Category: Travels for Fun
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ALL BY OURSELVES.
I finally got that long-awaited gin and tonic. Or rather three gin and tonics. The Qatar Airways flight attendant keep bringing them to me. Maybe he sensed the cloud of stress above me, the mild stench of anxiety surrounding me or the furrows of worry on my face. With each G&T all of those emotions were replaced with just one: relief. We are on our way home to Australia. After three months of living in limbo with the constant fear of not getting home as the Australian Government played with our…
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THE BAVONA VALLEY
Nothing beats having a local guide and during our visit to Ticino, Switzerland’s southern Italian-speaking canton, Padma and I were spoiled by having our friend, Hans, show us around. Hans took us up north from his home near Locarno to the Bavona Valley and brought us to the base of the 100-metre Foroglio Waterfall. Padma and I didn’t object when Hans asked if we wanted to hike to the top of the falls. After some sweat and toil we reached the top and followed the crystal-clear Calnegia River through rocky terrain.
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ON THE TRAIL OF MARTIN LUTHER
Padma and I look at a different kind of map these days when planning our travel destinations. Instead of maps with tourist attractions we look at the map showing the incidence of COVID. And after studying the map we could tell that the former East German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt had very low rates of COVID infections. So we packed the car and embarked on a roadtrip. But we did have a mission in mind. We wanted to explore the old stomping grounds of arguably the most famous German –…
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NEGATIV
‘Are we being responsible?’ Padma asked me on the first day of our journey through France and Spain. I thought for a long time and tried to spin it so that I could justify our travels during a global pandemic. ‘No,’ I said. ‘Responsible people would stay home.’ But like tens of thousands of other Europeans we were on the road for summer holidays. Non-essential travel. But does a global pandemic really mean we can’t have some vestiges of our former lives? Before leaving we consulted many friends who strongly encouraged…
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PARTING SHOTS FROM ASTURIAS
In the end COVID won. We have returned home to Germany. We had hoped to keep travelling with no fixed return dates, but it wasn’t meant to be. When we started our journey during the first days of August, COVID was rearing its ugly head again but seemed somewhat contained. It certainly wasn’t stopping Europe’s August flood of holidaymakers … including us. At one point earlier in the summer Asturias had been the first Spanish province to be declared COVID-free. But a few cases were popping up when we hit the…
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LUNCH ON THE CANTABRIAN SEA
Visitors to Asturias wake up with a nice dilemma as they plan their day: mountains or the sea. From our base in Gijon, Padma and I could have had either within a few minutes drive. On our last day in Asturias we chose the sea. Our local friends, Terri and Juan, suggested we try Puerto de Vega, a small fishing village where the locals actually fished rather than just appearing to be a charming fishing village for tourists. We arrived after an hours’ drive and didn’t find the typical traffic jams…
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RUTA DEL ALBA … WITH FRIENDS
Earlier in the year when Padma and I starting dreaming of a home in Spain, I joined a Facebook group of expats in Asturias. Someone posted a question about buying property and a local named Juan provided a detailed response. I clicked some links and found Juan’s website and figured he’d be the sort of local person we’d need to manage any property. Turns out Juan has a strong Aussie connection so I contacted him and for the past few months he has been invaluable to us and has freely provided…
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THE SEA FOR OUR SENSES
Padma prefers the sea; I’m for the mountains. In Asturias we’ve got them both in abundance so we’re happy. Today we set out from our base in the port city of Gijón to explore the western coastline of Asturias, along the Bay of Biscay. We started the day with a hike down to the Playa del Silencio, which is considered to be the most beautiful beach in Asturias. We didn’t find silence there as there were plenty of other holidaymakers joining us. But we did appreciate the beauty of the beach.…
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FORTY YEARS OF SPANISH DREAMS
While in university, I took a travel literature course. I loved getting homework … I could do it while lying in bed and drifting off to foreign and exotic lands. My favourite assignment was to read Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. The author sets out on foot armed with a violin and a blanket from his home in England and embarks on a walking journey through Spain just before the onset of the Spanish Civil War in the mid-1930s. The imagery Lee presented of Spain became firmly…
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