Thanks for visiting. If you are reading this when first drafted in January 2023, you will notice several incomplete blogs from the last 15 months covering Lisbon, Milan, Egypt and Brussels so I will try and get those done in this lifetime.

Overview

Paris is the capital city of France and although there are many tourism options in the country, Paris knocks them out of the park with both sights to see and statistics, with nearly 20 million international travelers per year making it the second most visited city in the world after Bankok (according to here, that lists NYC in 7th?!).

Lucky for us Paris is less than a 90 minute flight away from Bristol airport thus flying there is one of the cheaper destinations. Paris is also reachable by car/ferry and the EuroStar. Some packages to Disneyland no doubt offer a short trip to the City central areas too. On this occasion we flew with Easyjet to Paris Orly, staying in an Ibis Budget (very budget!) hotel that was a little too far away from the centre being the penultimate stop on one of the metro lines. Not to worry, as it was completely adequate, considering our last trip, to Egypt in August, had us in a hotel room with no aircon!

Getting Around

It’s worth noting Paris has two main airports that link to the city, Orly and the busier Charles De Gaulle. We arrived at Orly and decided to catch the express train to the city. This wasn’t as easy as you’d expect, as you have to get off at Antony (nowhere near central) to be able to use the public transport network in to the centre. We flew out of Paris at CDG, by the end of the trip we were more confident using public transport but still had to buy an additional ticket to get us as far as the airport.

Once you’re in Paris there are many ways to get around. I didn’t quite know the difference between the Metro and the RER trains that seemed to do the same thing, plus you have ‘normal’ trains located at several points. We really enjoyed using the bus transport though, which was on time and not as crowded as you would expect – less convenient than the hop-on-hop-off services but included in your travel pass. eScooters are popping up here too, but getting around using the river seems limited as the tours we seen started and ended at the same place. The travel pass will set you back around £22 each for three days, but you’re going to get your money’s worth.

Things we didn’t do

Our time in Paris worked out to be around 3.5 days. We thought this was ample with our style of holidaying; marching around during the day with time to chill in the evenings. As you will see below we certainly got a lot of stuff ticked off. The major thing we wanted to see but couldn’t were the Catacombs. Once we looked to book tickets they were all sold out so make sure you book in advance.

There were a few things to see, which we did, but didn’t bother going inside such as the Musée d’Orsay, Les Invalides, Père Lachaise Cemetery where Oscar Wilde’s tomb is located. You’re unable to go in to Notre Dame whilst they are rebuilding it still. Get yourself a decent guidebook for a more comprehensive list as there are undoubtedly lesser known worthy sights. If you visit Sacre-Cour basilica be sure to go up to the dome for the best views (unlike us – see below!).

Obviously Disneyland too, which is about as much Paris as Legoland is London. I’ve been there once, Kay’s been umpteen times and we are due to go again early 2023 with family (update, been). I reckon if you had a week in Paris you could at least fit in a day trip, but I would advise at least two.

Costs

For two people our flights were £132 with hand-luggage only. Our hotel was £148 for 4 nights, which although a bargain, we should have forked out a bit more to be a little more central.

Monday morning to Thursday evening cost us in the region of £700 spending money including transport and attractions. Most attractions are £20-25 per person and a 3-day travel pass is about the same but travel altogether was £100 or so considering airport transfers and the additional day pass we required. Worth noting we really cut back on expensive food (six fucking snails cost 16 euro like) so add a good few quid if that’s your thing.

Generally, things like snacks and drinks are similar to London prices so there shouldn’t be any major surprises. We didn’t have a beer, known to be really expensive, but I reckon it depends where you go for that too.

What we did

Day One

Prior to the trip we already bought tickets for the Louvre on day 1 and the Eiffel Tower on day 3. Thankfully our flight was early morning, so we had plenty of time to work out the public transport systems and a rest in our hotel before getting to the Louvre.

The Louvre is conveniently located in between two metro stops, and on street level it’s a case of following the crowd until you arrive in the open space in the middle of the palace buildings and the famous glass pyramids.

Although we booked a specific time the queues were horrendous even this late in the afternoon. There seemed to be two queues, one for pre-booked and one for tickets on the day, both taking it in turns to enter. Not ideal when there were hundreds slowly getting in, but luckily it was dry and we had no urgency. We entered around an hour later than our time slot so certainly something to take in to account if you’re expecting to squeeze in a visit.

You should know I’m not really one for art or museums but I was taken aback by this place. It was absolutely huge. As well as the surrounding buildings shown above, there’s a massive amount of underground passages, plaza’s and a whole shopping center too.

You could easily spend all day looking through the galleries and exhibits but of course the main attraction is the Mona Lisa. Conveniently tucked away enough so you have to see a few of the other bits on the way beforehand, it was located in a large hall, looking out of place considering how small the painting itself is. Still, there was a constant stream of probably 500 people tripping over themselves to try and get a decent photo. To be honest my pic above was from about 30 yards after a LOT of image editing!

Getting that done and dusted meant we could take a more relaxed approach around the rest of the museum starting at the Venus de Milo. Or the lady with no arms if you asked me prior to our visit. This has a fascinating back story if you care to look. We proceeded to wind our way through the rest of the exhibits especially enjoyed looking at sections from Egypt (why aren’t these in Egypt… sigh) and Iran.

Leaving the museum we managed to find a cheap spot for dinner in a Chinese fast food type place on our way to the second and final plan of the day, Montparnasse Tower.

This was quite high up on to-do lists we reviewed but approaching the office block you wouldn’t have really thought so. The entrance and reception were rather gloomy, not somewhere linked with a nice restaurant and great rooftop views of Paris 210 metres up. That, and the drizzly weather made the visit not the most pleasurable, but as it was our first decent view of big Eiffel, we were content before returning to our digs.

Day Two

After having a lot of bread and ham for breakfast (i.e. continental breakfast for fussy eaters) we headed out on what we planned to be a day sight hopping with no reservations.

The first stop was the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret venue. Could we go there? Yes we Can-Can! (sorry). I did consider buying tickets for a show and whilst the reviews are great, considering the cost amounted to 50% of the whole trip I’ll think about it next time.

Next up traversing the metro network was a visit to Ille de la Cite (guessing that translates to Island in they City) where the famous Notre-Dame cathedral is based. After a quick gaze at the 13^th century gothic Saint-Chappelle, we followed the swarm of tourists to the square outside Notre-Dame.

The cathedral was severely damaged by fire in April 2019 and scaffolding and cranes have been ever-present since. This was a shame, as although I tend not to make a hobby out of going inside churches etc, this would have been one to tick off. It’ll probably be closed to the public for some time yet I thought.

Still, the square outside was vibrant with tourists and street performers and it was a good point to try and get a candid (definitely not candid) photo of my admiring the building – didn’t quite make the cut for the blog!

From here we crossed the Pont Nuef, the oldest standing bridge across the Seine. We were close our next stop, a big park called Jardin de Luxembourg and decided to walk for a change, a good choice to stop an appreciate the Saint-Michel fountain before heading onwards south to the park.

There’s a ‘funny’ story about my visit to a public toilet here but I won’t bring that up on behalf of the elderly lady I may well have traumatised. (If you’re reading this, sorry, but the sign clearly said WAIT UNTIL THE TOILET FINISHES FLUSHING BEFORE ENTERING THE CUBICLE, in an array of languages.)

Approaching the park from the east, after an Autumnal walk along a tree lined path the area opened up with fields, flowerbeds and a man-made lake enjoyed by families sailing remote control boats, with the Eiffel tower visible above the skyline. How wonderful.

We enjoyed the views for a while once we planned our next steps. Lunch obviously, we hadn’t eaten for at least 3 hours(!), so found an independent burger joint. On the way we also stumbled across our first of two Statue of Liberty’s on the trip. The one based in the park was to commemorate those who lost their lives on 9/11.

For the afternoon I had a real treat planned for Mikayla; to drag her around no less than three sporting venues in succession. Although outside of the centre, but still easy to access by the metro. Conveniently, these are all based within a 30 minute walk

First up was Roland Garros, the tennis venue, the French Wimbledon if you like. Although closed as no events were on, we were able to walk close to some of the stadiums. Whilst not confusing both of us stating names or numbers, the first court was peculiar due to the fact from the outside it looked like some sort of greenhouse in a botanical garden. Once we peeked through the railings we could see the court dug quite deep in to the ground with 5,000 seats surrounding it. I didn’t count each seat but no way was there 5,000 seats there looking at it from the outside!

From here it was a short walk to the 15,000 Centre Court, understandable the largest and outstanding building in the complex. Sadly, the external gates were as close as we could get. I’ve not been to Wimbledon so can’t comment on any similarities but did think it would have a similar relaxed and pleasant vibe that SW19 tends to portray.

I had done well differentiating from my beloved football to go see some tennis stuff, but that was nothing compared to the next stop, a bloody rugby stadium! In defence, it was on the way to the football ground….

The 20,000 Stade Jean-Bouin is a mixed-use stadium and primary home to Rugby Union team Stade Francais. Why a team of that name don’t play at the Stade de France is anyone’s guess but there we go. The stadium itself was fascinating due to two sides being absolutely massive with this strange webbed cladding on the outside. You wouldn’t be blamed for mistaken this for better-known Parc des Princes, that was our next stop.

The Parc des Princes is home to French champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and holds 48,000 people, yet looking no bigger than the aforementioned stadium literally next door. More importantly, this was were Wales beat Northern Ireland to progress in to the quarter finals of Euro 2016, two games before I started on the Wales away game bandwagon.

A token selfie outside the main entrance alongside the likes of Messi, Neymar, Mbappe et al and refusing to pay for a stadium tour, we walked around the circumference of the ground, not getting the slightest peak in to the stadium bowl or the pitch. A bit different from our Milan San Siro visit in April where they had a large viewing window inside the club shop! The stadium is quite easy on the eye considering it’s a big lump of concrete.  

If you’re not in to your sports, you’ll be glad to know that we then headed back in the centre.

We caught a public bus (included in the travel pass) towards the Champs-Élysées, perhaps the most well-known street in Paris that runs between The Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde.

The Arc de Triomphe is quite spectacular in stature when you’re close to it, in between any of the twelve radiating avenues that approach. Surrounded by a god-knows-how-many-lanes-because-there-are-no-markings roundabout the only was you’re *supposed* to enter the central area is through an underground subway that doubles up as a ticket office should you wish to venture up to the top of the arch.

At the arch itself, there didn’t seem to be a lot to do apart from marvel at the monument, get out the way of people’s photo’s, and tut at the families who decide to run from the roundabout through multiple lanes of continuous traffic.

At the other end of the avenue is the Place de la Concorde, identified by an Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics towering 23 meters. Incredibly this is believed to be over 3,000 years old.

The square is the biggest in Paris and beginning in 1789, the Place was a central stage for the events of the French Revolution. In October 1792, the first executions by guillotine in the square took place, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Thankfully, today the square is rather more peaceful, giving an opportunity to enjoy the fountains, impressive buildings and of course, the Eiffel Tower popping up in the background.

At this point we realised that we kinda’ done everything we wanted to do for the day, but with sun just starting to fall felt it necessary to fit at least one more thing in before returning to the hotel. Thankfully, Mikayla remembered something she looked at prior to the trip and 5 minutes later we were on what was hopefully the right bus to Sacré-Cœur. This ‘something’ we didn’t really plan to visit is in fact the second-most visited destination in the City!

Sacré-Cœur is a basilica in the northern area of the city 200 metres above the Siene. Built quite recently in 1914, its appeal is not only that it is the Church of the “Sacred Heart of Jesus” but certainly the views it offers across the City. I can’t honestly think of another hill we walked up in the city!

As soon as we decided to visit, we know that time was against us as I really wanted to get a panoramic photo of the city at sunset. Once we stopped off at the bus I probably walked/dad-jogged faster than I had for many months trying to reach the summit in time. You’re talking about a good 15 minutes here and up hundreds of steps. Once arrived at the viewing platform I was pleased that it was still light enough, but the sun had already set and to my dismay the view offered no view of the Eiffel Tower as it was too far to the right thus behind buildings and trees! What the?

Still, the views were worth taking in, with Montparnasse tower sticking out amongst the otherwise very flat area of central Paris.

I have since found out that if you enter the basilica, you can visit the dome at the top, that does indeed provide an unbeatable view of the city landscape. We didn’t bother due to the crowds and increasing darkness. This was one regret for the trip and I’m a bit scared to tell Kay! – there’s always next time…

That was that for day two.

Day Three

This morning was the big one, our visit to the Eiffel Tower! Before today we hadn’t been that close to the tower so was able to gaze in awe at one of the most recognisable structures in the world. I think we saved some time by pre-booking our tickets and time-slot beforehand, but seem to recall even if the website is sold out of tickets you can still visit on the day, capacity dependant.

After an initial security check, we entered in to the tower grounds and waited for our specific time to be called. A further queue and security check and we were good to up the list to the second floor a paltry 116m high, to start queuing for the lifts to the top at 276m. I should state that although it was VERY busy, and the queues did take some time (an hour-ish), they were constantly moving. On the second floor you already have brilliant views to admire whilst waiting.

The lift (cage) to the top could be quite scary to a few people but never at any point did it feel unsafe. Remember millions of people make the same journey every year. The lift stops in a inside windowed room and it’s a few stairs to the outside platform. Aside from the views, the top also houses an insight to Gustave Eiffel’s office, toilets and a champagne bar.

The views at the top were nothing short of incredible, I’ll let the photo’s do the talking.

Whilst waiting for the lift back down, the queue winds around the inside room, indicating the direction and distance of countless countries and Parisian sights.

Back at the second floor, we decided to descend by the stairs. You can buy slightly cheaper tickets to walk UP the stairs from base to second floor, but I really wouldn’t advise it. 674 steps even going down was a dizzying episode without stopping. By the time we reached level ground we needed 5 minutes so that our legs started working again!

You know some things you go to see, you leave a bit disappointed? This was not one of them.

The next activity practically fell in to our lap as we exited the tower grounds along the Siene. We considered a boat tour along the river and agreed now was a good of time as any. We used a company called “Bateaux Parisiens” that seemed to be the only one in the close vicinity but there are obviously more a bit further afield from what was our location.

The cruise was pretty basic going up the Siene for 30 minutes before doubling back. It took you under several bridges including the most ornate Pont Alexandre III, a celebration of the relationship between France and Russia…. That has not aged well in 2022….  

The tour did require using their website on your phone to listen to the voice guide, which prevented picture taking, but couldn’t complain with the €16 cost. May have avoided it if it was pissing down as I doubt the inside area offered similar views.

After a busy morning we certainly deserved a hearty lunch. However, my wonderful fiancé moaned on a considerable amount of occasions to try some snails for lunch. I said there was no point as she wouldn’t like them. We compromised. We had snails for lunch.

Finding an upmarket café in an area between the Eiffel Tower and Hôtel des Invalides we were ‘treated’ to six fat snails in a garlic and butter dressing.

With Mikayla giving it the billy-big-bollocks and me being a gentleman, I insisted that she went first. As soon as the slug hit her tongue I could tell she was thinking “fuck, he’s going to say I told you so…”.

My turn next. Once I was able to actually use the tongs and fork combo correctly (ish…) I bravely chewed mine rather than swallow. The garlic taste overwhelmed whatever a snail is supposed to taste like, thankfully, but yeah, they were fucking atrocious, the texture, just what is the point?

The problem, we looked like right dickheads now. Ordered 6 snails for €16, tried two then left. Nope, I persuaded myself to have another two or three whilst simultaneously frowning at Kay for forcing me through such torture.

We paid the bill and I went to get a portion of chips from the kebab shop next door.

We’re still engaged.

French fries devoured we had a wander over Pont Alexander III bridge and caught a bus to start a round up of a few bits we would do itlf we had the time.

Slightly tucked away from the tourism hotspot on an island a little further down (or up?) river from the Eiffel Tower is another Statue of Liberty, larger than the park but still micro in comparison to NYC. My memory of these moments include getting an email with our wedding quote! How exciting (and expensive…)

From here we checked out an area named La Defense, visible from the tower earlier in that day, travelling the end of a metro line to get there. We were greeted with what I describe as an uber modern mini city with shopping complex, offices and flats.

It was cool to walk through the car free central street looking ahead at the boulevard that linked this area to the Arc de Triomphe. Although we were knackered by know, the other side of town from our hotel and with one stop left our our final evening.

… which was to visit the Eiffel Tower area at night to take a few pictures. We just about caught the hourly event where the tower glitters for a few minutes. Very nice.

Day Four

Our final day was a bit of a ball ache as we had to check out of our hotel early and didn’t think we’d have time to trapse back for our bags, thus lugging them around with us.

It started off quite pleasant as we metro-hopped to Nation square (above) and Bastille (below).

At this point Mikayla disclosed that there was a cool little book store she wanted to visit, she had yet to mention in previous days or when we walked right bloody past it! Still, as the days went on we had a preference to use the buses and it wasn’t far away.

Sadly when we got there we didn’t really have enough time to queue so travelled the short distance near the Hotel de Ville, the current Parisian city hall.

The main purpose of the day however, was to visit the Palace of Versailles. The palace is on the outskirts of Paris and it took a bit of homework to find out how to get there. I would be happy to recommend our choice, taking the metro line 9 as far as it goes to Pont de Sevres and then get a frequent 30 minute bus to the front gates. We expected to pay extra for the bus, being out of the zones but didn’t have to for reasons I care not. You can also get the RER to the palace, but I’m unsure if you have to pay extra on top of your day pass. Or walk. The world’s your oyster (which I have also tried since the snails and writing this. That was a dreadful decision an’all…).

Anyway, at the palace. It started raining whilst waiting to get in. That wasn’t fun with all of our luggage on our backs. The palace and surrounding area is stupendous in size and you would need a full day to see all the area, that we didn’t have, so just focused on the main palace.

I really don’t want to give a history lesson here so to sum it up before the next picture….

The palace and grounds were built and lived in by the French royals until 1789 the French people, living in squalor finally had a guts full and BOOM, the French Revolution. Since then the royals are no more and the area has been in the public domain since. Power to the people.

Walking around the ridiculously posh and oversized rooms in the palace, I think they done well to keep that “you’re taking the piss out of us” vibe that led us common people to kick off all those years ago. Gosh, imagine if the UK had such an over the top equivalent palace or sorts during a cost of living crisis?!?….

Did you spot the sarcasm?

Anyway, we’re nearly done. A soaking walk, bus and metro back in to the city to catch our final route to Charles de Gualle airport.

… With a pit stop at the Stade de France on the way obviously. Quite a structure I have yet to enter. I’ll wait patiently for a Wales football fixture over a biannual Six Nations rugby meeting between the two countries, thanks.

Cheers for taking the time to read! I’ve done quite well writing this up only 4 months after I returned, finishing it off on a drive home from Disneyland Paris of all places!

And don’t bother with the snails, ya wierdo.

Sandwiched in between this and my Wroclaw blog was the small issue of Wales qualifying for their first World Cup in 64 bloody years! What a time to be alive.

I said that my Wroclaw blog will be short, but this one will trump that, with only having a few hours in Rotterdam before the game. Therefore, it’s a tad photo heavy but that’s less shit you gotta read from me.

Overview

Rotterdam is the second biggest city in The Netherlands about 35 miles south of Amsterdam. It has the biggest port in Europe, which was #1 in the world until Shanghai took over the title in the early 00’s.

Getting here

There are loads of ways to get to Rotterdam, with Amsterdam Schiphol only a few miles away, so direct flights from Bristol would be the easiest. The Eurostar also services Amsterdam and apart from jumping on a tube around London is probably the most convenient method direct from the M4 corridor.

Us, however had to be different. After a National Express to London before a train to Harwich, we caught an overnight ferry to Hoek Van Holland, which literally translates to the hook of Holland.

Our beds were also here, a very quiet town that I imagine is seldom given a second look with tourists catching their ongoing transport to the bigger areas. The metro line took us straight to Rotterdam in 30 minutes or so. Our accomodation was a cute independent B&B called Hotel Kuiperduin and we had a perfect stay. They let us check in super early, breakfast was fine, and they even give us a key for the front door for our late night return.

Prices

The travel (coach, train, ferry) was ridiculously low at £179 return and general food and drink is similar to the UK. The hotel was £100 for the night, decent because a hotel in Rotterdam couldn’t be found anywhere near as cheap for some reason. Transport is obviously more efficient, and cheaper than home, a day ticket covering a vast area at €14. In Rotterdam I was paying €4 for 30cl of Heineken but couldn’t resist Strongbow in the Irish bar at £6 a pint (or £72 for 12, whatever way you look at it…).

Things to do

The general consensus was that Rotterdam doesn’t offer nearly as much tourism entertainment like it’s bigger neighbour. I was told this both before and during my trip. However, I’m not going to say this is true having only spent three hours in the city (without drinking). I did see the few things I wanted to during my stay – see below – but I’m sure there are other things to do if you had more time.

Edit: Having returned to this to update a few bits, I have realised I have tried to write about the Netherlands without mentioning windmills, cheese or flowers AT ALL. Deary me.

Itinerary – what we did.

Day one.

In short… Bus, coach, tube, train, ferry. The Stena Line ferry was really sparse with foot passengers but of course they make their money from the full capacity of lorries that boarded. The top bunk in an internal cabin was ‘an experience’ and the food was satisfactory albeit outraged at paying £3 for a bottle of water.

The ferry left at around 10pm and enjoyed a good sleep before arriving in Hoek Von Holland at 8am on day two.

Day two.

Here we go then. After disembarking the ferry we only had a 15 minute walk to our B&B through the sleepy streets.

By 9:30 we were back at the port to catch a metro directly in to Rotterdam, arriving at the Euromast at ten.

The Euromast is probably the one thing to do on your visit. The tallest building in the Netherlands. A tower with a viewpoint of 96 meters high obviously offered the best panoramic views of the city including Erasmus bridge over the New Meuse river. You can actually go further, up to 180 meters, but this was under refurbishment. I’m alright with heights but even that looked a little dizzying.

We had a quick beverage in the restaurant before heading further in to the city to collect our tickets for the game. First beer of the trip!

Perfectly located between my other to things I wanted to see, some 45 degree houses and the market, we had our tickets and completed the to do list all by midday!

The “Cube houses” are an arty design innovative thing, well known for their walls having a 45 degree angle. Why, or how practical this is, I do not know. Let’s leave that there.

The market hall opposite the funny looking houses is an imposing structure. Opened in 2014, it has a huge horseshoe facade and the largest glass-window cable structure in Europe filling in the gap.

I had a very tasty falafel wrap (for some reason I chose to be a vegetarian throughout!) in the market from one of the near 100 stalls and, whilst Pete went back to the B&B for a rest there was only one thing left to do: have a beer.

Behaving, I did have a stroll the a few shopping streets to pick up a magnet for Mum in the shadow of Rotterdam’s World Trade Centre.

Whilst sipping my first beer outside one of several kerbside restaurants, it was comforting to be tapped on the shoulder from some fellow Newport County supporters I knew a little and enjoyed a few lagers with them before inevitably crossing the road to the “fan pub” for the day Paddy Murphy’s, where it was absolutely bouncing throughout my five hours – my bank tells me 12 pints of strongbow may have enhanced my experience – before the evening game.

Hundreds of bucket hats bobbing up and down to Shakira? Very frequently. (Note: for context we’ve stolen (improved) her Waka Waka song and made it in to our World Cup song…). No photos from here but if you followed me on Instagram (@hownot2life) you would have been treated to a few videos.

The tram to the game was easier and less crowded than Wroclaw two weeks prior and I arrived at De Kuip, or the Feyenoord Stadion, well before kickoff. Thank goodness as I was so lost a helpful young lady eventually had to escort me through a sea of orange to the correct entry gate!

The stadium looked great bit in fact I thought it was really poor facilities-wise. You had to buy tokens to swap for food and drink, the beer was 0%, and for the first time ever the queue for the gents at half time was longer than the bar!!

The game itself (5th in 13 days) was one of the better ones. A valiant performance from our squad team ultimately lost to the Dutch after their 93rd minute winner, with Gareth Bale only equalising for us a minute before. Exactly the same scenario when we played the reverse fixture six days ago!

The atmosphere was very friendly. I did think the Dutch supporters were just expecting a few goals and offered little support during the game above flag waving, tragically scoring whilst their Mexican fucking wave was in its infancy. Urgh. The full allocation of Welsh fans were fantastic and it was a shame to be in a different area.

Finishing at 11pm, we had no time to waste getting one of the last metro’s out of the city, which we did successfully. Our pursuit of some late night scran however was never going to materialise but you can guess; I didn’t starve.

Day Three.

We enjoyed a simple but ample breakfast in the garden of our B&B. With a few hours to kill, we chose to have a good 30 minute walk to the nearby beach.

Whilst it was strange to be visiting a beach so close to container ships, cranes and the like, the Strand 2 beach itself was gloriously clean in the sunshine, spacious and just starting to populate.

Sadly no dip for me this time, as time was now getting on and it was time to catch our ferry (with a window in cabin = result) back to Harwich, then train to Liverpool Street, tube to Victoria, National Express to Newport and taxi to home without any major incident, getting in to bed at 3:30am.

Thanks for taking the time to read this jumble of words. Unfortunately this may be my last Wales away post for some time as I start from scratch trying to build my fan account up to a stage where I’m likely to get tickets through the correct methods. Qatar is not an option unless my numbers come out of a big glass ball on a Saturday evening soon. If anyone can help me out for Belgium away though…

This will be probably one of my shorter travel blogs as the main purpose of the visit was to watch Wales play Poland in the UEFA Nations League. The game was sandwiched between the end of the hectic 2021/22 season and just 4 days before Wales’ biggest game of my lifetime, the playoff that could see Wales reach their first World Cup since 1958 (edit: they DID bloody win an’all!!).

Overview

Wroclaw (pronounced Vrotz-wav) is Poland’s fourth largest city and lies towards the east of the country.

For Wales games I tend to let my friend Pete deal with all the booking stuff, obviously delighted when told we would be leaving at midnight to drive to Stansted. Stansted was as busy and miserable as expected. The £5 fast track through security was worth every penny. Although we were done with security at 4am there were already 50+ people in the queue for Wetherspoons. However, Stansted do have a lounge (starting at £26.50 per person) and offered comfort and a brilliant range of breakfast options including a full English, and beer, open from 4am.

The flight to Wroclaw took just under 2 hours and the Ryanair seating was uncomfortable as anyone over 12 stone knows only too well. I’m going to seriously consider not using Ryanair (and therefore possibly not going at all) for any trips over 3 hours going forward.

We stayed in the Campanile hotel that was roughly £20pppn and a 15 minute walk to the Market Square. Can’t complain.

Getting around

Wroclaw airport is 10km from the centre and a taxi cost around £15. We were perhaps overcharged but public transport options seemed confusing as the hotel wasn’t quite central enough to warrant changing buses/trams.

Wroclaw has a public transport network of buses and trams with a 48 hour ticket costing about £4.50. Unsurprisingly, e-scooters have arrived more some fun but I reckon everything to see is within walking distance.

Things to do

In short, head to the Market Square for a pleasant walk around. I’m not quite sure why you would visit Wroclaw for longer than a day but the city was enjoyable to wander around.

There are – of course – an ample amount of churches scattered around if that’s your thing and the river/canals make getting around that bit more picturesque.

What I haven’t included below that may be worthwhile is a boat ride along the river. Wroclaw also has a zoo. In struggling to think of anything after that!

As a side quest, Wroclaw have about 300+ statues of gnomes throughout the city, all rather chirpy and a trip hazard!

Costs

I’ve pretty much covered this section already, what I knew of anyway. In the Market Square food and drink were similar to UK mid-range prices but no doubt you could find places a LOT cheaper off the beaten track and mini-marts were a good source of snacks and soft drinks.

Itinerary – What we did.

Day one.

I’ll keep these short! We arrived at our hotel at 11am and after a quick rest headed to the market square for lunch. There were countless options for food here ranging from traditional Polish food to stalls to the Hard Rock Cafe and Burger King.

The buildings surrounding the square are well worth a mention, with the centrepiece being the gothic style town hall that doubles up as a museum.

We decided on a traditional restaurant for lunch that may have been the most expensive place there at £53. Nevertheless my steak and baked potatoes were enjoyable and a massive portion. Pete had a beer (and huge ice cream) whilst I had diet coke! Oh dear.

Following lunch we walked to a church that had a bridge 40 meters high connecting it’s two towers (going up on Wednesday – I do love a viewpoint) and the hotel where we needed to pick out tickets up after today, also taking the opportunity to buy a new pair of trainers. More about that humongous error in a bit.

Siesta time. Whilst it was my third nap of the day Pete was due a rest especially having to drive to the airport earlier. Slightly more refreshed we headed back out for tea, a very similar routine to earlier, but choosing a steak restaurant for dinner, that whilst looked posh, sorted us with an outstanding burger, chips, salad and a drink for about £11! More like it Christopher.

I need to mention the massive fuck-up with my shoes at this point. During my last two trips my trainers started squeaking with every pace and it was driving me mad! So much so, we popped in to a shopping centre to buy a new cheap-ass pair to get me through the next 2 days. When putting them on I decided to leave my old pair by a bin in case someone in need could use them.

Fast forward wearing and waking said new trainers for half an hour and my toes and heels were rubbing to such extend I walked back to the bin to swap them back over and take a £26 hit!

Unfortunately / fortunately the shoebox was now empty and some guy or girl has a nice comfy pair of used trainers as was my wish, whilst I spent the rest of the day walking like John Wayne.

Zero keen to do any more walking after dinner, I hobbled back to the hotel to layer up on plasters tomorrow before or morning excursion to Ksiaz castle. I’ve still got Tuesday evening and pre-pre-beers Wednesday to see a bit more of Wroclaw istelf.

Day Two

After a good rest overnight we shared breakfast with about 50 odd French children (over excited kids, first thing in the morning, yeah…)

Time to bite the bullet and try on the demon trainers, that initially felt a bit better thanks to no less than six plasters applied with surgical precision around my little toes and heels.

Today we were going on our excursion to Ksiaz Castle, about an hour train ride east of Wroclaw. The bright yellow but still elegant train station is a good walk from the main square so we decided to give the trams a go. All straight forward and our tickets for the train journey with reserved seats in a cabin were under £8 each.

Whilst our destination was the castle, there was no clear way of getting there without some homework. The castle’s website suggested that we get off at Walbrzych (don’t ask me to pronounce it) and get the local bus to the castle. We tried this, caught the wrong bastard bus, had to walk back to the station and decided on a taxi! I’ll keep Peter’s quote “a man who didn’t make a mistake never lived”… Although I really should know the difference between an A and an 8 by now, the reason for our accidental detour.

Our arrival also signalled me giving up on the trainers and reverting back to trusty flipflops, certainly NOT recommended for the uneven paths, caves and countless stairs!

Anyway, the castle. I don’t do history lessons but basically a line of family built the thing and it was passed down over centuries until the one lot spent more than they could afford and went bankrupt, thus (not quite) handing the keys over, leaving the castle to fall in to ruin.

The interesting part comes during World War 2 when the Nazi’s took a liking to it due to the location. During the war they (using prisoners in dire conditions) started building a series of tunnels underneath the castle. To this day historians aren’t sure what the purpose of the tunnels were but the theories range from a laboratory to a train station, to a bunker where the Nazis could hold all their robbed stuff, to a secure bunker for Hitler himself, using Ksiaz castle as a base to direct operations. The latter is backed up by an incomplete shaft that was intended to run from the tunnels to the main house some 50m above.

The tunnels were never finished as the Nazi’s ran off when the Red Wall arrived and only about 50 years ago did renovation work start to give us the attraction it is today.

Like I said, I ain’t no historian. I’ll try and add a link later on.

The caves/tunnels were a good tour minus the 200 odd steps down and up. Whilst the tunnels were monotonous, the audio guide and videos were interesting.

The tour of the house itself was lengthy and unfortunately a lot of the exhibits “this is what it would have looked like” but fascinating nevertheless. Especially with the gardens we were forced to walk around after leaving the gaff.

We well deserved our Aperol Spritz afterwards before hurriedly getting the train back to Wroclaw.

After a brief rest we returned to the market square for tea. As much as I tried to talk myself in to making a long drunken night of it, after three drinks I gave up and had an early night, match day tomorrow!

Day Three

Nailed being an adult last night! Another early one meant breakfast and out the hotel by 8:30. I had some time on my own this morning so decided to tick a few sights off.

First was Wroclaw St John the Baptist cathedral, somewhat tucked away amongst the narrow streets of the old town. A decent building but I didn’t go inside due to my shorts/flipflops combo. The last thing I’d want is God having a go at me, not on a match day. Without getting lost on the tram system my next stop was Centennial Hall.

Whilst the building didn’t interest me much, around the back was a “multimedia fountain”. To you and me that’s 300 fountains that on the hour perform to a classical number. I was here at 9:10 but decided to wait, sat on the grass, enjoying the sunshine and writing the day 2 section of this.

10am came and I was treated to Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries. The show was ok for 5 minutes. I think the performance adds lights in to the mix at night time that probably makes a big difference. I had a pleasant stroll and tram back central to pick the tickets up. It was very close to beer time! Beforehand I still had one thing to do, which was to climb up 45m to the Penitent bridge joining the two towers of Mary Magdalene Church. The walk was helped by making a fool of myself doing a few Instagram videos and the views from the top were worth the 247 steps.

That first step back down was the start of “on the way to the pub” and shortly after had a lager in front of my watching the world go by, followed by lots more lager and pleasant brief chats with other fans, something I do enjoy.

Peter met up with me a few hours later and after one final stein we made our way to the tram that would transport us to the ground. Absolutely packed as expected but a pleasant mix of home and away fans, arriving early enough not to be in a rush, and get two points to enjoy whilst watching the game!

We had great seats for the game, something I’m not used to. We got chatting about the starting line up and made a throwaway comment about Jonny Williams ‘only playing because he has a good song’ to no response. You could just tell the person I was speaking to was his father! But we did have a good chat during the game and at the airport on the way home.

Oh, guess who scored our goal? Yep, Jonny bloody Williams. I was very pleased for Mr Williams Snr, and had to apologise not because of my comments, but as I missed the goal to pop for a ciggy!! All that way, all that money, to miss the goal! Thanks.

The game was a very promising performance from Wales’ second string / youngsters and although we ultimately lost 2-1, we did take the lead and deserved a draw. It was an enjoyable occasion and many Poles commented good game etc etc on our trip back.

This is kinda where it ends. Being super sensible we chose to watch the Scotland v Ukraine game in the hotel with a McDonald’s. We were back out the hotel at 4am to travel 2 hours to Stansted then FIVE hours drive home! But still in time for our World Cup playoff with Ukraine in three days. Thanks for reading.

Update: I did get home. I was in time for Wales v Ukraine, Wales won, Wales are going to the World Cup! Yma o hyd.

Thanks for reading about my trip to Milan! As with a few blogs in 2022, I am only getting around to writing in the summer of 2023 so there’s going to be some information I have either forgotten or I am guessing from my rather poor memory!

Overview

Milan is the second largest city in Italy after Rome, regarded one of the four fashion capitals of the world. Being in the northern part of the county, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia are all within a manageable drive.

Thinking about what Milan is famous for apart from fashion and the number of tourist attractions, I can’t really think of much else apart from football, and my research tends to support this. However, it’s a very nice place and worth a visit, even if it won’t be in our top places.

A bit more on that statement. We did have a really good time, but with little interest in fashion and people watching in cafes, I think a day trip could have just about been sufficient! Before and after our trip we have been to Lisbon, Paris and Stockholm and each of these provided more things to do in line with what we like. Thankfully, what made the trip the best it could have been were our two day trips. That’s not to say you won’t love it, you’re just less weird.

Flights & Accomodation

For this trip we decided to give EasyJet’s holiday packages a go. Booking the trip was quite flexible with a range of hotels and prices to consider. Flights and hotel for 4 nights from Bristol came in at around £250-300 each. I expect now, 14 months later, it will be difficult to find something that price.

We stayed in a Best Western City hotel near the Lima subway station, quite central being a 15 minute walk to the main train station. The hotel was perfectly adequate for the price and offered a really good breakfast included in the price.

It’s worth noting that Milan has two busy airports, the one we went to had a direct train to the station (below) so I assume the other has convenient routes in to the city too.

Getting Around

Like other European cities, travel options are plentiful, whether using bus, metro or train. I can’t remember pricing more specific than it was good value. One pass allows you to use buses and metro.

From Milan you can also have some great day trips within a few hours train journey. You’ll see we went to Lake Como and Verona/Lake Garda during our stay, Turin and Brescia were also quite close too.

Costs

Again with this section, my memory is failing me a bit. It is safe to say that you can base the costs on London, with eateries being more expensive closer to the cathedral or posh areas. Museums that we considered and visiting the cathedral didn’t seem over the top. The trains to day trips were almost certainly cheaper than in the UK.

I do remember though, having our first Five Guys for years. That memory sticks not because of the food, but the fifty fucking euro price tag for two burgers, two fries and two drinks! I would love to say I learnt my lesson but we did the same in Leicester Square earlier this year.

Things we didn’t do…

Gosh, this list has the potential to be never ending. Instead, have a read through what we actually did and match that up with the countless recommended itineraries online.

Churches and museums aren’t our thing; there’s loads of them to explore. You’ll see that we did want to see the famous ‘Last Supper’ painting but you really need to book in advance to avoid paying silly prices with a pointless tour guide.

Day trip-wise in addition to our two good shouts, you’ve got Turin, several places around Lake Garda, maybe even Venice, where at a push you could stay overnight should your trip to Milan be a week or more.

For the travel box tickers, The tiny country of Liechtenstein is a drive away. I did check at the time but it wasn’t really doable as a day trip using public transport.

Itinerary – What we did…

Day One – First look around & San Siro stadium

As we arrived in to Milan quite early, we hoped to have a good walk around the city today, else we would have really busy days later on and have to do more on days we planned tiresome day trips.

The metro system was very easy to understand and with our travel cards purchased, we headed for the #1 attraction, the square containing Milan Cathedral, or Duomo. We’ll visit that on day four…

From here we aimlessly walked around for somewhere to eat, trying to find somewhere nice, Italian but not ridiculously priced, which we did, for a proper pizza (I can’t remember if it was too much or not enough cheese, so I’ll stick to frozen Aldi versions for now!)

After a quick search, we identified that the Sforzesco castle was only a few minutes away, followed by a big park, a monument and then a metro on to what was next.
You could walk through the gates of the castle, or in more detail called a medieval-renaissance fortress, to explore the area.

I’m sure there’s some type of museum or exhibition in addition to artwork by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo…. My second favourite turtle. I can’t recall why we didn’t explore the building in more detail, but with the park peaking through the archway on a glorious afternoon this looked more appealing.

Being Easter the Sempione park was full of people getting some rays and playing sports. The park was busy yet peaceful as we walked through to the Arca Della Pace (arch of Peace) triumphal monument.

From here we wanted to travel a bit out of centre to one of the furthest stops on the metro, north-west to the San Siro stadium, home of football teams AC Milan and Internazionale. I had been to this ground twice, to see Manchester United play each team once…. Losing 3-0 and drawing 0-0. A rather ‘shit’ story about this ground a bit later on, but on a positive note, the stadium is one of my all time favourites. The first time I was up in the gods as the sun was setting, and I do love a spiral walkway on an arena! It will be criminal if they knock it down as planned, although internally it looks very tired.

We checked for any tours without success so could only really browse the club shop, though this did offer a peak of the pitch. I was also able to give Zlatan Ibrahimovic (albeit a cardboard cutout) a few minutes off being the hardest bloke in the stadium.

For the rest of day one, I can’t think of anything else worth noting. We went back to Duomo in the evening for tea, which was our horrifically expensive Five Guys and an ice cream.

Day Two – Lake Como

I’ve double checked that we did actually bugger off from Milan as soon as day two, gambling we’d have more to write home about (literally…) than digging for stuff to do in Milan. It was a good decision. We chose to organise the day around Lake Como ourselves using trains and boats, but I’m sure there are tours suitable.

The train to Varenna was picturesque but very busy, I think we had to stand up for the whole 140 minute ride. After a short walk from the station you get a first look at Lake Como and what a site it was! The lake is one of the deepest in Europe and set against the Alps.

We stayed here for around 90 minutes, walking to the small town of shops near the waterfront along very narrow paths and LOTS of tourists. I did search for somewhere to have a swim in the lake, but as nobody else were like minded, I thought better of it. Maybe a bit later in the summer or off the beaten path….

From here we caught a boat to Bellagio, which was even prettier than stop one, like…. Really fucking pretty. We didn’t consider stopping here for lunch thankfully, and the one takeaway pizza place had a queue that climbed the steep narrow streets. Instead, we had a nice walk around and sit down by the pier as we waited for our next boat to Como.

Como was much more populated, obviously as a city, making it easier to stroll around the waterfront and town area. As we were now rather parched, we first had some lunch, my first ever “poke bowl”, and then a walk around including the gothic cathedral. Sad I didn’t take more photos.

From here, we could get the train back to Milan. Quite straightforward, but bloody hell what a journey! Cramped, standing and roasting! The slight respite I had watching the last Newport County game of the season on my phone was constantly interrupted by no signal. This wasn’t the worst train of the trip.

All in all it was a wholesome day. I would go as far as being a must do if you have 3+ days in Milan.

Day Three – Verona and Lake Garda

Another day on our trip to Milan, another trip outside Milan. The plan today was to visit Verona with a swim in Lake Garda on the way back.

Having spent too long on crowded trains yesterday, we bought first class tickets (nowhere near UK fares) and had a comfortable few hours travel.

It would be hard to argue that Verona is mostly known for being the setting of Romeo and Juliet, even though that story was completely made up. We found enough to do between a lovely stroll for it to be a great idea.

From the train, Verona centre is a little trek of about 30 minutes walk. That’s why I got an escooter back whilst Kay walked on her own. Such a gent. We weren’t engaged then so… *shrugs*.

You know you’re in the right place when you see their coliseum. Obviously a lot smaller than Rome but still a cracking bunch of rocks. I think it’s still used for concerts and the like.

Walking through the small town we headed to Juliet’s balcony. Again, absolute bullshit, but a tourist magnet. The balcony looked recently renovated in a small courtyard with some gift shops and a statue of Juliet. A statue, where if you rub her boob you get good luck or some other bollocks. Hmmmm.

Bemused by that episode, before lunch we ascended Torre dei Lamberti. Oh I do love pretending I’m not so overweight and unhealthy by lugging myself up steps.

It was worth the effort and the stairs were a lot more accommodating than some… the cathedrals in Valencia and Prague castle spring to mind.

After an early lunch we went on to a bridge that was suggested, an opportunity for a cracking photo. From here we had a riverside stroll back and on to the train station.

Our day wasn’t over yet though. One of the stops between Milan and Verona was Peschiera Del Garda Sirmione station, minutes away from the famous lake. With my feet now starting to hurt (a common occasion throughout the year, significantly exacerbated when on busy trips), I was hoping to find a spot where I could have a dip in the water, ignoring the Porta Brescia fortress that would otherwise be of more interest. Again, similar to Lake Como, it appeared to early in the year for such activity with the pebbled beach deserted. The only ones populating the water were the birds, enough to put me off with their shit-anywhere policy.

We had some food again, mainly just to rest the kankles and wait for our train back to Milan. It’s here where I took the photo below, bringing back the nightmare of my first visit to Milan that I mentioned earlier in the blog at the San Siro.

As a young pup in 2008 I did not expect this for a loo, at half time during a Champions League semi final. Let’s just say I left the stadium one pair of pants lighter, and now always ensure I have a pack of tissues to hand. It’s not all girls and fast cars, kids.

On the way back to the station I did manage to give my feet a quick soak for some respite.

This was needed, as the 2+ hour train back to Milan was the worst in memory. It was baking and standing room only. I managed to sit on the floor for 5 minutes before it came even busier. I’m writing that sentence having a relaxed beer in a posh hotel in Turkey, appreciative that there’s probably some poor bugger on that train now.

One final point about Lake Garda, do your research and go somewhere nicer. I have no doubt some areas are on a par with our Lake Como locations. We just wanted to visit quickly to say we had been there.

Day Four – Duomo and some other bits

For our last day we planned to visit the cathedral and force ourselves to do a bit more in Milan. I’d like to say we had loads left to do having gone on two day trips, but nah, not really. We did try.

I would put a visit up to the Cathedral as a must do. We got our tickets with a really early timeslot and decided on stairs over the lift. Bear in mind I think the lift doesn’t go all the way up (check this). Thankfully the stairs were not that troublesome as you entered to high up on the side of the building, before a further climb where you’ll actually be walking on the roof!

You’ve got really good views of the square in front of you and pretty much all of Milan. The towering San Siro was a spec on the horizon (by the crane in the pic).

Aside from the views, the architecture and detail was a sight to behold, following the linear path after the roof, down towards the stairway that leads in to the cathedral interior.

FML I have to write about the inside of a church again…. Not my strong point. From what I remember, it was impressive inside but not on a par with the outside.

… and it had a lovely stained glass window. There.

The rest of the day wa spent visiting a few places, first by walking around after the cathedral and then a few buses or metro.

This included walking through the famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II fashion arcade. Might offend people calling it an arcade lolz. I did take a few photos of some of the garments on sale, but in hindsight I don’t think they’re going to benefit from further advertisement on my blog. I wonder if Gucci or Prada want to chuck us some money? Do they do anything in XXL?

Without making a purchase (shock), we seen more splendid bits of architecture towards a Leonardo Da Vinci statue, that was good timing as we made our was to the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, the home of The Last Supper, one of the most famous pieces of art in the world.

If you remember the start of the blog, this place was actually something we didn’t do. Unfortunately buying a ticket on the day is near impossible, unless you are willing to pay €40-80 on a pointless guide. The place only has two rooms!

What happens, I think, is that all the local ‘tour guides’ buy the tickets for a tenner… ALL the tickets… Then only sell them on TripAdvisor etc. with a probably rubbish and unnecessary person. If you really want to go, make sure you buy them as soon as you can in advance, or pay the premium. We were disappointed to miss out bit everything has its value.

Anyway, we took a photo and went to our last stop, the Monumental Cemetery. How cheerful. For obvious reasons I didn’t take any photos inside, but we enjoyed a final stroll before the journey home.

No issues I remember getting home. To summarise, we had a nice time, it wasn’t in our top 10, and it was made better by visiting Lake Como and Verona. If you’ve been to and loved Milano please share any useful ideas and I’ll update.

Thanks for reading.

After another European Covid rise over Christmas 2021, including a cancelled trip to Gdansk, I was very pleased to set off for the first trip of 2022!

(Note I started this blog in March 2022 but didn’t finish it off until May 2023!)

Overview

Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal. I have visited Portugal before for a brief trip to Porto to watch Manchester United play way back in 2009 (yes THAT Ronaldo goal) – most of which was spent in a pub – so it did feel as though I was visiting a new country. We chose Portugal for the nice weather in February and interesting things to see both in Lisbon itself and a few nearby excursions.

The direct flight from Bristol took less than two hours and the airport is quite central. Our hotel “Lisbon 5” was a little smaller than expected but really well located being a 15 minute walk to the main square(s) and a few minutes from the nearest metro station. The breakfast was limited even for a continental offering but worth the minimal additional cost.

Getting around

The city centre is easily accessible from the airport as it is part of the metro line. There are loads of travel options to get around the centre of Lisbon. Trams (including the apparently famous #28), trains, metro, buses all run on a very frequent basis and Google Maps worked well to plan your journey.

The centre is surrounded by hills, which was a bit of a concern (being fat and lazy) but there is so much to see walking around it won’t feel strenuous. Some locations even have escalators, lifts and funiculars!

Our two excursions to Cascais and Sintra really added something extra to our trip, and although each around an hour train ride away, is included in a 24-hour travel pass that works on all public transport. The daily €10 fee added up but well worth it.

Things to do

I will cover a lot of the sights in the itinerary below. If you want just a city break I reckon 2-3 days will be enough – like many European capitals in my opinion. We don’t tend to stay long in restaurants or have drinks in the evening, although most days we had a few hours ‘siesta’ back in the hotel and still comfortably seen everything we wanted to in our 3 full days and-a-bit, this including two half-days seeing places outside of the City.

As usual, I tend to avoid churches and museums in favour of panoramic views and football stadiums, so please look around for the endless offerings the City has to offer. You could be a proper tourist and get a guide book, my personal preference being the Marco Polo ones, but nearly everywhere I go I plan using various websites and other blogs (the lesser known / harder to find ones tend to be more fruitful). Everywhere is so accessible I wouldn’t worry too much about not seeing everything you want to see.

Costs

It has been over a month since I’ve returned home so I’m already a bit rusty on prices. Easyjet flights from Bristol and four nights in a 3* hotel cost around £500, but I’ve noticed the cost of flights have jumped a bit going in to 2022. Spending also worked out to be around £500 for both of us. £50 each per day isn’t bad is it?

A tenner should look after your travel per day – a bargain if you use it a lot. Food was cheaper than I expected, similar to UK prices. The busy but basic centrally-located outside café bars were around £10 each for food and a drink, but there’s a big choice of dinner restaurants that were really nice and great value. I’m sure you could pay a lot more if you decide to and chuck a couple of cocktails on to the bill.

Itinerary – What we did

Day One

Our flight didn’t land until 6pm so this took up most of the day, I think we left the hotel to go out around 8:30pm.

We walked to towards the centre ending up in the biggest square/plaza in Lisbon “Praça do Comércio”. First impressions weren’t brilliant as to get here through the streets we lost count of how many times we were offered marijuana variants or stronger, although it was busy enough to feel safe.

From the plaza you get a first look at the huge Golden Gate-style bridge spanning the river Tagus, with a Rio-style Christ the Redeemer statue lit up looking over the city. Copyright laws may not exist in Portugal.

We walked along the harbour scattered with the odd beach until we found our dinner destination. Time Out food markets are popping up all over the place in major cities and this was our first experience. An old converted marked space with 50+ food stalls offering octopus to foie gras (no taa) to chicken biryani to burgers! A bit pricey but a good atmosphere and literally too much choice! Since my visit, Newport market has also opened with something similar and (looking at my socials) the feedback has been bloody fantastic.

Following food we walked to the nearest metro station (literally outside) and started to get familiar with the four lines, making our way back to the hotel. A very good use of our first two hours.

Day Two

With not having any concrete plan for the day we weighed up our options for the day and decided to visit the Castle of St George. Not only did this tick the box of panoramic views to get our bearings, we could also catch the tram uphill most of the way. You may not know about the Lisbon tram system if you haven’t been before, but you soon realise it’s a tourist magnet. I knew to avoid peak times and we thought we were early enough to avoid large queues at stop one near our hotel, but still had to wait for 2 to go by before squeezing on to the third. The trams – also a nod to San Francisco alongside the bridge – is tiny considering the demand, but with good reason as if it was any wider or longer it simply would not creep up the steep, narrow meandering streets that give access to the old town. It was comparable to a rollercoaster with the uncomfortable sudden jolts and how it defies fitting through seemingly impossible tight corners and streets.

We left the tram about half way up the hill leading to the castle and hoped to find the smoothest route possible uphill to reach our destination. This ultimately involved a lot of steps but with the scenery and culture evident the walk was enjoyable. The castle entry cost around €10 and you are immediately treated to what I consider to be the best view of the city – as it’s likely to be the highest and most open.

Taking in the scenery, and 100 photo’s later we walked through the castle grounds, delightfully perambulated by peacocks! The birds were free to roam wherever and continuously opened their feathers to show off to their fans snapping pictures (apart from the time I tried to take one obviously…). The castle ruins were cool to have a wander and climb around and there is an exhibition you can enter.

Moving on from the castle, we caught the bus down in to the flat central area (how the bus got down there I’m not sure). It was a bit early for lunch so we visited the Santa Justa lift. The purpose of the lift, located near the posh-but-not-poshest shopping arears is to transport people up some 45 meters instead of having to walk up one of the steeper hills. Perhaps overkill compared to an escalator, but the 19th century industrial age piece is rather unique.

The queue was short but it did take an age to get up to the top and the €5 fee was a bit “steep”. All in all I thought it was underwhelming as a tourist attraction, but something that one should tick off during a trip, not forgetting the fact that I didn’t have to walk up a bloody hill! Once disembarking at the top over the raised walkway we passed the ‘Carmo Convent’ housing medieval ruins and archaeology museum, but chose to walk through the quieter area winding down to the increasingly busy shopping streets back to the lift base. Time for lunch.

I can’t quite get my head around the fact we did so much during this day, but after a quick rest stop in the hotel and to ‘borrow’ a towel, we headed back out to visit Cascais, a seaside resort an hour to the east of Lisbon. A swim in the sea mid February? Yes please.

We weren’t the only ones with that idea and the populated train took us to a bustling village area that led to a handful of beachy areas. Not wanting to miss out, I stripped off and spent 30 minutes having a float. Maybe I like the sea/swimming as it’s a place of tranquility away from your mobile phone and (even better) people.

Another little ramble around the village took us to a bus stop where we were able to visit Boca do Inferno “Hell’s mouth”. Not really as terrifying as the name suggests… it was a wonderful cliff top view overlooking the coast, but the crashing waves against the rocks raising 20+ meters in the air was a sight to behold.

We grabbed the public bus back to the station, choosing to have food in the nearby shopping mall during sunset before making our way back to Lisbon. That was enough for one day? Not quite.

I checked the Benfica website numerous times before our visit in the hope of getting tickets to Benfica v Ajax in the Champions League on day three, but website purchases were only available if you had Portuguese ID. Any excuse to visit the stadium.

The stadium looks really easy to access but both metro stations nearby involve a ridiculous amount of guessing how and where to cross the fenced highway. We managed to find a subway through a closed but unlocked gate and finally accessed the perimeter of the stadium. No shock to find the ticket office was completely the other side of the 65,000 seater arena.

We didn’t hold much hope being able to buy tickets once we finally asked, but surprisingly the chap had a look at his computer and stated there were only TWO tickets left in the whole bloody stadium, €75 each and although in the same section, not next to each other, which was unfortunately the deal breaker. It would have been a great experience (it ended 2-2) but I was over it quickly.

Finally, our next destination was back to the hotel.

Day Three

Mikayla tells me I was rather difficult to wake up this morning, not surprising after yesterdays adventures. We were pleased to stay more local today, firstly visiting the aforementioned Golden Gate style “25th April” bridge connecting Lisbon to…. um… the place south of Lisbon over the river. Why the name you ask? It was named after the Carnation Revolution that took place on the 25 April 1974 and dictator Salazar’s regime was overturned. There ya go.

A recent little hobby of mine around the streets of European cities has been to hire the odd eScooter (not always sober) but until today never convinced Mikayla to have a go. There was no better time than when we departed the nearest train station to the bridge, as there was a flat, quiet promenade all the way to the bridge, perfect scooting atmosphere bar the cobbled terrain. Saving about 19 hours instead of walking to the bridge we both sailed along the shore and only approaching the bridge do you realise its stature, it’s f***ing massive!

Bizarrely, you couldn’t tell from the photos it’s painted bright red!

Back past the way we came there is also a monument dedicated to Portuguese explorers “Padrão dos Descobrimentos”, and there’s quite a few of them. Located along the river where ships departed to explore and trade with the wider world, the monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery.

We could have visited the Belem tower at this point, which we should have, but luckily squeezed it in the next night.

That was pretty much it for the morning. I recall my feet struggling so we probably had a few hours in the hotel, whilst trying to find out what else to do. That choice was to visit the 25th April monument this time, with its not quite park, not quite field, not quite garden area leading down to the Avenue de Liberdade, a leafy boulevard including the who’s who’s of fashion. Gucci, Prada, Versace, and lots of others I have never heard of . How the other half live eh?

Back to central civilization (i.e. a McDonalds in view) and thinking about tea, we had somewhat of a lightbulb movement and chose to ride the #28 tram to pass half and hour (which turned out to be 90 minutes).

This was a great time filler for the evening. The route started uphill visiting the steep east side of the City central area before going out a few miles west, and back. I should really provide more information on the places we saw on the route but I’ve only got to writing this section in May 2023, 15 months later! One sight I can recall was the Estrela Basilica, the first church in the world dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Lovely.

Once back in the centre I recall having a quite extravagant Indian/kebab platter of food that was really good value based on location and with the footy on the tele. Thinking back to it now, it’s actually bloody worth a mention… a quick Google confirms it was the Aagan restaurant on the western side of Martim Moniz square, just over the road from the Tram 28 start point. Very full, we bounced the short distance back to the hotel to plan our final day.

Day four

A day trip away from the main destination can be a bit risky sometimes on a last day, especially if you come across something smack bang in the middle of Lisbon you didn’t already do, but I must say our decision to visit the village of Sintra, specifically the Park and National Palace of Pena was a bit of a master stroke.

Sintra is about an hour away on the train and still included in the Lisbon area travel pass. It is a very remote village, quickly swelling with tourists to see a colourful castle that wouldn’t look out of place in a Disney Movie. Add to this, it sits on top of a cliff so the views from the castle are outstanding.

Various independent tour guides and buses are impossible to miss when leaving the train station. I recall them not exactly being cheap, but your options to explore the various buildings and ruins are limited, along the narrow, hilly roads. We chose to get off at the stop before Pena castle and have a forestry walk from there. This sounded nice, but we didn’t take in to account that once we were at the castle entrance, there is a significant bloody hill to climb before seeing the good stuff.

It was worth it. Again I’ll remind you I’m writing this 15 months after our visit, so the internal aspects of the building have since been nearly forgotten, but the views and narrow walk along the outside of the towers were cool, albeit a bit discomforting for the larger gentleman.

Returning back to the village, there wasn’t a lot here apart from the odd cafe so we headed back to Lisbon for food and a banging ice cream, planning on one last thing to do before our early flight home the next morning.

It was an easy decision to visit the Belem Tower (Torre de Belem) in the evening. We caught a bus here simply to have a more relaxed journey.

The tower is a Portuguese national monument and a UNESCO World Heritage sight. Although a ‘fortified’ structure, of little use given the location and the vast shore of the river, it was better used as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon, a spot to see off or welcome back explorers of past times.

The building itself was closed for exploration, being the evening, but it was an impressive structure and worth a visit even though it’s a little out from the centre.

We really should have squeezed in a trip to the Sporting Lisbon stadium this evening too, but hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to visit again – would be a great Wales football away trip.

A final note of an unfortunate memory from our journey back from the tower was that it coincided with Russia’s first attacks and intended invasion on Ukraine. Recalling happy memories from this trip has been difficult given the time that has since passed, but it is impossible to imagine what these 15 months has been like for anyone affected by the conflict.

This post is reserved for my trip to Prague and Tallinn in October 2021 (Before my trip to Norway – d’oh) to watch two Wales football matches, when I can be arsed to finish it.

Thanks for visiting! I’ve decided to change the format of my posts a bit to avoid me babbling on about nothing (too much!).

Overview

Oslo is the capital city of Norway. Famous for vikings, polar exploration, fjords and Ole Gunner Solskjaer, the country has vast oil reserves, massive coastline and good standard of living, it is right up there with the most expensive places to visit in Europe. As a real tight-arse, the cost of things will turn up many times throughout the post!

Norway is not part of the EU but does make up the Shengen area that allows free travel across borders. A direct flight from the UK would take about 2.5 hours, although we went via Amsterdam.

We stayed in the Anker hotel, about a 15 minute walk from the main train station. It was a great location next to a long park/river and included the best breakfast buffet I have had. I dread to think how much smoked salmon they get through, although I was quite happy with a more British selection. Our room was quite basic but perfect for us. Others may be disappointed with a lack of cupboards or safe. Hotel on booking.com link.

Getting around

From the airport into the city, you can get a “Flytoget” express train £35 return or the normal train for £15. I recommend the normal train as it only takes 5 minutes longer.

Once you’re in the city, you have a plethora of travel options, but most sights to see are within walking distance. One ticket can cover the metro, tram and buses that turn up every few minutes during the day, and even the public transport boats. You don’t even need to time your travels they are so regular. A 24-hour ticket will set you back about a tenner, but considering a single ticket is £4, it’s worth getting. They also do longer periods for additional savings.

A few people mentioned the Northern Lights to me. Norway is a large country with Oslo being towards the south. The Northern Lights are best viewed further north. Trondheim I think is the biggest area but don’t actually know if that’s an accurate suggestion to view them. Domestic flights are considerably cheap if you wanted to research an excursion from Oslo.

It was not as cold as we expected. Think November UK weather. It was supposed to rain all week but miraculously we didn’t get caught up in any in Oslo.

Things to do

I will cover a lot of the sights in the itenerary below. If you want just a city break I reckon 2-3 days will be enough. Longer if you wish to soak up the nightlife or spend hours people watching from cafés.

Worth noting that when we went (late October) it was not the best time to visit. The brief summer season from May to September had passed and a lot of tourism activites either close or run reduced offerings. Notable omissions from our itinerary includes a ferry tour of the fjords and the viking museum, that is being rebuilt until 2025. We definitely would have done both if available. Missing the fjord tour was a shame.

Costs

I don’t know if I have been looking forward to this section or dreading it! Being a tourist in Norway is not cheap. A lot of the hospitality sector is taxed at 25% and has a minimum wage of an incredible £14.50 per hour!

Five days from Bristol to Oslo using KLM cost around £1,500 for the two of us. Flights £150 each gladly avoiding Ryanair, and our decent hotel about the same. We spent £40 each on a train to Lillehammer and £60 each to Bergen. In addition to this we spent £550 over the five days. Total with two PCR tests at £68 each have made up our estimate.

You need to expect to pay around double for things compared to the UK. Some examples:

– £3.50 for a 500ml bottle of coke. Water is dearer!?!
– £10 standard McDonalds meal
– £12 for a footlong subway meal
– Upwards of £25 for a basic restaurant main course
– £3 for a chocolate bar

What we did

Day one – Oslo

Arrived at Oslo S central train station around 1pm and walked to hotel. Researched public transport and visited the royal palace. You couldn’t go in. We arrived during the changing or the guard or something, but this took forever.

After lunch walked to Oslo cathedral via parliament. As far as cathedrals go, it didn’t have a lot of ‘bling’. I found the fabric ceiling art interesting. It was showing signs of wear and I wondered how difficult it will be to restore when the time comes.

General walk around town. Instead of going back to hotel earlier than planned, decided to visit a waterfall along the river Akerselva that passes our hotel. Strange seeing a waterfall in a suburb but welcomed. Had a pleasant stroll through the riverside park back to hotel.

In the evening we headed to Akershus fortress. It was dark at this point and the dimly lit cobbled streets around the fortress were less than ideal. Any buildings of interest were now closed but I think it would be worth a visit in the day. Had a quick £30 McDonald’s for tea.

Day two – Oslo

The first of our delightful (and more importantly free) breakfasts in the hotel.

Visited the harbour and took the public boat that runs all year round to five nearby islands. These vary in terms of the amount of people who live there but great for photos especially across the Oslo waterfront. We disembarked at the foresty Hovedøya and had a walk around for an hour before catching the next boat back. The moon still in the sky!

We wanted to visit the Nobel building by the harbour (a la the Peace Prize) but closed until the weekend. I’ll visit again for my award for services to travel blogging in a few years no doubt.

Had a choice of museums to visit and decided on the Folk museum. Very similar to St Fagans with their examples of housing through the ages and and old church. The exhibition of Norway from 1600 to the 1900’s was ok, I’ve never been good with museums etc as I always feel in a rush. In hindsight I think the “Fram” museum would have been a better choice which looks at the history of Norway’s polar exploration.

Should probably mention today was Mikayla’s birthday!! It was difficult to bring presents on a flight so instead bought us a week in Lisbon next year. She’s a lucky girl I know. And another crap blog for you!

Next up was Frogner park, that features a sight-to-see “angry boy” statue among another 200+ human sculptures all made by Gustav Vigeland, so the place is sometimes referred to as Vigelenparken. Every single one of the sculptures naked. It was quite a bizarre walk up to the “Manolitten” plinth. There’s undoubtedly a story about family/life struggles and successes to be told about the artwork, one which everyone may have a different perspective on.

The story about the park history and the sculptures is a good side-read. Here’s the Wikipedia page.

After a quick pit stop at the hotel, visited the national ballet and opera house. It was cool that you could actually walk up to the roof, albeit questioning how the random steps at the viewing platform passed health and safety.

Went for an all you can eat Chinese for tea. Weird you had to put the raw meat and veg on your plate before giving it to the chef to took. Flesh everywhere. At £63 including two cokes it was cheap for a restaurant. I clocked half a lager at £7. Yikes! They had to feed their koi carp somehow I guess.

Day three – Lillehammer

Have you heard of Lillehammer? It’s about a two hour train from Oslo, and probably the only reason we chose Norway. Apart from hosting the winter Olympics in 1994, the town is also famous for the setting of unofficial Sopranos spin-off “Lilyhammer”. I watched this earlier in the year, googled the area, and the rest is history.

Again avoiding any wet weather, we arrived in Lillehammer in sunshine and started the walk to the artificial ski jumping arena, where the opening ceremony of the ’94 Olympics took place. Previously sourced images made me expect panoramic views at the top, but this wasn’t the case.

From the station we walked 2km uphill, rather horrible when unexpected, and in the middle of nowhere too. Once finally arrived the expected views were masked by clouds or fog.

You can get to the top of ski jump if you take the cable car (not operating) or 936 steps. I was prepared to walk those steps but it would have been stupid (in my unfit state) to do that with no rewarding views at the end. Still, the first Olympic ski jump venue I’ve visited!

The walk back in to town was a lot more pleasant as I told Instagram my tale of disappointment at the ski-jump. If we weren’t in such a rush I would’ve liked to have a closer look at the woods with the river crashing downhill with us.

I had researched a few locations from the TV series and was pleased to visit the nightclub, high street, church and lake-crossing bridge that featured in the show, either side of a £7.20 ham salad sandwich.

I now know that VERY few people have actually watched Lilyhammer, so didn’t have a clue what I was going on about!! If you enjoyed the Sopranos it’s definitely worth a watch. When first aired, a sixth of the Norwegian population watched it.

18,000 steps in under 4 hours and we still got back to Oslo by 4pm.

That evening we didn’t do much apart from jump on a few buses to visit the national football stadium. We walked right past it before noticing the building with offices and shops was actually part of one stand! It’ll be a really tough decision as to whether I’d visit here for the football and the obligatory 20 match day beers.

We had an absolute bargain for tea in the shape of 7-Eleven hotdogs. Just three quid each… So £9 for me but much more enjoyable than a McDonald’s or something costing at least double.

Day Four – train to Bergen

Today we were up before dawn for breakfast to catch a 7 hour train to Bergen. Why would anyone want to go on a train that long? Well, I seen a few articles describing the journey as one of the best train rides in the world.

For about £60 each, the train rises to over 1,200m, higher than Snowdon, passing 22 stations, most of which are in the remotest of remote arears before ending up near the west cost of the country. There is a really good blog on the Lonely Planet site here that tells you a bit more about the ride… I’ll just leave a few photo’s.

I did fall asleep for a few hours but managed to see the best bits including the highest station Finse, precisely 1,222.2m above sea level. The downhill half was the one to stay awake for, not only seeing mostly untouched nature, waterfalls and the greenest of rivers, bit to also admire the sheer effort it must have taken to build the track digging through countless mountains.

It was a bloody good experience. Was it better than a train through the Alps? I’m not sure, so try both!

Arrived in Bergen around 4pm for our first encounter with rain. This completely ruined the rest of the day. I couldn’t understand how we were so under prepared for rain, having expected it to piss down all week.

We visited Bryggen, which is a set of houses along the harbour that are among the earliest in the area following several large fires since 1702.

This was a little underwhelming for a UNESCO world heritage site, considering the weather and the fact one was a facade for a Radisson Blu hotel!

By the time we walked a little to Bergen castle with our £1 umbrellas already broken, we weren’t really in the mood for a wander around the park and buildings.

One of the top attractions to visit in Bergen is the funicular that traverses to the top of one of seven hills/mountains surrounding the city. Like much of Norway after summer season, this was also closed for refurbishment.

Thankfully (I say that ironically) there was also a cable car in operation that would take us to the top of the biggest mountain Ulriken.

It took a bus across the city and a 25 minute uphill walk before reaching the cable car housing. A lady setting up balloons for a birthday party was a bit shocked to see a tourist, we were probably the only ones that day!

Checking we were allowed on, we coughed up THIRTY QUID EACH for the 10 minute return ride. Now £30 is a lot for anything similar even in Norway, so when we were greeted with our ‘panoramic view’ at the top I knew Bergen had defeated us. Cold, wet and without food for 12 hours. Bleak.

I’ll happily rush through our trip in to town, to the airport (when it finally stopped raining) for our 55 minute flight back to Oslo. With another hotdog (two hotdogs).

We did top off the night with a comforting kebab shop dinner. The only thing more surprising than the cost being that Norwegians love sweetcorn on their Shawarma. I think it worked.

Day 5 – Amsterdam

Getting to bed at 2am and a miserable morning outside dispelled any intentions of another stroll along the river before we checked out.

The biggest question today was whether we were allowed in to Amsterdam for our eight hour layover. According to the government we were good to visit from Norway, and there was nothing to suggest us only being there for 5 days from the UK was an issue. Had we visited from the UK, we would have needed a PCR test. I think we probably weren’t allowed in… but ask me no questions I’ll tell you no lies.

We’ve been to Amsterdam twice now and both times for only a matter of hours. I think it’s quite a good place for a layover especially if you’re sober and not wanting to indulge in any plant based product.

On this occasion we had a walk along the canals* up to Dam Square, lunch on to the flower market and a walk back with some calorific churros. I can see why there isn’t a market for escooters here as your life is perfectly at risk with the cyclists!

* Canal walk did involve actively looking for the red light district. I couldn’t believe it is where it is, so central, and last time must have walked past a few places without noticing! This time however, one alley in particular, I was treated to an eyeful (but don’t take photo’s, the one below was closed!)

We didn’t have any money left, anyway…

The last leg of the trip getting home went without incident. A bloody good effort of I say so myself.

If you told me eighteen months ago that I would have to travel three hours across Wales, I would have thought it was for a chore rather than a holiday. Becuase Covid put a stop to my usual travel jaunts, one night in west Wales was ultimately something to look forward to, albeit with no airport floor sleeping and duty-free tobacco.

Since my last holiday to Athens in February 2020, I had missed out on trips to Rotterdam, Helsinki, Dublin, Sofia, France, Belgium, Rome, potentially Azerbaijan… and that’s without any non-football trips.

Aberystwyth was initially booked as a Christmas gift for Mikayla to visit in February, but our hotel was swiftly cancelled early into the new year, so we instead gambled on a weekend in July. I called it a gamble just in case I would have to instead attend Wales in the Euro2020 final, but that wasn’t to be.

We set off from Newport early on Saturday morning with Google telling us it will take 2.5-3 hours to arrive. This doesn’t account for stopping, getting caught behind a tractor or, even worse, someone doing 30mph on a 60 road. Those people driving so “safe” it’s dangerous.

We travelled through the Brecon Beacons, curving around Pen y Fan and a few quaint village towns including Llandovery and Lampeter and had a decent run, but I would still allow 4 hours for the journey to be safe. We arrived an hour before lunch and headed to Aberystwyth castle as planned. There’s not a lot left of the castle (bit rich coming from a Newportonian), but the area sits in a green field with a large play area, mini golf and panoramic views out to the Irish Sea. Although the actual castle remains are minimal, it’s a good open space. At this point, looking out to the horizon with that salty smell/taste in the air, it actually felt like a holiday!

After a leisurely stroll through the small town centre, we had our hearts set on fish and chips and were not disappointed by a friend’s recommendation (The Chip Box 4). Sitting on a promenade bench seemed like a good idea, but after two minutes we were joined by militant seagulls staring at us in the hope of sharing. Although very discomforting, share I did not.

Walking off the food, we ambled to the other end of the promenade where Constitution Hill stands, towering over the relatively flat rest of the town centre. As we got closer our aspirations of walking up soon faded as there was an option to use a funicular, which is a kind of a mountain railway operated by cables with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced.

Now one simply does not refuse a ride on such method of transport, even though this was wooden, slow and creaking, but safe. On a side note, I am led to believe that the funicular I visited in Zagreb was one of the shortest in the world. We thought of the rather pointless one in Ebbw Vale, which can’t be much longer. If anyone with more enthusiasm wishes to check this, be my guest.

Given the views offered at the top of the hill, I certainly consider it a must do if you visit. There’s a cafe on the top and you can join the walking route along the coast. I think I read somewhere that Wales is the only country in the world that has a continuous coastal path around its full water border. In any case, it’s longer than coastal paths belonging to Switzerland, Lesotho and Paraguay (in fairness they don’t have a coast, muahahaha).

To prove that we weren’t THAT lazy, we did indeed walk back down from the hill after a quick drinks break. Once on the flat we were now able to check in to our hotel. I must suggest staying in one of the local hotels in the area but given the consumer aspect of rearranging/refunding and an unlimited breakfast we stayed in the Premier Inn. Given that we were ahead of schedule we were able to have a few hours in the hotel before heading out for tea.

We did intend to visit the National Library of Wales at this point, but unfortunately the exhibitions were still due closed due to Covid, and only pre-booked students could enter the premises. Considering this was one of the initial main reasons for visiting this was disappointing. Nevertheless we did pay a quick visit in the car for a few photos and a nice view of the town – I even caught a glimpse of Aberystwyth Town FC playing a pre-season friendly in the distance (probably not worth a mention but hey-ho).

Wanting to make an occasion out of our very short trip, we booked in to one of the highest recommended places in the town, a Mediterranean restaurant called Medina. It was delicious to us, but I can’t quite tell you how good it was, as we’re just not that used to enjoying nice food! I highly recommend the spiced sea bream fillet and whatever Kay had off the specials board, with a side of posh chips (cumin potatoes FFS) and a breadbasket with olive oils.

With the night still young we made a quick visit to the pier and found the most expensive-looking outlet for an ice-cream to walk along the front (half eaten in the photo, I’m not a professional remember…). It was only at this point I remembered another recommendation from a friend. I “needed” to kick some barrier to bring me good luck. With the possibility of England winning a major championship the next day, there was no way that I was going to pass this up. After having difficulty finding the exact location of said indistinct rail, we walked ALLLL the way along the beach to Constitution Hill and started kicking random metal bars.

We would have looked like complete lunatics, but to be saved by a bloke having a jog who had a delicate clip on one before turning around and getting on with life. Not only did kicking this bar bring the desired luck (football’s going Rome etc) but we were also caught by the setting sun starting to disappear over the horizon. Two hundred photos later, the day was complete.

The next day…

Not many things get me out of bed at 6:45 on a Sunday morning, but the prospect of an unlimited breakfast ticked the box. To no-one’s surprise being the first to be seated, I speedily greedily ordered my 3 sausage, 3 bacon, 3 hash brown, mushrooms, beans, tomato and toast. Disappointed by the portion size of the unquantifiable options, this turned out to be one of two courses! Table service all-you-can-eat just isn’t the same (backed up by the Harvester salad bar and Toby Carvery roast since then!).

Already clock-watching to ensure I had time to get back and have a few pints before the Euro2020 final kicked off, we left the hotel and headed out of town to our first EVER escape room located at the Silver Mountain Experience, about a 20-minute journey based in Llywernog. We didn’t expect it to be this far out so glad we had the car. Ultimate Xscape Aberystwyth is just one thing to at the location, given its name by the silver-lead mine that you can also visit. Being our first game, I couldn’t tell you how easy/difficult the “diamond heist” escape room was, but it was challenging and thoroughly enjoyable. We managed to escape with about 20 seconds remaining, so will look to improve on that when we undoubtedly visit more (The one in Newport is yet to reopen after Covid, however I was surprised to see Cardiff have about 5 different companies all offering multiple adventures!).

For our last port of call, thankfully on the way home, we visited Devils Bridge, a small area crossing the river Mynach. In addition to a steam rail and a nature walk, the main attraction is the “three bridges” bridge that crosses the waterfalls. There are actually three bridges built on top of each other! This blatantly stolen from Wikipedia will explain:

The most recently built, in 1901, is an iron bridge which was erected above the older arches. The original bridge is medieval and the second one, a stone structure, built in 1753 and upgraded in 1777 and in 1814, was erected when the original bridge was thought to be unstable.

There you go. Please do visit the website for a lot more interesting information about the area! As the weather started to turn, we decided on the quickest walk, a user-friendly ten-minute stair climb to the “punchbowl” to get up close to the waterfalls and a decent photo of the bridges. There was plenty of parking a nice restaurant nearby and undoubtedly numerous caravan parks.

So, there we have it, not the most-productive second day in the area, having visited the waterfalls after midday we still made it back (and therefore to the pub) before teatime! Thanks for reading.

So, it has been over a year since my last blog-worthy post, but you’d forgive me in the current circumstances. Covid 19 has prevented me attending football games in Rotterdam, Rome, Helsinki, Sofia, Dublin and Brussels, not forgetting the odd holiday I would have enjoyed!

Now we are coming out of lockdown, I felt it neccesary to try and get out a little bit, primarily because a week before the pubs reopened I had zero shorts that would fit! Thankfully some healthier people on the socials were making the most of the nice weather and provided inspiration to go visit some waterfalls!

I had never heard of a section at the Brecon Beacons named “waterfall country” before, nor was it such a popular site in this area of Wales, at least to my limited knowledge. After a bit of research and a surprisingly early wake up one Sunday morning, I was on my way.

You can see below that my trip was broken up in to two visits (you’ll see why) but seeing everything in one day is very possible if you are slightly more prepared.

Waterfalls 1-3

For my first visit, I followed directions given from the Natural Resources Wales website and headed to the Gwaun Hepste car park to the north of the falls. From Newport this should take about an hour passing through Ystrad Mynach and alongside Merthyr. Shortly before you arrive you will glance past Penderyn and the world reknowned whiskey distillery. Of course this was closed for visitors at this time, but a good idea to combine a stop here as I guess they do tours.

Fun fact: I have only ever tried Penderyn whiskey once… Colorado USA, deep in the Rocky mountains, at the hotel bar that gave Stephen King the inspiration for The Shining!

After the distillery you’ll soon break away from the main road down a concerning narrow lane, but the car park turning is well signposted. Arriving around 10:30am the spaces were filling up a bit but it was a big area with rangers on hand to point you to your spot. Parking cost a fiver which felt a bit steep but well worth it taking in to account you are now in the middle of nowhere, portaloos are hired and there was even a little coffee hut… and it’ll be cheaper than my first two pints when the pub’s open!

After a quick chat with the lady in the information booth, she confirmed the full loop to see all 4 falls would take 4-5 hours, and if you haven’t got that long, a visit to the most popular falls will take about 2.5 hours. As I left on a whim I didn’t expect to be out all day, so planned to just visit the best one and return. Down the path and turn left at the crossroads. Easy.

Wrong in thinking that this waypoint would be a few minutes away, it took a good half hour downhill hike to reach the crossroads, it being obvious that I would have to then walk back up hill some time later that day. A leg break crossed my mind but there didn’t seem to be the opportunity to land a rescue helicopter!

At the crossroads your options are to go to my car park, another car park further north (but the same distance I would guess), my intended waterfall left for an hour walk, or another waterfall just two minutes away. I thought to myself “well, now I’m here…” it would be daft not to visit the first falls – Sgwd Clun-Gwyn.

If you look at the map posted previously, you will see the red loop has generally a comfortable walking route, but anything on the green route expect to cross large rocks and climb some hills!

Sgwd Clun-Gwyn is viewable from up high, and you can hear it before you see it! Although impressive I can see why this was the lesser popular of the group, being tricky to get a great photo and no chance of a swim. You can somehow get to the other side that involves a detour to get right up close – but I didn’t entertain this. I guess it would be a 20-30 minute detour.

Now I had a choice to make, revisit the crossroads and go to fall 4 as intended, or complete the set knowing I’d regret it otherwise.

I thought about how many hours I have spent at home this last year either working or with nowhere to go and I pretty much had my answer. This was amplified by my ability to traverse across the difficult pathways. There was a worrying three month spell at the end of 2020 I had real issues with my feet and couldn’t even use the upstairs loo in the pub at the time. There were times when I wondered if I would ever be able to do something like this again, so THIS WAS LIBERATING. Think Forrest Gump breaking his leg braces off!

The walk to falls 2 and 3 was quite pleasant now I was in my stride – after the initial “it can’t be that way surely?” contemplation. The path slithered through more open spaces, relatively flat, offering views for miles. This was well and evenly signposted to track progress without constantly needing to refer to the photo I took of the map. Phone signal now was nil.

I would say it took a good half an hour to reach the point to break off and see falls 2 and 3. A sign post told me that to get to the falls it would be a 90 metre trek down and then back up that would take most people 20 minutes but me probably twice as long uphill especially, with rocky areas and (giant) steps to test the knees.

I pondered a bit longer this time. Another hour added on to the day for the daunting detour, or should I just continue on to the highlight, the social media money shot. Only a few minutes before did I think of writing about my day, so it would be a bit of a shit blog had I skipped it!?

After a mini pep talk and going over my thoughts that got me this far, six months ago I had to go upstairs in the house on my hands and knees FFS. I soon climbed down, with each step cringing at the thought of not only having to walk back soon, but that massive hill to get back to the car park. Will it be worth it?

Yes. Once finding the stream at the bottom of the hill you were treated with falls 2 AND 3. Double Bubble. To the left was falls 2 – Sqwd Isaf Clun-Gwynn – another ten minute walk but flat. These falls were broken up in to three sections of different sizes before quickly calming down in to the river. I actually found these to be the most photographic.

Falls number 3 – Sgwd y Pannwr was the other end of the point where you walk down but only 20 metres or so. This was quite impressive, being able to see the gentle stream drop off the edge and crash in to the pool below. A short walk from the path allowed a rocky beach area where a few people had settled, popping in for a swim and a better photo angle. I guess for frequent visitors this may be their favourite of the four falls. It’s rewarding to visit, swim-able and always going to be less folk around than the last one on my list.

I decided to have a rest here, as most people had done so to break out the picnic. I could have devoured a refuelling sandwich at this point, but in its absence I settled with a ciggy and a big swig of water. I had better walk back up at some point…

The hike back up the hill to the circular route wasn’t quite as tedious as I envisaged, but did require a few stops and drink breaks. I was confident in telling visitors at the top who were considering a jaunt that it was indeed well worth the effort.

Three down, one to go. The hardest part done, surely…

The shortish (10-15 minute) walk from falls 2 and 3 to number 4 was flat enough to enjoy and recuperate, but as I approached the sign post signalling the way for the last waterfall I felt significant unease. The sign told me to expect another deep return trip of 100 metres this time. I had already walked some distance in comparison to the past three months combined, I had half of my 500ml water left and literally miles away from the car, which was predominately up hill.

This time my drive and desire was sensibly beaten by the fact I would need more drink. Inevitably I felt a bit disappointed, lazy arguably, but I always ensure I have enough fluid to hand and didn’t want to imagine the walk back without. Could I ask someone for some of theirs? Should I have a swig from the river? Sure I wouldn’t have died, but I did want to enjoy myself too!

I continued on the loop towards base, assured that common sense prevailed over bottling it (not bottling enough more like) and indeed it was the sensible decision. By the time I reached the crossroads after 30 minutes, I had exhausted my water and still had 40 minutes to get back up to the car. This was inevitable but still HORRIBLE, and a lot of people passing I think agreed!

I eventually got back to the car, picking up more energy the closer I became, and seen off a half empty bottle I found in the back seat that could have been there for months! Having had over an hour to deal with my disappointment, I determined that I could always visit again, in the knowledge that the one I missed will be the best. I was also intrigued by some other paths noticed on the map, maybe I could take another route?

Sod it, I’ll get up stupid early on Saturday and finish it off.

And that I did!

Waterfall 4 – Sgwd yr Eira

As soon as I got home last week I looked in to a potential car park south of the trail, hopefully closer to my missing piece. Google advised the Dinas Rock car park, near Glynneath. I could only hope it was a little more flat but still challenging enough to not cheat and do it the easy way.

After a bit of guess work with the satnav I parked up (free!) by 8:30am and apart from a few cyclists getting ready for a ride somewhere, was the only other car. I should say here that none of the falls are suitable for cyclists. C’est impossible.

As you can see from the car park photo, Dinas Rock itself is a bit of an attraction, and from here there is an alternative “gunpowder trail” walk towards a former gunpowder works, and a more accessible 20 minute dawdle to the cascading river, both of which I would have liked to include if I didn’t need to be back home by early afternoon.

Again my trail was well signposted and marked, but having to walk up the side of Dinas Rock was no way to start! The limestone cliff so steep here they’ve stuck in a handrail. A rare sight indeed.

Not yet regretting my plan, the rest of the one hour walk was mainly smooth with a few small inclines. This route is a lot more open to appreciate the rolling hills of the Brecon Beacons and you have a good view of the Sugar Loaf in the distance for a good few minutes. I found it remarkable that I had full phone signal for 90% of the journey, having had none whatsoever last week. It was also a lot quieter with people. I did not see ANYONE on the way!

As expected, the fondly forgiving trail soon presented a sign post that told me I was near and to expect another long climb down. This was 100 metres and although only took ten minutes, I can only describe it as dangerous, with even the manmade steps being 15 inches or so. With the impact of 20-plus stone squeezing down on them my knees were at one point causing significant concern, but there was no going back now. With the pain subsiding, I turned the final corner to be greeted with fall 4 – Sgwd yr Eira.

Half-past nine wasn’t exactly early but noting that it takes an hour plus to get here I was one of only three others. Perfect time to get some photos and la creme de la creme, the walk behind the falls!

I had read some other blogs that mentioned “some” had foolishly tried to walk underneath the falls which in trueness was a bit strange. Having put your life on the line crossing boulders to reach this point, the area behind the fall was flat and not slippery at all, with plenty of space to pass others.

Obviously after last week’s error of judgement with food and drink intake, I had loads of water and wasn’t hungry! Yet I found a place to sit and admire the view, popped my feet in the freezing water and forced down a chicken wrap, admiring a group of lads who braved the cold waters – it was plenty deep enough to swim – until they soon jumped back out to warm up and have their deserved bottle of beer.

So, mission accomplished. By the time I left around 10:30 there must have been around eighty plus people present. Now to climb back up that 100 metres with a concerning knee, an hour back to the car, with a deadline to get back to Newport.

To top the day off, after that initial climb the rest of the walk back was really pleasant. Those slight hills I cursed going up previously were enjoyable to descend, and the phone signal meant I could listen to the days football build up. I am genuinely pleased I needed two visits.

Some tips if you decide to visit yourself:

• Bring plenty of water (obvious unless you’re me)
• Decent footwear is a must. I saw one lady in flipflops and couldn’t get my head around how she still had a full set of unbroken bones.
• Have a picnic at falls 2 and 3, but bear in mind you’ll still have some way to go!
• Sgwd y Pannwr is the best for a swim I reckon
  Consider your car park. The websites will suggest the paid car parks but the walk back to the Gwaun Hepste was horrid. There’s no close one, I just found the trek back to Dinas Rock more… happy.
• I visited after a week of NO rain in South Wales. It’s a dangerous terrain as it is, I cannot imagine it in poor weather.
• If you are driving back to Newport or Cardiff after, there’s a KFC and McDonalds just off the A-road when you get to Merthyr. Treat yourself; you deserve it!

The only task left to complete now, I thought was to finally write a rubbish blog, whilst finishing off any left over beer in the house before the pubs reopen Monday. And that is what I’m doing!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Rarely have we felt such worry an evening before a trip away. We were notified early on Saturday morning that easyJet had cancelled all 30+ flights on that day from Bristol airport due to Storm Dennis. With the weather reports forecasting even worse conditions on the Sunday we spent all day checking to see if our flight and therefore holiday would be cancelled.

Even once we had set off for the airport at 2am I reserved confidence until finally our flight boarded to the Greek capital – Athens.

Day one.

I’m not usually one to appreciate the weather but it wasn’t half nice to depart the place in sunshine and clear skies giving that it was still royally pissing down at home, relieved that we actually made it.

Such was our apprehension, I did next to nothing in way of an itinerary or even figure out how we were to get to the hotel from the airport. The podcasts I managed to download and listen to on board were less than inspiring, I’d even say worse than this!

A quick Google suggested the train at 10€ was the most value for money based on time/cost and it was fortunate our hotel was only a 5 minute walk from the central station, central by name but a good way out from the actual focal point of interest and tourism.

We stayed at the (again questionably named) Centrotel that had very good reviews while comparatively cheap. The welcome and service was excellent throughout our stay, the only minor qualm was the 7.5€ charge for breakfast that wasn’t little more than cereal and bread. Online reviews state the location of the hotel is in an awful location… comments surely written by some snobby posh type who couldn’t see past a bit of grafitti on unused buildings nearby and the multicultural aspect of the locals. Every night we walked through the streets and although they were busy we didn’t feel uncomfortable one iota. Stay to your Disneyland, Hun.

Given that it was early afternoon we didn’t settle for long before venturing out, negotiating the public transport systems and visiting the home of the first modern Olympic Games way back in 1896.

The Panathenaic Stadium also boasts to be the world’s only white marble stadium, but did seem second to the history and it’s amphitheatre-esque design. For just 5 euro entrance fee we enjoyed a tour in the sunshine and apart from the glorious first views of the city my favourite part was alone the athletes entrance (a dark cave) leading to a modern conference room displaying all summer and winter Olympic torches and posters since the modern games existed.

It was great to see the site still in action today albeit with a modern running track that didn’t affect the sense of historical significance.

Having skipped lunch we were ready for tea but nevertheless happy to walk through the park that housed the Zappeio Hall state house and the Temple of Zues. Although the temple was closed and dressed by scaffolding it was a good taste of what was to come.

Once we passed Hadrian’s Arch we thought we wouldn’t catch too much in search for food but around every corner laid ruins of sites, most dating around 500 years BC… Or 2,500 years old in my money!!

Wandering for a bite, the Roman Agora and Hadrian’s Library are well displayed in open spaces. We appreciated the fact we could enjoy the history looking through the railings rather than forced to pay entry the next day once open for a closer look around.

I have zero interest in feta cheese and still remain uneducated on Greek cuisine. On that basis it was unsurprising that we ended up in a kebab house! We did learn that a Greek kebab is actually a thing and throughout the week had one too many pork gyros’. Imagine chicken kebab bit with pork, something you’ll rarely see at home or in other countries with piggy being off the menu.

That mountain cost us about 20 quid with drinks smack bang in town. Plenty of room for an ice-cream before the metro home with a much needed sleep.

That metro journey will live long in the memory as being the first time I have been pickpocketed. Although my assets are (I assumed) well protected add an experienced thief and jam packed rail car and that was that. Thankfully the bandits only got away with about 15 euro and a fiver sterling but still the feeling of absolute helplessness hurt.

Day two.

A miserable end of the night made sleep a bit difficult as I researched endless websites giving tips on how to avoid pickpockets, nothing you or I shouldn’t already know but a valuable top-up for Rome in June. There were still positives to take in that my phone was still on person and I recently changed bank accounts to Monzo eliminating fees abroad, otherwise the little fuckers could have got away with millions! (probably hundreds)…

After the previous evenings loss of assets and resulting lack of sleep I was pleased that our plans today didn’t circulate around public transport.

We bought tickets for the CitySightseeing bus that navigated 15 top sights in Athens. I always mention the tourist buses as being a bone of contention for the traveling purist, but would state that this one was a really good investment (max £18 each) and had a pickup point a five minute walk from the hotel. Today was the only day we had breakfast at the hotel. For €15 it was overpriced, even after I discovered the bacon. With a fridge in the room we stocked up on ham, bread, butter and juice for the remaining 3 mornings costing less than €2 per day. Sensible.

With the sun making an appearance whilst on the top deck, it was a happy moment. A time to be thankful that the storms back home didn’t involve us and allowed us to travel here. I think I was over the pickpockets last night.

The cash we had to take out, where could we hide it? The answer was in between a pack a travel tissues. At the bottom of the rucksack. Never had a worry for the rest of the trip. Genius Christopher.

Back on the bus, the audio commentary provided some interesting facts as we headed to the centre of Athens we vaguely touched the evening prior, with some things added to the list should we have time for the rest of the trip (we did). Looked like a quality #buswanker if I say so myself!

Ever so slightly outside of the narrow central Street was our drop off at the number 1 stop for the tour. The Acropolis.

Acropolis is actually the name for the area we were at. The thing you’ll see on the brochure photos is the Parthenonas, the aim for our uphill climb, buying our tickets en route… About a fiver each if I remember. The climb was a bit FML at the start but was well broken up by a view overlooking the amphitheatre and plenty of photo opportunities. I learnt later there are alternative routes starting closer to town.

Once reaching the summit, the area was relatively flat. The main event was impressive but it was impossible not to notice the crane smack bang in the middle and scaffolding along one side.

This is a tough one. The area and a lot of Greek history dates back some 2,500 years, but during that time I reckon there has been A LOT of redecorating. So much so, looking at the structure did make me consider how much was what one would consider authentic.

Still, it’s the main tourist attraction, if I were Greece, I too would do any work needed to keep it there and count the millions in brings in tourism every year.

As the site was at a tip of a mount, it did of course offer wonderful panoramic views of the city and in the distance Piraes and the Aaronic Gulf body of water. I do not mean to bismirch the place as it really is a wonderful place to visit.

We rambled back down toward the bus pickup and made our way to the main Syntagma square outside parliament. This where the majority of protests take place (there’s been a few in recent years…) but today was was a quiet day.

A very weird thing about the royal palace / parliament building would take ones interest when visiting, with the only similarity being the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace…

There’s a monument between the square and political centre named “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”.

Whilst I haven’t done much in the way of research apart from it’s a dedication to those who lost their lives during wars, those whom unidentified, I can tell you that this tomb is guarded 24 hours a day by officers of the Presidential Guard who swap shifts every hour, on the hour. SMACK BANG ON THE HOUR. It definitely wasn’t 2:07pm when we were there…

Whilst some of their marching/stepping/security may seem humerous to some, it was a fascinating bit of culture. We luckily timed it so only had to wait for 5 minutes until I steady handidly recorded all 7 minutes of the process. I did this to inspire me to kick off our very own #hownot2life YouTube channel but not quite feeling it three weeks later.

Food, hotel for a quick rest and on to something else that had been on agenda having first seen it from the aforementioned Olympic Stadium on day 1.

Form the numerous sights we had seen so far, it was impossible not the recognise the little building on top of a hill pointing out unusually from the otherwise flat earth. This point was called Lycabettus Hill. Imagine the sunset from there?! The agenda, it was on.

Upsettingly shortening our rest time in the hotel, we set out at 5.15 knowing sunset in February, even in Greece, was close to 6. Time to put our trust in Google maps and the pick pocket plagues of public transport. Throughout our trip Google told me that their transport schedules were not up to date. Ignoring these was at the time a humongous ballache. The bus went a completely different direction! After a aimless walk and skipping a few buses that drove past, I caved in and spent a whole fiver to take us to the base of the hill where we understood a funicular would take us the rest of the way.

Thank God (citation needed) we got a taxi. The funicular station was almost half way up the bloody hill. A steep incline that would’ve taken 20 minutes had we departed at the nearest bus stop or metro. 7 euro each was a bit OTT we thought but as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon we were very limited for time.

I hate scaffolding. Everywhere we go it seems to ruin photos of nice things. We are always wrong place, wrong time. However, on this occasion we timed it perfectly. As we climbed to the viewpoint we were spoiled with the last few minutes of the Athens colourful sky… Colour I can’t recall seeing previously. It was busy at this point and I had to use my muscle (lol I wish) to get some good snaps, before the agony of deciding which Instagram filter was best. Ultimately I think no filter was required.

We skipped our return down the lift and decided instead to walk the meandering path. Very reminiscent of the liberty statue in Budapest if you’ve been. Dark. Mobile phone torch. Hope you enter civilisation soon. Every turn a wonderful view of Athens at night.

That walk was fun but took longer than anticipated to reach the metro station. Biting the bullet we caught two of them without losing any valuables! I was so delighted about this.

We did stop off for another sit down kebab before the hotel. But fuck it I’m on holiday…

Day three.

If you’ve made it through the first two days’ posts this should be plain sailing from here.

We understood yesterday that there was a public transport strike today. Luckily the CitySightseeing bus offered a ‘get an extra day free’ offer that we made the most of.

We did consider a boat trip to one of the countless islands for today but as this wasn’t an option decided to calmly see some things we otherwise would have skipped. We caught the bus and revisited half the stops from yesterday, getting off by the market area, somewhere that seemed fascinating the day before.

What seemed interesting soon turned into something of horror. The meat and fish market had literally a hundred or so stalls, actively turning an animal into a carcass. The raw turkey heads selling for 3 euro made the whole experience worse.

You won’t mind that I skipped taking a few snaps. Instead choosing to exiting the indoor market ASAP, we entered in to fresh air and crossed the road to the outdoor market where stall holders where selling a wonderfully vibrant array of fruit and veg, with the odd bordering shop front offering something unique if not bizarre.

We had an option from here, wait for the undoubtedly busier bus for 4 stops or walk 20 minutes to the Acropolis museum. Thankfully we walked amongst endless souvenir shops, small cafes and ruins until got to the museum.

The museum was half price being off-peak and although the experience was a little disappointing it was worth a visit for €6. An impressive building which started with a look at some of the more intricate pieces of 2500 year old art, quite spectacular. Note I was told I wasn’t allowed to take photo’s in this area ‘due to accidents’ but as I already took a few it would be a shame to waste.

We climbed the floors and seen more ancient pieces. I kinda liked how the museum moulded missing parts to give you the complete picture but as did the Parthenonas, it did take away from the originality – what is one to do?

Going to the museum was a little underwhelming as there was so much to see by simply walking the streets. One simply must see exhibit though was the LEGO build of the Acropolis. Not sure of the need to include Gandalf from Lord of the Rings or Indiana Jones but it brought a smile to our faces.

It walk only a short walk from the museum along the non-seafront promenade to our bus pick up that would take us on a tour of Pireaus.

Pireaus, I can tell you is one of the busiest in Europe, but thankfully the city isn’t swallowed by shipping containers. We passed the Greek football team Olympiakos stadium and a couple of stadia in use from Athens 2004 Olympics.

Once we passed the shipyard the ride took us along the peaceful coastline frequented by marina’s with yachts docked way more than my kidney is valued at.

For the peasants amongst us the areas also gave opportunity for a long distance view of Athens some 10km away.

We considered stopping off at Pireaus but thought a drive through was adequate.

Once we had made our way back in to Athens it was decided that we had little opportunity to re-enter the city with no public transport that evening, and instead opting for a meal nearby our hotel in the ‘really rough’ area for a splendid evening of Greek food, albeit still very much kebab based!

Day four.

We usually like to get out of the city for a day or so when we go away. The public transport was running normally on our penultimate morning so did consider visiting a number of islands or Olympia, where the Olympic torch still gets lit for the first time on its journey across the world. However, after some deliberation we chose to visit Corinth – or more specifically the Corinth Canal.

The canal is quite a way from the centre and so was the train station. The train took about an hour from Athens central, a hot but pleasant ride. The train tickets should have been free as it was within the limits of our 3 day travel pass, but we only knew this on the return journey €28 lighter!

We had the option to walk in to town (which wasn’t in view) or get a taxi to the point of interest, choosing the latter.

Corinthian Canal was dug out in the late 1800’s to get ships from the Soronic to the Aegean sea and vice versa saving a 700km detour… and we think the Severn Bridge is useful!

Way up high where we were on the pedestrian walkway and road nearly 50 metres up, it was/is an incredible feat to see the amount of ground moved to enable this essential passage – I don’t think they had JCB’s in the 1890’s! The cliffs stand at an 80 degree angle so it perhaps seems a lot further down than it is.

Right place, right time meant that we were able to see a tugboat lead a cargo ship through the passageway. I believe this is a rare occasion now as most modern ships are too wide to fit in the 8 metre gap. Its main role today is a tourist attraction, allowing bungee jumping in the warmer months – I wonder if I would have had a go…

The canal was quite cool but won’t win any wonder of the world awards. We had little option but to taxi back to the train station and return to Athens. An expensive way to spend 3 hours but it has filled a few paragraphs!

On returning to Athens we enjoyed another burger from the local chain “Goody’s” that I may have mentioned a few days ago – decent stuff and headed to the National Archaeological Museum not far from our hotel.

The museum had countless remains of buildings, artefacts and statues, all over 2500 years old. I would advise you to visit here a bit earlier in your trip as by now – day 4 – we had seen SO MUCH stone and I felt quite guilty I didn’t give it the time or attention it undoubtedly deserves.

Later than night my beloved Newport County were on TV funnily enough – so we decided to head back to the hotel for a few hours and leave early for tea. In hindsight I wouldn’t have minded popping back to the Panathenaic stadium to replace my pickpocketed souvenir coin, but ultimately the photos were good enough.

Overcoming my demons from said pickpocketing on Day 1, we rose from the metro at Monastiraki and wondered around the busy but peaceful small streets hunting for a Greek restaurant we should have visited on our first night. A little but of confident guesswork resulted in us finding our destination, enjoying multiple plates of ‘proper’, hearty food. Restaurant Scholario was so good in fact, I’ve just spend 20 minutes on Google Maps street view trying to recall the name!

Belly’s full we wandered back through the streets, passing the Roman Agora and at least 3 or 4 other bits of archaeology. By kick-off of Newport v Salford (with a trip to Wembley at stake) I was feet up on the balcony – the downside being that I consumed about 30 nervous ciggies and we lost on Penalties! Feels strange worrying about it now, as the final never took place – no Europeans we encountered took any notice to “Covid 19” at that point…

Day five.

Our last day and finally some shit weather! The rain cancelled my half-arsed plan to visit a nearby by park with more views of the city, so we checked out, headed to the airport and went home… and by home I meant the pub for quiz night!

It has been a while since returning home so I can’t recall any top tips – but keep an eye out for those pesky pocket bandits! Most places take card… any cash we did take was hidden in a pack of tissues, something I will be routinely doing going forward.

I’ve written day 4 and 5 during mid-May Week 7 (I think!) of lockdown here in Wales. I’m lucky that I haven’t lost out too much financially with trips to Amsterdam and Rome off the cards and serious doubts over Helsinki, Dublin and Sofia in the Autumn. It could be a lot worse though. For now we’re happy to stay home, and stay safe.

Thanks for reading! Chris