Colombia Part Two – Ciudad Perdida and convalescing in luxury

Lost-CityFollowing a very relaxing week on the heavenly Caribbean island of Providencia (more here) we shocked ourselves back into reality with an arduous but incredible trip to Ciudad Perdida, or the Lost City, a ancient archeological site I’d been longing to visit since my trip to Machu Picchu some time a go. Continue reading

Hiroshima

Hiroshima-the-atomic-dome(1)Having settled into our very comfortable room at Hiroshima Aioi, a lovely traditional ryokan right by the Hiroshima Peace Park, complete with a sobering but incredible view straight out onto the Atomic Bomb Dome, we took advantage of our location and headed straight out to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Continue reading

Dreamily drifting on the Dead Sea

Dead-Sea-view

A trip to Jordan has long been on my bucket list so I used the fact that the boy is living in the Middle East as an excuse to organise a short trip while I was out there visiting.  Thinking that Jordan must be a hop, skip and a jump from Dubai I swiftly booked onward flights only to realised that Jordan is actually pretty equidistant from Dubai and the UK…clearly I’m not as geographically-minded as I thought!  Having made this slight error I set about being more organised about our time there and planned a full itinerary…first stop the Dead Sea.

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Tokyo Tuesday – the top five places to take in a view of Tokyo

view of Tokyo-Roppongi-Hills-club(3)

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to live in Japan and it’s safe to say that this wonderful country, its people, its sights (both natural and cultural) and its food seriously got under my skin.  So it seems only natural that I would introduce a regular feature which harks back to all the amazing places I visited and ate at while I was living there (and on the return trips I have made since)…so welcome to Tokyo Tuesdays.  

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A loooong road trip to Las Vegas

Road trip to Las Vegas - Death-Valley

So it turns out that Angel’s Camp to Las Vegas (especially at the end of winter, when lots of the passes are closed) is a long old road…around ten or eleven hours to be precise! Our road trip to Las Vegas took us round the top of Yosemite via Lake Topaz, Mono Lake, past Mammoth Mountain and through Death Valley.  Rather than recount every twist and turn, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.  

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San Francisco sightseeing – day one

Sightseeing in San Francisco - view of Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco has been hovering near the top of my must-visit cities for a while, so I was really excited to be able to spend time here as part of our trip to the States.  With a jam-packed itinerary we set out to fit in the best of the sightseeing in San Francisco in two days.

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Cruising the California coastline – Carmel and Big Sur

California coastline. Big Sur 4.

Determined to pack in as much as possible on our trip, we planned to start our trip on the California coastline.  I met the boy straight off the plane and we drove down to Carmel.  The drive from San Francisco to Carmel wasn’t in itself particularly scenic (the dramatic coastline was on hold until the next day) but in no time at all (or so it seemed to me given I promptly fell asleep…) we arrived in the picturesque sea-side town of Carmel.  

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