East Lodge Country House Hotel Matlock

Wow - only one week to the day before we make our way down south to London town to stay in the very affordable 'heathrow' travel lodge.

Liz in in Manc saying goodbye to friends and family and i'm sorting the last bits out for the fresh box before we go.

Just wanted to say thank you to Ron and Sue for ...

How could anything be worse than the Ball Breaker? How? And yet it was. Damn the kilometres of bog, damn the no bacon butty truck on the highway, damn the twisty part where you go around curve after curve after curve and don’t see anything ahead of you but CURVE. Then damn the “ ...

Boulder Paths

"Over the boulder, down the boulder, **** the boulder, **** THE BOULDER!!!"

There are some points where the paths are naturally made of boulders or large rocks, fine I'm on a mountain I get it. However one day we hit some hard going with a path covered in boulders which, after about twenty minutes, I noticed there weren’t any boulders OFF the path, only on it. A neat line of ******, leg-twisting boulders was ...

Well, my little adventure begins here, in Stoke-on-Trent!

I found out about going to Denmark in September, and since then I've been planning how to get there. At first I look at getting the plane straight to Copenhagen, but that's a far too mediocre start. Instead, I'm travelling (with my Mum and Brother) via train on the following route -

1st Class train from Stoke-on-Trent to London
1 Night in a London Hostel
Eurostar to Cologne via Brussels
1 Night ...

Well the day has finally arrived! The alarm was set for 6.00am but we were both awake before it went off. After a quick breakfast we were on the bike heading for a rendevous at Colin's house in Halling in the rain!

After a quick cup of tea, Leigh up turned on his Triumph Tiger and it was time to set off for the Marsden to meet Lyndsey & David & guess what it ...

... on the bus for 2 hours. The reason? It was a Sunday afternoon, no accident, no bridge collapsed, just an average Sunday. I digress.

Anyway after our pilgrimage to her home we got a curry, the favorite Friday night take out food of England. (They obsess over Friday curry night, and If you listen to any radio station there will be talk of curry) If you are not familiar it is Indian food, and it is spectacular. The next day ...

Finally worked out my route.

Fly to Armenia, travel through Georgia to Turkey and fly from Istanbul to Mumbai. Work my way across to Calcutta and fly to Bangkok. Through Thailand and Cambodia to Vietnam, then onto China.

I am setting off early September 2010 and aim to be in China early December, maybe.

And then I have to get back...

Tow truck 3, turns up at 20:30, we get loaded up and set off at 20:45 only to find out that the AA have sent me a driver that needs to take his 45 minute break in under an hour. So I waited an extra 1.5 hours for him to arrive and then I have to wait ...

... personally enjoyed the challenges that we’ve encountered here. Although I am happy that I could live abroad we have a suspended life in England to resume, whatever it will be after being away for twenty one months – Yes, wherever did it go?

Faro airport is quite busy and touristy, lacking in the buzz and impressiveness of some international airports and having an obvious JW rating of 5 in the big tourist duty free shops ...

Now for the most anticipated part of my trip. Jane Austen land!!!! We arrived into Matlock from Appleby in the late afternoon after stopping off at various towns and a weird kitchen store that had 50 million different types of teapots. They were shaped like baths, cars, caravans, coffee machines, golden syrup tins - you name it!! Mum went mental in there - she loved it. The first day in the District we went to the house that all lovers of the BBC's Pride ...