Tag Archives: Friends

Most of our days in Barcelona, as has become our habit, are spent quietly working away in Nettle. We often joke that we live a normal life, like anybody else, except the view out our window changes. Currently, my studio window overlooks a little bit of Australia, planted and thriving in Barcelona: Barcelona Day Trip #1 When we do venture … Continue reading

After our month-and-a-bit-long journey from central France to southern France, with a minor detour via Copenhagen, we’re ready to be static for a while. I’ve spent many long hours trawling through databases of French campsites, trying to find one in Provence that’s (a) not obscenely expensive, and (b) open. There aren’t very many that fall under those categories at this … Continue reading

So, we’ve sprinted to Copenhagen, and to our relief and great pleasure, been accepted as honorary Denmarkians for a time — we’ve even been assigned a doctor! …Which is just as well, because, without delay, Katherine discovers another breast lump. We’re not too worried this time around, as the last time, it was just a harmless cyst, and we don’t … Continue reading

We recently made the acquaintance of Kent and Heather, a couple from the US who spend a few months of each year cruising the French canal system on their boat. We’d passed a few emails back and forth about the prospect of crossing paths, and as it turns out, we’re going to be able to make it work! They’re passing … Continue reading

We’re staying at an aire outside the town of Genk — it’s pretty much a car park, beside an equestrian centre (slash-mini golf course-slash-skiing centre-slash-planetarium), but we’re at the edge of the parking area, surrounded by woods. It’s the one place I could find — Belgium-wide, amazingly — that was pleasant and not an extortionately expensive camping area, and luckily, … Continue reading

Katherine has been looking forward to visiting York from before we left Australia, so this is a biggie! We weren’t sure we were going to get around to it this time, but it turns out our ferry port, Hull, is just to the south of York. What’s more, we’ve been invited by a fellow travel blogger friend, Mike who lives … Continue reading

It’s time to get down to the task of covering some serious mileage. We pull out a rather good audio book we’ve been listening to set in 18th-century Scotland (read with some beautiful Scottish accents!), while Nettle stoically devours mile after mile. We spend quite a while following the wooded edge of a big picturesque loch north of Glasgow, before … Continue reading

We have a very sociable few days coming up. First, we’re meeting up with some quasi-distant relatives of Mike’s and then an American couple who we’ve met online through the travel twittersphere. We drive back via Loch Tay and Glen Lyon, as we can’t get enough of scenery like this: We do a walk on the way to meeting Dennis … Continue reading

Photo by Kris Van de Sande It just so happens that a Belgian friend of ours is going be in Glasgow at the exact time we’re in the area. We hadn’t actually planned on going in to Glasgow, as from what we know and have seen of it, it looks like hell on earth. At first, however I’m surprisingly keen … Continue reading

There’s something about being in a place with friends who are locals to the area — it anchors the place, makes it feel more real and accessible than just being a visitor, on the outside looking in through the distorting filter that is tourism. So, we’d leapt at the opportunity to visit Venice with our new friends Andrea and Silvia, … Continue reading

We had a whole weekend with our new friends all to ourselves in store and we couldn’t wait! We hadn’t spent a good amount of time with people our own age – or close enough – since we traveled with friends in Italy very early on in our trip. This is one of the downsides of motor-homing – whilst most … Continue reading