, you can reach it by a road bridge! Where else can you say that? Let’s make a start else your heads going to explode with all this overwhelming information.

Ok just one more… Depending on when you visit will greatly affect not just the weather but also the amount of sunshine. Visiting in May meant we had sun from 4am to 10pm and even overnight it was never completely dark. In contrast, winter has very little time before sunrise and sunset, although it’s a little far south to miss out on sunlight altogether, unlike northern parts of Scandinavia. Luckily for our week, the sun was shining every day without any rain, but it does get breezy by the waterfront.

Flights and Accommodation

We flew from Birmingham with RyanAir that was incredibly cheap at £67 return. We did have a bit of a balls-up with the luggage that added a few quid on but that was our fault and not RyanAir squeezing every possible penny out of you after buying the airfare as per.

For the first time we booked an apartment instead of a hotel. We will definitely consider it again! The “ApartDirect Hammarby” was a great introduction getting used to the extra space.

The rooms were supplied with bed, kitchenette, living area (all in one room) with a separate bathroom including a washing machine. We booked the apartment first before considering the potential savings on breakfast. Our luck was in as there is a Lidl within a four minute walk.

This saved us money every day for breakfast that we would easily pay £20 per day in a hotel. We spent about £70 at the supermarket in total, although this included two Strawberry punnets at £7 each… Oops my currency conversation was not strong in that instance!

Getting Around

Bus, tram, metro, train and boat are all provided by SL and included in a travel card. For 7 days this cost us just £30, a bargain!

Transport is frequent, on time, safe, clean and easy to understand. Google maps worked really well integrating timetables. Boats are less frequent, like one every 30 minutes. We only caught one for novelty value, other times we never considered them to be time saving.

There are several ways to get to the airport. It was sad to know on arrival that the Express train was not in service due to it derailing, I think only two were injured which sounded like a miracle.

In addition to the express train, you can also catch the normal train, several coaches or obviously a taxi. We decided to use a Flixbus and cost just £10 arriving and £6 on the way back. Flixbus are kinda’ the European version of National Express, they have recently started operating in the UK too.

It took 30-40 minutes on the coach from airport to the central bus station, also part of the central train station. The coach was to eventually end up in Hamburg, Germany, so try not to nod off…

Costs

Our trip went from Sunday evening to late Friday evening. Flights were only £67 per person return and the apartment came in at £320 for 5 nights. We struggled to find a decent hotel for this price and considering we had kitchen facilities, and how nice the room and area was, I consider it very good value.

Travel costs covered above for public transport. The only Uber we caught was £8 for a 6.5km trip at midnight, so that wasn’t bad. When we travelled out of Stockholm, to Uppsala, we needed to buy an add-on to our travel pass that was £8 each.

Food will be expensive unless you stick to street vendors and fast food like we did (outside our apartment). A McDonald’s meal is around £7-9. We did enjoy a Max Burgers, similar to McDonald’s. One night we did have a Chinese in a restaurant. Two dishes, two drinks and a spring roll came to £32. There are a lot of Asian cuisine places that do an all you can eat buffet for around £25 each so that could be an option of you need filling. I didn’t have a beer but prices seems to be cheaper than expected, £6 in the hotspots, £4-5 elsewhere.

Hmmm what else… A bottle of coke will set you back around £2.50, bread £2, milk £1.50… in general grocery shopping is more expensive than in the UK. We didn’t buy too much else.

The museums and attractions we visited were priced between £10 to £25 per person. I didn’t have a problem with that.

We spent roughly £700 whilst there, meaning the trip total was around £1,150 for two people. This could have been trimmed a bit without luggage fees and sensible supermarket purchases, or eating at the apartment more instead of fast food.

What we didn’t do…

Early on in the trip I was worried about how big this section would be, as the size of Stockholm can be a bit overwhelming. Thankfully I write this without any regrets of missing out. I would have liked to have caught an ice hockey game, but no dice. And by dice, I mean fixtures.

Stockholm has a plethora of museums, so of course we didn’t visit them all, the thought alone fucking terrifies me. The ones that stick out (we missed) are the Nordic History Museum, Fotografiska photography museum and Skansen that is a outdoor museum similar to St Fagans in Wales. We visited the other good ones I hope!

There are bloody loads of churches to visit is that’s your thing. There are lots of boat tours where you can explore the city from a different viewpoint, you can even kayak! I would have liked to explore the Djurgarden island in more detail, this area is where the museums and theme park is but the rest of it looks like a huge park.

Additional day trips could be made to Birka, Sigtuna or Vaxholm. I’d be surprised if these would be better than our visit to Uppsala.

Our hotel was also over the road from a ski centre. Although it operates as a grass slope in summer I’m sure it would be better to go in winter.

Itinerary

Day One – Gamla Stan, Royal Palace & Avicii Arena

Technically our journey started on Sunday afternoon so we’ll call that day zero. We arrived at the airport at 10pm and got to our apartment around midnight after our FlixBus and Uber combo.

Waking up a little later than planned on the Monday, we first popped to Lidl to pick up some breakfast for the week. Once packed away and cereal consumed, we headed out.

Not really knowing where to go first, we decided to go to the tourist central, an island called Gamla Stan. The ‘old town’ was fascinating and similar to other European cities with its narrow cobbled streets, quirky boutiques and countless cafe’s.

On the tram here we figured that the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan had their daily changing of the guard at 12:15pm, so that was really good timing. We enjoyed the parade for about 20 minutes in the sunshine. I say enjoy, without wanting to offend, it does all seem a bit daft to me. However, it attracted a big crowd who I’m sure enjoyed the pompousness of it.

It was a short walk from here past an obelisk tribute to King Gustav III and down to the waterfront. You could walk for eternity around the circumference of land with the aid of the odd bridge. We will visit Gamla Stan again later on.

Although we didn’t have a set plan for the week, we did want to do things as soon as we could, just to be safe as we’d expect to find loads of other things we would want to explore whilst here. Therefore, our next stop was slightly south of the centre to a large entertainment complex. This area includes restaurants, a shopping centre, the 30,000 seater Tele2 Arena and the Avicii arena formally known the Stockholm Globe Area prior to the musicians untimely death in 2018.

The Avicii Arena is cool as its the world’s biggest spherical building! It can house a multitude of events such as concerts and is home to two ice hockey teams. For us though, we were interested in the ‘SkyView’ lift that would take us up the outside of the building for the best views over Stockholm.

I appreciated how the platform was able to go scale the curved shape whilst still keeping the walking platform flat. This remains an enigma now. It wasn’t something I achieved whilst playing with Lego.

From the top you had a view of the main centre albeit not really suitable for good photos. I did take the opportunity to have a photo with the football stadium in the background (Sweden v Wales would be a great trip if you have deep pockets).

From here we continued to have a brief look closer to the stadium before getting the tram back to the hotel for some lunch and I’d be lying if I didn’t say a quick snooze.

We really didn’t do a lot else on the first day. I did spend some time trying to organise the rest of the week, which meant booking a few things. We had a nice stroll around the local neighbourhood before going for a Chinese nearby and an early night.

Day Two – Boat tour, Djurgarden & Vasa Ship Museum

I think one of the must do’s in Stockholm would be to take a boat tour to explore the archipelago. There are a few day trips worthy but the most popular one seemed to be a three hour cruise to Vaxholm and straight back.

The tour, provided by Strommer was £30 each and left at 10:30am. This gave us plenty of time to find out where it left (harder than it sounds with hundreds of boats waterside!). We got there early, so I was a bit miffed when I noticed I’d been in the wrong queue. Thankfully, we found a seat outside to get the best out of the view. Half an hour in to the trip we had 3 blankets between us so dress warmly for this. The folk inside who didn’t brave the breeze, either had a posh meal (with limited view of the whole point of going on the boat??) or downstairs looking through small windows.

The tour provided running commentary of sights on the way, such as museums, the theme park, several embassy’s of other countries, the worlds most efficient water sewerage system (y’know, the usual) which was less frequent the further we sailed. Still, it was pleasant to see all of the summer houses on small islands that looked like something from a Disney movie. Many of these houses are only used in the summer due to their lack of insulation and access issues as the narrower areas can freeze over.

Just after an hour we arrived at Vaxholm to drop a few passengers off who were locals or wanted to stay for a few hours. There didn’t seem much to see there apart from the Vaxholm Fortress. The fortress didn’t really get a good review. Built to provide a defence for attacking ships, over time enemies weaponry became more powerful and easily penetrated the building. That, and the gap became too small for a lot of vessels and they just chose another route instead! I agree that it is better served as a house for the museum as it currently is today.

Once back in Stockholm, we visited Djurgaden , a large island of mainly park, woodland and the aforementioned theme park, museums and embassy’s.

Museum-wise, you really are spoilt for choice here. Vasa ship museum, Nordic (cultral history) museum, Viking history museum, Skansen open air museum, the ABBA museum, an alcohol museum, the ‘museum of wrecks’, a diving museum, Liljevechs art exhibition… and probably more but I’m fed up of listing them now.

We did try (note: try) to have an e-scoot around the island first but as a lot of the cycle paths ran alongside roads I don’t think Mikayla got over 2kmph before we gave it up as bad idea.

Instead we chose a museum over an ice-cream lunch, which was an effort for me as I am hard to please with these things (museums not ice cream) – and decided on the Vasa Museum which topped a lot of lists we reviewed.

The Vasa Museum is dedicated to the Vasa warship that was built in 1928, only to sink just 1.3 kilometers in to her maiden voyage. What is deserving of the ship to have such a museum, is that the ship was raised after 333 years, the biggest effort to lift such a large vessel and bloody hell is it well preserved.

The museum spans four floors and only at the bottom can you truly get a grasp of how big the bloody thing is. I thought the museum gave easy to understand information about it’s subject, but I was confused by the fact that there is no real direction to follow.

That was enough for us for day two, apart from tea at a Max Burger joint – better than McDonald’s I must say!

It came to me before bed that night… We spent the day visiting a castle that couldn’t defend itself and a ship that couldn’t float! A win for celebrating disappointment!

Day Three – Uppsala, City Hall and Sunset

We do like a day trip somewhere when going somewhere for 3+ days and on this occasion, we chose Uppsala. I cannot get my head around that it’s the fourth biggest city in Sweden (Gothenburg and Malmo are 2 and 3) as it appeared very small, especially the centre, yet Wikipedia tells me there are over 177,000 people living there.

Uppsala was very quiet and peaceful when we visited. It is located 70km north of Stockholm, so about a 40-minute train ride.

There were a few sights we wanted to see on our short trip, which started off with Uppsala castle. We didn’t want to investigate this too much but it provided a good view of the area and had some nice gardens surrounding the area.

Uppsala University, more specifically the Carolina Rediviva library up next, practically next door to the castle. The university itself is the oldest centre of higher education in Scandinavia. The library was rather modern inside and busy with students. I don’t know why but I was thinking of something like the Trinity College in Dublin!

The library did have a small exhibition though. The centrepiece of this was definitely The Codex Argenteus or ‘silver bible’, originally containing 4th-century translation of the Christian Bible in Gothic language. Quite fascinating.

Next and our final stop before lunch was the Uppsala Cathedral, again a short walk away. Apparently, the style of the church is French Gothic. I’m going to put my own style on the building and call it ‘nice’. I liked the look of the brick and the symmetry of the building, that did look domineering with its two spires. The cathedral is the tallest church building in Scandinavia.

You should already be aware I am not the slightest bit interested in most religious aspects of religious buildings, although it was hard not to appreciate the architecture inside.

Lunch was rudely interrupted by a flock of birds swiping a portion of my fries…. But I’ve told myself not to return to that tragic event. By the time we got back to Stockholm we had time to enjoy a few hours walking around by the central station and City Hall.

For the sunset, we travelled slightly off the beaten track to a place called Skinnarviksberget. I found out about here on a small travel blog I’ve since been unable to relocate. On top of the rocks that we’re tricky and a bit unsafe to ascend we enjoyed the sunset at 9:45.

The photo below with the air balloon in the background is a personal favourite of the trip! Now experts on the buses and metro we were home in no time to watch most of the Europa League final on the tele (i.e. Kay went to bed).

Day Four – Nobel Prize museum, Abba museum and Grona Lund

Another sunny morning for our last full day around Stockholm. We did initially consider a £70pp boat trip to a place called Birka, where you can experience the ‘old way of life’ in Sweden, but with costs starting to be of slight concern and time we decided to look at alternatives on our doorstep.

One thing Mikayla fancied was the Nobel Prize Museum, so with nothing better to do we headed back to Gamla Stan.

The museum is located in a popular square yet there was very little queue for the 10am opening. We paid for our admission and was offered a free audio guide starting at 10:15am. The below photo shows a track featuring all previous winners, hundreds of them, that slowly circle the room of the museum. I found this a little pointless as you cannot read the text and it would take hours to complete a full cycle. Luckily the screens dotted around are much more convenient.

The audio guide was really good, presented by a gentlemen that obviously knew what he was talking about and shown interest in the subject. The guide was only 30 minutes long, which I appreciated, and covered the history of Alfred Nobel, the six prize categories, how you get nominated for a prize and the award ceremony.

The exhibits were limited due to the size of the museum – again I didn’t mind this! – but did show a few designs that were well-known or fascinating if not both.

The tour ended letting us browse through the computerised registers with some displays such as the transistor radio, the first form of penicillin, a piece of the berlin wall, an armband from the Red Cross in WW1, as well as more sensitive items such as Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, the Euro (plus the EU itself) and invention of plastic.

I did think of how I could one day win the prize. Apart from services to alcohol consumption on Wales away games I couldn’t think of much, even then I’m not sure if that would fit in to a category of Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Economic Services or Peace…

Leaving the museum we had some time to kill as our tickets to a theme park were not until 4pm in the afternoon. We took a pleasant walk from Gamla Stan to a small island housing Parliament (Riksdagshuset) to a garden Kungsträdgården before going underground to go back to our apartment for lunch, a £3 ready meal from Lidl!

Something else I should pick up on here that populated a few ‘things to do’ lists I came across, was simply to visit multiple tube stations as so many have artistic interiors and could be seen as art galleries in their own right. Personally we didn’t seek these, but the ones we came by including the above in the Kungsträdgården metro station was a lot more pleasing than the usual theatre posters and endless tiling.

Our break for lunch was short and sweet as we finally decided to visit the ABBA museum before the theme park, primarily to take some photos to show the mother as the band has been around or a large part of her life. I’ve also bagged a few birthday gifts for her from the shop so I hope she’ll miss this sentence when she is forced to read it!

A bit pricey at £25 each but just about good value. As with many other museums the exhibits were neatly organised in a small area and you couldn’t go anywhere without songs playing, supporting their motto “come in walking, leave dancing”.

I’m not the biggest fan of ABBA myself, so I was happy to learn about the formation from the band, their rise to stardom singing Waterloo to win the 1974 Eurovision song contest, their many years of fame and ultimate separation.

One piece that did stand out was the below picture providing the words for Chiquitita. Before paying attention to the lyrics and accompanying text from Bjorn, I never noticed how powerful the message is contained in the song. Already one of my favourite ABBA tracks, I think this escalated it to the top and get’s Chrissy’s coveted ‘banger’ label.

Right then, let’s get to the theme park stuff!

I’ll say from the start I’m trying not to over-write about this place. “Gröna Lund” is a theme park in the same area as the collection of museums including ABBA so it was only a few minutes walk here. I think the park only opened for summer maybe the week before so it was very busy with adolescents giddy and hyper on sweets (or weed and cheap cider, who knows).

What I found most fascinating about the park was that it is in SUCH a small perimeter, guessing the size of six football pitches? And in this small space, you have loads of rides, stalls, food outlets. The picture above shows FOUR rides that all were very good. The rollercoasters intertwined that well, it would make the wires at the back of your TV jealous.

For £25 an adult, the park allows entry, unlimited rides and two ‘fast-passes’. We didn’t spend a krona above the entry fee, but did notice the prices were very reasonable for refreshments (relate back to my shit €16 pizza in Disney).

I’m also going to sound over-excited about the quality of the rides. Although I only went on five, had I had free reign or be arsed to queue a little there were at least 10 rides I would have enjoyed. After much deliberation I honestly can’t think of ten at Disneyland.

First up was ‘JetLine’ using my pass, a good coaster without any loops but very pleasing for starters. With people still piling in to the park I decided to join a short queue for the “big-fucking-swingy-thing” ride called Eclipse. I’ve been on these types of rides before in Chessington and Prata Wien (Vienna) but this was the tallest. Cue questionable looks at the four thin chains that was going to support me.

No. I wasn’t allowed to have my phone on me during the ride.

Yes. I was willing to sacrifice the phone, other peoples safety and a potential telling off to provide you with the best possible coverage of my trips.

Weeeeeeee…

Back down to Earth (device in hand) I next tried the “fucking-weird-looking-spinny-thing” coaster called Insane.

Now rides rarely properly ‘scare’ me, I’m not exactly gonna die am I? But jeez this one took it out of me! Simply following the track would be an ordeal itself, but you’re actually going along the track in a spinning bloody ninja shuriken. That and the fact I had to remove my hoodie just to fit on the the ride, I wobbled off just happy I hadn’t given birth to my intestines. Bravo. I haven’t been on millions of rides, but I think that’s my favourite for uniqueness.

The penultimate ride was the “fucking-high-free-fall-droppy-pole-thing” called Ikaros, seen on the right of picture. By the time I got fastened in (just about) and going up, I was just getting over the last ride. Once at the top of this, the ride was considerate enough not just to drop you down, but to first place you flat facing the ground. And go. People my size really shouldn’t be plummeting towards ground level at 90kmph, glorified seatbelt or not.

The final ride, “the-one-with-fucking-loads-of-twisty-loopy-bits” called Monster, I think is quite new and probably the fan favourite. Using our last fastpass I waited no more than five minutes. Not much in the way of photos of that, sorry I was too busy enjoying myself. A list of all rides can be found here.

We could have stayed for a few more hours, had dinner, queued up for other rides but I was more than satisfied. I did intend that night to make a start on this blog but blame Harry Potter being put on Netflix. We did however catch the public SL boat on the way home…. really wasn’t very time saving, but its a boat, on holiday.

Day Five – Wandering before home

Our flight home wasn’t actually until 11pm today so we did have a full day had we needed it. The luggage was a bit of a pain…. we could either leave it in the hotel, unsecured, away from the centre or pay up to £30 to store it at the central station. I wasn’t pay the equivalent of ten pints for that.

As luck would have it today was the earliest and freshest I had awoken, and given our disastrous attempt at getting Kay on a scooter earlier in the trip, I decided to leave her be and go for a ride for an hour.

We didn’t really do much on the Sodermalm island throughout the week so I followed the cycle paths along the waterways to Fotografiska, a place with several art exhibitions that is included on a lot of to-do lists, but not for us.

I was up two of those bloody plinths 12 hours prior….

Choosing a different route back, it did confirm what a pleasant area Stockholm is. Many places have a serious lack of affordable housing but I noticed the City is particularly difficult to reside in for work or study without rich Mummy and Daddy.

Bags packed, homemade beans on toast for breakfast and confirming we had checked out, we caught the tram for what felt like the 50th time in to the centre with no real plan.

After picking up our souvenir (Christmas tree decoration as is common practice for us) in Gamla Stan we headed back to the Royal Palace on to the Nobel museum, simply to take a photo of two buildings that appear to be ‘the photo you have to take’. Expensive cafe’s? OK. Done though.

Another walk past the parliament building, we found this small restaurant called “McDonald’s” for lunch* and headed to our last minute thing to do, the Swedish History Museum.

*The only reason we had McDonald’s was because we hadn’t had one already, like it may be some form of achievement or world record in years to come! The spicy nuggets with Korean BBQ sauce though! Delish.

Anyway, the museum. It was OK. It had areas for the prehistories, Viking era, a timeline of Swedish history, medieval art and a ‘gold room’.

By now, I’ll be honest and say I was a bit museum-ed out. Thankfully the tour came with a free audio guide so I was able to slowly wander around and listen rather than read every little plaque.

The gold room was the thing I was looking forward to the most so we left that room until last. I can tell you that it housed 52 kilograms of gold and 200kg of silver, but a lot of that was jewellery, coins and scraps (this is why I’ll never get a job as a museum guide folks).

A journey allllll the way back to the apartment to collect our bags, then allllll the way back to the centre to catch our FlixBus, before we knew it we were through security waiting for our plane. Worth noting the airport shops etc shut around 8pm. You’re left with a toilet and a water fountain, not to be confused with each other.

Thanks for reading!

For our first trip of 2023, we were spoilt with a trip to Disneyland Paris with Mikayla’s family. Writing this now, I realise how much of a good time I had, even though at the time I may not have fully noticed. Disney has this aura where you can shut yourself off from the outside world. It’s not magic, but it’s close.

This write-up will be a bit different to usual. A big difference is the lack of costs, as we were fortunate enough for Mikayla’s father to fund most of the trip including minibus hire, Euro Tunnel, hotel and park tickets as part of a Christmas gift for us all. As it was such a generous offer, I am not going to investigate likely costs.

If you haven’t been before and thinking of going, you may wish to have a look at an interactive version of the resort map which may help you understand me. In addition to the main Disneyland park, there are the Disney Studios (a theme park in it’s own right), a Disney Village housing shops and food outlets, and a vast area to house their hotels, train station, parking etcetera.

Getting there

We were a gang of eight making the drive from Newport to the Parisian outskirts, including a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old. The decision to hire an 8-seater minibus was a superb one. The back of the bus even had room for a small table that made lunchtime a LOT easier. I forgot the name of the vehicle but (without having to drive) it felt rather luxurious.

This trip was also my first time using the EuroTunnel. This was much quicker than I expected at around 45 minutes. You are in separated carriages housing about 5-6 cars. There are no refreshments or smoking areas but there are toilets at either end of the train (god know how long that could be to walk!).

Accomodation

We had booked one of the Disney “Cars” themed on-site hotels called the Sante Fe. The resort has several hotels ranging from 2 to 5 stars. Our 2-star option was perfectly adequate and great for the kids. I especially appreciated the 20-minute walk to the park in the mornings, a safe walk along the tree-lined river spotting the odd Koi Carp (I think) until you reach the Disney Village.

You can stay outside the park in the small villages. Weigh up cost vs convenience.

Sundry costs

In terms of costs whilst you are at the park, they are in line with what you would expect (i.e. not cheap!). For a decent meal combo in the park you are looking at €15-17…. Snacks, hot and soft drinks on their own around €4.

I did have breakfast in the hotel on two days at a cringeworthy €21. The breakfast was all you can eat, had a really good range of hot and cold offerings, but I don’t tend to eat a lot in the morning and therefore was always going to feel I didn’t get my moneys worth. Definitely worth sneakily prepping some rolls, pastries and fruit so at least you can feed yourself for lunch to. In fact, if you are able to smuggle a decent amount away, the price doesn’t seem that bad for two meals.

The food in the park ranges vastly in terms of value for money. The one night we had a mediocre Mickey Mouse shaped pizza with dry garlic bread, whereas the next day we had ribs, chicken portion, sausage and chips for the same price. To be fair, the latter I actually thought was decent value bearing in mind it came with drink. That place was Cowboy Cookout Barbecue in Frontierland.

We had two vegans’ in the group and they did have to suffice with very limit options. Non-meat eaters with big appetites may struggle.

You ARE allowed to bring your own food and drink to the resort. This potentially could save you a LOT of money. Be aware that your hotel may not have refrigeration facilities and supermarkets in France can be more expensive than we are used to in the UK.

It was a bit disappointing that fountains providing free drinking water are closed over colder months, with no alternative available.

The parks and rides

The main park is split up in to several areas and the attractions are linked with the lands. Discovery land has a space theme incorporating Star Wars and Buzz Lightyear. Fantasy land is suitable for the younger children with Dumbo, Alice and Wonderland and Peter Pan. Frontierland and Adventureland I thought were quite similar, with decent rides named after Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean. Something for everyone.

Each area has plenty of small rides, shops, photo ops with characters, food outlets and restrooms (and smoking areas). In the middle of all of this is Cinderella’s castle, an impressive structure that is home to the evening light show and fireworks.

The Disney Studios is similar but smaller, maybe a bit more fun for older children and adults considering a lot of the area is dedicated to Marvel. When I last visited some 25 years ago, I don’t know if Disney Studios even existed, but I’m sure we didn’t go there. I seen a plan for future development for this area and if it looks anything like the pictures, that itself will be another reason to go!

I was going to rate each of the big rides, but now can’t be arsed, so I’ll say Thunder Mountain was my favourite, although a special mention for the new Marvel Flight Force due to being a good ride without long queues.

TIP: Although we thought we went at a quieter time of year, some of the queues were a nightmare; 1 to 2 hours at peak times. If you are going just for the day, I would seriously consider investing in a fast pass that allows you a queue jump for each of the big rides once. They cost an extra £100 or so – which is bollocks – but you don’t want to be spending over half your day in a queue for a few 2-minute rides.

Aside from the rides there are loads of shows and interactive stuff. We didn’t see any shows but we did enjoy a relaxing half hour drawing session with a Disney Artist. My Mickey Mouse attempt looked as though the poor bugger has just got back from a weekend on the beer with me. I’ll stick to Photoshop.

Anything else?

Nah, not really. Everyone’s trip will be unique and I’m not going to tell you how you should enjoy your stay. The best suggestion I can give is to go for 2 or more days.

I’ll just dump the rest of my photos…

Thanks for reading.

I was lucky enough to visit Brussels for the penultimate Wales Nations League game of the campaign. This was a very short trip, and I don’t think I would have considered a post, if not for the fact that I would forget I had even went in a year or so!

We only had one night and less than 24 in Belgium’s capital city, but remarkably this was longer than my previous visit… a 23-hour day trip back in 2018! However, we did all of the touristy stuff on that trip, so please check that out here: Sprouting up in Brussels, August 2018.

We had an early start catching the National Express to London before getting to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar. Thank goodness it was an early start, as I forgot my bloody ‘important’ bag (I have NEVER done this before!!) which meant my poor mother, giving me a lift at 3am, had to rush back home 5 miles, then back in to town! One this rare occasion, the coach was a little late and I even had a time for a ciggy to relax before boarding.

Thankfully for Peter’s ticker at least, the rest of the journey was at a relaxed pace. We checked in to our hotel, actually inside the EuroStar train station and had a walk into town, a good 30-minute walk.

Once we collected our match tickets and arrived at the main square “Grand Place” we had an expensive beer, enjoyed the sunshine and let the busy tourists hurrying by get on with it.

Hydrated, I moved on to the designated Welsh Fans area a few minutes away. It was a glorious few hours before kick off with sunshine, banger after banger bellowing out from the speakers and plenty of beers purchased from the supermarket down the road, to avoid being taken advantage of by the Irish bar charging £7 a time. I remember there was an article in the Belgian press bigging us up as we all cleaned up litter after ourselves before the game, but it is worth mentioning the sizeable police presence should be commended for their hands off approach, letting us be a little silly, but not out of hand, leading to absolutely ZERO trouble… again.

The game itself was OK. Belgium went 2-0 up before half time before big Kieffer Moore bundled in a goal to give us hope. We had the Belgians so scared they resorted to timewasting and although we did end up losing 2-1, it was another promising performance, against the best team in the world at the time, before we headed to the World Cup (we won’t mention that.)

After the football, the trip was exiting as going back to the hotel via a kebab shop, ready to catch the 6am train home the next morning. Don’t forget to check the link above for some actual content!

For one of our most memorable trips, and our first exploration of the African continent, I shouldn’t be starting this ten months after our visit, not least because I finally got my arse in gear and became engaged to my fiancée on the trip! One excuse to put off this post was the sheer amount of bloody photo’s taken, 90% of which were of some stone triangles, but I’ve managed to sift through those so I can start writing bollocks.

Overview

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt and is one of the top ten most populated cities in the world, the highest in Africa. It is worth noting early on, that whilst the Pyramids are only a 20-30 minute drive away from Cairo, they are actually based in Giza, itself a city in its own right with a population of around 9 million.

Obviously, Egypt is very hot, so going in the middle of August was a fucking masterplan. The heat was relentless at times, rising up to 35°, you really don’t notice much in the way of shade or breeze.

A lot of people may have been to Egypt for all inclusive stays at resorts such as Sharm El Sheikh. Many of these resorts are located on the red sea, bloody ages away from Cairo and the Pyramids, so a visit from these resorts will be 7 hours each way unless you can get a one-hour flight. Just make sure your coach has air conditioning, yeah?

When you think of Egypt you think of the Pyramids (sorry Mo Salah), but there are areas of historical significance throughout the country, mainly near the banks of the River Nile, the longest river in the world.

Flights and Accommodation

We booked the trip using Expedia. We used Expedia for quite a few holidays over the years, but recently I’ve noticed it can be a lot cheaper buying flights (SkyScanner) and accommodation (Booking.com) ourselves. In this case I assume the price was competitive, with some extra peace of mind. The total for British Airways direct flights from London and our hotel were £1,307. I haven’t got the breakdown but I imagine most of this price was for the flight, as I recall the hotel being very, very cheap – £14 a night rings a bell.

The hotel in Giza we used was called the “Pyramids View Inn” and offered an in-room balcony and roof terrace with TERRIFIC views of the Pyramids and Sphinx. We also enjoyed the nightly light show, avoiding the fee to otherwise enter the grounds.

The hotel was great in terms of service and location. Staff were very helpful organising trips and we also had our own driver, Ibrahim, who grabbed us from the airport and took us on day trips. Unfortunately though, our rooms air-con was useless, therefore it was ridiculously hot – unbearable in the evenings. Looking back now I don’t want to make a big deal about this as the positives outweighed this, choosing to remember the bloke who always looked so delighted to serve us breakfast on the roof terrace each morning filling us up with fruit, bread and freshly made falafels.

Giza was rather rough and disappointing outside the pyramid grounds, and further away than expected to Cairo. Bunch that with no air-conditioning, we booked the 4* Safir Hotel for 2 nights during the week in central Cairo. At around £100 per night, we had a sizeable breakfast buffet, a swimming pool and freezing air in the room!

If you visit the pyramids, I highly recommend you base yourself in Cairo and just have a day trip to the wonder of the world.

Getting Around

Cairo itself has a metro system that is currently being expanded to Giza, but at present public transport is very limited. Thankfully, outside of our day in Giza and use of Ibrahim for day trips we only relied on taxis in Cairo. We quickly remembered of this small company called ‘Uber’ who offered a great service in Cairo costing pennies per trip.

Something else important to consider, that doesn’t really fit anywhere else, is your mobile phone usage. O2 or EE offered nothing affordable, so we researched buying a SIM at the airport. There were a few options available and we were satisfied with our Orange SIM costing about £20 for 40gb of data. I think this would last for a month if needed.

Costs

I’ve already covered flights and accommodation. Food can range from dirt cheap to UK prices depending on where at what appeals to tourism. Our Nile Cruise was about 40 quid each and included a great meal, salad buffet, entertainment and hotel transfers. Entrance to the pyramids was £12-13. Crazy.

For our day trips we used the hotel and their driver. The prices on their website were extortionate compared to TripAdvisor and the like, although they were more than happy reducing their prices by over 50% to match. Alexandria drive and tour cost about £80 including a nice meal, the same as our final day dotting around some sights. A free benefit of having our driver meant we were a lot less hassled by locals.

The entrance Visa in to Egypt cost 20USD each. We tried and failed to do this online using the shit website wasting $40, but ultimately you can just walk up to a counter on arrival, pay cash and get the stamp in your passport.

Things We Didn’t Do

As I’ve called this an Egypt trip, I suppose I have to cover the whole bloody country? I’m not going to do that.

Luxor was the obvious omission, but this isn’t really doable even over 2 days given the distance. The big thing to see here are the tombs that make the Valley of Kings.

If you stay on the north coast or Red Sea there are great opportunities for diving. There is endless desert but a lot of areas are dangerous either due to climate or dodgy characters.

A new, likely to be EPIC Egyptian Museum is crawling towards completion, which will be located in Giza. After numerous delays, we were told the opening was expected to be autumn 2022, but 9 months later it still hasn’t been completed. They have however started painstakingly transporting artifacts by road from the existing museum in Cairo. I wouldn’t fancy driving precious cargo that’s 5,000 years old.

Itinerary

Day Zero – Engaged!

We arrived at Cairo airport early afternoon following our 5 hour flight. We were pleased to find our driver after a delay sorting our phones out and made the 40-60 minute drive to our hotel.

The route took us along a flyover through Cairo. I felt unsettled at the amount of people living in half-finished or half-demolished buildings.

Once we arrived in Giza there were no high rise buildings, but were treated to countless camels and horses sharing and shitting all over the road. After a few brow raising side streets we arrived at our hotel on the doorstep on the pyramids main entrance.

Due to my planned evening activities I was pleased that the room was expected, having a small balcony outside our 2nd floor room. After a quick rest and a wash we started getting ready for some food on the rooftop.

I can’t recall what exactly I said to Kay to prompt her to draw the curtain and come outside, but there I was on one knee, 10 years later than I perhaps should have, kneecap under immense pressure, asking the love of my life to be my wife.

She said yes. Obviously. She’d been banging on about it for years! Still, I felt some relief and was a very proud man.

The ring debacle itself deserves a paragraph. I tried to measure her finger a few times whilst asleep before going full fuck-it mode guessing the size. Although I ordered her (our?) ethically sourced diamond well in advance, there was a delay in sending the order. It finally arrived the evening before our trip and by then I already packed my late grandmother’s wedding ring to act as a short term backup. Ultimately it all worked out. She likes the ring more than I thought she would, which makes me smile. And she hasn’t ‘lost’ it yet!

That evening we went upstairs for some photos and food before enjoying the pyramids light up as they do every evening. The show wasn’t much to write about. I would be lying if I hadn’t already chosen my social media post to our social channels… “A wonder of the world… and some pyramids”.

Day One – Giza and The Pyramids

Well it would be rude to not to visit the Giza Plateau first thing, considering the entrance was less than a minute away from our hotel. Energised after breakfast, we arrived as the site opened (I think around 8am) and it wasn’t very busy, although we later knew that there is a separate entrance for the influx of coaches that visit constantly.

The initial incline was assisted by walking past the famous Sphinx. The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. It was built around the same time as the pyramids, meaning that it’s incredibly over FOUR AND A HALF THOUSAND YEARS OLD!

You couldn’t get up too close to the lion-man thing, so we proceeded, attracted like a moth to a flame, towards the largest pyramid on site, The Great Pyramid, the only wonder of the world that has remained largely intact. I felt inferior up close to the 138 meter structure, though I didn’t start confirming it is indeed made of over 2 million blocks.

We had a walk around the pyramid, joining the hundreds of day-trippers flowing off their coaches. On one side of the pyramid you could access a chamber for a fee, although my height and width didn’t really feel suitable compared to the size and length of the tunnel. I’m not claustrophobic but I’d hate for the local fire brigade to chop the roof off to get me out!

It was around this area we started getting pestered by the locals trying to make a living, flogging anything from drinks to cheaply made souvenirs. To be honest, this was constant in Giza to the point where it could be quite distressing and off-putting. I’ve had some experience in similar situations but even I became quite frustrated after the 30th approach, going from no thank you, to a firm simple NO, to just ignoring communication attempts.

You do need to be mindful though, that a stone throw away from the Pyramids there are people and families living in poverty, it’s obvious walking around the area. You really cannot blame them for trying to put food on the table.

Anyway, it ultimately wasn’t a big deal, as we toured around the outside of the smaller Pyramid of Khafre and Pyramid of Menkaure. I thought I’d be writing a lot more about such a sight, but you can find out so much more if you want elsewhere. For us, having been in the heat for the morning and our water bottles dehydrated, we slowly headed back to our hotel for some shade before lunch.

Years before I went to Egypt, I remember being astounded by the fact there is a Pizza Hut 30 yards away form the pyramid site! Think about how many pictures you have seen, including mine, and you have been completely oblivious to the fact that if you took a photo of the pyramids from another angle, in the background you would have a huge city clearly in view! Getting such a photo confirmed Pizza Hut as our destination for lunch.

Shamefully after lunch we decided to avoid the peak temperatures in the hotel, whilst I watched the first home game of the Newport County 2022/23 season. There really wasn’t much else to see in Giza. And we lost.

That evening we searched for somewhere to have food and a little exploration of the area. We noticed there was a Marriott hotel about half hour walk away and hoped that there would be somewhere nice for tea there.

Google Maps worked really well getting us to the Marriott, but the streets it took us through certainly showed us the hidden side of Giza. I haven’t been to the favelas in Brazil, but I thought it may be similar. Rooms that I suppose were cafes of some sort had locals who could not stop staring at us in our bright clothing and Panama hats. How could we be so far off the beaten track, ten minutes away from somewhere that is visited by 14 million people a year?!

I wouldn’t say that I ever felt in danger, but it was very uncomfortable. Finally, after about 20 minutes we reached a highway that was close to the hotel, and indeed there was a restaurant nearby where we were treated to a mixed grill, some side plates and some fancy desserts, maybe totalling £30 with drinks. Ignoring the relentless honking of taxis thinking we were lost, we made our way back the way we came (I was full of food and tired at this point) in the darkness, a little more climatised to the onlookers by now.

We arrived at the hotel early enough to arrange a day trip tomorrow. We had another four nights so we really needed some things to do outside Giza, aiming to stay as little as possible hear outside the normal-ness of our hotel.

Day Two – Alexandria day trip

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt and the largest on the Mediterranean. By road it takes around 2.5 hours, there are no trains.

Thankfully we had our hotel Driver – Ibrahim – and his old but reliable car to show us around. There wasn’t much to share in regards to the drip along the ‘Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road’, although Ibrahim did mention a prison whilst passing. I have scoured Google Maps trying to find this, and if it’s the aerial view of the “Correctional and Rehabilitation Complex in Wadi El Natroun” as I think it is, it looks more like a suburb in Desperate Housewives than a prison complex in the middle of the desert!

Anyway, we got to Alexandria. This is why I should either be writing notes or writing the blog sooner than 12 months after our visit, as remembering the names or locating the sites on a map is going to be tricky….

Our first stop was the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, easy enough to recall.  Here was a small site, football-pitch size, with a few stones on exhibition that led to a circular stairway to view the catacombs themselves. Now you’ll need to research more yourself for the history lesson, but I will tell you that the tombs were only re-discovered in 1900 when a donkey fell in to an access shaft!

Considering the site is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages, you could feel a bit underwhelmed. However, remember we were ar the Great Pyramids the day before, so forgive me for making comparisons.

After a short drive through the busy city streets we next headed to…

… *fucking hell why didn’t I take a photo of a sign…*

… *gives up and Google’s things to do in Alexandria….*

The Serapeum of Alexandria. Yeah that’s it. The Serapeum was the largest and most prestigious of all temples in the Greek quarter of Alexandria.

The Serapeum was built in the 2nd century BC during the reign of the Egyptian king Ptolemy II. It was a symbol of the power and wealth of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The temple was decorated with many statues and reliefs, providing valuable insight into ancient Egypt’s history and culture.

The main sight here within this ancient Greek temple is the Victory Pillar, erected in 297 AD (AD unofficially meaning after baby Jesus).

The Serapeum was one of the most important temples of the ancient world. The Romans destroyed it, but its ruins are a reminder of the lost civilization of the Egyptians. I pinched that off a website, unfortunately the sites we visited this morning could all do with a bit more information boards. This area especially could benefit from a small audio tour, it is only now I note they also had catacombs as part of the area.

The area was also once used as part of the Great Library, which we’ll come to in a bit.

Our third stop completed the trio of ancient sites. Kom El Deka was a small neighborhood containing houses, baths, halls and a Roman theatre.

Kom el-Dikka is the largest and most complete above ground archeological site in Alexandria. It provides large amounts of archeological evidence of urban life in Roman Egypt, including early villas and their mosaics, and late Roman public works.

As you’d expect the area is today largely remains, and the theatre area has obviously been upgraded – when we visited, preparations for a concert were being installed. Thankfully this area contained a map of the site and enough information to enjoy a walk around for an hour.

Those three sites cost around £3 each to visit. We could have spent longer at all three sites but we did have a lot to fit in during the day, and knowing that we were due to visit the Library at some point, may not have appreciated the significance of the site.

The library was up next. Today the library is a modern building accommodating students and tourists alike, but the history of Alexandria and libraries are vitally important.

The Great Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. Alexandria came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning, in part because of the library.

Many important and influential scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC. Some examples of works are the first library catalog, a bloke who managed to measure the circumference of the earth (just a few hundred kilometers off – good effort!) and the inventor of the steam engine.

There is a story that Julius Ceaser burned the library during the Civil War, although there are arguments whether this was on accident, caused by the burning ships in the dockyard, or whether it was set on fire at all. I’m not getting in to that argument. I’m just thankful we have books today as nothing gives me greater joy than dusting our own little library of Mikayla’s 700+ collection.

Our final stop before lunch and our drive back was to the Citadel of Qaitbay. I’m really struggling to go in to historical detail at this point, but the fortress was built in the 15th Century. The citadel can be viewed all along the seafront and Ibrahim provided a good history lesson and significance of the site, another reason why it shouldn’t take me a bloody year to write this.

The site itself was a good visit. We walked through the courtyards and walkway along the coastal wall before entering the building itself providing pleasing views of the city and the Mediterranean. Ultimately the walk up and down the stairs may have been one too may, as from here tendonitis set in, gradually getting worse until the end of day four.

At least it was lunch next! Included in our tour price was a lunch that we didn’t think would be too much, so we were pleasantly surprised to be treated to some local fish, fresh calamari and all the trimmings!

The long drive home was not much to talk about. I remember watching Man United lose their first game of the season on the tele, and my feet were throbbing, so we were pleased to get home just before sunset, passing the yet to be completed new Egyptian museum.

The museum has faced several delays. Ibrahim mentioned they expected to open later that year in November 2022. That didn’t happen. Although seeing the caliber of British PM at the time you can’t blame them for putting off an invite.

Another issue is moving thousands of priceless artifacts from A to B. I wouldn’t want to be the driver who has Tutankhamun’s death mask on the back seat!

Day Three – To Cairo & Nile Cruise

Well done for making it this far. Very little in the way of history stuff today! Overnight we both agreed we needed a bit of luxury and to visit Cairo.

We booked our lift to Cairo and decided on a hotel. As we weren’t going to wake up to THAT view, breakfast, air con and (to heal the hooves) a swimming pool were all necessary.

We booked Hotel Safir to the east of The Nile. This came in at £100 a night but worth every penny.

We checked in early as possible and I won’t forget the absolute bliss of the air-con anytime soon – it was freezing. We ordered burgers to the room and had a chill before hobbling down for a swim. In the water I thought loosening up the joints were doing wonders but within minutes of getting back to the room the pain returned.

Feeling rather fed up and extremely worried the affect this will have on the rest of the trip, we had nap in the hope I might miraculously feel better in an hour or so.

This wasn’t the case but we had to do something. We found a Nile Cruise with dinner on somewhere like Viator that seemed a good shout at £30 each. It also provided a taxi service to the boat so walking would be minimal.

This all went to plan. I didn’t really know what I was expecting but I instantly knew this was a good shout when we boarded the boat. Shortly after setting sail we could enjoy the cold salad buffet followed by our selected meal from a number of options. It wasn’t Michelin star but was very enjoyable.

Alongside the meal and the opportunity to go outside and see the city from the Nile, the entertainment was also very good. Following a couple of singers we had this bloke who… spun around loads… lit himself up (not on fire)… spun a bit more…. Quite a spectacle and impressive.

This was followed by a belly dancer – also a sight to behold, before disembarking into our taxi for the ride home and the best night’s sleep in memory!

Day Four – Cairo Museum and Cairo Tower

It may have been the wonderful breakfast that made me feel a little spritelier this morning. This was very welcome as I knew we would be spending the best part of the day walking around the Egyptian museum – it wasn’t going to be small.

An oversight until now was the realisation of some small transport company called “Uber”. The hotel-booked taxis were not expensive, but the Uber’s we used were so cheap. You’re talking about a few miles trip stuck in traffic for 20 minutes costing £2-3.

As expected we were greeted with a lot of tourists at the security gates in to the museum but there was no long delay in the intense heat, it wasn’t long until we were inside, not having one fucking iota of where to start. We decided on ‘clockwise and then the bit in the middle, then upstairs’.

I’ve got about 120 photos from the museum there were that many pieces that were either interesting or really old or both. The statue above is the ‘Seated ka-statue of King Djoser’ and is the oldest known life-size Egyptian statue. Found in a chamber in 1925, the thing is believed to be over FOUR AND A HALF THOUSAND YEARS OLD.

I could do a blog on the museum content in its own right (don’t worry I won’t) but you get the idea. The highlight of the museum was unequivocally the Tutankhamun exhibition displaying the famous death mask – one of the best-known works of art in the world.

I’m going to be a bit naughty here. The exhibit were quite strict on people taking photographs of the items, although I couldn’t really see why. I get that with art such as the Bayeux Tapestry flashes can do damage but in this otherwise dark room bright lights shone on the pieces. To give me a bit of instruction-following, instead I decided to just start a video with the phone around my neck. The screengrab of the Tutankhamun’s mask was never going to be epic, but it’s a keeper! Of course everyone else just took quick photos when the stewards were not looking. It all seemed a bit over the top but rules are rules?

This was towards the end of our walk around so by the time we visited the animal section (the photo is a mummified crocodile) we heading back out into the heat.

We sat down for a refreshing juice near what would be deemed to be the actual centre of Cairo, the Ramses II obelisk in the centre of El-Tahir Square (actually a really busy multiple lane roundabout.

From here we decided to visit “The Hanging Church”. This was actually our first trip on the metro. The metro was not too difficult to manage as there are only three lines. Work is well underway of stretching one line to Giza within walking distance of the pyramids. This will be SO convenient for tourists who don’t want to spend a few quid on a taxi or day tour. I think a one-ride pass was 20p.

Getting off at just the third stop we were right outside the area that includes the Church among several other churches, towers, a cemetery and the Coptic Museum of ancient Egyptian Christian Art.

I cannot recall if there was a fee to pay to enter the Hanging Church (Google states it is free) but do remember how comfortable the pews were giving me short relief of persistent pain in my foot. Trust me I really haven’t banged on about the pain as much as I should be.

The Church gets its name from being suspended over a gatehouse passage. I didn’t expect it to be hanging over a cliff edge but found the story behind the name a little underwhelming, being able to have a slight glimpse of a tunnel.

That was pretty much it for the daytime activities, taking the metro close to our hotel was easy but exhausting so we had a few hours in the hotel.

That evening we enjoyed an Uber to one of the islands in the Nile to Cairo Tower. Although located in relatively green area of the City, the area around the tower was more modern and upbeat. We bought a ticket with a specified time on but it was still a bit of a wait once our slot came to catch the lift to the top. The tower is made of concrete and at 187 meters was the tallest structure in Egypt until 1998.

The view from the top was worth the wait, changing the concrete and dusty daytime Cairo in to a colourful landscape of lights with the sun setting in the distance. In terms of actual sights, not a lot was obvious to the eye, with most laminations belonging to big corporations or hotels.

That was about that for the night. I think there was something on at the sports stadium on the island so the taxi back took a good hour to go 3 miles. We must have had something for tea but for the life of me cannot remember, so it could not have been that good!

Day Five – Cairo Citadel, Markets and back to Giza

Today was a little easier on the feet. After breakfast and check-out we caught an Uber to Cairo Citadel, a little out the way from the centre.

The main attraction here was the Mohammed Ali mosque, but as it was quite high up I was more interested in the views. I’m delighted of the photo below just about picking up the pyramids in the distance. I like that the photo demonstrates both that the pyramids are NOT in Cairo, yet nor are they in the middle of nowhere like many would assume.

From here we wanted to check out one more thing before heading back to Giza for the rest of our trip. The markets were prevalent on several to-do lists and our guidebook but there are so many in a close area I cannot really remember which one we went to. The area we left our Uber was probably in the middle of several streets, so we chose one to have a walk through before lunch. Disappointingly we chose a street that was for the majority dedicated to clothes and linens. I’ve also found it bemusing in several markets how there are so many stalls all selling the same things, and here was no different. As a local would you visit the same one, or chop and change to support everyone? Who knows.

It was a bloody nightmare from the other end of the market trying to book a taxi, but we did use this time to identify that we had yet consumed a McDonalds. We can’t be having that no matter how disgraceful the need to have one actually is.

The food tasted as you’d expect, taking the opportunity to buy more than usual to benefit from the cheap prices. Afterwards, we pretty much got a can back to the hotel and got a buddy Ibrahim to collect us as take us back to our B&B in Giza.

That evening, and our final evening tomorrow, we visited a few other B&B / hotels near ours for tea, all with similar rooftop terraces. We clocked on the first night that our place simply bought food from neighbouring hotels and added a percentage on, so there was no need for the middle-man.

Day Six– Sakkara & Memphis day trip

By the time we finished off breakfast for our final full day we were pleased that we seen enough of things we wanted to, whilst not contempt to simply hang around Giza. Luckily our hotel offered another day tour to the south of Giza and Cairo. So, we jumped in with Ibrahim once again and set off to our first destination of Saqqara.

Saqqara has a number of pyramids but the most visited is the Pyramid of Djoser also referred to as the ‘step pyramid’. If you’re keeping up Djoser was the fella portrayed on the 4,500 statue I photographed at the museum.

The sites we visited today were A LOT quieter with tourism. Whilst this enabled us to explore the area easier (without the locals flogging their gear), the sites still offered little in the way of information boards.

We had a quick stop somewhere else to marvel at the hieroglyphs – unfortunately I cannot recall or locate this site but it was remarkable to see – before moving down to Dahshur to see two further pyramids.

In amongst all of the baron dessert it was interesting to see the countless date tress from site to site. Hundreds of thousands of them all looking ready for picking no doubt proving a vital income for those whose land they reside on.

Sneferu’s Red Pyramid was interesting as it had an entrance way. The photo suggests it wasn’t that far up. But it was. It was a big bloody group of stones. We decided against going in the small tunnel and needing a rescue to get back out, so moved on shortly down the road to our final pyramid of the trip!

Sneferu’s Bent Pyramid looks a bit like The Great Pyramid from Wish, although it may be due to poor mathematics, changing from steps to smooth edges and believe to be finished off like this due to instability. The aforementioned Red Pyramid was Sneferu’s next attempt, so at least he learnt from his mistakes.

Away from pyramid-hopping, we ended the trip visiting Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt. Along with the pyramid fields that stretch on a desert plateau for more than 30 kilometres (19 mi) on its west including the famous Pyramids of Giza, they have been listed as the World Heritage Site Memphis and its Necropolis. The site is open to the public as an open-air museum. So that is where we went.

Located in the museum were loads of more artifacts (forgive me for completely giving up on history and archaeology lessons now, I usually skip museums on other trips!)

I do have to mention the focal point of the museum though, a ginormous, 80-tonne statue of pharaoh Ramses II. It was found in 1820 face down and partially buried in a swampy area – it’s a bit bloody hard to miss… It lies face up in the building erected specifically to house and protect it and visitors can circle the colossus pharaoh from the ground level or up above on a viewing balcony.

I should note that each of the sites we visited did require cash entry fees. These were so low though, about £2 each, I think Ibrahim just included it in the price. What a lad.

There we go then. A really good way to spend our last day. On the way back Ibrahim was nice enough to pop to a local shop and get us some sugar cane juive to enjoy and OH MY GOD having never tasted it before or since the trip it was bloody delicious! I’m actually looking to see where I can buy some now but it won’t be as fresh as then.

One final sunset, meal in a neirbouring hotel and sleep attempts whilst is was fucking roasting.

Day Seven – Home with my Fiancée

Leaving mid morning we had one final breakfast enjoying the freshly fried falafels that I miss, before heading to the airport home to see our friends and family.

… after a quick stop for another sugar cane juice of course!

Well done, you have made it to the end! It is now September 2023 at the time of writing this, but it has been a joy for us both to reminisce about our time where my favourite person in the world became my fiancée. Thanks for reading.